Baked Christmas Goodies and We Wish You a Very Merry Christmas!

Hey ya'll......I'm back with all the baked goods!  If you read the last post you know I had a mountain of ingrediants and only a few days to bake.  Well I finally finished all the goodies, and from my text messages from the neighbors, they too like their goodies!  YAY! ****Candie****
Here is the list of yummi-ness that I baked up!

1. Rolo Cookies (courtesy of Six Sister Stuff)
2. Peppermint Bark
3. Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops
4. Peanut Butter Fudge
5. Hershey's Pretzel Bites
6. White and Dark Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Sticks

Look at all that goodi-ness!!!!

Rolo Cookies and Peanut Butter Fudge

Hershey's Pretzel Bites and Drk Choco. Dipped Pretzel Sticks

White Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Sticks and Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Chocolate Cake Pops (these were kinda hard)

Thanks for keeping us going......... We all hope you have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

******3KRAZYCHICS*****

Sneak Peak Christmas Baking

Hello all! Christmas time brings lots of merry cheer and lots and lots of baking!

Well here is a sneak peak of what I will be baking up in the next couple days! I deliver these wonderful goodies to my neighbors.....you know who you are....lucky duckies!

Can you guess what I'm making? Stay tuned at the end of the week and I will reveal all the goodies!
****Candie****

Mini Apple Pies

I made these little ity bity apple pies the other night.  They turned out yummy, however the picture did not do it justice at all!

Used just the basic ingredients for the making of an apple pie.  Depending how much apples you cut up, will depend on how much ingredients you use.  I basically had to eyeball it.  I did cheat and use store bought dough.  Cut little rounds using the pampered chef sandwich sealer that I have. Put them down inside the cupcake pan, cut up little pieces for the top......and bake!

Enjoy! ****Candie****

Lemon Crinkle Cookies!!

Hello friends! My name is Renee and I'm addicted to all things lemon.  Kidding......but really, for some reason my passion this summer is anything lemon.  The latest recipe is Lemon Crinkle Cookie, and let me just tell you now, they melt in your mouth.  I have one of these little babies in the a.m. with my coffee and it is just like heaven!!

Lemon Crinkle Cookiesyield: 2-3 dozen
Ingredients:
½ cups Butter, Softened
1 cup Granulated Sugar
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 whole Egg
1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
⅛ teaspoons Baking Soda
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Powdered Sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
This is where I discovered them, go give her some love ladies, her website is fantastic!!
http://www.laurenslatest.com/lemon-crinkle-cookies/

Please go make some right now, you will thank me later!!

~hugs~ Renee

Cake POPS!!

These cake pops are my new obsession. I had my first one at Starbucks. It was a birthday cake flavor. SOOOO GOOOOD!!!!  I wanted to try and make my own and try out a different flavor. My kids gobble them up too. I looked online for a few recipes and I used part of all of them. Here is my recipe:


I took a triple chocolate cake box and cooked it according to the directions. When the cake was cooked and cooled I crumbled up the cake by hand and added about half a container of caramel frosting.  I combined the together well and rolled into a giant ball. I put the cake mixture into the fridge to cool and harden for about an hour. After an hour I rolled with my hand small 1 inch balls and placed them on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil. I then melted my chocolate being careful not to burn it.  I then dipped the cake sticks in the frosting about an inch and placed them in the cake balls about half way through. This will act like cement to keep the stick attached. I then spooned on the melted chocolate to all the cake balls and let dry. I put the sticks into a foam wreath so they could dry. When dry they are ready to eat!  YUMMY!!!!!!! Enjoy.

~Lindsay

Navajo Tacos

Hey there! I must be in a cooking mood, cause I made another recipe from Chef in Training.  This time I made Navajo tacos.  When we have tacos, we normally don't get hard shell.  We usually just go for the flour tortillas.  But this recipe called for frying up the flour tortillas.  Man was it ever so good!

Here's the recipe:  (I doubled the recipe for my family)

4 flour tortillas 

1 lb ground beef

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 can re-fried beans

shredded lettuce

sour cream

salsa

avocados

shredded cheese

tomatoes (instead of salsa we used tomatoes)

1. Brown ground beef and drain.  Add 3/4 cup water and taco seasoning to ground beef.  Simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Fry tortillas until golden brown.

3. Top fried torilla with all your dressings

ENJOY! I sure did!  ****Candie****

No Bake Cookies

Hello all! We follow this amazing blog, that has amazing recipes!  Chef In Training has some pretty darn tasty recipes.  I have tried 2 myself and they both turned out fantastic.  The pot roast was super delish- sorry no picture, forgot to take a picture before we ate it, but it sure tasted good going down!  The other No Bake Cookies, well Nikki over at Chef In Training called them Gorilla Poop! Love it!

Anyway I would like to share this recipe with you.

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup margerine/butter
4 Tbs cocoa
2-1/2 cups quick oats
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter or nuttela

Cook sugar, milk, butter and cocoa over moderate heat until mixture come to a full rolling boil.  Once mixture is a full rolling boil, cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Add oats, canill, and peanut butter (nutella).  Mix untilo well blended.  Spoon onto waxed paper and let cool.

Hope you all enjoy!  ****Candie****

Who's a Bruins Fan?!?!?!?!

My son just turned 8, and what was the theme you ask? Well of course, Boston Bruins!  He thinks Tim Thomas (Goalie) is super cool.  Anyway, his favorite color is yellow, so I think that's the real reason he likes them, but who am I to say. I'm just mom.  We are a hockey family, new to it just this last year, and both boys love it!  Anyway, here is what I came up with for his party.  Just grandparents were invited so I didn't go all out.

Invites: Just used white blank cards, printed out the Boston logo, cut it out and glued it on.  Went with black envelopes and after closing the envelope I used the Bruins puck logo as a make shift sticker for the back.

Cake:  Yellow cake with vanilla frosting.  Piped on the the yellow and black for the logo.  Not bad for a 1st timer!

Thanks for looking ****Candie*****


GOOD LUCK BRUINS IN THE STANLEY CUP FINALS!!!

Upside-Down Berry Cake

Tried a new recipe from Taste of Home a week or so ago and thought I would share w/ ya'll!! You can find it here http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Upside-Down-Berry-Cake?keycode=ZFB...and it was yummy!! A big hit w/ the hub man.

Go enjoy some cake! : )

~Renee~

The best Creamy White Chili (ever!!)

So after months of anticipation my neighbor finally came through with the recipe I've been dying for, yeah!!!  She made it for my family back in December and I've been hungry for it ever since, so without further ado, here you all go, Enjoy!! oh, FIY-this recipe is tripled so you may want to adjust accordingly.

6 - 12.5 oz cans - Chunk Chicken breast
2 medium onions, chopped
4 1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsps canola oil
6 - 15.5 oz cans - Great Northern Beans, rinsed & drained
2 - 14.5 oz cans - chicken broth
6 - 4 oz cans - chopped green chiles
3 tsp salt
3 tsp cumin
3 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
24 oz sour cream
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

In a large sauce pan, saute chicken, onion and garlic power in oil.  Add beans, broth, chiles, and seasonings.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat; stir in sour cream & whipping cream & serve.  Serves approx 12-15 w/ leftovers.

I will be making this later in the week and will post pix then but just wanted to post the recipe now cuz I know there's ppl patiently waiting for it (Candie) = )

~Hugs~ Renee

Birthday Cakes

So I decided awhile back to make some of my boys birthday cakes.  We only have big parties on the big birthdays.....1, 5, 10 and so on.  Those birthdays are reserved for the big wonderful cakes, that my aunt makes.  I would should you a picture, but that would take away from my whimpy simple cakes.  So without further ado, here are a few of the cakes that I've made.  Mind you,  I used a design cake pan and just followed the directions.  So pretty sure anyone can do it, if you don't mind standing for 1 1/2 hours to frost!  ****Candie*****

Kaden turned 6, he's now going on 8 in May.

Kohen is 4, now almost 4 1/4

Pies on my mind

So I must have some weird craving for pies!  I made another one, and it turned out wonderful! My first ever Lemon Meringue Pie.  You can find the recipe here.  Anyway, it was super easy! It looked good, and I thought it tasted good.  However, my children were not so thrilled as I.  They thought it looked really yummy, but upon eating it they discovered they really didn't like it.  My oldest thought the meringue was whipped cream, one bite of that and he was finished.  Though my 4 yr old, well he at least ate the meringue.  Neither one liked the lemon filling, boo for me!  Oh well, ya win some.....you loose some!  *****Candie*****

Bread gone BAD!!!

So as many of you know I've been sick (sinus infection) and have not done much in the way of cooking, it's been a "fend for yourself" kind of week...but since the family still needs to eat something besides frozen waffles & toaster strudel, I decided to make them dinner and some homemade bread.  Sounded like a great idea & smelled fab at the time until I raised the lid of my bread machine and was faced with this catastrophy:

 Lucky for us some of the bread was still able to be salvaged, so it wasn't a total loss. But I guess thats what one gets for trying to be Super Mom when she should really be hooched out on the couch or better yet in bed. And the sad thing is, this recipe is a no fail recipe!!! Better luck next time I guess : )

~Renee~

pies...pies...oh my!

This week was my husband's birthday, so I thought I'd bake him some pies.  He loves hims some pies!  Well, he doesn't like cake.......I know, who doesn't like cake.... especially a nice big fat chocolate on chocolate cake.....Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering.  Ok, so I got a little side tracked off subject!  Sorry about that!

So back to the pies.  I decided to make a Banana Cream Pie and a Blueberry pie. Oh heaven!!!  They turned out fabulous!  O, and they taste pretty good too!  Here's the Banana Cream recipe and the Blueberry Pie recipe.  ******Candie******

Linked up @ Paisley Passions-Fun with Food Friday & Whipper Berry







Linking up to these blogs today, come join me!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie recipe

Marilyn, I finally found the recipe you requested, enjoy!! : )

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut better
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 oz bag choc. chips

Cream butter, peanut butter & sugars together. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients together then combine w/ creamed mixture.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.  

What's in the Cookie Jar? And Recipe Link Party

Well, there's nothing in the cookie jar.....but I did make this wonderfully yummy Chicken Tortilla Soup!  I leave the baking to one of the other krazychics, Renee.  She's a much better baker than I.
I found this recipe out of......wait...wait....your never gonna believe it.....Rival Crock Pot, Recipes for Every Occasion.  I'm always looking to make something new.....same ol'  same ol' just gets sooooooo BORING! Besides, I'm a hockey mom and on those nights of practice, well we don't get home till 7p, so who really wants to cook at that time.  I love my crock pot, and when I say "love" I really mean LOVE in all CAPS!
So I tried and I conquered! It turned out fan-tab-u-lous!  I will definately be making this again and soon!

Chicken Tortilla Soup
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs ( I used breasts)
1 can (4oz) chopped mild green chilies, drained
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cans (15oz each) diced tomatoes, including juice
1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 TBL chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Juice of 1 line
4 corn tortillas, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1 avocado, seeded, peeled, diced and tossed with lime juice to prevent browning

1. Place chicken in crock-pot slow cooker
2. Combine chilies, garlic, onion, tomatoes, 1/2 cup chicken broth and cumin in a small bowl. Pour mixture over chicken.
3. Cook on High for 3 hours. (I did 6 hours) When chicken is tender use the tines of 2 forks to shred the meat. Adjust seasonings adding additional broth if necessary.
4. Just before serving, add tortillas and cilantro to crock-pot. Stir to blend.
5. Serve in soup bowls, topping each serving with cheese, avocado and a squeeze of lime juice.

Enjoy! ***Candie****

What's in the Cookie Jar?

So, I wasn't very inspired this weekend and got no cooking done, but I did manage to crank these delicious morsels of heaven out and let me tell you, you should all stop what you are doing right now and make a batch!! Here's the receipe for Scotcheroos:

• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 6 cups Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® cereal
• or 6 cups Kellogg's® Cocoa Krispies® cereal
• 1 package (6 oz., 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Place corn syrup and sugar into 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well. Add KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated. Press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread evenly over cereal mixture. Let stand until firm. Cut into 2 x 1-inch bars when cool.

And here's what they look like:

Basically just a fancy Rice Crispy Treat, but it's got Peanut Butter & Choc in 'em so naturally they are marvelous.  Maybe next week I will be a little more prepared and have this post up before 2 p.m.!?!

Anyway, let me know what your making this week!
~hugs~
Renee

Recipe

Here is the link for the Sausage Stars....didn't show up before, I'm sure it was user error!! haha

Super Bowl food

Happy Friday my friends!! I can't even express how glad I am this week is just about over (for those unfortunate ones still at work) It's been LOOOOONNNNNGGG! Just wondering what your doing for the big game and what your makin to munch on. We are going to our neighbors house and am bringing these delicious goodies called Sausage Stars..... if your interested. Look yummy so we'll see!! Will be cooking up a storm again this weekend preparing meals for next weeks dinners, it really made things so much less stressful this week. Any receipes you wanna forward on for us to try wld be awesome too!!
Hope you all enjoy your weekend and don't forget "What's in the cookie jar?" for Monday!! Get to baking people!!
~hugs~
Renee