More Christmas

Paisley's photo shoot in her dress:

Christmas

Going to post one big post today, as I'm going to be busy with business work for a week or so. :)

Trying on all her stocking stuffers



Unwrapping gifts:



Doing her new puzzle with Grandpa




Her new John Deere Tractor Train





The family:











Playing with her new John Deere Barn Band:





Looking for more gifts:





New hockey stick from daddy (and new jersey for G & G):











New doll:



Now book:



Tuckered out Daddy:



Actually, going to do this in 2 posts... you'll have to wait til tomorrow for the rest :) Pre-scheduling.

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

Dressing up like Daddy.

Nanaimo Bars

This morning I made Peppermint Nanaimo Bars for Christmas. I do every year, although we had a mishap with them as well (in continuation of yesterday's baking with a toddler post). This morning we were making Nanaimo Bars, and Paisley fell off her stool just as I was pouring in the peppermint extract. So now they're VERY strong peppermint nanaimo bars.

Several people asked for the recipe, so here we go:

Nanaimo Bars (mom's recipe - shhh, I didn't ask permission)

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbsp Cocoa
1 egg
2 cups crushed graham crackers
1 cup fine coconut

2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup margarine
3 tbsp custard powder
4 Tbsp milk

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate
1 Tbsp butter

1. Mix and melt over hot water: 1/2 cup margarine, sugar, cocoa and egg.
2. Add graham cracker crumbs and coconut
3. Pack into a greased 8 x 10 pan, cool 15 minutes
4.Cream 1/4 cup margarine, icing sugar and custard powder until smooth
5. Add milk 1 Tbsp at a time
6. Spread over first layer and let sit 15 min
7. Melt chocolate and butter over hot water
8. Spread over top, Cool and refrigerate

That's the recipe for standard nanaimo bars.

Peppermint Variety
At christmas I swap the middle layer out for peppermint icing (icing sugar, 1/4 cup margarine, milk, green food colouring and peppermint extract)

I've also done:

Cherry Variety
Swap middle layer for cherry icing (cherry flavouring, red food colouring)

Orange Vatiety
Swap middle layer for orange icing (orange flavouring, orange food colouring)..... also adding some orange rind to the base layer is yummy.

Basically you can flavour them anything that goes with chocolate and coconut.

Enjoy! Super yummy.

Where's Paisley?

Where's Paisley??




THERE SHE IS!!



She loves that game.


One thing that has really changed this year, is baking. Paisley always wants to help, which is just fine! We have fun. But the timing of things is off.

So far in our Christmas baking,we've created
- black bottomed Peanut Butter Blossoms
- pink Peppermint Rice Krispies Squares (added candy canes too early)
- abandoned the Brown Sugar Cookies part way through the process (were left in the fridge for a full week, instead of 30 minutes).

Baking with a toddler is a fine art.

At least our Peppermint Bark turned out.

Nap time is getting shorter too.... not enough to get much done anymore.

Tonight I'm making the cinnamon buns for Boxing Day breakfast. Might swap the raisins for the little Christmas fruit bits (not sure what they're called.... but you know what I mean... right?). I think that would be festive and yummy.

Still have plans to make:

Peppermint Nanaimo Bars
Date Pinwheels
and one other undecided.

Playdate

Paisley had a playdate with Cashlin this morning:









They had lots of fun together. I don't think they've played together since summer, so it was nice to see him and his mom again.

All caught up!

I'm caught up on orders! Now I just have personal Christmas presents, and Christmas cards to do! :) Will have it all done by Friday, then I can work on organizing the house a little more (it's been busy since I reopened my shop on August 21st, haven't even been able to hang any pictures). I'm looking forward to getting the house set up now!

Yesterday and today Paisley and I made Peppermint Bark! :) First time ever. Paisley enjoyed dumping the bags of chocolate chips on the pan for me, and went crazy for candy canes. She's a super active girl, with a little sugar, she just goes WILD!

Here's the recipe we used. I found it HERE:

Peppermint Bark Recipe

* 24 ounces white chocolate chips

* 24 ounces milk chocolate chips

* 1 teaspoon peppermint extract

* 20 candy canes

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

2. Pour the milk chocolate chips onto the pan and spread them around. Bake for a couple of minutes until they look a bit melted. Then take the pan from the oven and spread the chocolate around with a spatula. Put the pan in the refrigerator to cool and harden for about 30 minutes.


3. Next open the candy canes, place them on a cookie sheet under a clean dishtowel and crush them with a hammer (this part is fun for kids). Sort the larger candy cane pieces from the candy cane dust.

4. Melt the white chocolate chips in a double boiler (I used a smaller pan in a bigger pan), stirring constantly. Add the peppermint extract and stir in the candy cane dust which will color your chocolate a light shade of pink. Let it cool a bit, then pour it over the top of your milk chocolate layer.

5. Sprinkle with candy cane pieces and press them down gently so that they stick.

6. Refrigerate for several hours, shake off the excess candy pieces, then break the bark into chunks. Best kept refrigerated.


Haven't tasted them yet, but they're being packaged away for now.

Started!

I finally started my Christmas baking!!

Anyone who's friends with me on Facebook, Twitter, or chat regularly with me on online forums, know that I have been suffering the last month or so from some pretty severe insomnia (only 1 night with more than 5 hours of sleep in more than 4 or 5 weeks now).

I've come around to using that time for productivity lately..... so this morning, at 1 am, I started my christmas baking. Yup. It's chilling in the fridge right now.

Today's recipe is a new one! I don't know who linked me this recipe, but it's been open in my browser for more than a week now.

The recipe can be found HERE at Reader's Digest.


Brown Sugar Chocolate Shortbread Dipped in White Chocolate


Ingredients

1 cup (250 mL) salted butter

¾ cup (175 mL) brown sugar

1¾ cup (425 mL) all-purpose flour

½ cup (125 mL) cocoa

Topping:

8 oz (250 g) chopped white chocolate, melted


1. Cream butter and sugar together until light, about 5 minutes. Sift flour with cocoa.

2. Beat into butter mixture. Divide dough into four square pieces. Wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

3. Roll out one piece of dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 12 squares of about 2 in (5 cm) each. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Arrange cookies on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (Cookies will not spread too much, if at all, as they bake.)

4. Bake in a preheated 275°F (140°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven then, after 15 minutes, transfer to a cooling rack.

5. Melt chocolate in a 2-cup (500-mL) measuring cup. Dip cookies in the chocolate on the diagonal so that half are covered from one corner to another in white chocolate. Allow excess white chocolate to drain off and arrange cookies on rack. Refrigerate until set.

Makes 48 cookies

I'll post to let you know my review on them once they're baked (later today). One sample (for each of us), then in the deep freeze to prevent over indulgence.


On a somewhat related note... I started a weight loss challenge with some friends to keep us in check over the holidays. We started last week, so yesterday was our first weigh in. I LOST 7 POUNDS IN 1 WEEK!!! Go me!

First time skating

Paisley got to go skating for the first time this afternoon at the U of L Christmas skating party.

Turns out she was pretty good on the ice, but there was a fair bit of crying.

It was all worth it for the food, though.

And my favourite photo of the day. It would've been better if she had her Hurricanes jersey on, but this is still pretty adorable.

Hopefully with a few more times out on the ice she'll be more comfortable and enjoy it more.