Holiday link party and giveaway

Everyone loves trying new festive foods and crafts during the holidays. Link up and help each other out with inspiration and see what everyone is up to this December.

This party will run from December 10th until December 20th. Link as many times as you like and don’t forget to stop by the other links.  Don't forget to enter our giveaway! The winner will recieve a couple gift cards to help with the last minute shopping and other great items. On December 21st we will be picking a winner for the holiday basket giveaway enter below!

Veronica from Morningnoonight

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      Cranberry Bliss bread
                                      
                                                 Candy Cane Popcorn

                                       
                                     Gingerbread-latte Cupcake with lemon

Amy from Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

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    Gingerbread Cream cheese dip

                                         
                                              Snickerdoodle Scones

                                         
                                             Hot chocolate bar






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An InLinkz Link-up

Hot Chocolate bar

I don't know about you but my absolute favorite cold weather drink is hot chocolate. Don't get me wrong I enjoy flavored coffees at the coffee chains and hot apple cider but hot chocolate takes you back to your childhood!
I recently hosted a game night and thought it would be so much fun to have a hot chocolate bar. I mean come on a giant pot of hot chocolate with all kinds of toppings and since it was all adults....alcohol  too.

This hot chocolate was easy and OMG delicious.


What you need
1 can sweetened condensed milk
6 cups milk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 cups milk chocolate chips

What to do
our everything in to a crock pot and mix until well combined. Cook on high for about 2 hrs. Be sure to stir every 30 minutes to make sure the chocolate chips are melting. Once all hot and melted pour into a cup top with fun and enjoy!

What I did for toppings
Mini marshmallows
Mini chocolate chips
Festive sprinkles
Crushed candy cane
Toffee pieces
Pirouette cookies
whipped cream
peppermint whipped cream

Adult add ins
Rum
Kahlua
Bailey's
Whisky
Amaretto
I had a friend that also brought marshmallow vodka, and something minty.

Snicker doodle scones

Snicker doodle cookies are one of my all time favorites and they are super easy to make, just like these scones! Why I had scones on my mind I have no idea, but I looked around for recipes for about a week and eventually just combined elements from about 3 different ones...mostly becuase I didn't want to have to buy much for them.


What you need
Scones
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh grated is the best)
1/2 cup cold butter
1 egg separated
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Buttermilk


Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla


Preheat oven to 400°

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in cold butter until crumbly. In another bowl combine egg yolk, sugar and buttermilk until well mixed add to your flour mixture until just combined. Flour your work surface and work your dough into a ball. Roll your dough out into a circle until it is about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. the thicker the circle the thicker the scones. Mine were about a 1/2 inch and I wish I had made them a little thicker.  Cut your circle into 8 even triangles, transfer to a well greased cookie sheet.

With a fork quickly whisk your egg whites until frothy. Mix your topping ingredients in a separate bowl.  Brush egg whites over the tops of the scones and then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mix.
Bake for 10-12 min.

While baking mix your glaze ingredients. Once scones are done and have cooled slightly drizzle over the tops and enjoy with a hot cup of coffee and a good book. That is if you don't have toddler running around and stealing every bite you try to take!

Gingerbread dip

Everyone who has toddler in their life understands they have a strange love for dip or as my little miss calls it "dip dip". We went to a play date this week and needed to bring along a snack to share. And with fall in the air and the holidays upon us I thought gingerbread just seemed to be a good flavor to go with. This dip works up quickly and is so yummy! I served it with graham crackers but it would be great on a bagel or someone suggested the top of a muffin or cupcake.

What you need

1 package of cream cheese

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup powdered sugar sifted 

3 tablespoons molasses 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice

a little bit of freshly grated nutmeg 

What to do

In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add in your sugars and beat until everything is mixed well. while your mixer is on low speed add your molasses one tablespoon at a time followed by your seasonings. I found that once I turned my machine off it needed a good stir by hand to get things off the side of the bowl. Put in a serving dish and chill for 30 min to let it stiffen a some before serving. 

Now lets talk a little more about gingerbread, like umm gingerbread lattes at Starbucks amazing and they haven't been released up here in the pacific northwest so in the mean time I am gonna drool over my friends Gingerbread latte cupcakes over at Morningnoonight!! Check them out and drool with me or better yet make them, pin them, love them!! 

Spinach and Kale Greek yogurt dip Trader Joes style

Do you shop at Trader Joes? I have met a lot of people that shop there often, I am not one of those people. The stores are always so busy its hard to look at everything and decide what looks good. But around there the stores seem to be a little large and easier to wonder around and find the fun things they have to offer...like everything under the moon in pumpkin...no joke. My husband fell in love with their Greek yogurt kale and spinach dip after we moved up to the seattle area. The only problem...you don't get much so its gone fast. So we did a little research and decided to start making it at home in larger amounts.


What you need
1 17oz container of plain greek yogurt
1 cup finely chopped spinach
1 cup finely chopped kale
1/2  bell pepper finely chopped
1 carrot shredded
2 garlic cloves finally minced or pressed
1 tablespoon agave or honey
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon Montreal steak seasoning my McCormick


What to do
The best way to get the best chop on your spinach and Kale is by using a food processor.

Put your Greek yogurt into a large bowl ans stir in your vegetables and seasonings. Taste to see if you want to add anything. The steak seasoning has salt in it but you may find you would prefer more salt or maybe more pepper, dips like this are great to add your own spin too.

Serve with vegetable or crackers!!

Halloween and fall link party

We are at it again this year!

We think everyone could use a few new recipes and crafts for Halloween and Fall this year so we are having our second annual Halloween/Fall Link Party.

It will run from Tuesday October 28th for two weeks until Tuesday November 11th and be linked on all three blogs so please make sure to stop by again and again to share and see what is new.

Crafts, Cakes, and Cats        Michelle's Tasty Creations     MorningNooNight

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Here's what your hostesses have been up to lately.....

Cutest Doc Around ~ Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Baked Apple Cider Donuts ~ MorningNooNight

Pumpkindoodles ~ Michelle's Tasty Creations

Maple Pumpkin Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Michelle's Tasty Creations

Crock Pot Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs ~ Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Caramel Stuffed Gingerbread Cookies ~ MorningNooNight

Frankenstein Cupcakes ~ Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Monster Eye Cookies ~ MorningNooNight

Pumpkin Maple Coffee Cake ~ Michelle's Tasty Creations

~ Now let's see what you've been up to ~

~A few things to remember~

Please only link up Halloween/Fall recipes, crafts, DIY, tutorials, printables, etc that YOU have created.

Please don't link up any Etsy shops, giveaways, or other link parties.

By linking to this party you give us permission to share your post on our blogs and other social media.

Please share this party by linking back to us in your post or by adding this party to your party page.

Be sure to stop by and visit a few of the other blogs that have posted; we all love to see sweet comments.

An InLinkz Link-up

Frankenstein Cupcakes

I feel like it has been forever since I got to make some fun cute cupcakes!! So when a halloween party got scheduled for our Mom's group here I signed right up to make a sweet treat knowing all along it would be cupcakes!! Then I found out the theme was mad scientist lab and I knew I had to try and stick with the theme! So of course I went to pinterest for ideas, there was eye ball cupcaks, cupcakes with bugs both good fits but I kept coming across these cute Frankesteins from Your cup of cake.

I am not gonna lie they were a little more difficult then I expected. I think she used more frosting per cake then I did but I remembered a little tip from another cupcake I did. A wet finger tip!! Yep that was my trick to these a cup of water and a wet finger.

 What you need
24 chocolate cupcakes baked in brown or black wrappers
Butter cream frosting
    1 1/2 cups softened butter
     4-5 cups powdered sugar
     1 teaspoon vanilla
Green food coloring
Red food coloring
chocolate sprinkles
chocolate chips
1 package of edible eyes


First step is to make your frosting, beat your butter and vanilla until creamy slowly add your sugar until you are at the consistency you like mine took probably 4.5 cups. Now take a small amount out (maybe 1/2 cup) and color the small amount red, and the rest will be green.

To start you need to pipe a large swirl on to each cupcake with the larges tip you have or a large cut hole in the bag you are using. I found that I used less which was for the best because I did not need to be responsible for giving a sugar high to 20 kids on one cupcake haha.

Step 1 swirl of green.

Step 2 & 3 (I failed in taking a picture of these steps)
          In a bowl pour out your chocolate sprinkles, take your cupcake with a mound of green frosting and dip the top of the frosting into the sprinkles and flatten the frosting.

step 3 dampen your finger with some water and smooth the sides around the frosting. Sprinkles will be sitting on top and the sides will be smooth.

Step 4 Add edible eyes and on each side of the "head" a chocolate chip that is now bolt in his head.

Step 5 with the smallest pipe tip you have or tiny hole cut into a bag pipe with the red frosting a stitch to each monster.

   
   

Cutest doc around

Happy Halloween!! Yep its that time of year and that means that soon we will be saying "Happy Holiday's"...lets not talk about that yet though....

This year for Halloween we are taking my daughter trick or treating for the first time!! So when it came to a costume it had to be something she knew and her favorite character is Doc Mcstuffins from Disney Jr. So that'ts what she is! Now Doc wears a cute little pink skirt with leggings but we decided to make this a little more costume like by adding a tutu of course!! For the most part I followed this super easy tutorial at the Pinning Momma blog. A few things I did differently was that instead of buying rolls of tulle I purchased by the yard. I picked 3 colors and bought 2 yards of each color, 6 yards in all.

I started this project during nap time which meant I couldn't measure little ones waist for the elastic so I used a pair of leggings for the measurements. Then cut the elastic just a little larger so I could overlap and sew up the elastic

I cut my strips and actually made a very puffy long tutu by folding my tulle length wise and so it was about 28' wide. After that I made my strips the same as in the tutorial by using a couple of pieces of cardboard the width I wanted each strip. Wrapped it around and cut down both sides. 

Leaving the tulle strips folded in half  I folded it in half again and then tied it on to the elastic, that I had stretched over the back of a child's chair. A book would also work well for this.

Crock pot Italian wedding soup with turkey meatballs

We have finally made our way into a house in seattle. Never in our dreams did we think that finding a house for our family to rent would be so difficult, the rental market here is insane!! But now that we are in a house I can work hard to get back into blogging.

My sweet little Zoey is gonna be 2 just after Christmas so not only am I not ready for the holidays I am not ready for my baby to really no longer be a baby but full on toddler. She is sweet but I am not gonna lie the girl has a set of lungs on her and isn't afraid to use them, usually just when she is letting you know she isn't ok with what you just did for her. One of her favorite lunches is Italian wedding soup..yes my daughter gets soup from a can sometimes. So I decided to make her some and of course her favorite part in the meatballs.

This is a simple crock pot meal and you can change it up as you like. For mine I used turkey for the meat balls and seasoned them how I usually do for meatballs but beef pork or combinations would be yummy or and chicken don't forget you could always use ground chicken.


WHAT YOU NEED
~Meat balls~
1/2 lb Ground turkey
Bread crumbs
Seasonings of your choosing (i chose garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, salt, pepper.
~Soup base~
64oz chicken broth
1 cup water


1/4 of an onion chopped
1-2 carrots chopped in bite size pieces (the smaller the the pieces the softer they will cook)
1/2 cup chopped kale
1/2cup chopped spinach
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup orzo

WHAT TO DO
Mix your meat ball ingredients ad create small bit size meat balls (at this point if you want your meatballs to hold up better then mine did i suggest baking in an oven for about 15 min) set aside.

Place the rest of the ingredients except for the orzo into the crock pot. slowly place your raw or cooked meatballs into the soup. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. During the last hour add your orzo.

Serve with crusty bread and some Parmesan cheese.

Chicken Pesto Bake

Do you have a green thumb? I do not but it would seem that I can keep basil alive, and that's fine by me because I love pesto!!! The best part of making pesto yourself if you can totally use as little oil as you want. I find that store bought pesto though yummy as a little too much oil for me. This dish is great you stick it in a pan put it in the oven bake and done. Oh and don't forget a side! But to me really it yells fresh and summer.


Pesto (you can use store bought)
What you need
2 Cups Basil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1-2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil-The amount depends on how thick you like your pesto. I like mine a little thicker and spreadable.

What you do
Pure everything except the olive oil until about smooth then slowly add your olive oil.



Chicken pesto bake
What you need
4 chicken breasts
About 1 cup pesto ( always feel free to use more or less)
4 slices provolone cheese

What you do
In a square baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray place your chicken breast. Coat the top of the chicken breasts with your pesto and place a slice of cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 35-40 min depending on how big your chicken breasts are.