“This is sooo good” – my son’s comment after taking a sip of this wonderful hot chocolate!
My daughter describes it as “creamy, delicious and chocolatey!”
This recipe truly makes a heavenly, rich hot chocolate that is so easy to prepare!
A printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post!
Ingredients
1/4 cup Cocoa – I use Dutch Processed!
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1/2 cup water
12 oz Evaporated Milk
6 oz Milk
1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla
Dash of Salt
If you do not have Dutch Processed Cocoa – no worries! Any cocoa will work, but you may want to add an additional tablespoon of sugar with any other cocoa! If you can get your hands on the Dutch Processed – it is worth it!
Combine the water, sugar and cocoa powder in a medium sauce pan.
Bring the contents to a simmer for 3 minutes, whisking constantly.
Whisk in the milk and the evaporated milk. Heat thoroughly then remove from heat, add the vanilla and a dash of salt! Enjoy!
Have someone on your list who could use a “Happy” gift; a gift that will bring a smile to the grouchiest of grinches!
I have one for you!
An Elf movie basket with free printable gift tags!
In our household, the go to happy movie is Elf! It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, watching the movie Elf is guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
If you have never seen it, you really must watch it sometime! The movie stars Will Ferrell as Elf, it has a delightful message, wonderful characters and is fun, fun, fun! The movie also stars Zooey Deschanel (you get to hear her fabulous voice) James Caan and Bob Newhart, need I say more?
I am not one to watch movies repeatedly, but this one I have seen too many times to count!
What do you need?
An Elf Movie
The four main food groups for Elves – candy, candy canes, candy corn, & syrup
Give a Happy Christmas Gift – The Elf Movie!
Don’t forget to include my favorite Elf quote -“I just like to smile. Smilings my favorite!”
Do you have someone on your list who always needs a caffeine fix?
Here is a easy way to take a simple coffee shop gift card and turn it in to a delightful gift to give and receive!
Make a coffee shop gift card a fun gift to give!
What do you need?
Gift Card from a favorite coffee shop!
Paper Coffee Cup , Lid & Splash Stick
Filler for the coffee cup – Candy would be my filler of choice!
The Coffee Shop Gift Card gets Wrapped!
Fill your cup with the gift card and candy. Tie on a beautiful ribbon!
Attach a coffee gift tag to the front and back of the splash stick.
If you are unable to get the splash stick, a bamboo fork will work just as well!
You now have a gift is beautiful, cheerful and a delight to receive!
The cup is the wrapping, the treat is for fun and the gift tags are available for you to print – Coffee Gift Tags! How easy was that?
All the coffee drinkers on your list will love this!
Wrapping the Coffee Shop Gift CardThe back of the gift tag!I linked up to iheartnaptime!
Here is an entertaining way to turn any gift card into a fun gift!
It looks like someone is getting coal for Christmas!
For that naughty person on your list, make it look like they are getting nothing but coal and a sock for Christmas this year! (A house elf is the only one who might think this is a good thing!)
What do you need?
Crazy pair of socks
Wrapped truffles or some kind of wrapped round candy. Something coal like!
Gift Card
It looks like someone is getting coal for Christmas!
Inside one of the stockings, stuff the other sock, the gift card and lots of truffles so it looks like it’s filled with lumpy coal. Tie up the end with a ribbon, add a “coal” gift tag and voila! A sock filled with “coal” that will please everyone, whether they have been naughty or nice!
It looks like someone is getting coal for Christmas gift tags!
These taquitos are absolutely delicious! Recently, I made them for a party and now everyone wants the recipe – so here it is!
A printable recipe may be found at the bottom of the post!
Chicken Taquitos
40 Corn tortillas
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken (A little over a pound of chicken)
2 tsp taco seasoning – I use the Taco Seasoning recipe from allrecipes.com
1 small can of roasted green chilis or roasted jalapeños
3/4 cup prepared salsa
1 can refried beans (16oz)
2 cups shredded Cheddar and/or Jack cheeses ( I use 1 cup of each!)
Season the shredded chicken with the taco seasoning. Puree or finely chop the green chilis or jalapeños and add them to the chicken along with the refried beans, salsa and shredded cheese. Mix well.
Chicken Taquito Filling
Top each corn tortilla with 2 tablespoons of the chicken mixture. Roll tightly. I keep them covered with a wet paper towel until I’m ready to fry them to prevent cracking. Warming the tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds will also help prevent them from cracking.
Preparing the Chicken TaquitosChicken Taquitos ready for frying!
Fry the taquitos in 1 inch of oil until golden brown. This is a little tricky – I use my grilling tongs and carefully place the taquito into the oil with the open fold down. I hold the taquito in place for a couple of seconds to prevent it from unrolling. Once it’s browned, I roll over the taquito and fry the opposite side.
Frying the Chicken Taquitos
When golden brown, remove the taquitos from the oil and drain on paper towels.
Drain the taquitos on paper towels!
Enjoy immediately or freeze them for later! I like to serve the taquitos with salsa and greek yogurt – my healthy substitute for sour cream! Enjoy!
When it comes to giving gifts at Christmas I like to make them fun, useful and easy to create! This family gift is all those things! I like to call it the “Be like Goldilocks and find the pair that fits ‘just right’ family Smart Wool Sock Bag!” Maybe that’s a little long for a title, but it says it all.
For this gift I purchase a pair of Smart Wool Socks for each member of the family for whom the gift is for. Toss them all in a gift bag, label it with a fun tag and voila! – A fun family gift that everyone will enjoy!
White Chocolate Candles make a great garnish for all your birthday cakes and cupcakes!
If you are looking for less fire on your celebratory cake, make white chocolate candles of your very own! Bonus – you can eat these delicious and adorable candles!
What do you need to make 18 candles:
1 Cup White Chocolate Chips
Gel Food Coloring
Place one cup of white chocolate chips in the bowl of a double boiler. Heat the water to a low simmer and let the chips melt slowly. Be patient!
After the chips have begun to melt, stir until smooth.
I divided the melted chocolate into 4 small bowls and blended in the gel coloring. The chocolate began to harden as it cooled, but by microwaving at a low power it softened again. I just didn’t work fast enough!
If you use a liquid food color the chocolate will start to seize. If this happens, you can make it smooth again by adding coconut oil. Using gel colors will prevent this from happening!
Blend the gel food coloring into the white chocolate until the color is uniform.
I drew out a number of candles to provide a pattern for me to follow. I then covered the drawing with a piece of wax paper and began piping the colored white chocolate! By sliding the wax paper over the drawing I could use my template drawing over and over.
Using a number one round decorating tip for the candles and the flame worked very well! This is so easy to make, you must try it for yourself!
Everyone will enjoy these tasty and beautiful candles!
Everyone loves an advent calendar to help count down the days before Christmas! Last year, in the last days of November, my 17 year old son said to me, “you are putting up the advent calendar, aren’t you?” I was actually considering not doing it, he was getting pretty old for such a thing. Next thing I know, my 20 year old daughter is asking me if I was planning on sending an advent calendar to her college apartment!
What did I tell you? Everyone loves an advent calendar!
Years ago, when my children were tiny, I began this tradition. The socks I hung were all sewn together from fabrics that I had used on projects for the kids. The fabrics ranged from curtain fabrics and costume materials to pajama flannel. Some of the stockings had pointy toes, round toes, but my proudest was the cowboy boot from fake leather – so cool!
So – if you are a seamstress. Going this route would be very special for your kids! Pull out all your fabric scraps and get sewing.
If you are not a seamstress – no worries. Here is an idea that is cute, inexpensive and easy! Does anything get better than that?
What do you need?
Socks!
I used tiny socks because they are so darn cute! The sizes ranged from 3 months to 2 years! Pick an assortment of colors, stripes, whatever you can find!
Ribbon
Clothes Pins
Good Stuff to fill the socks with!
Along with candy, I like to add things like sticky notes, hand sanitizer, markers, and automatic pencils with accessories. In one sock they may get the pencil; the next day they receive the lead that goes with the pencil and then the eraser…
Other ideas: small toys, nail polish, money, lip balm, hair clips, a harmonica, fun paper clips…
Years ago, I put together an advent calendar for a beloved & wonderful niece ( She reads my blog!) The first year, I sent the socks fully stuffed with goodies so it was ready to hang up on the first day of advent. Each year after that, I would just send the stuffing and her mother crammed it in the socks for me. Because the advent calendar was also her Christmas gift, she had a 25th day and into that stocking she would find her Christmas gift – usually a gift card!
Just one more idea for those of you with a beloved and wonderful niece, nephew, blogger…
The final items to include in the advent stockings are jokes and riddles. Sometimes I will give the riddle one day and the answer the next. You will find tons of them on the web, but this year I found something special!
These are lunch box jokes from a fellow blogger and these are perfect for an advent calendar! Here is the link to so you can print up some of your very own – Christmas Jokes!
Now that you have gathered your supplies, the rest is easy.
The socks will need to be numbered from 1 to 24. I punched out circles of card stock, numbered them and hot glued them to the socks. Let me tell you, those numbers aren’t going anywhere!
Using clothes pins, hang the stockings on a ribbon, leaving plenty of ribbon on either end for tying up the calendar!
As adults, we plan fabulous parties thinking of everything an adult might enjoy. We tend to overlook the fact that kids will be present at our gathering and may not enjoy the same things! This year, when planning your holiday party, create a special treat just for the kids!
So kids – this is for you!
Candy for a Hot Chocolate Bar
Hot Chocolate Bar
Set up an area where the kids can choose treats to stir into their mugs of hot chocolate. Bowls heaping with cut-up peanut butter cups, peppermint patties and marshmallows will be a welcome sight for the wee ones. Include candy canes and chocolate spoons for stirring their personalized drink!
And don’t forget the whipped cream – Must have whipped cream!
Cinnamon – that’s another great addition. Sprinkle some of that on the whipped cream – so beautiful!
Hot Chocolate Bar
Just in case there is an adult or two that enjoys a nice mug of hot chocolate, have a few mini-bottles of assorted liquors for them to add to their mugs! There we go – thinking about the adults again!
Liquor Bottles for the Hot Chocolate Bar
How to make Chocolate Spoons!
This recipe will make 8 Chocolate Spoons
Heat 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 tsp coconut oil in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Allow the chips to melt and then stir until smooth.
Chocolate Spoons
Using plastic or wooden spoons ( I couldn’t find them, but I know they exist!)
Coat them well and make sure the bowl of the spoon is full of chocolate!
Set on wax paper to cool
Chocolate Spoons
Heat 2 oz of cut-up caramels and 1/2 tbs of cream in a double boiler over barely simmering water.
Allow the caramels to soften then stir until smooth. Drizzle the melted caramel over the top of the chocolate spoons. If the caramel isn’t drizzling well, thin with a little water!
Chocolate Spoons Drizzled with Caramel
The caramel sticks to everything therefore, I would avoid getting it on the bottom of the spoon! The kids won’t be able to pick them up!
Also, I use a small glass bowl over a small pot of simmering water. A regular double boiler is way to big for this tiny amount of caramel!
Mixed Christmas lights makes for a beautiful tree!
Once upon a time, when I lived in Iowa, I spotted the most fabulously decorated tree along a downtown street. It was a deciduous tree decked out in colored christmas lights and every time I passed it I couldn’t stop looking at it. It was magical. There was something about it that made it stand out from all the others.
Finally, after closely inspecting the tree, I figured out what it was that made the tree’s look so special. The colored lights hanging on the tree were of two types – mini lights and large solid bulbs. The combination of lights created such a cool look that I had to replicate the effect!
Mixed Christmas lights makes for a beautiful tree!
The key to creating this look is to make your two types of lights as different as possible, while keeping the colors the same. I used mini colored lights and large colored lights.
LED C7 Christmas Lights
Large Christmas light bulbs come in multiple sizes. I would suggest using size C9 – if you can. Mine are C7, but I wish they were C9. In case you haven’t already guessed it, all that C-talk is the bulb size! C7 means it’s a 7 watt bulb, C9 is a 9 watt bulb!
Also, I would suggest using the solid colored bulbs because the large clear bulbs look too much like the mini lights – so go solid!
Mini-Christmas LED Lights
Now the question – LED or traditional lights. LED mini-lights are very bright and what I choose to use. When it comes to the larger C7 or C9 bulbs, the traditional lights are brighter than the LEDs, but the brightness also dilutes the color of the bulb. I prefer to use the large LED lights because the color is greater and the electricity use is so much less. The picture below shows all LED lights both minis and C7s!
Mixed LED Christmas Lights!
There is one more benefit to this mixed up Christmas light look! The large bulbs are clearly visible in the daylight hours, giving a nice look to your tree 24/7!
Christmas Tree Lights in Snow!Mixed Christmas lights makes for a beautiful tree!
