July 4th Favors

It is difficult to comprehend that the July 4th holiday is behind us, where does time go? I hope all of you had a fantastic time with family and friends...we surely did! And many thanks to Andrea for providing a wonderful spot to view the parade! And one last note, congrats to Raegen for taking 1st place in the bike decorating contest!!!

Back to the favors...this is one quick, easy, and delicious treat!

As you can see, peanuts, pretzels, and white chocolate were the ingredients...oh, and a few decorative red, white, and blue sprinkles!

I made one batch and then decided it wasn't quite enough so preceded to prepare another.

Maggie had her own special mix, directly from the grocery store...she loves melts and freeze dried fruit.
Of course it needed to be as close to red, white, and blue as possible.

Festive Bark:

11 oz. bag of white chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups skinny pretzels, broken in half
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
Sprinkles, if desired

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper
Melt chips in the microwave (according to package directions)
To the melted chips, add pretzels and peanuts thoroughly but gently
Pour the mixture onto the paper lined cookie sheet and shake sprinkles over the top
Allow to cool and then package as desired

If you like the sweet/salty taste this is for you!

Enjoy~

Christmas cookies for the cookie plate!

Pictured above...quick, easy, and delicious Coconut Joys!
I found this simple little recipe many years ago in a magazine and it has been a favorite of our family ever since!

Coconut Joys:

1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups coconut
6 ozs. melted chocolate

Melt butter in saucepan and remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and coconut, mixing well. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, make a dent in the center of each and place on parchment paper, lined cookie sheet. Fill "dents" with melted chocolate. Store in fridge.

Next up, we have a little salty/sweet treat! Caribe contributed this tasty morsel, made with pretzels, chocolate kisses, and holiday M&M's.

Peanut Blossoms have been a long time family favorite and Caribe also contributed these to our cookie making marathon back on December 23rd.

Yet another sweet and salty treat! I posted this recipe earlier this year and have made the Turtles several times...they never seem to last long!

More cookies to come......

Mock Turtles

Ooey...gooey Turtles!!!

I love me a turtle...but multiple turtles can be dangerous...so I made just a few of these little gems!

Of course they aren't up to Kilwin's (the chocolate franchise in town) standards but for homemade they are really good and very easy to make.

Three ingredients is all you need and very little of your precious time!

Pecan halves
Snaps style pretzels (or you can use other styles)
Rolo candies

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil)

Place pretzels on parchment paper
and on top of the pretzel place an unwrapped Rolo
then top the Rolo with a pecan half

Now place in oven for about 4 - 6 minutes
(don't over-bake)
When they are removed from oven, gently push down on the pecan to spread the Rolo out a bit and allow to cool completely

Grab a nice cold glass of milk and enjoy a Turtle!

Valentine Treats

The winter storm today brought back memories of Valentine's Day. I wanted to share treats with some special friends and family so I decided to focus my attention on sweets. Perhaps my favorite item was Cupid's Mix which was featured in the premier issue of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade magazine. I also tried my hand at using Fancy Flours wafer papers on sugar cookies. It proved to be challenging, so I think more practice is in order. Since I already had some heart shaped sugar cookies, I frosted some with royal icing and piped a pink rose on top. Chocolate covered pretzel rods were also a hit, you can't go wrong with the salty and sweet combination. To round out the goody baskets I made heart shaped pecan sandies which were dusted with a coating of powdered sugar. A project like this is time consuming, but oh so rewarding!