milk and cookie upgrade.

hopefully i’ll be posting more frequently than this, but it was Christmas, so i was a little busy! hope your Christmas was marvelous!

mine was spent hosting and hosting and hosting – one of my favorite things to do, especially when it comes to my cousins. they were in town for 10 days from a 13 month vacation. they are currently traveling all 50 states in an RV {check out their blog – www.50StatesandRolling.blogspot.com} while someone else is living in their home. 

since they couldn't host parties at their place, i offered for them to host in our cozy little abode. to make it an extra special occasion for the girls, who miss their friends terribly, i made fun party drinks for them! here’s the how-to!

Creative Idea # 2: The Milk and Cookie Upgrade

Idea sparked by: MixingBowlKids

                 {pretend like my photos are half as good as hers. please.}  

{How fun are these?!? 
Cookie is on a stick for easy dipping!}

Ingredients and Tools: 

   cookie dough

    cookie scoop

    cookie sheet

    candy sticks {i got mine from Michaels}

    glasses

    chocolate for melting

    sprinkles

    milk

    

Directions:

Step 1 - Form cookie dough into balls with cookie scoop and place each ball on top of a candy stick on a lightly greased cookie sheet. {or you can poke the stick in the cookie dough ball} Bake cookies like normal. Let cool before removing from cookie sheet.

Step 2 - meanwhile, melt chocolate on the stove. once melted, slowly and gently dip the rim in the chocolate. the blogger at heygorg.com dipped her glasses much deeper than mine. i preferred a thin rim because i had less dripping to worry about. turn the glass around a few times to let the chocolate take shape before dipping into the sprinkles 

Step 3 - Fill glasses with milk. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and gently place on rims of glass. {However, if i ever get the chance to make these again, i think i would prefer to display the cookies like you usually see cake pops and have more than one per person.}

i did a few things differently than Jan on MixingBowlKids - i choose to dip the rims in chocolate - she said to do agave or honey. Also, i did my cookies on the end of the stick, she did her's in the middle. Tweak it to your preferences! 


enjoy! if you have questions or comments, i'd love to hear them!

love and milk mustaches,

amber.

the first post ever - loaded orange chocolate bites.

so, i've always wanted to have a blog but had the illusion that every blogger is completely original and comes up with all their ideas on their own. clearly i don't read blogs very often. thanks to pinterest, i quickly realized plenty of bloggers copy other people’s ideas, tweak them to fit their preferences, and simply give the original poster credit. Now that, I can do. 

So here we go: my not-so-original creations, with full credit to the idea sparker. hopefully these projects will spark some ideas for you! (if they do, please share, i would be sooo excited to see what you’ve made!)

creative idea #1: loaded orange chocolate bites

idea sparked by: Hershey

 

I started making these in high school after eating a delicious Hershey chocolate bar. I don’t remember what exactly was in theirs, but after a failed attempt and a few tweaks over the years, this is how my version’s ended up –

{Super important side note – this makes a zillion chocolates. I make them to give out for Christmas presents and actually, this year, i doubled the recipe. so clearly, if you’re making them just for you, don’t buy in bulk. or maybe you should. they’re addictive…}

ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs Ghirardelli Candy Making and Dipping Bar {I get this at Sam’s Club}
•      13.5 oz Dried Fruit Mix, sorted into separate bowls {I get Peterson Farms Cherry Berry Blend (blueberries, cranberries, and cherries) Also from Sam’s Club.}
•       4 oz Almonds, ground in food processor {or smashed with meat tenderizer}
•       Orange Extract

Tools:

•      1+ mini muffin trays
•      wooden Spoon
•      metal Spoon
•      medium pot
•      butter knife
•      ½ tsp measuring spoon

Directions:

•      Cut chocolate bar into small pieces.

{I chop the chocolate and store it in a ziplock because 

I make these in batches throughout the month}

• If you want to do it the right way, melt your chocolate like this. if not, just stick it in the pot on low, stirring frequently. {I’ve never had any problems melting it this way when using Ghirardelli}

• When melted, add Orange extract in ½ tsp increments, tasting to find desired intensity. If too strong, add more chocolate.{darn.}

•      Bring chocolate to work station. Fill each ungreased muffin tin with a small amount of chocolate {I do 1/3-1/2 spoonful, depending on size of spoon. it’s better if it’s not too thick.}

{My station.} 

{random info - i was out of the normal fruit mix and 

almonds, so i improvised for the pics. There are 

golden raisins and cashews in this batch}

•      Gently wiggle muffin tray to spread the chocolate evenly. You want the whole base of each tin to be covered.

{Also, I have 2 mini muffin trays I use, but I only fill one at a time with chocolate. Once I tried to fill them both before adding the fruit and nuts but the chocolate in the second tray hardened by the time I got to it. I recommend just filling one tray at a time.} 

•      Working quickly, add one cranberry, one cherry, and one blueberry to each cup. Then sprinkle with almond crumbs.

•      Gently press fruit and nuts into chocolate to make sure they’ll stick. {When I don’t do this, I have a lot of almond crumbs fall off when removing them from the tins.}

•      Place tray in fridge or freezer for 10ish minutes, or until hard. Gently remove from tins with a butter knife. I prefer to store these in the fridge, but they can be kept out at room temp also.

{tied up and ready to hand out for Christmas!}

• Need your pot for something else, but it's still full of chocolate you haven't finished making? Pour your chocolate into paper muffin cups, and let it harden in fridge or freezer. Peel paper off and add to the rest of your chocolate stash to remelt later!

Questions or comments? i'd love to hear them!

linking up at:

 />

love and Christmas treats,
amber.