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.

Crafting Update

Hello!  I promised an update on my recent projects and here it is!  I'm sad to say I haven't completed nearly as many projects as I'd like, but I'm trying!  Below are some quilts I've been working on for quite some time.  I'm so thankful for my wonderful mom who has completed all the quilting for me.  She's so talented!

Yellow Love 

Pretty Pinwheels 

Baby and Barnyard

No name, yet.  And not yet quilted.  Soon!

Coming soon: Super Easy Ribbon Wreath!

Homemade Creamed Corn

Hi, everyone! Hope all is well! We've had a busy week picking up tuxes, having our dog groomed, cleaning the house, packing, visiting the salon, etc. This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as we're just days from the wedding and our honeymoon! I'm super excited!

 

As promised, here's the recipe for Homemade Creamed Corn.

 

Ingredients:

2 packages frozen corn

1 package cream cheese, low fat

1 stick unsalted butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Directions:

Turn slow cooker onto high and pour in corn.  In a microwave safe bowl, soften the cream cheese and butter.  Add this mixture to the corn and mix.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once cream cheese and butter are melted, you're ready to serve delicious homemade creamed corn!  Yum!

 

 



Strawberry Banana Muffins

Oh, muffins, how we love thee.  Seriously.  They are T's favorite thing.  Ever.  Newest muffin recipe: Strawberry Banana Muffins from A Hint of Honey.  Yum, yum!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups strawberries, sliced and diced
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and honey.  Set aside. 
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside. 
In a separate bowl, combine banana, egg, applesauce and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to the dry until just moistened.  Fold in strawberry mixture. 
Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin tins.  Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
Makes 12 muffins.

Pinwheel Quilt Preview

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone had a great week! 

 

I've spent half of the week at home under the weather.  Not exactly my idea of a good time.  I finally had some energy today, so I started working on a Pinwheel quilt.  I still need to choose fabric for borders to give the quilt some size, but here's a quick preview. 

 

I bought 2 Good Morning charm packs a Quilt Shop Hop last fall from the Me and My Sister Design line.  To make the pinwheel, simply cut charm square in half and sew into the pinwheel pattern.  I ended up with 21 completed blocks, and chose my 20 favorite for the bulk.  Right now the quilt is about 32x40.  I'd like the finished size to be somewhere around 50x60, so I'll be in the market for great coordinating fabric to finish out the borders, backing and binding.  I'll keep you posted!

 

 

Homemade Sugar Scrub

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I hope you're all having a great week! 

I'm so excited as we're finally getting some snow!  We're at 3-4 inches, but they're estimating we could end up with 4-10!  Love it! 

But - with winter, cold and snow comes super dry skin. Ick!  Solution: Sugar scrub. 

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
Optional: flavored body oil

Directions:
Simply mix the two ingredients together.  Super easy!  Store any leftover in an airtight container.

My skin felt super smooth!  The sugar helps remove dry layers and the olive oil helps moisturize the skin.  I will for sure be making this again! 

CAUTION: Please be cautious when using in the shower as olive oil can make the shower floor slippery.  I would definitely recommend using the scrub in a bath instead of a shower.