These are a few of my favorite things.

It’s a little late for the post perhaps, but this is how I roll peeps.... behind the times, inappropriate and irrelevant.
Someday, it is my deepest wish to only gift things that I have handmade.  Because I am terribly untalented, and not especially crafty, for now I settle for buying handmade, when I can. 
Aside from the Snuggies, that we purchased for family this year (yes, that’s right, the blanket with sleeves, of late night television fame), I decided to try my hand at concocting some of my favorite treats for friends and family this year.


These are my cousin Cari’s amazing chocolate dipped apricots that I have been making myself for a few years now.  They are dried apricots, with an almond pit, dipped in dark chocolate.  I love them because between the fruit and nut and little bit of chocolate, you feel like you are eating something semi-healthy and yet satisfying your sweet tooth at the same time.  Next year, I plan to dip them in melted Toblerone.  YUM.


I make Peppermint bark of some kind every year, but this recipe, borrowed from one of my favorite food blogs, Orangette, really took it to the next level.  Dark chocolate ganache sandwiched between layers of Callebaut white chocolate, and crushed peppermints.  So good.   Hers looks much prettier than mine, but this was my first time around, and I don’t think too many people cared about how it looked, once they got it in their mouth.  The second attempt made for much prettier, even layers, and I will definitely make this again next year.




As part of a little package to go with the Snuggies, I had purchased some tins of gourmet hot chocolate and really wanted to try my hand at making home-made marshmallows, recipes for which I had been seen floating around the internet.   I was expecting major failure….. I didn’t have a candy thermometer, and I improvised quite a bit with the recipe, having only Rogers’ Syrup instead of Corn, and not even having quite enough.  Imagine my surprise when… Success!!  I will be making these again for sure!