Leftover Candy Canes?



 

I needed a cupcake to bring to a family gathering over the Christmas holidays and didn't want to do something expected like vanilla or chocolate. I love the combination of mint and chocolate together and also knew that I had an entire box of candy canes that I would like to incorporate somehow. So when I came across this recipe for Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes, I knew that I had to make them.

They are a wonderful chocolate-mocha cupcake topped with a smooth peppermint buttercream, drizzled with dark chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.

I made mini's because I would have more to share that way. They were a perfect end to a delicious pot luck meal! 

 

Croissants

Hot out of the oven! Flaky, buttery pastry perfect for a Sunday morning. These croissants took me 3 days to make. Yep, 3 days. They weren't difficult or really time consuming but they needed so many rests periods and overnight trips to the fridge that to eat them on a Sunday I needed to make the dough on a Friday.

At the end of all my folding, rolling and resting there were so many layers of dough that when baked they puffed up and had the perfect duo of a slightly crisp outside and a moist and light, soft and airy inside. 

 

 

 

 

Who doesn't like more bacon?

So I had Candied bacon in my fridge like a regular person and I wanted to find something else to do with it besides eat it all myself. I contemplated that. A lot. BUT I decided to do the right thing and share it with others so I found a recipe for Maple Bacon Cupcakes. A vanilla cupcake with diced bacon in the batter, covered in a smooth maple buttercream and topped with some shards of more bacon. This is what I have been missing in my life. They were delicious! I used homemade maple syrup in the butter cream which only took it higher on the yummy scale.

 

I took a dozen of these to work to share with my co-workers and they all got eaten up!

 

 

 

 

So this just happened...

While out doing the usual weekly grocery shop I came across a bacon sale. I find it hard to resist any type of sale, let alone a bacon sale. Obviously I had to partake. So I picked up two packs, one regular bacon with plans to eat with Sunday morning breakfast and one pack of a thicker cut, smoked bacon.

Now what could I do with the smoke bacon? I made bacon jam last month as part of my hubby's Christmas gifts, I've made bacon wrapped water chestnuts and already know I enjoy them. I knew I enjoyed the salty and sweet combination. I love peanut butter, I love chocolate covered pretzels, I figured I should try sugary bacon. What could go wrong? So I searched for a 'candied bacon' recipe and gave it a try.
The bacon came out with a wonderfully crisp caramel flavour. It was delicious. I couldn't help but snack on it. I was thinking about what else I could do with it when my eyes fell upon the bag a bag of chocolate chips. Why not? I melted the chocolate and after cutting the bacon slices in half, I dipped each piece half way into the chocolate and let it rest on wax paper to harden. Amazing. I would have never thought that chocolate covered bacon was going to be a hit, but please go try it because you will not regret it!

Yahtzee!

This was another Pinterest inspiration!
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/376613587563295472/

My family loves to play games and when I saw the picture of these dice I knew I couldn't go wrong giving this as Christmas gifts.

I couldn't find really solid instructions to creating the dice, but thankfully I have a handy husband. We purchased a 4x4 and he cut it into equal blocks. I measured out all the holes using a real die to make sure the numbers were on the correct sides. We sanded them, stained them, sealed them and glued some black felt into the holes.
I took home some old milk crates from work, cleaned them up and spray painted them all black. I created seat cushions for the top of the crates so they could double as an extra seat.
Each milk crate got a 6 dice, a booklet of a ton of dice game instructions, score sheets needed for a few of the dice games, a smooth piece of wood painted with chalkboard paint and a box of chalk to keep score with.
It makes a great outdoor game to play with friends and family.

Gingerbread

I was looking for something unique to bake for some Christmas gifts and came across an Irish Gingerbread recipe. This makes your whole house smell like Christmas.
I gifted some loaves and used a loaf to make a gingerbread-eggnog trifle. This is a very moist bread that gives you the taste of a gingerbread cookie, but with the texture of a cake. It tastes great with a thin layer of butter and a hot tea to sip along with it!

Woof Woof

I saw this idea on Pinterest, (see the link below)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/376613587563295435/

As a leash and treat holder, I thought it would make a great Christmas gift for a dog lover!
I found a scrap piece of wood from a prior shelf building project and painted a light coat of grey left over from our bathroom reno. After the pain dried I wiped it with some dark stain. You can't really tell from the picture, but it gave it a nice rustic/country look.
I happened to have some brown material left over from another Christmas gift so I cut out a paw print and using hot glue, attached it to the board.
I found a hook and the 'o' clamp at our local Home- Depot for a very low cost. The screws that came with the hook were a little too long so I looked around in my husbands tool room and found some smaller self-drilling framing screws. They were very easy to screw into the wood with just my kitchen screwdriver. I got my husband to attached the 'o' clamp as I was having trouble getting the screws through the tiny slits. He then tightened it up with the jar inside and voila!
I added some picture hanging hooks on the back so I can be easily hung on the wall.
Overall this was a very easy and relatively inexpensive homemade gift. I liked it so much that I'm making one for myself!