Holiday Treats

These week I've been making a lot of holiday treats for various events.  I thought I'd fill you in on the two most popular.  We'll start out with the Santa Hat Brownies:

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They look good, huh?  They are!  Here's what you'll need:

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2 brownie mixes (unless you know how to make homemade brownies)

1 container of icing (or you can go with the homemade stuff)

Strawberries (I used 2 containers, but munched a little as I went)

Small circle cookie cutter

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Start out by baking your brownies.  I made mine a little thinner than usual so that my cookie cutter made it through.  Let them cool.  Use the cookie cutter to cut the brownies into small circles.  Put icing in a ziploc bag and cut the corner just enough to squeeze the icing through.  Squeeze a quarter sized amount of icing on the top of each brownie.  Wash and cut the tops off of the strawberries.  Place one strawberry on top of each brownie, lightly pushing down to push the icing out around the edges.  Place a small dot of icing on the top of the strawberry.

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Now let's move on to the S'mores Bars:

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For these you'll need:

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2 bags of milk chocolate chips

1 container of marshmellow fluff

1 box of graham crackers

Wax paper

Sprinkles (optional)

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Snap your graham crackers into fourths.  Spread marshmellow fluff on half of the graham crackers and place the uncovered graham crackers on top like a sandwich.  Try not to use too much fluff, or it will later explode out of the sides (My husband compared this to a baby who has a blow out in their diaper.  You can thank me later for the visual.).  Use a double-boiler (or you can be creative and make your own with two pots) and pour the chocolate in the top pot. Stir until the chocolate is melted.  Dip each "graham cracker sandwich" in the chocolate.  Place dipped "sandwiches" on wax paper to cool.  If you want to decorate them, let them cool slightly for a minute or two (not too much) before putting the sprinkles on.

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Hope you enjoy these.  They were both delish!  The only problem I had was that they were a little messy to make.  By the end of the night, I had chocolate all over my shirt and marshmellow fluff all in my freshly cut and styled hair.  But we did end up having some chocolate left over, so we dipped our left over strawberries in it for desert.  And all was right with the world!

Hey Good Lookin'

Watcha got cookin'?

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Last night we had a delicious dinner at our house with our friends Beth and Brett.  I wanted to try out some new recipes and I knew they'd forgive me if they got food poinsoning.  Both of the new recipes I tried turned out to be wonderful, so I thought I'd share them with you.

First, we had a brown sugar and balsamic glazed pork loin.

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Yummo! We ate scalloped potatoes and green beans with it.

For desert I cooked some lemon burst cookies.  These are some of the easiest cookies to make and they are by far my favorite cookies to eat!

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So here's the recipes.  Enjoy!

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Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork

Ingredients:

1 two pound boneless pork loin

1 tsp. ground sage

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 crushed garlic clove

1/2 cup water

Glaze:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cups water

2 tbsp. soy sauce

Directions: Combine sage, salt, pepper, and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 1 hour before roast is done, combine the glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat and stir until the mixture thickens.  Brush the roast with the glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. Serve the remaining glaze on the side.

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Lemon Burst Cookies

Ingredients:

1 box lemon cake mix

1 8oz. container of cool whip

1 egg

1/3 cup powdered sugar

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat cool whip, egg, and cake mix until well blended.  Dough will be thick and sticky. Drop a teaspoonful into a bowl a bowl of powdered sugar and roll to coat. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes. Let cool.

Soup's On

For the past week it has been cold. South or not- I'm talking really cold. We've been trying to keep warm by staying indoors and bundling up. Friday night we decided to cook some homemade soup for dinner. My friend Krissy gave me a recipe for some Chicken Tortilla Soup. I'm not much of a cook (okay, I have trouble popping popcorn), but I figured it would be pretty difficult to mess up soup. I was right! It was super easy to make and it was delicious! Definately one of my new favorite recipes. Here's the recipe. If you don't try it- you're crazy!

You will need 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 onion, some minced garlic, 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, 1 lb. of chicken, 1 can of chicken broth, 1 can of black beans, and jalepeno pepper (if desired).

First, you need to chop your peppers and onions up.

Next, heat the chopped peppers and onions in a skillet until they are tender.

Then, saute the fire roasted tomatos in the skillet with the peppers and onions.

While the tomatos, peppers, and onions simmer, cut the chicken into small pieces.

Put your peppers and tomatoes into your soup pot and use your skillet to cook the chicken.

Try to resist begging faces, such as this:

Once the chicken is "most of the way" cooked, dump it into the pot with your tomatos and peppers. Add the can of black beans and the can of chicken broth into the pot as well.

Let the soup simmer until done.

And enjoy!