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Recipe of the day: Brown Sugar Brownies

These brownies melt in your mouth!

I found this recipe on the back of a package of Domino Light Brown Sugar a while back. The title alone made me want to try them. I love brown sugar. You can always tell if a recipe is going to be good by how the batter tastes, and this batter is delicious.

The recipe is quick and easy, and it will make a great dessert for the Superbowl game, or really any time you want a delicious dessert!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup (one stick) butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (we don’t like nuts so I never put those in.)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Grease 8×8 baking dish.

In large bowl beat sugar and butter until fluffy.

Beat in eggs one at a time.

Beat in chocolate, then flour.

Kids can help with this recipe, which technically doesn't even need a stand up mixer.

Stir in nuts if using them.

Pour into pan.

Bake 25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan and cut into bars.

Makes 2 dozen bars.

Tags: Aldi's, baking, Brown sugar brownies, chocolate recipes, cooking with kids, dessert, eating on a budget, homemade brownie recipes, Jennifer L. Cowart, kids, recipes, shopping on a budget, Superbowl Sunday, Superbowl Week

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Categories dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Parenthood, Recipes

Fun for Family “Movie” Night: Whirley-Pop Three Minute Popcorn Maker

20 Jan

Tonight was the first night of American Idol, a show our family enjoys watching. We especially enjoy the audition nights, because of the umm…array of talent…that’s out there. We record the show so that the kids watch the first hour and then, since it’s a school night, they have to go to bed and we watch the second hour at another time. Since it was a somewhat special night, being the first night of the show, we decided to christen another one of our Christmas gifts, this one was from my aunt and uncle:

This was one of our popcorn themed-gifts this Christmas and we tried it out tonight.

My aunt and uncle also gave us some popcorn accessories to go with it:

These are the other accessories that were given to us to go with the popcorn maker.

Since we’ve never had a popcorn popper before, we were very curious as to how it would work and we thought tonight would be a fun night to try it out.

Here’s what it looks like out of the box:

It's a pretty cool piece of equipment.

Once out of the box, the popcorn maker has to be seasoned with oil. After that, we followed the directions, putting oil in the bottom of the pot and a half cup of popcorn. As it heats up, you turn the handle until the popcorn is done. It cooked up very quickly and the entire pot was full. We decided to try the Kettle Corn flavoring. Well, more honestly, I decided that we were trying the Kettle Corn flavoring. They wanted Nacho Chip flavor, but somehow I won them over and we tried Kettle Corn. It was a combination of sweet and salty.

Last year we got the coolest popcorn bowl at our dollar store...for one dollar, perfect for tonight's treat.

Finally, to top it all off, the gift came with one-time use individual popcorn cups as well, so everyone got their own. It was an especially fun way to start off the season of American Idol this year. We found the Whirley-Pop popcorn maker very easy to use and we can’t wait to try out the other flavors of popcorn.

Here's to another season of American Idol!

Tags: American Idol, dessert, eating on a budget, Family Movie Night, free things to do, Jennifer L. Cowart, motherhood, parenting, popcorn, Whirley-Pop Three Minute Popcorn Maker

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Categories dessert, Family Movie Night, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Parenthood

Resolutions and Recipes: Rice Pudding

10 Jan

Yesterday I posted the recipe for Flounder with Lemon and Dill -sort of. If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll see what I mean. Anyway…the recipe is served on a bed of white rice, which we often have left over. If we have at least 1 1/2 cups of it left over, that’s enough to make Rice Pudding, which is one of my favorite wintertime desserts.

I happen to love Rice Pudding!

Rice Pudding, like tapioca, bread pudding, grape nut pudding and the like, are the type of dessert that you either love them or hate them. I happen to love puddings of all types, including this one.

The recipe is simple and like most puddings, the hardest thing is standing there stirring the pudding until it thickens. I read a book while I stir. We’ve had this recipe a while, but I’m not sure where we got it from. I have it written on a little piece of notebook paper, so I apologize in advance for not giving credit to someone, somewhere.

Stir the pudding until it's thick and creamy.

RICE PUDDING

Combine 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice with 1 1/2 cups of milk, 1/3 cup white sugar and 1/4 tsp. salt.

Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, about 15-20 minutes.

Stir in 1/2 cup of milk, one beaten egg and 2/3 cup of raisins.

Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in one tablespoon butter and 1/2 tsp. vanilla.

Serve warm with whipped cream.

I don’t like whipped cream so I eat it without, but the rest of my family enjoys it with whipped cream on top.

You can serve it in bowls, mugs, or we often use these ice cream sundae glasses, with tall iced-tea spoons, which is fun.

The next time you make white rice for a side dish, throw in enough for extras so that you can try out this yummy recipe! It warms your soul on a cold night!

ENJOY!

Tags: dessert, eating on a budget, Jennifer L. Cowart, recipes, Rice Pudding

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Categories dessert, Eating on a budget, Jennifer L. Cowart, Recipes, Shopping on a budget

It’s the little things that matter most

6 Jan

One little comment from Elizabeth yesterday totally made my day.

Let me start by saying that it’s posts like this that are the reason why I changed my blog to The Whole Bag of Chips; I wanted to be able to post anything and everything rather than just write about crafts or foods or kids and then nothing else, ever.

Today’s post is a kid post and it came about because of a totally random comment that Elizabeth made yesterday, that completely made my day.

A little background information: in the mornings our set routine goes like this- I make the coffee and the kids’ breakfasts at the same time that Don is making the kids’ lunches. God Bless him for taking on that task because it’s like being a short order cook: crunchy peanut butter or plain? Jelly or Fluff? Strawberry, grape or boysenberry? Do you like fruit snacks or fruit roll ups? Apple for fruit or orange? Are you sitting at the peanut free table today or not? Does this snack contain peanuts? Do you like granola bars? Which kind?….You see what I mean, I’m sure. With three kids who have a variety of tastes, you can’t really just bang out one lunch for all three and expect them all to like the exact same thing. Meanwhile, I’m sticking six waffles in the toaster, cutting up a piece of fruit for them to share, and I’m done.

Anyway, when he asked the “what do you want for lunch” question yesterday, Elizabeth asked him for turkey and cheese. He asked her if she wanted it in bread and she said no, that she wanted roll ups, the turkey wrapped around the cheese and rolled up. He did a few, put them into a tupperware and off they went.

Later that night, he asked her how her lunch was and she said it was great, and that it was great *because* it reminded her of when she was little and I used to make roll ups for them for lunch and cut them into little spirals to eat. I was shocked. I’d forgotten that I used to do that. It’s been a bunch of years that she’s been eating lunch at school already, so that had to be during the preschool/kindergarten years and maybe even before.

Besides the fact that I was amazed that she remembered the lunches I used to make, I was touched that something so little and so random was a special memory for her. As a mom, you know that it’s the little things during the day that mean a lot to you, but you never do know what memories you are creating specifically for your kids. You just hope you’re doing an okay job and you hope that the memories that they have are *not* the ones where you lose your mind and scream at them over something, but you don’t really ever know until they tell you. Sometimes as a mom, a Type-A kind of mom, I go over and above to try to create an experience that is fabulous so that they’ll always remember it (or so I hope) and think of how fabulous it was. But meanwhile, it’s not always those things, it might just be the little things.

I wonder if my mom knew way back then, what special memories she was creating for me?

As a kid, one of my memories from my mom is that whenever she baked a pie, she’d roll out her crust and she’d use what she needed for the pie but then she’d take the rest of the crust, cut it into strips (I assume) and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar onto the strips. Then she’d roll them up into spirals and bake them. I *loved* that treat and to this day I still think of them although I’ve never done that myself because I used boxed crusts that roll out to EXACTLY what you need for the pie- there’s never any extra.

The turkey and cheese roll ups remind me of that, and although for my mom it might have been a random thing that she did for us, I bet she didn’t realize back then that it was something I’d still be thinking of 40 years later.

It took Elizabeth’s random comment yesterday to remind me that it’s the little things that matter and to reassure me that at least some of the time, I’m getting something right along the way.

Tags: cooking with kids, kids, making memories, motherhood, parenting, picky eaters, school lunches, turkey roll-ups

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Categories Cooking with Kids, dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Parenthood, Recipes

Donut Wars: New Year’s Eve 2011

3 Jan

My new toy!

This year for Christmas I received a Babycakes Donut Maker from my mother-in-law in Virginia. I don’t know how she could’ve known that I had looked at this longingly in EVERY store I went to, but it’s not something I’d splurge on myself. I thought it would be a fun gift; fun for playdates and birthday parties, things like that.

My sister-in-law, Jessica in Virginia received one from her as well, and we spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Virginia with them, staying at my sister-in-law’s house. Between us we have five girls ranging in age from 6 to 12, so we look for fun activities, crafts and special things to do when we’re together, but especially on New Year’s Eve when we have a long night ahead of us.

Since we both got the same gift and my sister-in-law has a large kitchen space, we decided to create a Donut Wars event for the kids on New Year’s Eve, to christen our new Babycakes Donut Makers and to make yet another unforgettable New Year’s Eve for our kids, three of whom made it to midnight this year.

The Festivus Christmas Team, I was their team captain.

The Pinkalicious Team, Grandma was their team captain.

To start our Donut Wars, we came up with two teams based on the cake mixes we were going to use for our donuts. You can use the recipes included in the box or cake mixes. For our first time we opted for cake mixes, although I do plan to eventually try out some of the recipes that come with the maker. My sister-in-law had a Funfetti Christmas cake mix and a Strawberry Cake mix, so we named our two teams the Festivus Christmas Team and the Pinkalicious Team. We paired the kids up into two teams of two and each team had one adult captain. (Jessica’s youngest wanted to be a judge, the two daddies were judges and Jess was a floater.) To make it even more fun, the kids dressed up in funky clothes and accessories.

Common Ingredients for all to use

The two teams were each given their cake mix and a vanilla frosting, all the mixing bowls and measuring cups they needed, a Babycakes Donut Maker, and a counter full of Common Ingredients that they could use for their decorating no matter what team they were on. We set one team up on the island and one team up at the kitchen table with the Common Ingredients between them on the end of the island.

Once we got the teams set up with their captains, judges waiting in the wings, the teams got started.

Here’s what followed:

Some egg cracking,

Some egg separating,

Some oil measuring,

They took turns mixing,

had frequent visits from our primary judge, Abbey,

And the Festivus Team had technical difficulties with some faulty ziploc bags.

but overall, things were going well!

The kit came with its own cooling rack and fork for taking the donuts out of the machine, both of which were very important.

Aunty Jessie helped both teams.

While *some* of us took the opportunity to get a nap in before the big ball dropping later on.

Soon the donuts were done for the Festivus Team

and for the Pinkalicious Team, who actually finished first.

and it was time....

...to judge...

...the donuts!

The judges were each given an index card with the team’s name on top. Each team had picked three donuts or sets of donuts to showcase for the judges. The judges had to go to each team and critique the donuts on taste, creativity, presentation and then give and overall score (just like that show we watch, Four Weddings, on TLC!) Jess and I had prizes for both teams as well as for both captains, so no matter what it would all work out. (We love our respective Dollar Tree dollar stores for things like that!)

Christmas Wreath and Snowman face from the Festivus Team- creative!

Presentation: the 3D Festivus Donut on a spackled frosting dish

Hand-chopped candy canes top the Festivus Teams third set of donuts for judging.

Pinkalicious's VERY pink donuts with marshmallow centers for judging.

Hand-shaved chocolate, shaved by team captain Grandma, for the Pinkalicious team's presentation table.

Beautiful pink and white candy cane donuts from the Pinkalicious Team for the judges to eat.

Overall, a grand time was had by all! We found the Babycakes Donut Maker to be easy to use, to include all of the items we needed, and we loved that we had the option to use cake mixes instead of making the donuts from scratch. With that many kids, it was much easier using the mix than working from scratch, especially for the first time.

A few things to note:
1) The donuts are tiny (so you can eat a whole bunch!)

2) The donut maker gets HOT and the directions say so several times in several different places, but even still we had a burn victim no less. Caroline accidentally leaned against one of them to get a common ingredient and burned her stomach. Hello Neosporin. She still finished out the entire competition, with an ice pack on her stomach.

3) Overall it took about an hour to go from start to finish and that’s with captains and floaters. If I were doing this for a playdate I’d make the donuts ahead and let them decorate them. This would help with time, space and less of a chance of anyone getting burned.

4) One cake mix makes about 42 donuts from our count (so we had almost 100 donuts by the end!)

5) The donut maker has a very short cord, perfect for my tiny kitchen corner that has an outlet right there, but depending on your space you might need to plug into an extension cord first.

I’m glad we have the Babycakes Donut Maker and I can’t wait to use it again (neither can the kids) and to try out some of the “from scratch” recipes. There’s also a zillion different cake mix flavors out there, so no matter what our hearts desire, we can have donuts in any flavor we want as time goes on. Alex was already planning on a baking party for her March birthday, which she’s been planning since October, so this just added to her plans. I see aprons and chef’s hats as possible craft ideas!

I definitely recommend this product if you’re considering it, and so do our Donut Wars Team Participants!

All of the Donut Wars contestants and their judge, Abbey

Tags: Babycakes Donut Maker, baking, baking with kids, chocolate chips, Christmas, dessert, donut wars, free things to do, homemade donuts, Jennifer L. Cowart, kids, motherhood, New Years Eve activities with kids, recipes

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Categories chocolate chips, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Cooking with Kids, dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Parenthood, Recipes

Bonus Post: Story time, a cookie recipe and a craft

23 Dec

A very funny story to read tonight!

It’s Friday night!! Even though we’re not doing Family Movie Night tonight, I do have a story for you: “The Night Before The Night Before Christmas,” a funny story by Natasha Wing, illustrated by Mike Lester.

This is a great story to read on Christmas Eve-Eve, different than your typical actual Night Before Christmas stories, which you can read tomorrow night.

In addition to reading, here’s a cookie recipe for you as well:

OATMEAL SCOTCHIES

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp grd. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick or oldfashioned oats
1 2/3 cup (or one 11 ounce bag) butterscotch chips

These use butterscotch chips and oatmeal. They're a yummy, crunchy cookie!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl.

Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in large mixing bowl.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in oats and chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 7-8 minutes for chewier cookies, 9-10 for crispier cookies.

Cool on cookie sheet 2 minutes, transfer to rack to cool completely.

AND FINALLY……

If you’re looking for some fun, homemade ornament ideas to do during the day on Christmas Eve to help the kids pass the time on what can be a very long day, waiting for the “big event,” here is a collection of photos of some of my favorites from this year and years past. These make great last minute gifts or “tags” to add onto a gift package, or…to add to your tree!

handmade ornament using a container cover

My sister-in-law always makes a handmade ornament each year. This year she collected all kinds of covers, all year long, to create the ornaments.

Here is the ornament Elizabeth brought home today, made out of popsicle sticks and paint.

Caroline's second grade photo ornament using her school photo and a painted frame.

A fun, easy ornament for young kids to make using glue, glitter and tissue paper.

Tags: baking, Christmas, Christmas cookie tray recipes, Christmas cookies, Christmas Recipes, Christmas stories, dessert, free things to do, handmade ornaments, Jennifer L. Cowart, kids, motherhood, Oatmeal Scotchies, parenting, recipes, The Night Before The Night Before Christmas

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Categories books, Chrismas Crafts, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Stories, dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Parenthood, Recipes, Your Tray or Mine?

Where do you get your recipes?

10 Dec

I often get asked where I get my recipes from. So many of them are passed down to me from my mom, but even she had to get them from somewhere! Today, I thought I’d show you a few of the cookbooks that I’ve gotten these delicious dessert recipes from.

My dad's favorite, the Glazed Pineapple Cookies come from this cookbook.

This is an old cookbook that my mom has gotten some of her recipes from, including the Glazed Pineapple Cookies (coming up later this month.)

Lots of our recipes come from this cookbook!

You can see the Chocolate Krinkles right on the cover of the “Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book” cookbook. We get several of our recipes from here.

For Christmas a few years ago my mom gave me this copy, which is the “new” version.

Then for my birthday this past summer, my cousin Val gave me a “vintage” copy that she’d found in her travels, which made her think of me. So now I have both, with the vintage one being the exact same one my mom has.

I have had this one since before I was married. Not saying that's eon's ago, but still, a long time!

When I was teaching middle school one year, I got this “Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection” cookbook from the “Book Man” who used to leave books in the faculty room for us to purchase. I then used it for a math lesson where we doubled a selection of the recipes (fractions) and made enough of them (measuring) for everyone to take some home. Hands on math…

I received this cookbook from a Stampin' Up! customer one Christmas and I've gotten one of my favorite recipes from it!

My Creamy Hot Chocolate recipe came out of the “Old Fashioned Holiday Recipes” cookbook! I make it at least once a week, so often that I keep the recipe right on my cabinet at all times (even though I could probably make it with my eyes shut by now.)

Our Snickerdoodle Cookies recipe is out of this cookbook!

Our favorite recipe for Snickerdoodles comes from the girls’ cookbook, “Strawberry Shortcake Holiday Treats” and it’s super easy and delicious! They’ve tabbed a whole bunch of other recipes for us to try out in the future!

I’m sure there are several others to share so I’ll keep adding to this post as I go along with my recipe sharing, but for now, this will get you started in case you come across any of these cookbooks in your travels too!

Tags: baking, Betty Crocker Cooky Book, chocolate chips, Christmas, Christmas cookies, cookbooks, cookie ccokbooks, dessert, Favorite Brand Names cookbook, Jennifer L. Cowart, kids, motherhood, Old Fashioned Holiday Recipes cookbook, parenting, recipes

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Categories books, chocolate chips, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Cooking with Kids, dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Parenthood, Recipes, Your Tray or Mine?

Do You Fondue? We did!

8 Dec

The other day I wrote about my daughter surprising me with a Hershey’s Fondue kit when she got home from school. Well tonight was the night, we had Chocolate Fondue for dessert after dinner. Dinner was leftovers, which was simple and easy, so having a fun dessert like chocolate fondue gave us something to look forward to afterwards!

On my way home from work today I got some fun items to dip into the fondue: apples, strawberries, chocolate chip cookies, and wafer cookies. I have to say, there’s nothing like a chocolate chip cookie dipped in smooth, warm chocolate!! The recipe included in the box also had some dipper ideas.

The Hershey’s Fondue Kit came with two recipes, one for a Milk Chocolate Bar Fondue and one for Chocolate Lover’s Fondue. I looked at both to see which one I had all the ingredients for, and it was the Chocolate Lover’s Fondue. No coincidence there, right?!

Here’s the recipe:
CHOCOLATE LOVER’S FONDUE

INGREDIENTS

2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) Hershey’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

3/4 cup light cream or half and half (I used half and half)

1/2 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1 Combine chocolate chips, light cream (or half and half) and sugar in heavy medium sauce. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate chips are melted and mixture is hot.

2 Pour into fondue pot; serve warm with Assorted Fondue Dippers. Makes about 2 cups fondue.

Assorted Fondue Dippers: marshmallows, cherries, grapes, mandarin orange segments, pineapple chunks, strawberries, fresh fruit slices, cake pieces.

Here are some photos from our fun dessert!

Candle is lit, fondue is hot and ready to go!

Can you tell Elizabeth is excited? She got the first bite of fondue since it's her kit.

Caroline and the Hershey's Kisses Fondue Kit

Caroline chooses a chocolate chip cookie dipper.

Alex and the Hershey's Kisses Fondue Kit

Alex tries out the chocolate chip cookie dippers too!

Tags: baking, chocolate chips, Christmas cookie tray recipes, dessert, Hershey's, Hershey's Kisses, Hershey's Kisses Fondue Kit, Jennifer L. Cowart, recipes

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Categories chocolate chips, Cooking with Kids, dessert, Hershey's, Hershey's Kisses, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Recipes

Crafts for Kids: Story for the day today: You Can Do It, Sam

7 Dec

Today I posted a recipe for my brother’s favorite cookies, Brown Eyed Susans and I talked about how each of us in our family has a favorite cookie on the trays so that you can’t ever think of leaving one out or someone will be disappointed.

As a kid, we lived on a “country road” where the houses were kind of spread apart and our neighbors were sometimes down a long and winding road, or in a house we couldn’t see, even though they were nearby. On Christmas Eve each year, my brother and I would walk up and down the road, up and down the long, winding driveways for hours, delivering our trays of cookies to our neighbors. Some of these people we wouldn’t see very often during the year, even though we were neighbors, but everyone knew that on Christmas Eve Chris and I would be coming around with the cookie trays.

Elephant Ears were always Mr. Lussier's favorite.

It would take us hours because it wasn’t just a drop and run, it was a stop, stay and chat, and watch as the neighbors would exclaim over the cookie trays because they’d been waiting all year for their favorite cookie. I remember our one neighbor, Mr. Lussier, his favorites were Elephant Ears, and my mom only made just so many of those so each tray would get ONE Elephant Ear. The Lussiers knew that one cookie belonged to Mr. Lussier. As labor-intensive as those were, we could never leave them out or Mr. Lussier would be disappointed.

These memories of delivering the cookies are so, so special to me, I almost get choked up as I type this. Many of those people are now long gone, and my parents have since moved as well, but the memories…they stay forever and every single year when I make my cookies, I think of them fondly. It gets me through those moments at midnight the week before Christmas when I think to myself, “Why the heck am I doing this again?” Then I remember how much these cookies mean to the people we give them to, and how much the memories mean to me as well.

Today’s story is one that was given to my kids for Christmas in 2008 by my brother Chris and his wife, Nina, so I thought it was only appropriate to share today. It’s called “You Can Do It, Sam,” by Amy Hest and illustrated by Anita Jeram. Ours even came with a plush of the main character, courtesy of the Kohl’s Cares for Kids program that year. It’s about a mother bear and her baby bear, Sam. Together they make many cakes for their neighbors on Plum Street. Together they bake and together they wait as the cakes finish. And then, together, they put the cakes into bags for their neighbors. Sam is now old enough to deliver the cakes to the neighbors himself, as his mom waits in the truck for him as he delivers all twelve cakes to his neighbors.

It’s such a special story and it is so special that it was given to us by my brother and his wife, because whether they knew it at the time or not, it invokes such special memories for me of our days together, delivering our cookies to our neighbors. It’s a book to teach my kids about the special meaning behind baking for others, behind giving a piece of yourself to others, and creating memories of our own as a family during a crazy holiday season.

Tags: baking, Christmas, Christmas Cookie Trays, Christmas stories, dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, kids, motherhood, parenting, recipes, You Can Do It Sam

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Categories books, Chrismas Crafts, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Stories, Cooking with Kids, dessert, Jennifer L. Cowart, Kids, Motherhood, Recipes, Your Tray or Mine?

A Hershey’s Surprise for me today!

6 Dec

On the exact day that I announced my being a panelist on the Hershey’s Twitter Party Thursday night, my daughter Elizabeth came bounding off the school bus today with a big surprise for me: A Hershey’s Kisses Fondue Kit!!!!!!!

Elizabeth could barely contain her excitement with her prize from school today!

Just getting off the bus was a huge ordeal, with the bus driver putting the box into a bag so that I couldn’t see it. She couldn’t wait for me to open it.

Turns out…she had saved all of her good behavior tickets from the classroom program her teacher runs, until she had 20 tickets.

Today was the day she was going to be able to choose her prize and she had no idea what the choices were going to be.

She was soooooo excited when she came home to show me what she chose and now….we can’t wait to fondue!!! Just in time for the Hershey’s Twitter Party on Thursday night!

Even the forks say Hershey’s on them!