Chocolate-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Hey all!  I hope you each had a wonderful Christmas holiday with friends and family.  We're recuperating quite well from the travel, food, and bustle of activity.  We were blessed to spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with my husband's family enjoying each other's company, opening gifts and eating delicious food.  I have a few recipes from our Christmas breakfast to share with you in the coming weeks, but wanted to share a delicious cookie recipe with you today: Chocolate-Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies.  This recipe is adapted from Ocean Spray's online recipes.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cup brown sugar, Splenda
4 large eggs
3 cups old-fashioned oats
3 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon milk
1 5-ounce package dried cranberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Using a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Slowly add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition.  Finally, add milk and mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Drop by  rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-11 minutes or until golden brown.  Then cool on wire rack.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

These cookies were a hit at work and at home!  My husband loved them and couldn't be more excited about leftovers from the office!

Coming soon!
Cranberry Clementine Muffins
Breakfast Casserole
Layer Biscuits

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Hope you have a wonderful day with your family and friends!

source

Chocolate Peppermint Meringues

Hi everyone!  Hope you're having a great weekend so far!  Just thought I'd stop by and share a quick recipe if you're in need of a last minute holiday treat.  I made these for my work Christmas party last week and they were delicious!  Without further ado: Chocolate Peppermint Meringues (adapted from Joyofbaking.com).

Ingredients:
6 egg whites
2 cups granulated sugar - I chose to use Splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup crushed candy canes
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put egg whites into stand-up mixer and whisk until small bubbles form.  Add sugar and mix until stiff peaks form.  Add cocoa powder and vanilla and mix well.  Fold in crushed candy canes and mini chocolate chips.

Pour mixture into piping bag and pipe onto parchment paper lined cookie trays.  Place in preheated oven for 1 minutes and then turn oven off.  Leave in oven with door closed for 3 hours or until cookie is crisp.

Yum yum!

Peppermint Meringues

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all doing well!

I wanted to drop in and share the recipe for the Peppermint Meringues made for my sister-in-law's bridal shower.  They were delicious!  And so easy to make!  This recipe was adapted from Simplyrecipes.com and Whipperberry.com.  

Ingredients/Supplies:

6 egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Pinch of salt

Red food coloring gel

Parchment paper

Gallon size freezer bag

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Put egg whites and pinch of salt into stand-up mixer.  Start mixing the egg whites on low and gradually increase until foamy and soft peaks form.  Slowly add sugar and increase mixing speed.  Mix until stiff peaks are formed and then add peppermint extract and food coloring.  Mix on low until food coloring is well blended.

Place parchment paper over the top of your cookie sheet.  Spoon mixture into the freezer bag and cut one corner.  Pipe about 1 to 1 1/2 inch mounds onto the cookie sheet.  

Put meringues into oven and close the door.  After 1 minute, turn the heat off.  Leave the doors to the oven closed for at least 3 hours or overnight.  The meringues will cook and dry out with the residual heat of the oven.  A completed meringue will be hard and crunchy.

Store in an airtight container.  Makes approximately 40-50 meringues.

Enjoy!

DIY Hot Chocolate Bar {Recipe Included}

Hey-oh!  Can you believe Christmas is a week away!?  Seriously, this year has flown by.  Our shopping is complete.  Most of the presents are wrapped.  So the next few days will be filled with wrapping the rest of the gifts, cleaning the house, last minute grocery shopping and baking, and most importantly, spending time with our families.  This weekend we're headed to Illuminations at our local Botanical Garden.  They have thousands of lights scattered throughout the many gardens so it's always a beautiful time to visit.  We're also off to see "A White Christmas" at one of our local music theaters with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (20 total!).  I'm really looking forward to this weekend and making memories with the people we love.

I was fortunate to have the day off today.  I spent a few hours baking Chocolate Cranberry Cookies and Chocolate Meringues (recipes coming soon!) for our work celebrations tomorrow.  I also had the opportunity to enjoy lunch with my husband.  We aren't able to meet up often over the lunch hour due to our schedules, so our lunch dates are always enjoyable.

This past weekend I hosted a bridal shower for my sister-in-law.  The Hot Chocolate Bar was a success and I'm excited to share the details with you!

Hot Chocolate Recipe:
3 cups Swiss Miss Powder Mix - I purchased a bulk can at our local grocery store
3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
6 quarts Water
Crock pot
Meat thermometer

Directions:
Mix the three ingredients together.  Turn your crock pot on high to heat the hot chocolate.  We used our meat thermometer to keep the temperature of the the hot chocolate around 130 degrees.  Serve and enjoy!

For the toppings, we opted to offer Reddi-Whip, ground cinnamon, crushed candy canes, full size candy canes, mini chocolate chips, marshmallows and white chocolate chips.  We put each item in its own serving dish and let people pick and choose what and how much they wanted.  The bar was a hit!

Enjoying the hot chocolate bar back home!  Yum!

 Next time: Peppermint Meringues!

Easy Tie Ribbon Wreath

One more Halloween project and I promise I'll be done until next year!  The great thing about this wreath is you can make it for any season or holiday.  Check it out!

Supplies:
Ribbon - I can't remember how many rolls I used.  Maybe 10?  I way overbought and had to return a ton.  Helpful, I know.
Straw Wreath
Ornament - optional

Directions:
So simple!  Tie strips of ribbon around the wreath until the wreath form is completely covered.  Mix and match the ribbon throughout the process.  If you chose to use an ornament, slip the ornament string over one of the ribbons as you tie it on.  For uniformity, I cut the end of each ribbon at an angle.

Yummy Mummies

Hey-oh!  So I mentioned in a previous post that I would share a super easy Yummy Mummy recipe.  I know it's late, but next year, right?!

Source: http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/crescent-mummy-dogs/d52a57d7-ab8a-4a1c-8dae-f9f90d03b912

Ingredients:
8-10 Hot Dogs
1 Can Dough Sheet
Mustard
Cooking Spray

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut dough into strips.  Wrap dough around hot dogs like bandages leaving a half inch open area at one end for a face.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Lightly spray with cookie spray.  Bake 13-17 minutes or until dough is golden brown.  Using the mustard and a fork, draw eyes onto your mummies.  Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients:
8-10 Hot Dogs
1 Can Dough Sheet
Mustard
Cooking Spray

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut dough into strips.  Wrap dough around hot dogs like bandages leaving a half inch open area at one end for a face.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Lightly spray with cookie spray.  Bake 13-17 minutes or until dough is golden brown.  Using the mustard and a fork, draw eyes onto your mummies.  Serve and enjoy!