Happy Valentine's Day!

Have a great day whether you are single or have someone special to celebrate with.

Go out with friends, or out to dinner with the one/s you love. Print some valentine days cards out if you don't have time to get to the store or if you forgot!

Enjoy your day! Celebrate all the love you have in your life, be it a husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, parents, or kids.

If all else fails and you get ditched, dumped, or simply don't have a valentine, go to the store and buy some candy, it's on sale by now. 

And remember, Sasquatch loves you!

Happy V day!

I slaved away for days and days to make you something. I made some awesome FREE Valentines day cards for you! The first sheet is fairly plain and cute, sheet number two is cheesy but still very cute! 

Just print, cut and fold. I even kept the shape simple for cutting ease. I have trouble cutting in a straight line, circles are a big pain, wobbly lines are surprisingly easy. 

You can even write a cheesy lovely message inside and seal with a pretty sticker. 

See the little grey line about the hearts? 

It was uneven but I fixed that, don't worry about it. 

Why did I even bring it up? I don't know. 

It's cause I am old now. 

V Day cards 1 


V Day cards 2


Like the christmas tags, just click the above links, they will open in Google Docs and you can download the PDF or just print from there. Enjoy! 

Merry Christmas!

Hope you are enjoying a nice day with family and friends!

Remember, Sleep in tomorrow! And eats lots of left overs!

Katie, Kay & Nicole

Decorating cookies

I decorated cookies with the little bros over the weekend. I'm a little cookied out so I just used one of those cookie mixes that you just add butter and an egg. They were good, probably even better because I didn't really have to do much except mix.

I busted out my holiday sprinkles, a few tubs of frosting, some food coloring and the cookies I had made the night before and we were ready to decorate.

Any one up for some caroling around the christmas tree? I did have Gingerbread men to go with the Gingerbread ladies but someone ate all the men so the women are lonely now. Poor ladies, better get out the milk. 

When I was getting ready to make the cookies I was looking through my cookie cutters and found all my little tiny cookie cutters. I almost forgot I had them. A friend of mine gave them to me freshman year in high school way before I ever thought baking was fun. Mia? How the heck did you know my future would lead to much baking and I would find these necessary to my life someday? 

Look how cute

Oh how adorable these little candy canes look next to the giant one. Is it weird that I think a cookie is adorable? They are also delicious if that makes a difference. Delicious and adorable. 

 

This little Cyclops isn't as cute but I like him. 

Betcha never had a Colonel Sanders cookie. Be jealous. Why is Colonel pronounced Kernel? I never understood that and doubt I ever will. It should be pronounced Colon-ell....wait... I think I just answered my own question. Who wants to be called a digestive system. Sorry this cookie post took an unexpected turn. Disregard everything after "jealous".

This is what happens when little brother number 2 gets bored. He stacks 4 cookies with frosting and calls it a day. 

And this is what happens when I tell he needs to help finish decorating the enormous pile cookies I baked. He piles on the frosting and calls it a day. 

Little brother number 2 also "accidentally" messed up a bunch of cookies he was decorating and had to eat them. He couldn't figure out why he didn't feel good 7 cookies later.

Have you finished you holiday baking yet?

Not feeling up to holiday baking? You could always buy one of those pre-made Pilsbury holiday cookie logs. You know the ones that have the holiday image on them and you just slice the cookies. Actually, I think you don'y even have to cut them anymore, they come in a sheet and you just have to bake them. Just get some of those, a tub of frosting and some sprinkles and your done! Easy peasy.

(via)

Kay

Free Download!!

Here are TWO Free Downloads I've been working on just for you. It should print nicely on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. I recommend printing them on card stock.

Click here to download Set 1 Christmas Gift tags


Click here to download Set 2 Christmas Gift tags


I'm not good at explaining things so I shall explain with the aid of a picture!

(click to enlarge)

When you click the links for the tags you will be whisked away to Google Docs seen above, click File, then you can Download Original or Print (PDF).  Enjoy! 


Kay

Holiday Thumbprints

Trying to think of another holiday cookie I could make, holiday thumbprint cookies with a Hershey Kiss in the middle came to mind. I always see them at Christmas parties or on cookie plates but I've never had one. These are good cookies but have a cake like texture.  
            
Yields approx. 36 cookies
         
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Butter
1 Egg
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 cup Milk
1 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Salt
Approx. 36 Hershey Kisses, one 10 oz bag had more than enough. I used the peppermint ones


Preheat oven to 375º
Beat the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl until well blended. Mix together in a separate bowl the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Than add this to the butter mixture alternately with the milk in about three additions. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour. 


**Scoop the dough, a tablespoon full, onto the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool a few minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack. 


**Here is one thing I can't decide on; when to add the Hershey Kisses. I pressed some into the dough balls before I popped them into the oven and let them bake with the cookies. They held their shape nicely but the tips of the kisses did start to brown a little, which isn't really a big deal. 

These were baked with the Hershey Kiss. See still pretty. 

And I added some powdered sugar to distract from the brown candy. 

I also pressed some of the Kisses into the dough right after they came out of the oven. These ones melted into a nice puddle of chocolate, which also isn't a big deal. But to me they just weren't as pretty so I sprinkled them with a little bit of crushed candy cane and I was happy with the results. You could sprinkle them with red and green sugar or some nice festive holiday sprinkles. 

Both look nice and they taste the same so it's completely up to you!

recipe adapted from Hershey's
  
Kay

Quick and Easy Holiday Decorating tip

You are probably busy, running around all day, working, trying to get everything on your "To Do" list accomplished. With Christmas quickly approaching there just doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything. Christmas quickly coming up also mean you or someone you know is probably doing a lot of holiday baking.

I don't know about you but I bake when I am stressed. I'm guessing for others, baking is stressful. So if your boyfriend/girlfriend/in-laws/other miscellaneous family or friends are visiting and you want to impress them with wicked baking skills all you need is a tub of frosting and some sprinkles. Oh sweet sprinkles. How you can make anything look festive. 

What you need: 

Sprinkles, any shape, color size depending on the holiday or your mood

A tub of frosting an flavor

homemade cupcakes or cookies OR store bought or cookies  

See this sad,pathetic cupcake? He is all naked and vulnerable and DANG IT! He doesn't like it one bit! 

So mister cupcake, this is what we will do. COVER YOU IN SPRINKLES!

I feel the holiday spirit blooming already. 

There are so many varieties of sprinkles. I had no idea. When I was little my parents only bought the colored sugar. I never knew about the delightful world of sprinkles. There are all sorts of colors of jimmies like the one pictured above. Really, you could find any shade you desired if you looked hard enough.

There are sprinkles shaped like snowflakes. I feel like I'm in a blizzard of sprinkles.

Here is the standard colored sugar. There are so many colors available. Red and green (and white if you so choose) make this ordinary cupcake extraordinary and christmas like.

You can smear a cookie, store bought, homemade or semi-homemade with some frosting and throw on some nonpareils! What exactly are "pareils" and why can't these little guys be them? Just doesn't seem fair. 

There are these large confetti sprinkles just hoping to help some poor old Scrooge feel the Joy of the Holidays with their giant size and colorful appearance. 

And finally here are some festive red jimmies, some white stars and green tree sprinkles. 

It's so festive it makes me want to slap a clown carrying christmas presents. I don't really know what the means but thats not the point. The point is, they turned the plain cupcake into a christmas extravaganza in a mere 2 seconds. 

No need to stress over doomed christmas baking! Just buy some sprinkles, and slather on a good layer of store bought or homemade icing and cover that sucker with sprinkles and everyone will think you are a baking genius. 

Bake it Pretty has a fantastic selection of sprinkles and other baking goods. I'll probably end up in the poor house because of them but at least they will be able to stay in business.

Kay

Peppermint Bark!

Tis the Season for lots of candy, chocolate and baked goods. I am making peppermint bark cookies later so I decided to make my own peppermint bark. (Just an FYI, I just got a new camera after an unfortunate accident with the washing machine and I went a little crazy taking pictures of the peppermint bark.)


Also I used Almond bark for the bottom layer so that it would set nice and hard. You don't have to do this, you can temper your bottom layer of chocolate or just keep the final product in the fridge so it won't get too soft. 


Ingredients:


5 Candy Canes (I used 3 red and white and 2 red, green and white just for some extra color)
16 oz Almond Bark or baking chocolate
16 oz White chocolate chips


You will also need:
A double boiler and a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Begin by crushing up the candy canes, I took 2 of the red and white candy canes and crushed them up to a really fine powder. 


Then I crushed 2 of the candy canes with green in them and 1 red and white candy cane into large chunks.


Then using a double broiler melt the chocolate. Be sure to not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl, do not let the water boil - we want a simmer and to stir the chocolate! 


Once it's all melted, throw in candy candy cane powder. Stir it around then pour on to the cookie sheet and spread out in an even layer. Pop it into the freezer for 20 minutes to let it set.

Once the chocolate is set, begin melting the white chocolate. When it begins to melt, stir constantly and for the love of all that is chocolate, avoid burning. 

Then pull the chocolate out of the freezer and carefully pour the white chocolate over it and smooth it out. I was impatient and melted my white chocolate too soon so when I was ready to pour it, the chocolate hadn't set yet so they marbled a little. But it's ok! It just makes it even more pretty. 

After you have an evil even layer of white chocolate over the chocolate, sprinkle the crushed, colorful candy canes. Place in freezer for about 30 minutes then move to fridge until set.

Once it is completely set, break it apart and store in an air tight container.

P.S. I used a smaller cookie sheet, which resulted in thicker hunks of peppermint bark but thats ok too because I'm cutting it up for chunks in a cookie. 

Check out the awesome pictures. Told you I went crazy with my camera. 

Kay