Christmas Crack

UYou're bound to try this stuff at any Christmas party. Cookies, pies, cake and all desserts. But not many people have experienced Christmas Crack. There are several variations of this recipe, however I just stick to the basics. Christmas Crack is made with saltine crackers, brown sugar, butter and chocolate chips; topped with whatever you please.

Cookies are the way to my heart, but I just can't stop eating this Christmas crack! Recipe can be found anywhere but I followed Averie Cooks recipe here. Definitely a hit! Gonna put this in my Christmas give aways this season! 

Gift of Giving

Christmas is right around the corner! It's creeping up so quickly! Are you looking for a simple gift to gift to multiple people without spending much?! You may even have these ingredients a md materials in your home now! I know Christmas is costly but this gift was so easy, affordable and super cute!

I always see "mason jar gift DIY" on Pinterest and decided it was finally time.. 

Here, I made Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix with just a few ingredients! You can find that recipe here ! I also saw a ton of other recipes for this hot chocolate mix, but I didn't have dry milk on hand, so I adapted very easily. I added granulated sugar, cocoa, crushed candy cane, chocolate chips and marshmallows to create a decadent hot Cocoa mix! Other DIY gift ideas can be found here: I can't wait to try more!

Tie the Season!

We have officially started celebrating Christmas in our new house! After going to the most magical Christmas place in Hunt Valley, we found a perfect tree! 

This place had ornaments for EVERYONE, predecorated Christmas trees and decor for everything. I was in heaven, it took like one second to pick out our tree and thirty minutes to wander the winter Wonderland store.

We brought our tree home on top of Emilees car (hahahaha) and stopped at Target for decoration supplies and a Christmas tree skirt. With a slight power outage, we decorated our tree, listened to Christmas music, sipped on hot chocolate and had Home Alone 2 on TV. So perfect!

cookie craze 2013

So it's a little late... and I already made my new years resolution to eat less sugar, but I NEED to post on my 2013 Christmas baking. I created a little tradition where I bake mad cookies and give them as gifts to family and friends on Christmas day. I love baking and I wish I could eat every cookie that I make. Trying to keep my brothers from eating all of them before Christmas is quite the challenge. I think I had about 14 tins of cookies to give out this year! WOOOO :) Here are some of the cookies that made my A+ List :) Click on the photo for the link to the recipe!

First... these mayyyy have been the best cookies I've ever had. Especially warm.

Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies

Next, these were Jake's favorite. My brothers would go into the freezer to eat one (or many many more than one) when I wasn't looking. Pretty sure each tin only got one cookie at the end of it.

Cookies & Cream Cookies

Gotta love the Toll-House Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are definitely a staple of my Christmas.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Next, my FAVORITE!!!! I usually use my best friend's grandmothers recipe but this recipe is very similar.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Now, these are all OVER Pinterest and I had to try. Jake's girlfriend, Nicole attempted them and inspired me (as always). There were tricky but so worth it!

Swirled Sugar Cookies

These are also another favorite in our house... difficult to keep in the kitchen!

Chocolate-White Chip Cookies

I'm such a cinnamon person so Snickerdoodles were essential this year. 

Snickerdoodles

Last but not least, I ALWAYS use the same sugar cookie recipe. It's a hit! And we had a ton of fun baking them. The girlfriends came over and helped and Eric tried to help (not very successful)

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

I also made a ton of candy! Always a hit and it makes the tins look so decorated and festive!

Candy Cane Kisses

Peppermint Bark

Christmas Crack

The final products were SO cute! I distribute a few of each cookie/candy pieces onto each platter and label them with a holiday name-tag and a bow. That's my favorite part. "I'm like Santa!!" And of course we still have some cookies left over today...

SO many cookies! So I'm giving the mixer a break for now... xo