Yummy!

Shortly after I got home from work on Friday, I got a little delivery.  I had ordered these kakepops a couple weeks ago at the Impulse Open House.  There was a booth set up in the same room as Shawn's WOW table...KaKePoPs by KaShari...and they gave each person that stopped by their booth a kakepop.  Shawn had gotten me one and it was delicious!  They were having a special of six for $15.  I ordered 2 Lemon Lush, 2 German Chocolate, and 2 Coconut Enchantment.  I got them for gifts for people, but I dipped into them early and had a Lemon Lush one.  It was yummy!

My first attempt at making fudge...

My first attempt at making chocolate fudge was a success.  A girl at work has been making and bringing in a delicious chocolate fudge at Christmas probably every year that she has worked here.  It's so delicious that I am constantly munching on it when she brings it in.  Every year I get the recipe from her with the intent on making it and then never do. This year was different.  She had sent me a text with the recipe and one day while I was grocery shopping, I happened to be by the holiday baking supplies and decided I was going to make the fudge.  I bought all the ingredients and Saturday morning got started.  It was really simple to make; the worst part was probably cutting the fudge.  And it turned out so yummy!

I took pictures of each step of the process.  You can find the directions and recipe at the bottom of the page.

 

Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge II

ingredients:

1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1 package (11 1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips

1 jar (7 ounce size) marshmallow creme

1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups sugar

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated skimmed milk

2 tablespoons butter or margarine


Directions:

When Mamie Eisenhower came to the White House, she brought along a recipe for fudge that called for marshmallow creme. Her candy was so creamy the president reportedly called it the "million dollar" fudge.

Line a 13- x 9- x 2-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over edges of pan. Lightly butter foil; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, walnuts, and vanilla.

In a heavy large saucepan, stir together the sugar, evaporated skimmed milk, and butter. Bring to boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to dissolve sugar. (Avoid splashing mixture onto side of pan.) Lower the heat to moderately low. Stir and boil for 1 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Carefully pour the boiling mixture over the chocolate mixture. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is creamy and well combined. Quickly turn the fudge into prepared pan. While fudge is warm, use the tip of a small knife to score into 1-inch squares.

When fudge is firm, lift it out of pan; cut into squares. To store, cover tightly and refrigerate.

Cutting Fudge: By lining the pan with foil, you can remove the fudge quickly and easily. When the candy is firm, grasp the foil and lift the block of fudge out of the pan. Remove the foil and place the candy on a cutting board. Using a long-bladed, serrated knife, such as a bread knife, cut along the lines scored in the fudge. To get a smooth even cut, place one hand on the knife handle and the other on the top of the blade, then press down evenly until the knife cuts through the candy.

Making Peppermint Candy

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....I'm making my annual peppermint candy!  I've been making this candy for over 10 years!  I still remember the first time I had it....I worked at Citizen's Bank and a little ol' lady named Marjorie gave me a little bag of it.  From the first bite I was hooked and have been making it ever since!  It's so simple and fast to make and it's always a hit at Christmas gatherings!

The ingredients are easy....two bags of the white candy discs to one bag of red and green crushed peppermint.  I've made it before with almond bark and crushed up peppermints.....it is not the same!  I repeat...it is NOT the same!  Don't waste your time or money doing it that way!

This year after I break it up, I'm going to divvy it up amongst these cute little Santa baking cups.

So start out with your ingredients...

Then I line two cookie sheets with wax paper...

Next I concoct my make shift double boiler to melt the white candy discs in...You can melt them in the microwave, but I've found that doing so with the double boiler makes the candy discs more creamer...

Add your white candy discs...

This next picture isn't a step, but a look inside the peppermint candy bag... :)

I keep stirring the candy discs around.  Once they start melting they start to clump together, but keep moving it around, they will all eventually melt...

Keep stirring it until it all melts into a creamy, smooth texture...

Add your bag of red and green crushed peppermint...

Stir it all up and remove from heat...

Dump the mixture onto your two cookie sheets covered with wax paper...

Spread it all out to fill the pans up and then I pop them into the refrigerator until it's hardened, then I break them up into bite size pieces...

Santa's Candy Castle

On Saturday after me, Beth and Gavin had eaten lunch at Angelo's, we drove around for a little bit.  It was such a nice day that I didn't want to go back to their house and sit inside, so I suggested a drive up to Santa Claus, Indiana to look around.  We picked up Nan to go with us and off we went.  We were only going to go to the Christmas Store, but I remembered they had a Santa's Candy Castle near there and none of us had ever been so we decided to go.  Wasn't sure where it was, but knew it was near Holiday World.  We turned on a road and stumbled upon it quickly.  There wasn't as much candy in the store as I thought there would be, but it was definitely a fun little store to visit.  They had lots of candy, ornaments, gifts, books and more.  They had these tables of computers set up in the middle of the room where you could chat with an elf about your behavior throughout the year and if you were good you could print out a certificate.  It was kind of pricey for this service so Gavin just pretended to type a letter to Santa.

On our way out of the store, the worker asked Gavin if he wanted to make some snow.  I don't think Gavin was sure about it at first, but agreed to it.  What a neat thing!  I didn't catch this man's name, but he was super nice and friendly with Gavin and helped him make the best snow!

Here he is explaining to Gavin how to make snow...

You add one teaspoon of secret powder to an empty cup...

And because Gavin is so cute, you add a second teaspoon of secret powder...

Then you pour a half cup of water in the measuring cup...

Then you count to 3 and pour the water into the secret powder...

And wallah.....S*N*O*W!!!

The snow was so white, cool feeling, and soft and fluffy!

After visiting Santa's Candy Castle, we headed to the Christmas store and looked around all of their fun ornaments and then got some of their yummy cookies and headed home.  The only thing that would of made the day better was if I would of brought my big camera with me.  Instead all I had to use was my little point and shoot that doesn't take the best pictures, especially inside pictures.

Our Christmas Cards

Sending and receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite things to do at the holidays!  I always remember helping my momma fill out Christmas cards from her address book and then when we received them, we always taped them to the back of the front door.  I still do this!  I also stalk the mailbox the entire month of December looking for Christmas cards!  

This year, I ordered our Christmas cards from American Greetings online.  I had already had them picked out from Walmart and ready to print, but a few days ago at work I was looking online at AG for a background for my computer and saw that they had Christmas photo cards for 70% off and if you had them print your return address and the recipients addresses on them, they would include the postage on each card.  For real??  What a deal!  I spent 40 minutes on the phone with a customer service rep trying to get all the fine print and find out if that was really how it worked.  Sure enough it was.  I uploaded all of my addresses from my Christmas card address book (half of them I had to do twice cause the first time it didn't save for some reason).  Yeah, that was a bit time consuming, but so is hand addressing each one and I didn't get writer's cramps this way!  The total cost before the discount was $225, but after discount and including the postage was less than $65.  I normally spend that much alone in postage and that's not even including the $40 I normally spend on the cards.  

I had been stalking the mailbox all week waiting for my cards to arrive.  I was curious of the quality and all that.  Last night when we got home, my package was on the porch!  I was like a kid at Christmas opening it. When I saw how fun it was, I had to take step-by-step photos of it all!  They even had all of the cards inside the envelopes and the postage stamps put on the envelopes.  All I have to do is seal them up and thank goodness for my water bottle sealers!  LOL!

Overall I'm very pleased with them and will definitely use them again if they offer this deal.  I did have two complaints though, I wish they would of used Christmas stamps for the postage (although I shouldn't be too picky, the postage was FREE!), and I ordered 15 extra cards and they didn't send me the envelopes for them so I have an email into them regarding this.

Hopefully no one will be disappointed that our dogs aren't on the cards again this year :(  Maybe next year!