Just the Two of Us: Holiday Cooking & Baking

I’m not particularly fond of cooking… dinner is a chore and I definitely stick with quick, easy meals. But for some reason, I do enjoy cooking for holidays and events – everything from the big, traditional dinners to Paula Deen bring-on-the-butter baking. I had so much fun making all kinds of holiday treats this Christmas! And even though I try to use healthier alternatives for ingredients – reduced-sugar and lower-fat – I still made myself a bit sick eating so much of the rich foods. Yumm. Love. :)

So many of the other blogs I read have posts on cooking and step-by-step. I decided it would be fun to photo-journal my kitchen creations. :)

Holiday Party Mix
I’ve been making this stuff forever, but not for the past few years. I decided to go for it again, and make some up to give out to coworkers as a little Christmas treat. Click for the recipe.

The ingredients

The caramel coating looks like a kooky science experiment while cooking :)

Time to get my upper body workout. You have to *work it* to stir this stuff and try to get an even coating. Stirring every 15 minutes and 2 batches later… achy times.

After it cools, you mix in chocolatey festive goodness.

Bag it up, slap a label… cute + yumm.

I took J uptown to my office and we handed out the goodies to coworkers…along with riding elevators and looking down at the big city from the CEO corner office – he LOVED it. :)

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
I saw this recipe in a magazine, and it was lust at first sight --- “I MUST have you” ran through my mind, many, many times.

Ingredients --- I did substitute less costly Nestle mint+chocolate chips for the crème de menthe stuff.

Mixin’ it all up. Yum.

Ready for the oven!

Delish defined. I think these take the prize for my favorite this year!

Pretzel Turtles
I always make this recipe at Christmas – usually get rave reviews and people are always surprised at how easily they are made!

Easiest ingredient list ever – pretzels, rolos, pecans. That’s IT.

Hardest part? Unwrapping rolos. All lined up and ready to get melty!

A few minutes in the oven, and then all you do is squish a pecan on top! Then try to be patient and wait to enjoy cooled salty/sweet/chocolatey/caramel-gooey/nutty bliss.