MERRY Christmas!

My kitchen is weeping (Like a little girl) after looking at all the fantastic goodies that Santa brought for it to play with.

Holy McMoley! Do you know how many things that I have made in my head? Countless, I tell you!

We also got some organization cabinets to organize his Army stuff and my kitchen stuff. And so you know how it goes. When you are cleaning is when your house is at the absolute worst! Add into that unpacking from a 11 day vacation and Christmas. That makes for my house looking like your scariest nightmare! It's insane!

BUT, whenever we get it all together I will be cooking up a STORM!

Folks, I hope that your Christmas was full of the Spirit and lots of good eats!

It's like a chocolate milk shake

only it's hot! ~Nicole

This hot chocolate recipe is insanely good. It's super easy and should be added to your Christmas traditions. It would be a great Christmas Eve/Morning family thing.

This recipe is also just one more in a LONG list of reasons why I love my crockpot!

Here's what you need:

I always think that there is one special thing in a recipe that is the secret ingredient. Every part of this recipe is the secret ingredient. Seriously don't leave anything out!

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups milk chocolate chips (the whole bag)

6 cups of milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

I used whole milk and the second go round I used semi sweet chocolate chips. I think that you could change up the milk you use and the chips. The hubs LOVES dark chocolate so I want to try that!

Anywho, dump everything in the crockpot and put on low for about two hours. I like to give it a stir about half way through to see how the chocolate is coming along. If it's still a ways away from being a lovely melty state then put it up to high.

It's going to need a little bit of whisking to get everything incorporated.

Add your marshmellows or whipped cream and you have heaven in a cup.

The little bits of chocolate are sooo delicious!

Seriously, if you take this to your Christmas party or family gathering you will get hugs and presents. It is so easy but so delicious. People rarely take the time to make hot chocolate that doesn't involve an envelope anymore. It's simple and fool proof and is so much better than the Swiss Miss.

Santa will thank you!

Gingerbread Bites

I haven't been able to do much baking lately much to my disapointment.
I was pretty happy to make some dough today. This is my first gingerbread dough and I'm pretty happy with it.
The idea for this came from Pinterest via this website. The premise for these are Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites. I don't think that title is quite right. It doesn't have the feel of cheesecake to me. It's for sure cream cheesy, just not cheesecake-like. I will play around a bit with the cheesecake part and try it again. So for now this is just Gingerbread Bites!

Here's what you'll need:

Gingerbread Bites

Gingerbread Dough

*Can be used for a gingerbread cookie, this dough will hold up nicely to those lovely cookie cutters you have!*

3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup molasses

1 stick butter, softened

2 eggs

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Cheesecake Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 350

Let's Bake!

  

Cream brown sugar and butter until combined.

It's important that the butter be softened. It will incorporate and look like this.

Add eggs and molasses. Mix well!

As I have said before I am sort of a molasses snob, so I should let you know that I used blackstrap molasses. Feel free to use the kind that you like!

Add your spices and then slowly add in flour. The dough will become stiff and pull away from the bowl. Put the dough in the fridge for at least 20 minutes that will help it stiffen up a little more.

Now roll the dough into teaspoon sized balls.

Make a well in your cookie dough. Pampered Chef makes a nifty little thing just for this purpose but I don't have one. I just used a small spoon!

For the filling

Combine powdered sugar, cream cheese and vanilla extract

I would suggest putting this in the fridge for a little while too. Otherwise you will (like I did) make a mess all over the kitchen.

Put the cream cheese mixture into a ziploc back and snip off a corner for a throw away pastry bag. Pipe mixture into each.

Bake for 10 minutes and let cool!

These are great little bites! The cookie is delicious and surprisingly moist for a gingerbread.

Make sure to let them cool or else they will make a mess!

These are great little Christmas cookies!

Thanksgiving snafu

So, I cooked and cooked and cooked stuff for Thanksgiving.

I took all the pictures of the prep work and did so good of doing each step. THEN I forgot to take the finished product. UGGG.

Good news is that I need to make it all over again!

Research and Development and I have been working on this recipe for a while. He is not a fan of nuts in anything. He'll eat a peanut or an almond and such but he doesn't like it in his food. Sweet Potato Souffle usually has nuts in it.

It was a bright awakening finding a sweet potato around here. I'm from eastern NC. North Carolina is the leading state for sweet potato growing. At home you can get beautiful sweet potatoes anytime you want them and they are CHEAP. Never, ever ever have I ever before paid $.68 a pound for sweet potatoes. That.was.insane! At home there are times when you can get them for $.08 a pound back home.
Anyway! Since we're Tarheels at heart we LOVE sweet potatoes.

Here's what you need:

Sweet Potato Souffle (or casserole is you prefer)

4 cups cubed sweet potato

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

3 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans (if you like, we do not)

Preheat to 325

Your cooking time will depend on the size of your cubes.

My cubes usually take about 20 minutes of boiling!

Boil your lovely cubes.

Take your lovely masher and mash your potatoes. How much you mash with your masher is up to you. You can have chunky potatoes if you like, or smooth. Decide for yourself.

Add sugar,

Eggs,

 salt, butter, milk and vanilla. Mix well!

Spray your dish and add the mixture! (Yes, yes that is marshmellows in the background!)

Now for the topping!

Brown sugar, flour and butter.

I tried this once with melted butter, I will not let you make this mistake.

Just sort of mix together.

Incorporate. Then you will sprinkle this mixture over the potatoes.

This turns into a crispy surprise. It's like a candy shell, you won't regret it.

Cook for about 25 minutes or so.

Now, if you aren't a marshmellow person just cook it for another 10 minutes or so.

Add the marshmellows! Cook another 10 minutes.

Sorry about this picture. It's like a mug shot for souffle. Normally I would have left for another 2 or 3 minutes for the golden browness, but I was feeling rather impatient.

I need you to make this so you can taste it.

The sweet potatoes are delicious. That little bit of vanilla makes all the difference in the world. The little crispy layer adds just that crunch and it's hidden beneath the marshmellows and that makes it a sneaky little crunch!

When we make this I warm it up for breakfast in the mornings!