Peanut Butter Cookies

I had a roll of pillsbury cookie dough in the fridge and it was time to use it, so I got it out & got Talia involved in rolling the cookies and pressing them with a fork.


It's amazing how something so simple to me can be so fun and exciting for her!

Candy Cane Cake

We made Chocolate Candy Cane Cake!

Talia was really excited about mixing the cake:

She got to poke holes in the cake with a toothpick before I poured candy cane syrup over it:

Then we dusted it with icing sugar & it was ready to go! You could use the whole recipe for candy cane syrup that we posted about yesterday. It won't make it too minty! (In our opinion! ;)

Decorating Cookies for Santa

For Christmas this year, a friend of ours gave us a bunch of mini gingerbread men with frosting and sprinkles to decorate them with. What a great gift idea!


I thought we had put off the decorating for too long- Christmas is tomorrow!
But it was actually the perfect opportunity for Talia to "make" cookies for Santa.


She & Ken had fun working on them together.


She sampled some, too :)


And I'm sure Santa will enjoy this treat this evening :)

Gingerbread House

I had been keeping my eye open for a good gingerbread house kit this year (I'm just not ambitious enough to bake the whole thing myself right now ;) when I saw that our grocery/superstore was offering gingerbread house making classes. So, I signed Talia & I up for it, and we had a great afternoon out. It was so much fun! :)

Christmas Cookie Exchange

A friend of mine organized a Christmas Cookie Exchange this year.
I made some more of the chocolate truffles that I posted about earlier (you can find the recipe at that post).


And this year, I found some Martha Stewart cookie boxes, way on sale, so I picked them up & have had fun putting the cookies together in the pretty boxes for gifts.


I'm also making some Christmas boxes this year for some other gifts, but I don't want to post them here yet, or it will give some things away! :)

Salt Dough Ornaments

Yesterday, we made salt dough ornaments & it was a lot of fun!
This morning, we started decorating them.
Here are a couple, on display:


I followed the recipe that Filth Wizardry posted for Salt Dough Ornaments, and we had a great time making a few of our own!
Talia loved the stirring & the kneading :)


We rolled the dough and cut it with cookie cutters. We made holes in them with a straw (for hanging, and for weaving- as seen in the first photo). Then we waited (too long- these things take a couple of hours! :) for them to bake.

Making Chocolate Truffles

While Talia worked on her computer games, I got a truffle recipe started. We worked on another activity (post coming soon on this) and played with Katrina while waiting for the mixture to stiffin in the fridge, and then we worked on rolling the truffles into balls and coating them in cocoa, cinnamon, and icing sugar :)

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it yourself:

1/2 cup 35% whipping cream

1 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

10 oz semi-sweet choc. chips

1 cup cocoa for coating (can also use icing sugar, cinnamon, shredded coconut, chopped nuts, etc.)

1. Combine cream, sugar & salt in saucepan over low heat. When bubbles form around edges of pan, turn off heat. Don't boil. Let steep for 5 min.

2. Stir in choc. chips until melted & smooth. Transfer chocolate mixture to container, cover and refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours).

3. Sift cocoa onto a plate. Using cool hands (this is important- we had to keep washing our hands in cool water to keep from making the balls all mucky!), shape chocolate into small balls, roll in cocoa to coat. Transfer to parchment paper-lined baking tray and refrigerate until firm.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Baking A Pumpkin Roll

A couple of evenings ago, we went to our friends' house for dinner and I wanted to bring a pumpkin roll along for dessert. I could see that I wasn't going to get it done on my own because Talia was very energetic and definitely needed something to do.


So, I pulled out her apron, she pulled out the stool, and we got to working together. She loves cracking the eggs herself, so I let her do it. This generally results in some shell in the mix though, so it's good to do the eggs at the beginning to make shell removal a little easier!


I've learned that it's best to forget about making things perfect and just enjoy smiling and laughing about things that go wrong, and use it as an opportunity to teach about problem solving.


This is a great opportunity for me to learn some things too!
Like patience, and letting go of perfection ;)

After helping me with mixing everything, Talia was ready to play while I baked the roll and took care of frosting and rolling it later. It worked out well for both of us. :)