TIP: Chocolate House Name Cards for Christmas

We had family over for Christmas dinner and had little chocolate houses on each plate with "snow" (powdered sugar) on the roof with name tags: 

I bought small bite sized brownies from the store (fudge would work too) 
I cut one piece diagonally to create two roofs 
I used sprinkles that I pressed into the houses for the windows and the doors 
Powdered sugar on the roof and marshmallows on the ground functioned as the snow 
I placed the entire house on top of a sugar cookie 
I used some wrapping paper and a tooth pick to make the name sign 


My sister wanted snow for Christmas, and this was the best I could do, but I thought it turned out cute :)

TIP & TREAT: Christmas Cookie Boxes

My sister, niece and I made Christmas cookie boxes for family members and they turned out great: 

We picked up regular brown boxes from Michael's and different styles and colors of ribbons to "wrap" them.  All you need to do is to alternate whether the ribbons go under or above each other: 








In the boxes, we included recipe cards that we printed on laser envelope labels & then placed them on card stock with some stickers (in the case of the sugar cookies):














We wrapped the Peppermint Bark in bags with customized stickers featuring our dogs -- the stickers were just made in Power Point and printed on full-page labels and cut out:








The recipes:


CHOCOLATE FUDGE 


4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups mini marshmallows 
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup heavy cream 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips


Directions: 
- Butter 8 inch pan and line with parchment paper.  Leave an overhang and butter the paper. 
- In a saucepan, combine the butter, marshmallows, sugar, cream and salt.  Cook over medium heat until marshmallows are melted (8-10 minutes)



- Off heat, stir in vanilla and chocolate until melted 
- Pour fudge in the pan, smooth top & cool 30 minutes 

- Refrigerate until set (approximately 1 hour).  For the Christmas spirit, we added powdered sugar on top, like snow!  We cut it into small squares, wrapped them and placed them in Christmas cupcake papers: 





White Chocolate Peppermint Bark: 


2 lbs white chocolate (chopped in 1/2 pieces) 
12 large candy canes 
1/2 tsp peppermint oil


Directions:


- Line 11x17 baking sheet
- In a double boiler (or use 2 pots on top of each other, the bottom one with boiling water), melt chocolate and stir constantly so it does not harden
- Cut or pound peppermint into 1/4 pieces (I recommend using a bag) 




- Stir candy and peppermint oil into chocolate
- Pour into baking sheet & chill until firm.





Sugar Cookies: 


1 1/2 cups butter, softened 
2 cups white sugar 
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 cups flour 
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 


Directions:


- Cream butter & sugar until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients. 



- Cover and chill dough for at least one hour 
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Roll out dough (I recommend using powdered sugar instead of flour to not dry out the dough and keep the flavor) & cut into your favorite shapes
- Bake 6-8 minutes 





Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: 


Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour 
1 tsp baking soda 
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt 


Wet Ingredients: 
1 cup unsalted softened butter 
1 cup sugar 
1 cup packed dark brown sugar 
2 large eggs 
2 tsp vanilla 


3 cups oatmeal (not instant) 
1 1/2 cups raisins


Directions: 
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees 
- Whisk together dry ingredients, set aside 
- Combine white ingredients (hand mixer on low) 

- Stir in dry ingredients until you can't see the flour (but don't mix too much or else they won't be as soft) 
- Add in oatmeal and raising and mix together 
- Bake for 11-13 minutes until golden





Thanks Sylvia and Livie -- already looking forward to next year :)

TREAT: Planning My Sister's Dr. Seuss Baby Shower!

I just finished looking through pictures of my sister's recent baby shower that we threw for her at my house, and I figured this is something I could share with some tips! The theme was Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go! and so we kept with the soft pastel color scheme (especially because she is having a little girl).  It was SO much fun to plan for my wonderful sister!

We set up a crossword puzzle for guests to answer for a gift & we had index cards that we placed on colored construction paper, together with Dr. Seuss cut-outs for the guests to leave notes for the mother and baby. We then placed them all into an album for a keepsake for her.




For a shower gift, we put together a candy table and bags for people to fill with sweets as their "take home treat." The bags we purchased from Target, and the stickers we purchased from a Dr. Seuss vendor.

In the entry way, we had a diaper cake (recipe below), a welcome sign, some flowers & cut out circles from colored paper:

We purchased a lot of different foods from Costco and the grocery store (we kept them cold so that we did not have to worry about cooking times or the food getting cold). We bought a lot of different cheeses for a cheese platter, sushi, shrimp cocktails, wraps, meat platters, etc. It was quite the spread! We also made cupcakes that we used food coloring & pastry bags for the icing & placed Dr. Seuss stickers at the top of the cupcakes. We purchased utensils, napkins & plates with matching colors:

Recipe for Diaper Cake:

Purchase:

- Approximately 100 infant diapers (if possible, purchase plain white or diapers with minimal designs)

- At least 100 rubber bands

- Five large rubber bands (I could not find them in Target, so I purchased really thin headbands to use around the larger layers)

- One 12 oz. bottle of baby lotion, oil, etc.

- Ribbons for the outside of the cake (I purchased different colors and layered some of the colors)

Steps:

• Take all of the diapers and tightly roll them up & bind them with a rubber band
• Take the bottle of oil, lotion, etc. that you purchased, and begin to place the rolled up diapers around the bottle to create the inner tier. Once a complete circle is formed, bind it with the larger rubber band. Continue on the lower level until you are 3 rows deep of diapers.
• Repeat step for second tier (but only do two rows)
• For the final tier, you will only do 1 row & then you can place additional diapers in the middle to secure the cake in case your bottle of oil, lotion, etc. is not high enough.
• To make it whimsical, I put piping & colored balls on the top of the cake & covered the rubber bands around the tiers with ribbons & Dr. Seuss pictures.
• You can place pacifiers and other baby-related items on the tiers to help decorate
• I gave the mom-to-be an additional gift bag with "extra cake batter" written on it, which contained any additional diapers, pacifiers, etc. that I did not use on the cake.

Here is a link I found very helpful in creating my cake: http://www.plan-the-perfect-baby-shower.com/diaper-cake.html

GAMES:

• As mentioned above, I prepared my own cross-word puzzle for my sister's guests to complete for a prize.
• I had her husband answer questions about the baby, etc. and I recorded his answers. I placed his answers on You Tube and, during the shower, I asked her the same questions and after she answered, I would play what he said on You Tube.
• I played songs to my sister's husband involving babies (i.e. Baby Love, Baby Baby from Mariah Carey, etc.) and he had to "guess" what the song artist and song was. During the shower, I had my sister guess at the same play list, which was pretty difficult. Once she was done, we then played the You Tube video of my brother-in-law getting the correct answers for each one (he may have received some coaching....). People thought it was really funny & it was definitely different than the typical shower games!