With Christmas, Comes Cookies!

To start things off, I hope you all are having a very merry holiday season so far! I know this last week before Christmas break is a little bit stressful, at least for me, but still, I hope it's fun.

Every year, when Christmas starts rolling around, my family and I always make our "famous" Christmas gifts- cookies! We started making these when we first moved to Park City, which if I am remembering right, was seven years ago. I guess you could say they have become our little tradition for the holidays. The good things about making these cookies as gifts is 1) They are AMAZING and 2) You can make tons!

The first few years, we didn't make as many, but as we've met more people, more people have been added to our gift list. These cookies are always a hit with everyone we make them for, so we have decided to make them every year. Even my cat likes when we make them, because again, she gets accidental samples! Maybe that's why she is so fat! I guess we should probably shoo her off instead of taking pictures, but hey, we tried!

I started making these for my friends last year and since so many people told me how yummy they were (some asked for the recipe too), I decided to make them again! So, this past weekend, I've been knocking out a ton of cookies. Since my last post, people have been asking me to make headbands too! Good thing they are easy! Hopefully I will be able to get those done before Christmas, but I'm not making any promises.

Now let's get to the good part.

Spicy Molasses Cookies

(Courtesy of Pioneer Woman)

1 cup sugar

3/4 Crisco (or other vegetable shortening)

1/4 cup molasses

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

First, preheat your oven. The original recipe says to set it at 350º, but I set mine on convection at 325º instead, to make sure they would cook evenly. 

Mix your wet ingredients together - otherwise known as sugar, shortening, molasses, and egg - in a large bowl until they are well combined. Once you can't see any more shortening, you should be good. At least that's how it went for me. 

Mix in your dry ingredients- flour, spices, etc. - while stirring slowly to avoid making a HUGE mess. 

Mix the dough until everything is thoroughly combined.

With your hands, roll the dough into "walnut-sized" balls. Honestly, I have no idea what size a whole walnut is because I never really buy them before they are cracked. This lead to dough balls that were about one to two inches in size, which worked completely fine. Pour a bowl or plate of sugar and roll the dough balls in it until they are evenly coated.

Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet and pop those suckers in the oven for eight to twelve minutes. 

HINT: Keep an eye on the cookies. Once they begin to crack, let them cook for another minute or so and then take them out. This will give you nice, soft cookies, which are always more delicious than burnt ones by far!

You can technically be done at this step, but why not make them even better? A fun and easy way to jazz these cookies up is to add some white chocolate. I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say that chocolate makes everything better. Period.

If you choose to be fun, allow your cookies to cool and while doing so, get ready to melt your white chocolate.

Last year was the first year I decided to try the chocolate route and it did not work...at all. Well, okay, maybe it worked, but it was a huge pain in the butt and I can not tell you that twice. This year, I did some searching and found a pain-free, easy way to melt the white chocolate on a blog called Craftsy.

I found on more than just this blog that using a double broiler is the way to go when melting any kind of chocolate, especially white chocolate because it has a lower burning point. Now, if you're like me, you probably don't have a double broiler, but don't worry! You can make your own with a pot and a bowl that fits over it. There is a picture of this on Craftsy. On there, it says to let the water boil first and then put the chocolate in, but of course, I didn't read carefully enough and had the chocolate in while it was boiling, which worked fine, so I ended up saving time in the end.

Once your white chocolate is completely melted, set your cookies out on pieces of wax paper. Don't make the pieces too long, unless you want to carry the hot bowl around...no thanks. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies with a fork or dip them in the bowl. Be creative! Putting the cookies on smaller pieces of wax paper allows you to drizzle or dip a few without making a mess, then set them aside while the chocolate hardens. I decided to be done with the cookies after that, but I'm sure it would be cute to put some holiday sprinkles on the cookies right after you drizzle them to make sure they stay on! Maybe I'll try that next year.

Because of the fact that we make so many, we usually make them in double-batch intervals, meaning if we were to make eight batches, we would only have to make the recipe four times. Make sense? Anyways, when I made these, it made a little over fifty cookies, give or take a few considering my dough balls were probably bigger than walnuts. I had a little over a hundred in the end, which was perfect for all of my gifts!


Happy Holidays!

Two Old Shirts = Two New Headbands

I'm sure a lot of you have a BUNCH of old t-shirts sitting in the depths of your closet. I know I have a ton from soccer tournaments, summer camps (these are really old), volunteering, and all of that good stuff. Recently, I made a basket of clothes from my closet that have been sitting there for a while and there were a few of these t-shirts in there. I was trying to think of a DIY idea for this post because I haven't had very many ideas lately and had to find something that I could make from things at home. Speaking of which, sorry to those of you who wanted to see the Sharpie mug process. I was did some research and found that sometimes these do not work. I also found some tips that would help them turn out right, but again, I wanted to make this without going to get things and the tips required me to do so.

If you want to try making a Sharpie mug on your own, a blog called Brit + Co. has a very easy tutorial. They have the simple version without the special tips, but it might work. Maybe I will actually end up trying it sometime. If I do, I will be sure to write about it.

Anyways, I remembered seeing ways to make headbands out of old t-shirts on Pinterest and it was the perfect time to make them- I was stuck at home, it was cold and snowy outside (It still is!), and I already had t-shirts to use!

I found an easy no sew headband tutorial online and decided to try it out, along with another one of my own. You need the same things for both- a t-shirt, a hot glue gun, and sharp scissors. Sounds easy, huh? Right! There are a lot of pictures, by the way. Personally, I think they make a tutorial easier to follow.



HEADBAND #1: The Celtic Knot

Take your shirt and cut the hem at the bottom off. Now, cut a loop off from the bottom of the shirt. Mine were about an inch and a half wide, if I remember right.

Pull the loop to stretch it out. This makes it thinner (KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN CUTTING THE LOOP!) and much longer.

If your shirt has a hem along the side, cut that off of each end. You should have two clean strips when you are done.

Take your first string and make a loop.

Take your second string and make a "U" over the looped one. Right now, the "U" should be over both strings of the loop, if that makes sense.

Now take the right strand of the looped string and put it over top of the right side of the "U" string.

Take the left end of your "U" strand and put it behind the loop.

Now, take the right end of your "U" string and put it over the first part of the loop, under the other end of your "U" and over the other side fo the loop.

Tighten the knot you made and turn the good side of each of the strands so they all face the same way. It will look much better when finished.

Put the headband around your head and mark where it fits comfortably with a marker. Cut the strands in half up to your marks.

Tie each of the corresponding strands into knots.

Now, take a square that you cut from the shirt and glue it over the knot to give the headband a clean, finished look. I don't have a picture of this step for this headband, but there is one on the next one if you are stumped.

 And you're all done!

HEADBAND #2: The Four-Strand Braid

Cut two loops from the bottom of your t-shirt this time. I used a new t-shirt to make sure that it would fit around my head, but I ended up cutting a little extra off anyways, so you will probably be fine if your use the same t-shirt as the first headband (if you made it already). Stretch them out, just like the other headband.

Cut the loops into four strands. Glue the ends together with your glue gun.

Now it's time to braid! Separate all four of your strands. If you've never done a four-strand braid before, don't fret! It's super easy once you get the hang of it. Let's say we numbered them 1-4 from left to right.

Take string 1 and 3 and cross them over strings 2 and 4. You should have two separate crosses.

Now, take string 3 and cross it over string 2 (these are the two middle ones).

Repeat the above steps to finish your braid. Make sure you tighten it, or it will look pretty bad. Also, it's much easier to keep the good side facing up while braiding, instead of after. Once you finish the braid, glue the ends together. I put a dot on each strand and did one more step of the braid to finish it off. Also, the very beginning of the braid was super loose, so I cut it off and did the same thing.

Just like on the last headband, measure around your head and mark if you need to. Mine was actually a little bit too short, so I didn't mark it. Now take a square from the t-shirt and glue it on the ends of the braid to finish the headband.

You're done! Now you have two snazzy headbands that are super comfy and cute!

I hope the pictures helped you in the process, even if they are kind of funky because of my phone's camera. I wasn't lying when I said there would be a lot! Sorry about the length of this post. I figured you wouldn't bother to read it all unless you wanted to make the headbands, in which case, you need the instructions. Have fun gettin' crafty!

A Sweeter Sugar Cookie

Everyone loves sugar cookies, but this recipe is a small twist on the original. Honestly, I've never made regular sugar cookies, but I found this idea for Sugar Cookie Bars on Pinterest and they were delicious!

I've made these a few times now and everyone seems to love them! One day at lunch last year, my friends and I decided that we wanted to have a "buffet" for lunch, where everyone brought something to share with everyone else. I made these bars for that, brought all of the bars I made to school, and we (about ten of us probably, plus a few stragglers that wanted food) ate the entire thing! I was glad that everyone liked them. 

Tomorrow is my mom's big 50th birthday, so I thought it would be perfect to make a treat, especially because we haven't gotten any gifts yet...oops! We will, though, don't worry.


Anyways, here you go!

PHASE 1 - THE COOKIE

You will need:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups granualted sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

5 cups flour

1 tsp salt

In a large bowl (I used the one that comes with my mixer), cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is fluffy.

Add the four eggs, one at a time, as well as the vanilla and almond extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda and add it to the wet ingredients gradually.

Spread the dough onto a GREASED baking sheet with raised edges. These are already a little bit hard to get out, so make sure you grease it! It will seem like you don't have enough dough to cover the entire thing, but you will if you get your hands dirty and put some muscle into it.

Bake the cookie in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes. I usually leave mine in for around twelve.

Let the cookie cool completely before spreading the frosting onto it. Since it was snowy the day I made these, I just covered it loosely and put it outside to cool. I made the frosting and ate lunch while it was out there and it was cool when I went out to get it. I guess you could say it takes a little while.

PHASE 2 - THE FROSTING

You will need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
1 pinch salt

In a large bowl (again, I used my mixer's bowl), beat the butter, vanilla, almond extract, and salt together.

Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well. If you are using an electric mixer like I did, DON'T make it too fast.

Add the milk and mix until the frosting is smooth.

Technically, the frosting is finished after the above steps, but I like to add some pizazz to my cookies by adding food coloring and sprinkles. This way, they are more fun to look at and you can relate them to the season, a birthday, etc.

So, if you want to, add in the food coloring and mix it in as well.

Once your cookie is completely cool, spread the frosting onto it and cut it into pieces. I usually wait a little bit for the frosting to harden so it doesn't get all messed up when I cut it. Make sure you use a sharp knife rather than something like a butter knife! I've tried both and the sharp one works much better, trust me.

And you're all done! Enjoy!

NOTE:
If you are storing these, stacking them on top of each other will make them stick together and take the frosting off of the bottom ones. It makes them look kind of messy, but they taste the same.




Oh, and happy birthday to my favorite mom! :)

Even my kitty likes my frosting!

Sock it to 'Em

A few summers ago, my little sister, Carley, and I were home alone for the day. It was one of the first summers where we didn't have too much going on because we were getting too old for summer camps. Our dad works during the day  and our mom was on a business trip, so we were stuck at home with nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to do. It wasn't the first day we were home that week so we were pretty much out of ideas.

For some reason, at that age, I was obsessed with sock monkeys. For the record, this was a few years ago... I am not anymore in case you were wondering. I wanted a sock money SO bad. I remember seeing a giant one right before Christmas at Smith's and of course, Santa didn't bring it. Darn.

Anyways, I had this brilliant idea to make my own sock monkey! I looked online for a while and didn't find anything that Carley and I could make out of things we already had at home, since we couldn't drive to get supplies. All of the things I found for sock monkeys were complicated patterns that we had no idea how to make. Eventually, I came across a "how-to" for sock bunnies. It was really easy, but we kind of changed it up a bit. I must say, I was a little, crafty genius!

Here is how we made ours-

Materials:
one knee-high sock
embroidery thread
needle
two buttons
felt
stuffing
sharp scissors
hot glue gun

Pick a sock that is tall. Bunnies have long ears, right? So you want to have a sock that will give you long enough ears. The sock on the left is from Claire's and would work perfectly if I were going to make another one. I like to use fuzzy socks because it makes your bunny extra soft, too!

First, with the heel of the sock facing upwards, cut down the middle of the sock (through both layers) until a few inches above the heel. These are your ears, so you can decide how far you want to cut them after you have made the head as well.

Then, stuff the sock all the way up to the heel of the sock. In the picture above it would be to the bottom of the pink. Tie a piece of embroidery thread, ribbon, etc. around the top of your stuffing. This is where the bunny's neck will be.

Now, stuff the sock again. This time, make it up to about the top of the heel, maybe a little bit past it. This is your bunny's head. It is a lot easier to shape the head by shaping the stuffing and then putting it in the sock.

You should have already cut ears by now, so take embroidery thread and tie it around each ear to hold the stuffing inside. It kind of looks like your bunny has pigtails in its hair! Round the tops of the ears by cutting them with scissors. We sewed the tops after we cut them so they wouldn't fray at all.

Now you just need to add the finishing touches! Sew the two buttons on for eyes, glue a felt triangle for the nose and sew a felt piece full of stuffing for the tail. And you're all done!

Happy crafting!

One Fantastic Classic

Who doesn't love a warm, fresh chocolate chip cookie? But why not add a little bit of pizazz to them? Add some oatmeal! I have using this recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies for a while now and they are always a hit! Be careful, though. These are hard to stay away from, trust me. 

These are delicious on  any day of the year. I usually make them when I need a quick and easy recipe that will make a lot if I need it to. It's just as easy as the regular chocolate chip recipe, only with a few more ingredients. 

OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (✭✭✭✭✭)

You will need:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp cocoa powder (optional- I like how they taste extra chocolatey!)

2 cups oats

2 cups chocolate chips (I just add the whole bag.)

An electric mixer makes the process a lot easier, by the way. It saves a good amount of time and effort.

Step 1

Just like every other baking recipe, you have to preheat your oven. I set mine on convection at 325º. If your oven does not have a convection setting, set the temperature to 350º.

Step 2

Soften the two sticks of butter. On my microwave it takes about 15 seconds. Don't melt it, just soften it. With liquid butter, the dough will not turn out to be its normal consistency. Cream the butter and two sugars together.

Step 3

Add the vanilla and eggs to the mixture. Make sure you mix well!

Step 4

Add the dry ingredients- salt, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and cocoa powder if you choose to do so. Again, mix well, but not too fast if you are using a mixer. The ingredients will get EVERYWHERE! It's not fun. 

Step 5

Stir in the oats and chocolate chips. Again, don't mix it too quickly. 

Step 6

Use a tablespoon to shape the dough and place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. With the tablespoon, the cookies will be sure to stay the same size as you shape them. If you have a cookie dough scooper, you can use that as well.

Step 7

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes on convection or 10-12 minutes on a regular setting. I like my cookies on the softer side, so I usually cook them for only eight minutes. Setting your oven to convection will cook the cookies more evenly. That way, the bottoms won't burn as easily!

MMMMMM... There's nothing better than warm cookies with a cool glass of milk! Happy baking!

ANOTHER TIP FOR AWESOME CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:

I learned that adding instant vanilla pudding to the recipe will make your chocolate chip cookies taste better and look better, too. I've tried this before and it definitely worked! I don't know what that pudding does exactly, but it works wonders. You can find the recipe for these cookies here. 

(Sorry about the quality of these photos. The lighting in our kitchen is a little bit weird. Don't worry, the cookies look a lot better in person.)

Jelly Belly Buddies

Who doesn't love Halloween? It's always fun to go trick-or-treating and see everyone's costumes. All of the little kids seem to be superheroes or princesses, but what's the fun in that? I have decided that I want to be more creative and out-of-the-ordinary with my halloween costumes. It seems like I am always waiting until October to decide what I want to dress up as at the end of the month, so I can be a little bit rushed. But, last year, I found a very cute jellybean costume idea online and it was super easy to make! My friends and I had already decided that we wanted to be something together. Everyone likes jellybeans, right? This was perfect and we ended up putting our own spin on it. When we were out trick-or-treating, a lot of people did not know what we were at first, but once they read our costume (or we explained it to them) we got a lot of compliments!

By the way, it is very hard to sit down because you might pop the balloons. Also, if you do go trick-or-treating in this costume, be careful around trees and crowds of people.

Again, this costume is pretty easy to make. Looking back on it, it probably took us around 15 minutes when we were all working on our own.

Materials for Crafting:
Colorful Balloons - We used regular-sized balloons and only blew them up enough to make them round. Water balloons would work too, we were just in a pinch and couldn't find any.
Clear Trash Bags - Make sure they are big enough to cover the top half of your body. The clearer the bag is, the better you can see the balloons (obviously!).
Ribbon - The ribbon is supposed to be used to tie the bag at the top, but we used it for our hair too.
Permanent Marker - We were originally planning on making a sign with the Jelly Belly logo, but, again, we ran out of time, so we used a Sharpie and wrote directly on the bag. I suggest writing in large, thick letters so people can read it easier.

Have fun!

Inspire Me!

Handmade Charlotte is a great example of what I would love my blog to turn out like. The theme is very similar to mine as well. She includes a variety of do-it-yourself crafts, tasty recipes, and home decor ideas. Her blog includes fun things for kids as well some that are more sophisticated for adults, many of which I would try myself. The crafts and recipes have step-by-step instructions for the reader with visuals to provide extra demonstration. I hope I can incorporate the fun colors and simple layout of this blog, as well as some similar recipes and crafts that will be fun for many different ages.

Uncommon Designs is really similar to Handmade Charlotte, theme wise. They, too, blog a lot about treats and crafts. Their posts, though, relate to the season and the main holidays within those months. Therefore, for any last minute party planners who would like to get creative with their decorations have a place to look. This blog is more complicated than Homemade Charlotte, but includes a lot more variety. For example, their DIY projects are organized into subcategories like no-sew, mason jars, gifts, and so on. That way, you don't have to search through all of the crafts to find what you are looking for. I also like the fact that they have linked pictures at the top of the home page, making it easier to find posts that are for the specific season. I am going to relate my posts and ideas to the current season, as well, and if I get too many posts, I can organize them in a similar way.

Baking Bites is based entirely on cooking. However, the posts are not all recipes. This blog also includes helpful tips for bakers, new kitchen tools to make baking easier, interesting and uncommon ingredients that someone might use, cookbook recommendations, blog recommendations, and reviews on some of the things they have tried already. Baking Bites could be helpful to many people, from hardcore bakers who want to learn new skills or moms who are just looking for a new treat recipe. Again, the overall blog is simple, and fairly easy to navigate. I could use this blog to help improve my own baking skills and help me explain how to make different recipes.



I am very excited to work on this blog. Hopefully, it will end up turning out just as good as these three!