Christmas Cookie Week Pt. 2

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies, Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies, & Candy Cane Kiss Dip

Is anyone else around here extremely last minute? I've been meaning to post this baby (since yesterday), and I've just been hammered with stuff! Working 10s, last minute plans with friends, and getting ready to leave for the holiday. So, It appears "Cookie Week" is a two week business. Don't mind me and my slack! So, these are my final cookies. Not to fret, I'll be posting a Peppermint Dip and Cranberry Brie pastry, as well. (Hopefully tomorrow. If not, I am BEHIND!) So, my fellow procrastinators, let's get to it.

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

These chocolate mint chip cookies are another that I make yearly. They're my brother's favorite, and , therefore, I feel obligated to make them! Plus they're delicious, and mint is just a Christmas flavor. Of course I need to make them. 

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2/3 c. sugar

2/3 c. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2/3 c. cocoa powder

2 c. flour, sifted

1 bag mint morsels of your choosing

How To:

In a large bowl, whisk together butter and vanilla. Using your hand mixer, beat in the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, and baking soda. Carefully mix in the cocoa, until the mixture is combined well. Slowly add in the flour, adding about a half a cup at each addition. Mix well! Now fold in the mint morsels. I used Nestle's dark chocolate and mint chips with a some broken up Andes mints. Stick this in the fridge for at least an hour. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325˚. Using a tablespoon, plop balls of dough on a greased (or wax paper-lined) cookie sheet. Bake these for 10-11 minutes. Let them sit on the baking sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a cooling rack!

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Anyone that knows me, also knows I will eat spoonfuls of peanut butter straight out of the jar. I'm pretty sure peanut butter is my first true love. So, of course, the perfect peanut butter cookie is needed.

 Ingredients:

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. peanut butter

1 1/4 c. flour, sifted

Extra sugar, for rolling

How To:

In a large mixing bowl, start by whisking the butter and vanilla together. Using a hand mixer, beat in the egg, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and peanut butter. Slowly beat in the flour. As always, I do about a 1/2 cup at a time. Beat this until it's mixed well. Eat the dough, because it's amazing. Pop this dough in the fridge, too. Also for about an hour or so. Preheat the oven to 350˚.  Use a spoon to scoop the dough out. Roll them into balls between your hands and roll in sugar. Place your little dough balls at least 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake these for 9-10 minutes. Let them sit for a minute or two, then transfer to a baking sheet. They're going to seem like they might need to be in there a little longer, but I promise, they don't. They're going to be chewy and delicious and heaven.

Candy Cane Kiss Dip

When you're entertaining on Christmas eve, it's definitely necessary to have more than just cookies. I'm sure, by now, they've all had their fair share of eating dough and an excessive amount of cookies. So, this dip is perfect. It also happens to be ridiculously easy. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

40 Candy Cane Hershey Kisses

1 (7 oz.) jar of marshmallow cream

4 oz. cream cheese

How To:

Using a double broiler, melt down the kisses. If you don't have a double broiler, boil water in a medium-sized pot. Place your kisses in a metal bowl, and set the bowl over the boiling water. Stir the kisses as they melt down. Once melted, beat in the cream cheese and marshmallow fluff. BAM!! You're done. Place this in the fridge until it's serving time. Serve it up with some chocolate graham crackers, or whatever else you can find!

Have a wonderful Christmas!!

Make It Monday

Christmas Wreath

What?! Oh, yes, yes, I'm still alive. Alive and kickin'! However, it was time to spend my time with friends and family, and that's exactly what I did. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I sure did. Boyfriend's birthday was Black Friday, and, of course, he drug me out into the hoards of people. But we were so accomplished! We finished over half of our Christmas list and got good deals! I guess, in the end, it was doable. I still don't like going out on Black Friday (please remember your manners and humanity!), but at least it was successful. I also got presents all wrapped up! Do you remember my DIY inspiration post? I absolutely love how they're wrapped. The brown paper wrap is actually packing paper from Target. $6 for 800 ft! Steal!!! The twine is from Michael's, and, surprisingly, the paper doilies are from Walmart. They have a few different sizes, and I needed multiple, but they're only $2 for a 10 pack! (:

So, it's make it Monday, and you may have gathered that I like wreaths by now. I had this whole idea planned out with "Do you wanna build a snowman?" lettered out on it, but that's a ton of work. and how on earth do you securely attach that? You don't. That's all. So instead, while bored at work all day, I sketched this little guy up and sent it off to boyfriend. He liked it, so done deal. It was cute and much easier!

What you'll need:

Grapevine wreath (size o' choice)

Christmas bow of choice (just make sure it fits nicely on the wreath)

Spool of litter ribbon

2 sheets of white felt

1 sheet black felt

1 sheet red felt

2 pearl beads sprays

2 frosted cranberry sprays

Hot glue gun and glue

*FYI, I bought everything at Jo-Ann's, in case you don't know where to find something.*

How to:

You can start where ever your little heart desires. I started by making my little snowman. Mainly because I didn't have the other parts of the wreath yet. For his body, I made 3 different size white felt flowers, like the ones in this tutorial. FIY your circles don't have to be perfect. I hotglued his little body pieces together and set him aside. Then, I just cut out 2 rectangles of red felt. The first one, I glued around his neck. The second, I tucked into the first, to make it look like his scarf was tied, then hotglued the end down to his body so it didn't stick out all crazy. Now just cut a top hat shape out of the black felt, glue a little sliver of red felt to the hat, and glue it to his head. Voila! Cute little snowman. I used some pearl beads for his buttons. You can use what ya like, or leave him naked. 

After I got the wreath, bow and sprays, I took apart the sprays. For this, all you have to do is pull the grouped bunches off the main stem, or just cut them off. Before you start putting those one, you might want to put on your bow first. All I did was take the twisty tie that typically comes on the bow, and twisted it around a branch of the wreath to secure it. If yours doesn't come with a twisty tie, take one off your bread or something. (; 

Tuck your spray fragments into your grapevine wreath and arrange them to look neatly disheveled (yes, that is possible). Hot glue the ones down that are feisty. Start wrapping your ribbon around the top fourth of the wreath, overlapping the wraps. Once you run out of ribbon, just hot glue the end down in the back. Final piece! Find a happy home for your little snowman and glue him on!

Make It Monday

Holiday Inspiration

You may have noticed that I went MIA last week. Maybe not, and that's ok! I needed to take a little mental break. I'm (for sure) an introvert, which means personal, alone time is pretty important to me. Life has been lacking that lately, and while that's ok for some, it's a little stressful for me. It was also my last week of training (10 weeks!). I completely take some of the blame for all of my anxiety over the past month. My work schedule was just too much for me to also get in the gym and also do my typical cooking and blogging. So for about a good month, month and a half, I haven't been in the gym. Going to the gym really helps control my anxiety. However, now I get to pick my work schedule, which means I made sure there was room for the gym. Not only do I miss the release of stress, I also need to get in there! It's holiday season, guys!! Ya gotta find a way to balance all that yummy food, right?

So, I'm about to start my Christmas crafting. I wish I could convey via internet how much I love Christmas decor and just the warm feelings that come along with it. Although I haven't made anything to show you guys, I have tons of ideas reeling through my head and tons of inspiration.

 

All the marvelous inspiration!!

Chocolate Mint Meringues

Peppermint Bark

Tiramisu Cheesecake Trifle

Mint Chocolate Delights

So, these things are what you have to look forward to! As for the DIY projects, I'll be taking little elements from each one. I have a total obsession with making presents look adorable. And of course, each year I have to top the previous year. That's just hard, ok? Last year, I made everyone's name out of wire and tied it on top of their present with a ribbon. Doubled as an ornament!

What are your DIY plans for the holiday season!? I love new ideas! Leave 'em below!