So right now our lives are consumed with basketball, ice skating, and Christmas traditions, there are definately worse things! Even my usual "rest day" has been full of activites, but the holiday season is short so I will rock these dark circles and carol on!
So before we get to the goodies I have to share these photos from our little family photo shoot Saturday. Since my husband and I are aiming to be mostly out of debt by the spring family pictures were pretty low on the priority list. Luckily my sweet friend Desire has some awesome camera skills, a beautiful home, and was willing to take some snaps of us free of charge so I could send out some Christmas cards. I did bring her and her family some strawberry oatmeal bars, so hopefully they at least had full bellies.
So before we get to the goodies I have to share these photos from our little family photo shoot Saturday. Since my husband and I are aiming to be mostly out of debt by the spring family pictures were pretty low on the priority list. Luckily my sweet friend Desire has some awesome camera skills, a beautiful home, and was willing to take some snaps of us free of charge so I could send out some Christmas cards. I did bring her and her family some strawberry oatmeal bars, so hopefully they at least had full bellies.
I just love these! If you're just here for the recipes sorry, had to show off my littles just a little.
Alright, on to the goodies!
Our Wednesday night childrens classes at church recently did a sock drive for our local homeless shelters. They did such a great job and brought in so many socks! I volunteered to bring the winning class cupcakes and I had this great idea of making a s'mores cupcake I'd seen on Pioneer Woman,
I was a little too ambitous with that one. Turns out you need a lot of eggs and an egg seperator to make meringue, neither of which I had. So after a complete melt down on my part, with chocolate cupcakes already cooled and ready to ice, my wonderful friend Mandy sent me a message letting me know she had extra icing if I wanted it. YES!
So a quick meet up at school pick up and I had the hook up with some icing without dragging all the kids into the store. Thanks again Mandy!
I wanted something I could do with two to three colors because I only have two piping bags, so I came up with Santa hats and a fun swirl with sprinkles.
Our Wednesday night childrens classes at church recently did a sock drive for our local homeless shelters. They did such a great job and brought in so many socks! I volunteered to bring the winning class cupcakes and I had this great idea of making a s'mores cupcake I'd seen on Pioneer Woman,
I was a little too ambitous with that one. Turns out you need a lot of eggs and an egg seperator to make meringue, neither of which I had. So after a complete melt down on my part, with chocolate cupcakes already cooled and ready to ice, my wonderful friend Mandy sent me a message letting me know she had extra icing if I wanted it. YES!
So a quick meet up at school pick up and I had the hook up with some icing without dragging all the kids into the store. Thanks again Mandy!
I wanted something I could do with two to three colors because I only have two piping bags, so I came up with Santa hats and a fun swirl with sprinkles.
Santa was super easy, I divided out about one third of my icing and added some red coloring gel. I put that into my bag and piped with my "star" shaped tip. I just squeezed a little bit and kind of dotted the cupcakes and made little triangles.
I did the red first so that I wouldn't cover the white for the fuzz around the bottom and the ball on top. It took me about five minutes, and the kids thought they were adorable!
Next I did the swirl, I like to mix up icing colors because they look like I'm really fancy and know what I'm doing, when I really just watched a Food Network special and followed their directions.
Next I did the swirl, I like to mix up icing colors because they look like I'm really fancy and know what I'm doing, when I really just watched a Food Network special and followed their directions.
So I mixed up some green icing and scooped it into my bag, then added my left over red, put on my tip and started trying things out. At first you will get just one color, so I always make a couple starter dots until the colors get evened out.
An easier way to mix colors like this is taking two smaller piping bags, filling them each with one color and putting them into a larger piping bag. I didn't have any of those things so I made this work.
As you can tell it took me a couple of tries to decide on the swirl. I had been making some fun cupcakes at Halloween so that was kind of the limit of my icing skills. I decided a brain was not very Christmas-y and figured I'd try the swirl I think it worked out pretty well. I let the kids throw on some sprinkles and viola, fun, easy cupcakes you can take to any holiday party and they are way cheaper than buying 24 from the store, plus you get some bragging rights.
An easier way to mix colors like this is taking two smaller piping bags, filling them each with one color and putting them into a larger piping bag. I didn't have any of those things so I made this work.
As you can tell it took me a couple of tries to decide on the swirl. I had been making some fun cupcakes at Halloween so that was kind of the limit of my icing skills. I decided a brain was not very Christmas-y and figured I'd try the swirl I think it worked out pretty well. I let the kids throw on some sprinkles and viola, fun, easy cupcakes you can take to any holiday party and they are way cheaper than buying 24 from the store, plus you get some bragging rights.
My next event was a Baking party at my Aunts house with family. Now there were already going to be some delicious baked goods, but I knew we would want to snack on something while we baked. I needed something fairly easy and quick, as well as something I could preferably make the night before. Holiday Cream Cheese Wraps for the win!
Sorry, no fancy plating for these, we ate them up pretty quickly!
Holiday Cream Cheese Wraps
Ingredients
2 8oz containers of cream cheese
1 ranch packet
Fresh black pepper
8 burrito shells
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2 green onions
Holiday Cream Cheese Wraps
Ingredients
2 8oz containers of cream cheese
1 ranch packet
Fresh black pepper
8 burrito shells
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2 green onions
This is seriously so easy to make, it took me about fifteen minutes and I had seven rolls.
Cut up your onions and peppers as finely as you'd like
Cut up your onions and peppers as finely as you'd like
Mix up your softened cream cheese, pepper, and ranch packet
Spread it onto your shell and sprinkle your veggies on it
Roll up your shell
Wrap your rolls in cling wrap and put in the fridge for an hour, or over night
Take out about ten minutes before you're ready to serve and cut into one inch rolls
Spread it onto your shell and sprinkle your veggies on it
Roll up your shell
Wrap your rolls in cling wrap and put in the fridge for an hour, or over night
Take out about ten minutes before you're ready to serve and cut into one inch rolls
These were a serious hit! they were super yummy and looked so festive! I have a family Christmas this weekend and I may whip these up again.