Tag Archives: baking

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!!!!!!!

Hershey Kiss Fondue Kit from Elizabeth

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!

Hershey Kisses Fondue Fork

The forks have the Hershey's Kisses label, just like the little paper label on the real thing!

The "Kisses" label

The kids loved this Kisses Label on the fondue kit.

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Exciting News! Twitter Party Panelist!!

6 Dec

Guess what? On Thursday night, that’s right… THIS Thursday night, December 8, 2011, I’ve been asked to be a panelist on a Twitter Party with HERSHEY’S and the Mom It Forward blog as part of their GNO (Girls Night Out) Twitter Party events. I’m very excited! I’ve been at a Twitter Party before (as “at” as you can get, sitting on your laptop) but I’ve never been asked to be a panelist before.

I’m not sure what to expect other than lots of fun tips about holiday baking and lots of recipes to share, so if you don’t have a Twitter name yet, go and get one and RSVP at Mom It Forward for the party! Of course, my Twitter name is @WholeBagofChips!
See you then!

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Crafts for Kids: Snowball Snowmen

6 Dec

Yesterday’s post was a recipe for Chocolate Chip Butterballs, oftentimes known as Chocolate Chip Snowballs. It was a recipe that the kids could help out with, by rolling the batter or even by doing some of the measuring of the ingredients or by dumping in the ENTIRE BAG of chocolate chips for the batter. When I bake with my kids I try to find at least one thing for each of the three of them to do.

For today’s kid’s activities, I thought I’d capitalize on the “snowball” aspect of these cookies. Last year another mom, Theresa and I ran the “Brown Baggers” book club for our daughters’ second grade classes. It was a group that met during lunch and recess once a month to hear a story and do a craft related to that story.

This is a great story that leads to endless hours of building "snowmen" inside your home!

We used to alternate planning the activities, each taking a month. One of the months the book that my friend chose was called “Snowballs” by Lois Ehlert. You can find it here on Amazon.com if you’d like to purchase it. (And no, in case you are wondering, I have no connection to Amazon.com at all.) I had actually not seen the book before, but she had it at her house, her kids loved it and it was perfect for the season. She came up with a simple, fun activity for the kids to do to go along with it and they loved it. That’s the activity I’m sharing with you today.

Alexandra and her friend Graycee recently made some snowmen at our house, reminiscent of the ones in "Snowballs."

The storyline in the book will encourage your children to find ordinary objects around your house to turn their “snowballs” into snowmen. They can use paper plates for their snowballs or you can cut white circles (or if they’re old enough, they can.) Some of the items you might want to provide for them for decorations (depending on their ages for choking hazards): buttons, popping corn, stickers, pom poms, sunflower seeds, scraps of paper, rubber stamps and inks, pipe cleaners, feathers, artificial flower petals bottle caps…the possibilities are endless! Your children can make a snowman or woman or an entire snow family, depending on how long you want them to be crafting.

The second graders that we worked with had tons of fun with this story and the super-easy snowman craft that went with it. I hope your children will too! And thanks again to Theresa, for coming up with this activity last year!

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Crafts for Kids: Thumbprint Art

2 Dec

Yesterday I posted my first “Your Tray or Mine? Cookie Tray Recipe of the Day” and it was for Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies.

I mentioned several ways your kids could help out with the cookie baking if you wanted them to. But, I figure that all that cookie rolling and thumbprinting might get kids into the mood for…..thumbprint art!

Many of you know that for eleven years, until this past August 2011 I was a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, teaching adults and kids how to work with stamps and inks for paper crafting. In fact, in 2004 and 2005 I was one o the top 100 demonstrators in the country! It was a job I loved very much and it combined a lot of the things I love, including teaching and kids. This project today reminds me of my SU days!

A fun thing for kids to do with ink is to use their fingerprints to turn them into drawings. I actually own a whole book about it: Ed Emberley’s Fingerprint Drawing Book and it’s a book I’ve had since I was little.

This is the Ed Emberley book I have at my house.

You can find Ed Emberley’s book as well as several of his others, here on Amazon.com if you’re interested in buying it for your kids.

The cool thing about it is that besides teaching the basics of thumbprint art, it also has seasonal and holiday thumbprint art pages as well! It gives kids hours of fun thumbprint art to keep them busy. I also find with my kids, once you get them going, their own innate creativity keeps them going on their own for hours (which gives you time to mix up more cookie batter!)

a Christmas page from Ed Emberley's book

If you don't want to do Christmas thumbprint art, you can do winter instead!

My personal recommendations when choosing ink pads is: be sure to use water-based ink (if you see Pigment Ink, think PERMANENT INK!!) Water-based ink washes off easily with soap and water or with baby wipes. I also always recommend using a paper tablecloth (Chinette makes them and you can reuse them as long as they’re dry and not ripped too badly.) Paper absorbs the ink that gets on the table, where plastic doesn’t and once it gets on the plastic tablecloth it stays wet and gets on arms, elbows, clothes etc.

Dress for mess when your kids work with ink, and the kids could even wear an apron if you’re nervous about clothing.

You can have your kids make scenes using their fingerprints or they can make Christmas cards, pictures for family members, teachers, friends, etc. My daughter Alex could make an entire book of her artwork. For her everything is made into a book. Your kids could do that as well, make a book, write a story to go along with their fingerprint characters.

Well there you have it, my first cookie and crafts double feature for you! What do you think??

I bet you’re wondering what I will come up with next, right?!

Just wait and see…

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Big Announcement for December Cookie and Craft Lovers

30 Nov

December is coming!

Christmas is coming!!!

Holidays are coming!!!!

Family is coming!!!!!

Stressed yet? Don’t be!

This time of year can either be really awful or really special. For most of us, myself included, it’s a little bit of both. I love to bake and I’m always so proud of my cookies for my trays, but it’s hard to find time to carve out to make them all when you have little kids running around. Therefore, many of the recipes I will be posting will be recipes your kids can help you with (aka rolled cookies) so that it keeps them occupied when you’re baking and it cuts your prep time in half. No, all the rolled cookies may not be exactly the same size or shape, but really does that matter? (And if it does, just kind of re-roll them a little bit when you take them to put them on the tray. I’ve done that!)

However, so often you don’t just want them to be occupied, but you want what they are doing to be something they enjoy too, something meaningful for them. Therefore, I’m going to alternate my recipe postings with seasonal activities for the kids as well. They will be things like crafts, special stories to read, gifts to make, things like that which often coordinate somehow with the cookie recipes I’m posting (okay, once a teacher, always a teacher, clearly!) Some of the crafts will be things I’ve done with my kids in the past or things they’ve done at school and brought home that I loved, or even gifts I’ve received that were handmade that I loved. Times are tight for all of us, so any handmade gifts they can make is one less thing we need to buy! The stories I post are just the ones we have at our house, but my kid always love when I pull out the seasonal stories each December. (I always wish I did that every season, but I don’t ever think of it any other time of year!)

So are you ready? If so, be sure to check out the first recipe on December 1! The coordinating book and craft will be featured on December 2! And no…no hints!

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Bonus Recipe for your Monday: Beer Bread to go with your soup

28 Nov

I just finished posting a delicious Butternut Squash Soup recipe and in the post I mentioned that I often serve the soup with a homemade Beer Bread. The recipe for the bread is super easy so I thought I’d post that too, so that you’d have both in one day in case you decide to try the soup.

BEER BREAD

INGREDIENTS

3 cups self-rising flour

1/4 cup sugar

12 oz. beer (and yes if you use a crazy flavor, like blueberry beer for example, your bread will have a flavor as well.)

1/4 cup melted butter

DIRECTIONS

Mix flour, sugar and beer, pour into greased loaf pan.

Pour melted butter over top.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Cool 15 minutes.

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Pumpkin Palooza BONUS: Triple Recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

18 Nov

Last week I posted a recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. It’s a recipe from my mom and I make it every year. Last year I think I doubled it and this year I tripled it. It made five regular sized loaf pans and the Pampered Chef mini loaf pan, which is four mini loaves. It was SO easy to triple the recipe and I literally used just one dry measuring cup (the one cup measure) and one wet measuring cup, with a couple of measuring spoons and one big spatula/scraper, so despite yielding so many breads, the cleanup was minimal. I took a ton of photos, so I thought I’d share the triple recipe with you and show you photos of the process as well. Recipe first, photos at the end…

TRIPLE RECIPE for PUMPKIN CRANBERRY BREAD

*I used a lobster pot type of stock pot (we registered for it when we got married, but we never do make lobster!) to do my mixing and one large Pampered Chef scraper. I don’t think my Kitchen Aid stand up Mixer could fit the amount of ingredients in the bowl, nor could it have mixed them.

INGREDIENTS

3 cans Libby Pumpkin (equals six cups of pumpkin, each can is 15 ounces)

6 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

12 eggs

1 1/2 cups canola oil

12 cups flour

12 tsp or 4TBL baking powder

3 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp grd. ginger

3/4 tsp grd. cloves

3 packages cranberries

The directions remain the same, but I’m pasting them here anyway. A couple of tips: I mixed all the wet ingredients in the pan together first to make sure the eggs were well-mixed. Then I mixed again after I put in six cups of flour, then added the last six and mixed again. Then I added in my spices…mixed again, and the cranberries…mixed again and then portioned it all out. Super easy.


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan(s). You can either use two large loaf pans or 3 mini loaf pans.

Beat together pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs and oil.

Sift in remaining ingredients except cranberries. Mix just until smooth.

Gently fold in cranberries.

Pour into loaf pan(s) and spread evenly.

Bake in the center of oven for 60 – 70 minutes for large loaves, less time (40-50 minutes for smaller loaves) or until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Do not overbake or bread will be dry.

Cool in pan on a rack for 10 – 15 minutes. Turn bread(s) out onto rack and finish cooling.

Bread may be made in advance, covered and chilled for up to four days.(When I make two loaves for us I often save one to eat and keep one to freeze to eat at a later date.)

PHOTOS

Pumpkin is in the pan, ready to go.

All ingredients are mixed, except the cranberries.

Three bags is a lot of cranberries!

I did NOT lick that. Well, that one swipe up the side, I licked that, but the rest...

Ready for the oven.

Done....

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Pumpkin Palooza is coming!

12 Nov

Pumpkin Pie, hot out of the oven

Do you like that, Pumpkin Palooza?? I made it up (or at least I think I did!)

Over the next two weeks I will be posting my favorite Thanksgiving seasonal recipes, one every few days. This weekend I made my first pumpkin pie of the season, and hopefully not my last one! Although I do not make this pie exactly from scratch, I figured I’d kick off Pumpkin Palooza with that recipe, which is straight off the side of the Libby’s Canned Pumpkin can, so that I could also post the picture of it.

Be sure to check back every few days, or even better: subscribe to the blog, so that you don’t miss a single recipe! I’ll finish up in time for Thanksgiving so that you can use them or share them as needed.

I’m thankful to be able to share my family’s recipes with you this Thanksgiving!

Comment and let me know what special recipes you make for the holiday!

Here’s Libby’s Pumpkin Pie recipe. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. grd. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. grd. ginger

1/4 tsp. grd. cloves

2 eggs

1 can Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin (15 ounces)

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)

1 unbaked 9″ deep dish pie shell

DIRECTIONS

1) Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in small bowl.

2) Beat eggs in large bowl.

3) Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture.

4) Gradually stir in evaporated milk

5) Pour in pie crust

6) Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.

7) Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Cool for at least two hours and then serve or refrigerate.

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Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

3 Nov

I’ve posted this on my personal FB page before, but I chose to move it onto my blog today because I love the simplicity of it. The recipe is easy and the cookies are delish!  Enjoy!

I love this recipe! I found it years ago. I always double it. Below is the single recipe.  Batter is safe to taste– no eggs.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips ( I never have mini, I used regular. To double, I only use 1 1/2 cups chips. 2 is too many.)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.

Beat in vanilla.

Add in flour and salt. Beat until well combined.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide dough in half and press each half into an ungreased 8″ round cake pan. (I don’t have those so I use a cookie sheet and I roll it onto that.)

Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown (It takes longer for a double recipe, almost double the time. Just keep an eye on them.)

Score shortbread with sharp knife and cut or break into triangles (for round pan, and square for cookie sheet.)

Let pans stand on wire rack for 10 minutes.

*photo of chocolate chips from Google Images Editor at Large

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I’m a Guest Blogger!

26 Oct

You can find me this week on the Good Parent Good Child Blog!

I’m so excited! This week I was asked to be a guest blogger on fellow author/blogger/mom Rebecca Jackson’s Good Parent Good Child Blog.

I was asked to talk about cooking for a large family with a variety of tastes. I provided her with five tips we’ve discovered along the way as well as one yummy recipe that my family loves.

I hope you’ll check it out! You can click on the underlined title above and go right to my post!!

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