Peppermint Hot Cocoa Bites Recipe

Are you like me and the Christmas treats and snacks are down to the last couple in the cookie jar? Maybe you’ve decided to do away with them because you’ve got to fit in to “real” pants to go to work tomorrow. 

You probably wouldn’t be impressed if I said Valentine’s Day will be here before you know it (it was * just * December the other day after all). This is a recipe I originally found on King Arthur’s Baking LINK but have changed and adapted it for my own liking. 

For Christmas I found peppermint candy cane topped chocolate wafers at Bulk Barn.  They were easily cut in half to fit on the tops of these small one bite cookies.  For a winter treat, a mini marshmallow would work in the middle as would a cinnamon heart for Valentines Day or a Hershey’s kiss, but not the full size, I’d choose the baking ones instead. Or just leave the topping off all together. 

I used Tim Horton’s products and even these could be played around with. After I’d made these they released their Candy Cane Hot Chocolate for the season. Starbucks had a Hot Chocolate mix out as well but I find their products pricier.  So you see, you can almost do as you like. 

The decaf coffee lends an interesting note but isn’t prominent. I used decaf because who wants to have their sleep interrupted because of too much caffeine? Maybe only Santa!

I really enjoyed these cookies with evening tea and now that the dull January days have started you just might enjoy them too. 

 

Recipes

My Mom's Punkin' Muffins

What's For Supper Tonight (Tex Mex Slow Cooker Recipe)

Cake Mix Cookies

My Go To Meatloaf Recipe

Grandma Larson's Casserole

Grandma Johnson's Casserole

Valentine's Day Cookies

Christmas Cookies

Swedish Brown Beans (Instant Pot)

Mocha Sugar Cookie Latte Bite Cookies

Oh Fudge!

A Recipe & Midnight Madness

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Bites

A Recipe & Midnight Madness

In what feels like another lifetime, I worked for one year as Assistant Manager of Warehouse One, which is a Canadian clothing retailer.  The shopping mall was a destination back than and big box retailers weren't yet where we all demanded to shop and we definitely weren't choosing online shopping either.  It was the mid 2000's and at Christmas time the mall was a fun and festive place even though I'd not wish working retail at that time of year or any really on anyone.  One big event leading up to Christmas was Midnight Madness.

Midnight Madness happened on a few weekend evenings in the month of December leading up to Christmas.  Each store would stay open well passed the regular 9pm...until 1am instead and many would have special deals for that time period.  It was nowhere near as hectic as Boxing Day was but still a stressful time for anyone having to work in a store.

At the far end of the mall was a Starbucks.  Myself and a coworker were working this late night shift and we were both concerned for staying awake and alert.  For some oddball reason we both thought it would be a good idea to buy chocolate covered coffee beans.

You probably see where I'm going with this.

Starbucks used to have little boxes of these coffee beans right by the cash register along with mints and biscotti.  I don't think they have this anymore and if they do I haven't noticed.  These were obviously nice little add ons if you were purchasing a latte or cranberry bliss bar.

The chocolate covered coffee beans did indeed keep us awake and alert...not only for the Midnight Madness but for the entire night.  We both vowed to never do THAT again and told the legend to all our others coworkers.  It's a story I found myself telling a few students last week which they all found highly amusing.

Even though I will likely never have chocolate covered coffee beans again, I did love those cranberry bliss bars and still do.  Starbucks has changed the recipe so a few years ago I scoured the interweb for a copycat recipe.  What you'll find below has become a staple in my holiday baking every year.  I've tweaked it several times but decided to finally write it out instead of deciphering my cryptic notes in my home made family cookbook binder.

I'm sharing it all with you.  Feel free to click on the recipe photo and save it to your devices.  Let me know if you make it as well!

* If * you do try it make certain to not skip 2 important steps.

1) Make absolutely sure you coat the baking pan with cooking spray and coat with flour.  If you don't you wont ever get it out of the pan.

2) You most definitely will need to coat your hands with cooking spray to pat it down and stretch it into the pan.  The batter is EXTREMELY sticky so if you don't you'll be covered in it.

The original recipe was in an 11X17 baking pan but I don't have one that size and I'm pretty sure it's not a standard size either.  My recipe is 9X13 which is a size we all own.  This makes the bars a little thicker and the Starbucks version.

My oven runs hot so regardless of what I think they get removed at 20 minutes.  I'm going to caution you as well...they may not look cooked but trust that they are.  If they are over baked they become very crumbly.

Enjoy and happy baking!

Oh Fudge!

I’ve tried to get Siri and Google to bake for me. I thought I’d try Alexa this year…

No luck. 

In an effort to get started in my festive goodies I made the recipe shared on this page. It’s a gateway recipe before the main frenzy starts. It doesn’t require baking at all and takes a short time to accomplish. Hurray! Because the one thing we all lack at this time of year is time. 

Add to your shopping list the following:

• 1 tub vanilla creamy frosting (I used Betty Crocker)
• 1 package peanut butter flavoured chips (I used Chipits)
• 1 package mini Reese’s pieces (I used Chipits)

The equipment you’ll need:

• A small saucepan
• A spoon
• A spatula
• 9x9 cake pan
• Tin foil

Warning! ⛔️ If you’re allergic to peanuts then obviously this recipe won’t be for you or anyone you know with nut allergies. 

Method:

• Combine Peanut Butter Chips and the container of frosting in a saucepan over low heat until smooth and combined. 
• Cool slightly then mix in half of the bag of mini Reese’s. 
• Spread into lined baking pan
• Top with remaining Reese’s
• Refrigerate until firm 
• Cut into 32 bars but can also be cut smaller as they are very rich!

These fudge squares are super easy to adapt with different flavours of chips or frosting. 

They keep very well in the fridge or freezer. 

Mocha Sugar Cookie Latte Bites (Recipe Included)

This is not my recipe although the adaptation is 100% mine.  I can't tell you where the actual recipe originated but I did have it printed out and tucked into my Tried & True Recipe Binder.  The trouble is, the original name "Cappuccino Love Bites" doesn't exactly scream Christmas baking, now does it.

No.

Nor does it sound festive for Hubby or anyone else for that matter to take to their work potluck or cookie swap.  It also doesn't help one cook use up not one bag of Hershey's kisses, but two which she bought on sale at Costco.

Cookies cooling

The original recipe uses shortening but I use butter or margarine with the same results.  I can't remember the last time I bought actual shortening.  It also says to use coffee liqueur or milk but I think Kahlua would be great.  What I thought was a small bottle in our refrigerator door turned out to be Irish Cream and I don't think that would work with my flavour combination.  It uses instant coffee but be aware if you are sensitive to caffeine that may be an issue.  I didn't want a whole container of instant coffee so I bought a tin of Maxwell House Café Suisse Mocha.  I'd also think it would be interesting to play around with tea flavours in this recipe but I'll save that for another season.  You don't have to fret over what flavour of Hershey's Kisses to pick up.  I used the Sugar Cookie flavour and I think the Candy Cane flavour would be excellent as well.  Just stay away from the ones that have the soft centers.

I won't regale you with how I baked these while the snow was gently falling and the Christmas tree was twinkling away.  Instead, it was a regular Saturday evening two weeks before Christmas and my back was sore from a rather hectic shopping trip to Costco.

Christmas Beans to Eat (Swedish Brown Beans Recipe)

At Christmastime 1999, I got the Hanson Snowed In CD.  It's still one of my very favourites to listen to for getting into the holiday spirit.  There's one song titled "Christmas Means to Me (My Love) but my husband has changed the words to be Christmas Beans to Eat.  We had just moved into our new house and had Brother In Law and family as our first house guests.  I remember how hectic it was to get the house finished for their arrival.  When we moved in the kitchen wasn't even finished!  The best memory though, is our Nieces singing and making up dance routines to that Hanson CD.

Sunday Roast Supper

I am not Scandinavian.  Well, unless you count my Grandfathers sister (I think it was) married a 

Norwegian man...but that doesn't have an actual impact on me.  What does have an impact is that apparently when you marry someone who is Norwegian and Swedish you yourself adopt lot's of their traditions.

One of us!  One of us!

My favourite Christmas item on the big festive meal is Swedish Brown Beans.  The odd thing is that those who grew up in the family prefer other items, but for those of us who married in we love and look forward to the brown beans.

My Mother In Law grows Swedish beans in her garden.  She has a fantastic garden and even when she says things haven't turned out you can guarantee they're more prolific there than anywhere else.  A good number of years ago she gave me a cool whip container of beans.  I'm going to say it was at least 5 years ago.  I put them in the back of the pantry with the intention of one day cooking them.

One day finally came last Saturday morning where I awoke with the idea to cook them in the instant pot.  I got out the "Cooking Favorites of Covenant Women" cookbook from my treasure trove of cookbooks and quickly searched for the recipe.  It had been submitted by Mrs. Doris Anderson.  See all good recipes worth making come from this cookbook and I have one which was passed down to us.  The inscription in perfect handwriting says "To Aunt Emma From Evelyn" with my name and Hubby's added below.

The photos and instructions below are my account of cooking these Swedish Brown Beans in my Instant Pot in about an hour.  The original recipe states 4 hours.  You should be able to 'right click and save' if you're so inclined to try it out and please let me know if you do!

 

Cookies! (Recipe Included)

 

From "Christmas Cookies" by George Strait

I saw a meme last week that says every recipe blog starts off with how the blogger was out for a wintery walk and it reminded them of tobogganing as a child and yadda yadda yadda and the poster just wanted to hurry up and get to the recipe and who cares about the other stuff.  While I do feel the pain of having to navigate all that nonsense to get to the real information, I think we all want to share our warm fuzzy memories of the season with our readers, family and friends.

There's a Roughrider fan in every crowd!

Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of my Mom and me baking cookies. I remember having to kneel on a kitchen chair at the cupboard and watching with wild anticipation as Mom would roll out the dough and then we'd choose just the exactly right cookie cutters.  I was really blessed to have a childhood which contains sweet memories like these.  I was equally fortunate to have a niece and nephew who I was close to, so when I was older and married, I'd invite them to my house to make cookies.  One year in particular, my niece was sick and couldn't come for cookie decorating so my nephew and I did it but put some aside in a special care package to take to her.  She proclaimed that the Christmas cookies held special healing powers because upon eating them she immediately was feeling better.

Jingling Rider Fan Medicine Woman.

Flash forward to when I became a more enthusiastic Saskatchewan Roughrider fan.  I purchased a set of Wilton Football Themed cookie cutters.  The set includes shapes for pennants, footballs, jerseys and helmets.  I only used the jerseys and helmets pictured below, although the recipe, which is coming up soon, makes enough cookies for the whole neighbourhood and then some so you can use your whole array of cookie cutters.  I do have a very extensive collection from all the obvious Christmas shapes to Snoopy and that cute truck with a tree in the back.  Of course, you may already have your own favourite sugar cookie recipe, or you might not have the time to make it and in that case the cookie dough in the cooler section will do just fine.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

Without dragging it out farther... here is the recipe for Mom's Sugar Cookies.  There aren't any special instructions except throw it all in a mixer to combine.  Form it into a roll, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  If you don't refrigerate the dough, it will be pretty much disastrous and frustrating as the dough won't be able to be worked with.  Roll out the dough and cut into shapes, football themed or otherwise and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 8 minutes.  I use silicon mats on my baking sheets, so the cookies don't get overly brown and so cleanup is a snap.  One substitution you can make is the butter/shortening.  You can use margarine instead and the recipe still turns out wonderfully.

Once the cookies are completely cooled you can frost them with your favourite method.  Back as a kid we'd just use your regular butter cream homemade frosting with a myriad of sprinkles.  These days because my Hubby calls sprinkles "gravel" I bypass that method.  One year I purchased Cakemate Cookie Icing in various colours and although it didn't turn out to be my favourite product the cookies turned out pretty and tasty.

Go Riders!

Another year, I coated the cookies in white frosting and then used food markers to decorate.  These turned out to be my favourite cookies although the process was very time consuming because the markers had to dry completely, or they'd smudge.  That was also the year, where Hubby didn't know of how I'd toiled over the cookies and a good portion of them had "disappeared" before I'd found out.  

The table display for New Years Eve 2019

Maybe you want to make a batch of these for your favourite Riders fan or just make some sweet memories with some close family members.  I hope this blog was enjoyable to read and if it was, please share it with others on your Christmas list.  Nothing says love like a homemade gift-wrapped stack of sugar cookies shared with your family and friends.

Oh Snap! Looks pretty happy for a guy who just lost a leg!

Grandma Johnson's Casserole

This recipe is from the Covenant Women cookbook.  The Covenant is the church in Hubby's hometown.  The recipe in the book isn't by Grandma Johnson.  It's actually by Jean Johnson.  That's Larry Johnson's mother.  Larry Johnson was an usher at our wedding.  It was easy for him because he worked as a funeral director.  I doubt it was very much like Six Feet Under.  I know our wedding wasn't.

But I digress.

Grandma Johnson made this recipe a few times when we visited.  I'm pretty sure she added a few things too.  I've made notes and tried to replicate it the best I can.

Ingredients
1 pound hamburger
1/2 pound low sodium bacon
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup rice
1 can mushrooms, drained
1 can mushroom soup
2 tbsp soya sauce
3 cups boiling water
Salt and pepper to taste
Chinese noodles, crushed

Fry the hamburger, bacon and onion in a pan.  Add the mushrooms, soup, soya sauce, water, salt, pepper & rice.  Put in casserole and bake for 1 hour at 375*F.  Stir a couple of times while cooking.  Top with Chinese noodles.  Bake for 15 to 30 minutes longer.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Since I found out I can pretty much make any kind of cookie using a box of cake mix.....I've gone a bit crazy.  I have buyers remorse for the huge bag of flour in the pantry which was supposed to be used up by making sugar cookies.  Alas, there it sits abandoned amid an array of cake mixes galore.

These are Red Velvet Cream Cheese cookies.  Red Velvet is just a new type of thing in these parts.  Strange I know, because it seems to be plenty popular in every other part of the universe.  So far there is only one brand of cake mix that makes a red velvet version and that is Duncan Hines.

These are the Cherry Chip but give you the idea of the size.

Ingredients
1 box Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 tub Cream Cheese type frosting

In a bowl, combine cake mix, eggs and canola oil.  Mix well.  Using a melon baller.....yes, strange I know, but it makes the perfect size!....scoop out portions of mixture, roll into a ball shape and put onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350*F for 8 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then remove to plate to cool the rest of the way.

Once completely cooled, sandwich together using cream cheese frosting.

OHMYGAWD, THEY ARE DELISH!

*Variation*
Cherry Chip cake mix and add 1 cup chocolate chips.  Do not sandwich together.  They taste like chocolate covered cherries!

I've heard Cherry Chip isn't available everywhere :(

Grandma Larson's Casserole

I never had the pleasure of meeting Grandma Larson.  From what I know of her, she was a loving type of Grandma who liked to impart snippets of Scandinavian wisdom on her family.....and she did love her family deeply.  

I first tasted this casserole back in the early days of dating Hubby.  He'd made it with some left over curry rice,  I believe, and it tasted wonderful.  What's even better is that it is super easy to make and has ingredients that most of us have in our pantry.  Especially if you've stocked up at the 10 for $10 sale at the Co-Op like I have!

Ingredients
Ground beef 1 pound or a bit more
2 onions chopped
1 can of Chicken Noodle soup
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can water
1/2 cup rice

The brand of soup doesn't really matter but I've come to believe Campbell's is best and brings the most flavour.  Also, you can try with different flavours of cream soup if mushroom isn't your favourite.

In a large frying pan, brown the beef and cook the onions.  When cooked, add the soups, water, and rice.  Mix it well.  Pour into a large casserole dish or loaf pan.  Cook in the oven uncovered at 350*F for 1 1/2 hours.

My Go To Meatloaf Recipe

I got this recipe off the back of a box of Uncle Ben's stuffing mix about 15 years ago.  I never looked at another meatloaf recipe again.

Ingredients
1 container ground beef approx 1lb (it's okay if it's more but not less)
1 box stuffing mix - the brand doesn't matter but I've found the varieties with separate spice packets are more flavourful.
Milk to soften the stuffing mix
1 egg
2 tsp (approx) Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup ketchup (anything tomato-y works...I've used salsa and BBQ sauce too)
Enough mustard to turn the ketchup orange.  Type of mustard doesn't matter...I've used regular, Dijon etc.
1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar

In a bowl combine the stuffing mix with enough milk to soften them.  Add the egg and Worcestershire Sauce.  Mix.  Either by hand or with a potato masher [sounds crazy I know, but it works] mix in the ground beef.

Press the mixture into a glass pie plate.

In a separate bowl, mix the ketchup, mustard and brown sugar.  Hubby likes it when I leave brown sugar lumps because it makes the sauce caramel-y.  Spread over the meatloaf.

Cook in a 350*F oven for 35 - 40 minutes. 

I'd post a picture, but there's never enough of it left to snap a picture of!!

Cake Mix Cookies

 My new coworker and friend brought these cookies to work one day.  They were very yummy.  I did some quick googling and found out there are unlimited variations.  I decided to make chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips.

I bought Co-Op Gold Moist & Delicious Devel's Food Cake mix.  When I googled [yes, google is my bff] the nutritional values I found out it is the same as Duncan Hines.  Betty Crocker was a smaller mix and had different values.  I don't know if the brand of cake mix has anything to do with quality....but when it's an ingredient having a generic or store brand doesn't bother me.

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil [I used Canola]
1 cup chocolate chips [I used Hershey's Pure White Chocolate Chips]

Basically you mix the whole thing up.  It makes a very stiff dough.  You take teaspoon scoops of the dough and and roll it in your hands to form a walnut sized lump and place on greased cookie sheet.  I failed to grease my non-stick cookie sheets and should have.  They didn't really stick badly, but enough to make me go "why? oh why? didn't you follow directions?"

Then you bake them at 350*F for 8 to 10 minutes.  My oven is hot so it was more like 325 for 10 minutes and I probably could have baked them for less time because they didn't turn out as fluffy as the ones from work.  Doesn't matter though, they are yummers!

My recipe ended up making 37 cookies.  I don't know why the odd number but I was pretty happy considering the original recipe said it made 24.  After I entered all the info into the recipe do-hicky on MyFitnessPal they ended up being 105 calories each.

Hubby taste tested.....
.....several times.

I think the possibilities of this recipe are endless.  I'd like to make Christmas cookies using crushed candy canes instead of chocolate chips.  I'd like to try carrot cake with raisins.  I'd like to try cherry chip cake with chocolate chips.  I have a feeling this recipe is going to get a massive workout.

What's For Supper Tonight?!

I cannot take credit for this recipe.  I can only take credit for the slicing and dicing and the operation of my crock pot and rice maker.  The rest of it is from kraftcanada.com.  The recipe.  Slow-Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken.

I doubled the recipe because I wanted leftovers for the next couple of days.

Ingredients:
1 lb skinless boneless chicken breasts cut into strips or chunks
2 Tbsp taco seasoning [like Old El Paso]
2 Tbsp flour
1 green pepper cut into chunks
1 red pepper cut into chunks [I only used red peppers because my tummy is sensitive to green]
1-1/2 cups salsa [I used a Pico de Gayo from Costco]
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup Kraft Tex Mex Shredded Cheese

Directions:

1.  Toss chicken with seasoning and flour in slow cookier.
2.  Stir in all ingredients except cheese.
3.  Cook Low 6-8 hours or High 3-4 hours.
4.  Stir before serving.

Serve over hot cooked rice.  I cooked jasmine rice because it's what I had on hand.  I also used my rice cooker.  Yeah.....so basically I didn't cook any of it!  Top everything with Tex Mex Cheese.

It was really really yummy.  Hubby and I agreed that some black beans would be great in this as well.  There is cilantro in the salsa from Costco so I didn't add any, but you most certainly could.  By doubling the recipe, Hubby and I both had healthy portions plus there is enough left over for 3 more meals!

According to Kraft this recipe is 310 calories but when I put it into MyFitnessPal it came out much less so I've got some tweaking in the app to do!

Anyhow, this was delish and you should try it the next time you have to eat.  *grin*

My Mommy's Punkin Muffin Recipe

For as long as I can remember my Mom has been baking this recipe.  I enjoy them all year long and it's my favourite way to consume pumpkin.....not being a pumpkin pie connoisseur.  They are great any time of the day and it makes a huge batch.

Ingredients

4 Eggs
2 Cups White Sugar
1-1/2 Cups Canola Oil\
1-14oz can of Pumpkin [like Pumpkin Pie filling]
3 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2 cups of Raisins

* I did not have Cinnamon on hand this go around and I used Pumpkin Pie spice instead and it works just as well. *

Procedure

1.  Beat eggs with an electric mixer.
2.  Add sugar, oil and pumpkin.
3.  Mix.
4.  Add the dry ingredients and raisins.
5.  Mix.

Scoop into lined muffin tins.

Bake at 400*F for 15 minutes.

This recipe makes 2 dozen large muffins.