Winning Holiday Recipes: Part 1

I promised people that I would put some recipes up from the wonderful things that I made this holiday season.  We tried 10 new recipes this year, and the top 5 are listed over on the side bar (in no particular order, my order and Brett's order are different).  I'm going to share the first three recipes with you today.  The first is for Chocolate Snowballs, which I don't have a picture for, but believe  me they are beautiful piled high on a plate.

Chocolate Snowballs

From Mary Lou Welsh via Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Confectioner's sugar

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg, milk, and vanilla; mix well.  Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Shape into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes or until the tops are crackled.  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.  Roll cookies in the confectioner's sugar.

Frosted Cocoa Cookies

From Diane Moran via Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup baking cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

FROSTING:

1/3 cup butter, softened

3 cups confectioner's sugar

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

3 to 4 tablespoons of milk

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.  Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Roll into 1-1/2 inch balls.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 for 13-16 minutes or until set.  Remove to wire racks to cool.  For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, combine the butter, confectioner's sugar, cocoa, and extract.  Add enough milk to achieve desired consistency.  Drizzle over cookies.

The last recipe is for Cranberry Bread, which I got off of The Pioneer Woman blog.  Click here for a link to that recipe.  She has a seriously addicting blog, so you should check out some of the other things she has on there.  Her recipe calls for blueberries, but I just substituted the cranberries to make it more festive.  I did use Rachel's Yogurt, although she says that you don't have to.  She also has a recipe for a dipping sauce to go with it which I didn't make because I only had 2 yogurts.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the recipes!  Look for part 2 soon, but not too soon since we are leaving for Texas tomorrow for the New Year!

A Very Merry Christmas

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We certainly did.  This year we were in Santaquin with Brett's family.  We stayed the night on Christmas Eve so that we could be there bright and early with everyone to open some presents and see what Santa brought.  Everyone came over for dinner on Christmas Eve when we ate all kinds of treats and good soup.  Our niece Kasia was the resident Who from Whoville.

You should click on the picture to really see how cool her hair looked.  We played a lot of games and had a good time with everyone.  And Kennedy looked great in her Santa hat.

We had a bit of a rough night because we had to stay up for Santa when we had already had a long day.  Kennedy woke up at about midnight when I was the only one (other than the kids) in bed.  She had a little bit of trouble going down again, but eventually she did, only to wake up again at 4:00.  That wouldn't normally have been too weird considering the big day we had, but she decided that she was awake at that time and wanted all of her presents.  Brett was up with her for about an hour before she finally got tired again.  And she was up bright and early (well, 7:45) with us again to open her presents.

Kennedy is sporting the cute Christmas jammies, courtesy of Grandpa Pitt, that she got to open on Christmas Eve.  Santa (Grandma Pitt) got her this fun little piano that she has had a blast with.  It plays all kinds of music, counts, and does a bunch of other fun things too.  Santa also brought her some mega lego blocks, a picture of Jesus, and a stuffed Eeyore.

Her stocking came stuffed with snacks, a toothbrush (for her 2 1/2 teeth), and a toy cell phone.  She likes that one a lot because it beeps when you press the buttons.  I think that's her favorite part about our cell phones too.  Kennedy got completely spoiled by everyone this year.  She has more noisy toys than she can stand, tons of new things to chew on, some new clothes, a CD player with some CDs and a new Baby Einstein DVD.  She got a doll, bath toys, a LeapPad, and a cookie jar shape sorter.  She is going to be well occupied for a long time.  Here she is with her aunt Amanda and the fun stuffed pig she got her.

Brett and I had a wonderful time watching her open her presents.  We don't have more pictures than this because it got to be nap time halfway through the presents and we had to finish opening them while she was asleep.  We did pretty well ourselves as far as gifts go.  I got Ina Garten's new cookbook, a Swivel Sweeper, a cool African necklace from Brett's parents, and a bunch of new movies.  Brett got some Jazz tickets, Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii, and some chickens donated to a family in Africa in his name.  We played with presents and family all day until it was time to have dinner.  We had prime rib, mashed potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and a bunch of other yummy stuff at Brett's brother Chris' house.  After dinner we played ping pong until Kennedy got so zonked that she needed to come home.  We came home, unpacked, put Kennedy to bed, and played a little Smash Brothers before going to bed.  It was a great holiday and we were so excited to see Kennedy have a good time.  I'm loving watching her play with all of her things this morning.  We can't wait until next year when we get to put out cookies for Santa and make some of the yummy recipes I found again!  Don't worry, recipes will follow.  For today, it's nice to have a quiet morning at home with Kennedy and her new toys.

Our Snow Day

It snowed about a foot yesterday.  We just watched it come down all day long.  Brett got to come home a little bit early from work and decided that we were all going to go play in the snow.  He wanted to make sure that Kennedy got to play in her first snow and that I didn't go through another Christmas without having built a snowman.  Kennedy was asleep, so we waited for her to make some noise.  When she finally did, she fell back asleep in this position.

I wonder if maybe this is the reason that she wakes up in the middle of the night.  Maybe she freaks out because she wakes up on her tummy and tries to crawl around the crib.  Anyway, we got her up and into her new snowsuit courtesy of the gift certificate from great-grandma and grandpa Emigh.  It's a real snowsuit too with the overall pants and everything.

She wasn't so thrilled to be stuffed in a pillow essentially and then crammed into her car seat, even if it is a new big girl car seat.

As soon as we started driving to the park it started to snow again, but we decided to play anyway.  Despite the cold and the snow in her face, Kennedy seemed to enjoy herself.

We made a snow baby by throwing her into the snow and just letting her plop.

As I said before, I had never built a snowman, so we had to build one before we could leave.  Here's Kennedy sitting on the bottom ball of the snowman.

I contributed by making the middle ball.

Kennedy was very patient and cold, but all in all we had a successful day in the snow.  I have to say that I can't wait until Christmas so that Kennedy can open all of her presents!

Thwarted Again

It seems that we will not be going to see the lights in Salt Lake tonight either since it is snowing like mad outside at the moment.  I have been waiting to be able to do a post about this, but I have been thwarted too many times, so since I got a bunch of comments about our first date story, I thought I would go into a little more detail.

Is it lame that I remember my life in food?  Memories of when we met and our first date are entwined with food.  As is everything else for me.  If you know my family, you know we live for food.  On vacation, we never ask what we are going to see or do that day, the bigger questions are where we are eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.  Anyway, Brett and I met in our church choir that he was directing.  As Brett puts it, I was giving him "googley" eyes during the whole rehearsal, which is not the case.  The truth is that he reminded me of my good friend Nathan because they both had a lot of enthusiasm (Nathan when he played the drums, and Brett when he led the choir).  Afterwards, Brett served us all some Blueberry Pineapple Delight that he made himself.  I thought it was amazing and was thoroughly impressed, which I told him.  He then proceeded to invite me and my roommates to Disney night at his apartment.

Disney night had one requirement: you have to sing along.  We watched Aladdin with probably 20 people in the room singing and quoting lines.  That week was Thanksgiving, and we missed each other's calls.  When I came home the next Sunday, I asked about Disney night and Brett said to come on over.  Nobody was there at first, but we decided to watch Robin Hood anyway.  A few people showed up, which was kind of a bummer, but it worked out anyway.  Neither of us wanted me to go home, so we were really happy when one of Brett's roommates suggested that we watch Lord of the Rings.  During that movie Brett got up the nerve to hold my hand and put his arm around me.  We hadn't even been on a date yet!  Not that I minded....

Then he walked me home.  He called the next day (tip for boys, you don't have to wait 48 hours or whatever the rule is) to ask me to a Jazz game on Tuesday night.  I was ecstatic, of course, and couldn't wait.  He came to pick me up, and my roommate thought he was so cute and smelled so good that she almost told him that I wasn't there but she could go instead.  But I did go.  We didn't even really have any small talk, and we were so comfortable with each other, even all the way up to Salt Lake.  We met a friend of his there, ate churros, and watched the lowest scoring game in the history of the Delta Center.  The Jazz scored 52 points.  Ouch.  That night I learned of Brett's love of basketball and his ability to fake anybody out.

I then suggested that we walk to the lights.  I am glad we did, and it's somewhat special since we ended up getting married in that same spot 6 months later.  The lights were beautiful.  We were absolutely freezing though, which gave Brett a nice excuse for holding my hand.  When we got back in the car, the radio started wigging out, and Brett told me that the car was going to die.  So we pulled over to the side of the road and tried to fix it to no avail.  Brett called one of his roommates who was still down in Provo to come get us.  We sat in the car for 45 minutes while it rained and talked.  It was great.  Then we got Taco Bell on the way home because we were both starving.

When we got back to my apartment, we were saying goodnight and Brett took the plunge.  He kissed me, which left me in pretty much no doubt where he stood.  As you all know, it moved pretty quickly from there.  He proposed the first week in January and we were married the following June.  We've been married for 2 1/2 years now and it has been wonderful!  I am so excited for the years to come.

One Week 'Til Christmas

And the baking extravaganza is coming to a close.  I am going to make the Chocolate Oat Toffee Bars in the next couple of days, Cardamom Cookies early next week, and the Sugar Cookie Cutouts for Christmas Eve.  I'm going to round it all out with the only two recipes that actually taste like Christmas to me, Coffee Cake and Yorkshire Pudding.  But in the meantime, here are the Peppermint Snowballs.

Yes, they are pink.  The crushed up peppermint pieces mixed with white stuff like cream cheese and sugar made pink snowballs.  They are actually really pretty.  They aren't overwhelmingly minty, which is nice.

Other than baking, we have been having fun around here trying to keep our new crawler out of her Christmas presents.  She actually ripped off a big chunk of the wrapping paper on one of them today.  So Brett had to keep her entertained by reading her Pat the Bunny.

We are going to see the lights at Temple Square tonight, which I'm really excited about!  Brett and I went to see them on our first date.  We were at a Jazz game, and the arena isn't far from the temple.  Brett wasn't going to take me because he thought it was a little bit presumptuous for a first date, but since I'd never seen them I asked if we could walk over there.  We did, and then we got stuck right before getting on the highway for an hour because his truck broke down.  It was the best date I had ever been on, and Brett must have felt the same way since he kissed me when we got home.

Another Blatant Steal from Noelle

Sorry Noelle.  I can't help it.

love that Kennedy is finally crawling!

hate that now I have to be 10 times more vigilant than before, especially when it comes to Christmas presents

love that is snowed so much

hate that I still haven't been able to go and play in it

love all the new recipes I have been trying

hate that every recipe makes 4 to 8 dozen cookies and I am running out of people to give them to

love that Jamie cleaned the kitchen yesterday

hate that I messed it up again, and it won't get any better today

love that Brett is worthy

hate that he won't be home as much

love that we get to take Kennedy to Hawaii

hate that it's 7 months away

love that my work is to take care of Kennedy

hate that there are no flexible, high paying work-at-home part-time jobs

love that I am almost done with school

hate that I'm still not done with school

Potato Chip Crunchies

Here are the dreaded Potato Chip Crunchies that everyone was too scared of to vote for.  I didn't have the stuff for the Peppermint Snowballs until yesterday, and they were a little bit too labor intensive to make last night, so I went with these.  I was just so curious to see what they would taste like.

Don't look too bad, do they?  They taste like little shortbreads with pecans.  Sometimes you can feel the texture of the potato chips, but they don't taste gross at all, and pretty much they just add a tiny bit of salt to the recipe.  If you didn't know there were potato chips in this cookie, you would never guess.

Aren't they beautiful?  Just goes to show that you should try new things sometimes, even if they sound a little weird.  Once in a while you find something really worth it, and you expand your horizons.  I will post the recipes for these, as well as some other favorites of ours from this month after Christmas.  They are certainly worth a try, and Brett says that they fall 3rd in his order of the things I've made this month.

PS - Vote in my new cookie poll!  I will be making Peppermint Snowballs today or tomorrow, but what should I make next?  You tell me!

A Silly Hat and Our First Snow

We went Christmas shopping today, mostly because we still needed a few presents for Kennedy.  We do still need to pick up a few things, but for the most part, our shopping is done!  We went to the mall with Grandma Pitt who came up for the weekend.  While looking in a game store at the mall, we found a back room full of stuff for kids that we had never seen before.  I turned around to look at something, and when I turned back, Kennedy looked like this.

This is pretty much the creepiest hat I've ever seen, but it looked awfully funny on her.  She didn't like it too much.  Meanwhile, we finally got our first snow!  Winter is coming late to Utah this year.  Friends in south Texas were building 6 foot snowmen while we had nothing, but here it is!  I have been waiting to take Kennedy out in the snow.  Brett let her feel it for the first time.

She was pretty fascinated with it, but I don't know how happy she was about what happened next.

Yes, Brett hit her with her first snowball.  Well, outside the womb that is.  One of Brett's favorite games last year was to throw snowballs at "Kennedy" inside my tummy.  I think she probably liked it better when she was safe and warm in there instead of having this cold wet stuff soaking through her jeans.  That's never fun.

Life's Adventures Tag

My friend Stephanie tagged me to fill out this list of things that I have done.  It is a little bit long, but I promise that it doesn't take as long to read as it looks like it will.  And be sure to check out my Frosted Cocoa Cookies below!

What I've done is bold

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (does a volcano count?)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
17. Grown your own vegetables
18. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
19. Slept on an overnight train
20. Had a pillow fight
21. Hitchhiked
22. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
23. Built a snow fort
24. Held a lamb
25. Gone skinny dipping
26. Run a marathon
27. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
28. Seen a total eclipse
29. Watched a sunrise or sunset
30. Hit a home run
31. Been on a cruise
32. Seen Niagara Falls in person
33. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
34. Seen an Amish community
35. Taught yourself a new language (I didn't really teach myself, but I learned)
36. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
37. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
38. Gone rock climbing
39. Seen Michelangelo's David
40. Sung karaoke
41. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
42. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
43. Visited Africa
44. Walked on a beach by moonlight
45. Been transported in an ambulance
46. Had your portrait painted (drawn)
47. Gone deep sea fishing
48. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
49. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
50. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (I'm Scuba certified!)
51. Kissed in the rain
52. Played in the mud
53. Gone to a drive-in theater
54. Been in a movie
55. Visited the Great Wall of China
56. Started a business
57. Taken a martial arts class
58. Visited Russia
59. Served at a soup kitchen
60. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (I was a Daisy)
61. Gone whale watching
62. Got flowers for no reason
63. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
64. Gone sky diving
65. Visited a Nazi concentration camp
66. Bounced a check
67. Flown in a helicopter
68. Saved a favorite childhood toy (blanket)
69. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
70. Eaten caviar
71. Pieced a quilt
72. Stood in Times Square
73. Toured the Everglades
74. Been fired from a job
75. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (really boring, I don't recommend it)
76. Broken a bone
77. Been on a speeding motorcycle
78. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (I was like 6 months old)
79. Published a book
80. Visited the Vatican
81. Bought a brand new car
82. Walked in Jerusalem
83. Had your picture in the newspaper
84. Read the entire Bible (almost, Old Testament gets  me every time)
85. Visited the White House
86. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
87. Had chicken pox
88. Saved someone's life
89. Sat on a jury
90. Met someone famous
91. Joined a book club
92. Lost a loved one (animals?)
93. Had a baby
94. Seen the Alamo in person
95. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
96. Been involved in a lawsuit
97. Owned a cell phone
98. Been stung by a bee (a dead one, how embarrassing)

I tag whoever wants to do this.

BYA: Because You Asked

There was a high demand (ok, 2 people, but that's high demand in my book) for pictures of my cookies, so here they are!  These are the Frosted Cocoa Cookies that I made today.  They turned out really well.  Brett says that they tie in his book for first place with the Cranberry Bread.  They have almond extract in the frosting which gives it a nice little something extra.

They really turned out beautifully.  I was really excited about that since I have issues when baking with shortening.  I don't know what my problem is, but nothing I have ever made with shortening instead of butter has ever turned out.  Except these.

They are quite delicious, and I wish that I could send some to all of you!  And thank you so much for voting in my poll!  There was an overwhelming response to the Peppermint Snowballs, so that is what I will be making next.  I have noticed that the Potato Chip Crunchies haven't been very popular in the last two weeks, but they sound so interesting that I will be making them.  I'll let you know how they turn out.  And yes!  I will continue the baking mania all the way up until Christmas, so look for a new poll in the next couple of days and help me out again!  For your information, Brett's two favorites so far have been the Cranberry Bread and these cookies.  Mine have been these and the Chocolate Snowballs.  So we are well on our way to finding some traditions!

Lovely Weather for a Sleigh Ride Together with You

Dear Snow,

Why are you so uncooperative?  I wanted you to stick on the ground so that I could take some mega cute pictures of Kennedy.  Please stick next time.

Cold Weather Lover

Dear Kennedy,

I am so proud of you!  Sitting up, crawling (albeit slowly), and eating pieces of banana make you such a big girl.  I love you!

Your Mom

Dear Jazz,

I wish that you didn't always feel like you had to have close games and give my husband a heart attack.  Can you please try to really win next time?

Wife of a Jazz Fan

Dear Christmas,

I am so excited for you to come!  Kennedy is already trying to open the presents under our Christmas bush, so you need to come more quickly, or there won't be any left.

Me

Dear Oven,

You treat me well even though I use you way too much.  Thank you for your patience with my baking endeavors during the Christmas season.

Avid Baker

Dear Blog Readers,

As per the post above, I am a baking maniac.  Please help me choose which cookies to make next by voting in my poll!  Thanks!

Ashley

Simple Christmas Pleasures

A while back I did a post on little things that make me happy.  There are so many things around December and Christmas that make me happy that I thought that I should share some of my simple Christmas pleasures with you.

1. Christmas Music: Ok, I'm totally one of those crazy people who starts listening to Christmas music right after Halloween when the radio stations turn it on.  But in December it's pretty much all I ever listen to.  I just love it!  My favorite songs are Harry Connick, Jr's version of Sleigh Ride and Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song.

2. Baking: I think that baking gets turned up a notch around this time of year.  People have their traditions and love to decorate those Christmas sugar cookies.  This year I am having so much fun looking for recipes to be Lee family traditions for Christmas.  So far so good!  As you can see on the sidebar, 2 out of 3 recipes have turned out well.  I am still planning on making Chocolate Snowballs tomorrow and Cranberry Bread probably on Monday.  Then you'll have to help me decide what to make next week when I put up my new poll!

3. Christmas Lights: I love seeing the lights as I'm driving down the highway or just down our street.  I love the lights at Temple Square, and I really hope that I get a chance to see the Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo.  Thanksgiving Point apparently has light displays as well.  I also just love Christmas decorations in general.  The trees are always beautiful.

4. Cold Weather: Yes, you may think I'm crazy, but I almost always prefer cool or cold weather to anything that could even remotely be considered hot.  It's not because I like to bundle up, I just love the crisp air.  It smells so good and it doesn't suck away your energy like heat.

5. Snow: Once again, you may think I'm crazy, but I just love when it snows.  Yes, it's scary to drive in, but that doesn't happen that often and it is so beautiful.  I love going out on a white morning when no cars are out.  It's so peaceful.

6. Kennedy's First Christmas: We're having a great time introducing Kennedy to Christmas.  Taking her to see Santa, writing her a note from Sugar Plum (her Christmas elf, Brett had one when he was little), buying her presents and putting them under the tree.  I am really looking forward to next year when we can put out the milk and cookies for Santa.  Christmas is going to be so much more fun from now on.

Celebrating 100 Posts with Santa!

That's right folks!  This is my 100th post!  And to celebrate I'm going to show you some pictures of Kennedy's first trip to see Santa.  We dressed Kennedy up in her cute new outfit that grandpa got her for Christmas and headed over to the Willowbend Mall to see Santa!

We got there right before his "milk and cookies" break, so there was only one person in line in front of us, which was awesome.  An hour later there was a line of at least 20 people.  The theme was The Polar Express, and we got to walk through the front of the train and pull levers and strings to make noise.  Then we got to walk through a huge snow globe.  I still had snow on me when I went to bed.

Kennedy did very well with Santa, and I wasn't expecting anything less.  She didn't smile, but she certainly wasn't scared.  First thing she did was try to pull on his beard.

Here she is checking out this big red man she's sitting with.

Wyatt went for his first trip to Santa too, and he also did really well!  We were proud of those kids for not freaking out, because the kid who came behind us did.

We then shopped at the mall and Kennedy melted out hearts when we looked down in the stroller and she was just smiling up at Brett for no reason at all.  We're so glad that we got to see Santa this year and start our Christmas traditions!

And now for something completely different, my quest for holiday cookies is going slowly.  Or at least the first attempt was not so great.  The Chewy Ginger Cookies I made last night were decent, but not tradition worthy.  I am bummed, but ready and waiting to make some Frosted Brown Sugar Cookies tonight!

Thanksgiving in Texas

As you probably all know, we flew down to Dallas on Tuesday morning to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  Kennedy was great on the plane rides and she loved getting to meet her cousin Wyatt.  He was so cute!  He gave us some really good smiles.

I got to see some good friends, and we did a little bit of Christmas early.  Kennedy got a new outfit from Grandpa Pitt (which you'll see in the Santa pictures in a couple of days) and her Christmas PJs too.  Grandma Pitt gave her a new stuffed sheep and a cute hat.

Christine enjoyed playing with Kennedy too.  And Spooky, my mom's cat, got along with Kennedy really well.  Christine gave us some great gifts too.  Kennedy got a new stuffed dog and Green Eggs and Ham.  I got a Green Eggs and Ham cookbook and the third season of Father Ted.  Brett got Trauma Center for the Wii, which I'm sure that he will thoroughly enjoy.

We spent Thanksgiving at my mom's and everyone was there.  We got Grandma Emigh's stuffing for the first time in a few years.  Brett made the turkey and I made the pumpkin pie.  We had a great dinner, and we all had a good time being together.

Here's a good smile from Wyatt, probably because he's sitting with his mom.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, today marks the beginning of Christmas at our house!  We're decorating tonight for family home evening and I'll be starting the holiday baking!