Holiday Baking

Monday I decided I wanted to bake some holiday goodies and when I say bake I mean BAKE, baking is not taken lightly around here. When I get in the mood it's a marathon event.  Want to see what I was inspired to make?

I first started off with cookies: Cherry Oatmeal Bars by Cooking Light, followed by Mocha Toffee Truffle Cookies and Ricotta Cookies both by Twillypop.

I forgot to take a pic of the cookies before packaging, please use your imagination

Then I moved on to candies. YUM! With a little help from Pinterest I made these Almond Toffee Bites by Shugary Sweets, Caramels by Better Homes and Gardens, my famous Peppermint Bark which is a modified version of Paula Deen's recipe. I then felt like experimenting a bit more and tried a Butter Toffee Crunch recipe I found in my Better Homes and Gardens red plaid cookbook.

Peppermint Bark via Paula Dee and Almond Toffee Bites via Shugary Sweets

Now here is what I learned from making these candies, as the toffees and caramel was new to me.
1. Caramel takes patience, lots and lots of patience especially if you don't read the whole recipe before starting to catch that there is a short cut available. Yeah sitting at a stove stirring caramel for over an hour not that much fun, sorry to say.
2. DO NOT think its smart to add almonds into the toffee, its ruins the mix and its a big useless waste of money :( Yeah still not happy about that "genius" idea
3. Silicone is your friend, seriously find a coupon to your local craft store and buy some! I loved my mini square bites for the Almond Toffee Bites, soo sooo easy.
4. The ingredients you put in really do make a world of difference. I splurged and used my homemade vanilla extract in all the goodies and let me tell you, you CAN taste the difference. I don't think I will ever go back to store bought vanilla extract again.
5. MEASURE. I am not a big measurer, even in baking but with candy making it is a MUST! I kid you not that me and my kitchen scale are BFFs when it comes to candy making.

I am thinking next year I'll try and do all the baking during the weekend, package up Sunday night and mail off goodie boxes on Monday. That's right I am mailing off 6 lovely packages to close family and friends.

And with that I bid you a Merry Christmas!

What I am loving this week

Ever Friday I am going to take a moment to share with you my favorites from the week, whether that be a quirky anecdote about the toddler or some linkys to items I just love.

Enjoy!

A blog post by Pen and Paint rang true with me this week, and I know I for one am guilty of it too and am striving to be better.

I found The Paisley Mill via April of Marine Parents thanks to a little Etsy stalking :) And well I have fallen head over heals over lots of her items but these earrings in particular are a MUST have for me

Ginger Earrings (small primitive heart shape

This ring holder by Promise Pottery is just so quirky and perfect its on my wishlist for sure! Thanks goes to Leonora of Yellow Heart Art

ring holder, ring dish, Mustache Party Favor, Black and White, Hand Made Pottery

I am also loving the fact that the toddler is completely utterly into hugs this week. Every 10 minutes he comes up to me, 'hug?'. Yes, o yes child I will hug you! This is a big change as before mommy only got hugs when daddy wasn't around and he hurt, such a daddy's boy.

I think that about sums up this week. I would love to hear what a few of your favorite moments or finds this week were!

Toddler Tales: Monster Cookies

Okay so let me start off by saying I have never I mean NEVER had my toddler help me with cooking before, aside from put this back and grab this. But I decided yesterday of all days we should make oatmeal cookies or Monster Cookies as we call them. So while he napped I measured everything out ahead of time and put it all in little bowls convenient for little hands to dump.

So after he woke up, had his diaper changed, hands washed and was ready to have some fun, we apron'ed up and got to work.

he needed a snack before we got started

We had to move the mixing bowl down for him to help out. Even with the step stool still not tall enough. I couldn't believe how much fun he had pouring all the ingredients into the big bowl for me to mix.

After each successful ingredient dump he would jump and scream AWESOME!!!!
I love him.

Such ENTHUSIASIM  

whatcha' mixing?

 Didn't get a beauty shot of them before going into the oven or out as it was during the passing of the baby duties. But I did get a cute shot of my boy enjoying his 'num num gookie'.

Feeding daddy his cookie awwww

Overall I have to say it went much better than I expected. Even the baby was nice enough to be happy chewing on his crinkle for the time it took. Sadly the dog didn't get any crumbs as they are just too good to waste and poor baby is still too young.

I hope you enjoyed my little adventure this afternoon, it was full of laughs and smiles thank goodness. I highly suggest that you try getting your toddler in the kitchen its such a treat and I plan to have him help me cook more often!

**I followed the Better Homes & Garden Make It Mine Oatmeal Cookie Recipe, its similar to this one but obviously doubled as you can see it calls for one egg and my picture shows 2. Oddly enough I did add flax seed meal and wheat germ to my cookies as well as oat bran, gotta sneak some goodies in there ;)

Quirky Cute: a definition

Quirky Cute: (adjective) a state of being everyday with a touch of flair

How I live a Quirky Cute life.....

Its really in the details. Adding a bow to the top of my head is a favorite, did the outfit need it? NO. 

Does my heart need it? YES! 

Maybe today I'll layer up on necklaces and become a color lesson for my 2 year old, should I have stopped at one? Probably. 

Did I? NO! 

Better question does it work? Oddly yes!

Love to dance? I do! I especially like dancing to the tune that plays only in my head no matter who sees me. Yes even in the grocery store.

Is letting all your quirks shine through and letting the world see the real YOU!

Celebrity examples of Quirky Cute:

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, Drew Barrymore...these are my husband's favorite examples.

Quirky Cute for me is a lifestyle choice. I choose to be a little kooky, a little odd, but always cute. I choose to let my inner quirkiness shine through in all aspects of my life, whether it's a funny message sent randomly to a friend to brighten their day or singing with my toddler in aisle 8 of Target.

I hope to share to share all my quirky cute moments with you, tell me how are you a little quirky cute?