Yesterday, the girls and I decided that we were going to bake.. The night before, Emma had said that she wanted to make Grinch Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Eggnog Fudge. I knew I wanted to try out a new recipe that my friend gave me, CrockPot Candy! YUMMY!! So, here are our baking adventures yesterday, a few bits and pieces, and, to end it all with a BANG, my shopping "steal."
Okay, so we first started with the CrockPot Candy because that had to cook for 3 hours.. here is the recipe (sorry, I didn't get a pic of the ingredients, I was too excited to try it out)...
Crock Pot Candy (provided by Stacey Daniel)
1 – 16 oz jar of unsalted peanuts (dry roasted)
1 – 16 oz jar of salted peanuts (dry roasted)
1 – 12 oz pkg of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 – 4 oz pgkg of german chocolate (broken into pieces)
2 – 24 oz pkg. of white almond bark (broken into pieces)
Put the ingredients into your crock pot in the order given. (this is important)
Cook on low for 3 hours (or less – just keep an eye on it.)
Turn the crock pot off and allow to cool slightly.
This mixture will not look melted, but it will be soft.
Mix throroughly and drop by teaspoons full on wax paper. Let them cool completely, if you can.
Please follow the recipe exactly.
Fast forward 3 hours, a stir, and a cooling off, and here are what the candies looked like..
**Just to let you know, they are HEAVEN**
Now, rewind back to when we were waiting for the CrockPot Candy to fully cook.......... Now, we are going to start "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies".. here are my happy helpers..
Again, I got too excited about making the cookies, I forgot to take a pic of the ingredients, but here is the recipe..
Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4c butter, softened
3/4c brown sugar
1/4c sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2c flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1c chocolate chips
Preheat oven 350
Cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla.. beat well.
Mix in flour, cornstarch, soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop 1 tbs of dough on greased cookie sheet and bake 9 min. (Will not be brown on top). Let cool in pan on top of cooling rack 5 min and then remove from pan and let cool. YUMMY!!
So, I guess today (Wed) we will be making Grinch Cookies, since I didn't have the sugar cookie mix yesterday (thank you Mrs. Britni for bringing me some this morning) **Note: we also didn't make the Egg Nog Fudge, she forgot**
Here Comes Bath Time:
I don't know what it is about my children, but they HATE getting their hair washed!! Emma and Courtlynn SCREAM when Greg tries to wash their hair, and they give me quite a fit too. Braxton was cool with getting his hair washed till this week. All of a sudden he hates it.. You say, "Braxton is so laid back, he doesn't get upset about anything!" Here is the proof!!
So, to lessen the blow for the girls, I decided I would try a Pinterest idea.. They say to take a ice cube tray, fill with water and food coloring, freeze, put in tub and let the colors change.. COOL!
1st mistake: I didn't have a ice cube tray (hello it's 2011, I have an ice maker), so I used a silicon brownie baking thingy (there that sounds legit)... Sounds great in theory, but it was HARD to NOT spill the COLORED water as I took it to the freezer.
2nd mistake: I tried putting the silicon baking thingy on a cookie sheet and putting that in the freezer.. Side by side freezer doesn't open wide enough to put it in
3rd mistake: I didn't freeze them long enough! The tops were frozen but the under side, not so much!
4th mistake (man there sure are alot): I used like a bazillion different colors.. Not so good when you are adding them into bath water..
All in All, I think this was a FAIL, but they looked pretty before popping, in theory, then out!
The girls were a little disappointed when I dropped these in their water and all it did was turn the water BLACK, so I went and made them their favorite "shaving cream bath paint".. They were happy and played for an hour!!!
**Note: Black water! BLAH... I had to DRAIN the tub before washing them.. Blah!**
Here my girls are after their bath, cuddling on the couch, watching a movie...
Snack Time:
Rewind to Sunday, and let me tell you about a weird creepy sweet man! Remember me telling you about having to run to Albertson's on Sunday to get the stuff to make dinner for the couple in our Sunday School class? Well, Emma and I are the only ones that ran into the store to grab the few things we needed. While we were in the check out line, there was a man that got in line behind us. He was talking to Emma, me standing in between them, and you could tell Emma was uncomfortable. Well, I guess he got the hint and wanted to make it up to her.. so what do creepy sweet men do to get a child to like them... buy them candy! He asked me (with alcohol on his breath) what kind of candy was her favorite. I told him that's okay she didn't need any. he persisted and I told him that it wouldn't be fair because I have 3 children.. He PERSISTED! I finally told him M&Ms.. He grabbed 3 bags of M&Ms off of the shelf and had me wait for him to pay for them, AWKWARD! So, he bought 3 bags of Peanut M&Ms (score for me since only 1 was King Size and double score because Braxton can't have them, M&Ms for Mommy!) and I thanked him and left, running, so he couldn't see where we parked!
I had totally forgotten about the M&Ms until snack time. Emma asked if she could have them (I had seen him get them off the shelf so they had to be okay) and I let them.. Here is a picture of them enjoying their creepy guy M&Ms.
They ate their snack while I cleaned up the massive amount of dishes left over from baking all morning (this is now after nap time). While I was doing the dishes, Emma started laughing, walked over to me, and said, "Mommy this M&M looks like an avocado!" It did kinda look like an avocado!
Dinner Time:
I was a "bad wife" (not really, he doesn't care just as long as he gets fed) and made a FROZEN PIZZA for dinner! It wasn't that great. We like DiGornio, but Red Baron has a new kind out that has cheese sticks with the pizza.. Yeah for cheese sticks, boo for nasty pizza..
Shopping "Steal":
So, as some of you may have read on my Facebook status yesterday, I was DEVASTATED when I realized that my Kohl's Cash had EXPIRED! That was short lived though when friends came to my rescue and said they would still take it even though it was expired! WOOHOO!! After dinner, I gathered all the kiddos, Greg, my $35 in Kohl's Cash, my $25 Kohl's gift card, my 20% off my entire purchase (even sale items) and we RAN to Kohl's (like the EXPIRED coupon had to be used THAT night, I'm a nerd sometimes)! At first we went to the store in Wylie.. BLAH! I should have listened to my Mama when she said that they had been picked over on their 12 mo, boy, 24 mo, girl, and 4t, girl, clothes. We loaded back up, after I had asked the lady at customer service if it was ACTUALLY true I could use my EXPIRED Kohl's Cash... she said yes, and went to the Kohl's in Garland! There I hit the "mother load!" Here is pictures of what I got the kiddos and then I'll reveal my savings!
**Dress and 2 pair of matching leggings**
**3 shirts and 2 pants**
**2 dresses and a stocking stuffer (chap sticks)
My savings was: $119.76
I spent (after Kohl's cash, after gift card, after 20% off)...... DRUM ROLL PLEASE............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. $3.40!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's MY kind of shopping!!! I was grinning from EAR TO EAR and HAD to call Mama and tell her my savings!
Today, December 13, was a GREAT day!
I will leave you with a Bible verse that ALWAYS makes me happy, it's going to be a wonderful day when I sit at my Savior's throne and worship him!
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
