Cookie Sheet Cookies & Christmas Greetings

I can't believe how FAST Christmas has creeped up on me!  There were so many cute things I wanted to bake and make. I didn't even get around to making any of our traditional Christmas cookies, but my husband and I do have a date in the kitchen set to make my favorite Christmas cookie~candy cane cookies!

To satisfy myself and handily make many cookies at once,  I baked some cookie sheet cookies! They were made using a sugar cookie recipe and iced with gray royal icing.  A playing card was used as the template for the mini cookie sheets. I also used some silver luster dust to make the cookie sheets look more authentic.  After it dried I attached the mini "cookies" with royal icing.

And look at all the "cookies"!  There's candy cane cookies, gingerbread men, and sugar cookies!  All of the "cookies" are made with either jumbo sprinkles, or pre-made (purchased) icing decorations.  For the snowmen "sugar cookies", I decorated the jumbo white sprinkles with edible markers.  How easy is that?

Making these did help me feel a lot better about not making the larger, "real" version of all my favorite Christmas cookies:)  Try it; they're very easy and fun!  I think they look pretty cute too.

All eight of my munchkins, together at last!

Refugio State Beach

Nov. 26, 2011

(I wish I could post this photo "extra large", but it won't fit in the format, and cuts off  two of my munchkins! I hope Santa was listening when I told him I wanted a professional blog makeover for Christmas!)

As cute as the cookies are, the cuteness factor of my munchkins far exceeds them (grandmas have bragging rights ya know:))  We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! 

I'd like to thank each one of you for your friendship and support!  I had no idea that this blog would bring with it so many rewards:)  Food bloggers are some of the nicest people on the planet! I look forward to continued association with all of you in 2012!

A real gingerbread boy:)

See you next year!

XO, Sue

Linked to:

I'm Lovin' it Fridays
Inspiration Friday
These Chicks Cooked
Sweets for a Saturday
Weekend Wrap Up Party

Elf Hat Peppermint Popcorn

Last year, inspired by Shelly's (Cookies and Cups) darling Santa Hat Party Mix, I made a Snowman Hat Snack in  January.  Since I'm ahead of the game (barely) this year, I knew a Chrismas-themed snack would be in the cards.  How about some Elf Hat Peppermint Popcorn? :) The peppermint popcorn idea was a sure thing after I saw Bridget's (Bake at 350) fabulous Peppermint Popcorn Crunch...YUM!

Edible Elf Hats

I did make a couple of modifications determined by the ingredients I had on hand, but I was happy with the results.

Elf Hats:
1 bag of bugles original flavored snack, 7.5 oz. bag
7 ounces of green candy melts (half of a typical bag)
red m&m's milk chocolate candies
sprinkles/colored sugar

Place a piece of wax paper on a work surface before you get started. Open the bugles and set aside the amount you will need for your elf hats (I made about 3 dozen) on the wax paper. Place some red m&m's in a bowl. Melt the candy melts as the package directs. Use a fork and dip each bugle in the green melted chocolate one at a time, until completely covered. Place a red candy at the tip of the bugle while the green chocolate is still wet. Place on wax paper to dry. Do this for each hat.
Once they are all dry, re-melt the green chocolate, dip the bottom rim of each little hat in it and then dip it directly in the sprinkles, or whatever you are using to decorate the rims. Set on wax paper to dry.

Peppermint Popcorn:
1 cup of unpopped popcorn
10 oz. package of m&m's candy cane kisses
1 cup m&m's red & green milk chocolate candies
salt to taste
canola oil

Pour oil into 4 quart sauce pan to cover bottom of pan.  Dump in all of the unpopped popcorn and cover with pan lid.  When the popcorn starts to pop, shake the pan over the heat until the popping stops. Add salt to taste. Divide the popcorn between two aluminum-lined, rimmed baking sheets.
Unwrap all of the candy cane kisses (while watching your favorite Christmas movie), and melt them in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave.  Start melting for 1-minute and then 30-second increments until all the candy is melted and smooth. Pour evenly over all of the popcorn and mix.  At this point, also add the m&m's candies so that they will stick to the popcorn (I forgot to add them at this point, so they were loose in the mix).  Let dry.

Add the elf hats to the popcorn and gently toss.

This recipe made a BIG popcorn bowl of Elf Peppermint Popcorn! I snacked on plenty, and packaged a bag for each munchkin, near and far. It was very tasty~sweet and salty yumminess! 


ENJOY!

Linked to:
These Chicks Cooked
Sweet Treats Thursday
Crazy Sweet Tuesday
I'm Lovin' it Fridays
Inspiration Friday

Gingerbread Men Sandwich Cookies

Today I am "In Katrina's Kitchen" as part of her cookie extrvaganza!  Hop on over there to see my gingerbread men sandwich cookies as part of her "I'll Bring the Cookies" event!

Rudolph's Nose~Cookie on a Stick {Easy-Peasy}

The plan was,  I was going to make Rudolph nose cookies (on a stick) for all of my munchkins when they were here at Thanksgiving, take a photo, post it here, and maybe even make it into a Christmas card.  That was the plan, but somehow when everyone converges on my home, many of my well-laid plans fly out the proverbial window. Of course I remembered my idea after 6/8 of the munchkins returned to Texas and Nevada:(  Sigh.

Now onto the easiest cookie on-a-stick ever...

I used a sugar cookie dough, rolled it out, grabbed a small (1.5-inch) biscuit cutter and went to town cutting out reindeer noses. I then inserted popsicle sticks and baked them. When cooled, they were iced using red (AmeriColor Super Red soft gel food paste) tinted royal icng.  While the icing was still wet I sprinkled on red decorating sugar. Let dry completely.  

That's all there is to it! I told you it was easy~peasy:)

How cute would these Rudolph Nose cookies on-a-stick be for a party favor or photo-op? As you can see,  very cute!

HAVE FUN! 

Linked to:
Lovin' it Fridays
Sweet Treats Thursday
For the Kids Friday
Christmas in the Kitchen
Weekend Wrap up Party
Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party
Sweets for a Saturday
Holiday Food Blog Hop

Sweets on a Stick~Book Giveaway! WINNER ANNOUNCED!

 Update~Comment #9 was chosen via random.com:

drmithome said...



Looks like a fun cookbook. Thanks for the giveaway.

Congrats drmithome!  I will contact you ASAP!


Thank you to everyone that entered!  I truly appreciate your support!


I have been a fan of Linda's blog, Bubble and Sweet, for a long time! She makes such beautiful treats, and I refer to her as "The Fondant Queen" because of her fabulous work with fondant. If you haven't visited her site, you are really missing out! You need to click on the link right now! :)

I was so happy when Linda announced that she was having a cookbook published. And then I was very surprised and thrilled when she let me know that I would be included in the acknowledgements for helping her out with baking ingredients/terms, which sometimes differ between the United States(my home) and Australia (Linda's home).  SO SWEET!

Linda also graciously gave me this copy of the book for the giveaway (I have a copy for myself too! ) for one lucky winner!  I am thoroughly enjoying looking through the book and am having a hard time deciding which treat to try first!?!

This giveawy is open to U.S. residents only.

How fun are these Big Mouth Monster Pops? :)

(photo from book)

Included in the giveaway is also a $30 gift voucher to http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/ which will definitely assist you in trying out Linda's recipes.

Adorable Chocolate Pie Pops~Yum!

These are just two of the 150 fabulous pops that are included in the book.  If you'd like to order a book for yourself (just get a closer look) or another baker on your Christmas list, this book would be perfect! Here's a link: 

http://www.amazon.com/Sweets-Stick-Kid-Friendly-Recipes-Candies/dp/144053005X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323101976&sr=8-1#_

As an added little bonus I have a cute collection of cupcake liners that I picked up at Ikea (my only purchase from a 6-hour round trip:)) to throw in with the book and gift voucher.

The liners are 3-inches all the way down to 3/4-inch (.75). The tiny ones are the reason I bought these:) 

This photo shows two packs just so you can see the underside of the liners. The top (unopened) package is for the giveaway.

To re-cap~

One winner (remember-U.S. residents only) will win:

1.  Sweets on a Stick book

2.  $30 Kitchen Krafts voucher

3.  Cupcake liners 

This giveaway will end on Friday, December 9 at noon, P.S.T. GIVEAWAY ENDED!

The winner will be chosen through random.org. and will have 48 hours to respond before an alternate winner is chosen.

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment, and make sure there's a way to get a hold of you...either a link to your email, or your email address within your comment.

Thank you and GOOD LUCK!

P.S.  THANK YOU, Linda!



Reindeer Nose Cookies

Once again I was inspired by a cute and easy Christmas craft that I found on Pinterest, Reindeer Noses, from the blog, A Personal Touch.

The original noses were "made" with candy, but I thought it would be fun to make them instead with iced sugar cookies:) This is the easiest sugar cookies you will ever make!

Using my favorite sugar cookie/royal icing recipe, and a small (1-inch or so) round cookie cutter, I whipped these little noses up in no time at all.

I already have five jars packed up for the oldest munchkins (the other three are infants).  Now I just need to make some cute tags and send them off.

Each half-pint jar has 9 mini cookies: 1 red nose for Rudolph and 8 brown~1 each for Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

How cute are these for a sweet, little snack?

Your own munchkins will have fun nibbling on these noses:)

Linked to :
Inspiration Friday
Sweet Treats Thursday
I'm Lovin' it Fridays
Weekend Wrap-up Party
Sweets for a Saturday
Recipe of the Week: Holiday Cookies
A Themed Baker's Sunday