Last Minute Homemade Gift

This week I wanted to do something extra nice for some people that work in an office.  There are six gals that work there, and they did something so nice for our family that I wanted to show my appreciation.  I asked them to tell me each what their favorite color was to wear (in hopes I could whip up some quick decorative scarves) and deliver them in time for Christmas.  I finished them up just last night and in the process, revisited an easy crochet pattern from last year and put a little twist on it I thought I'd share with you.

Fluffy waffle scarves in a variety of colors

Last year I had called this the "Quick 2-hour fluffy scarf", because it literally takes under two hours to make one.  The reason these work up so quick is because you use Thick and Quick chunky yarn and a huge over sized "N" hook. Here is a link to the post on it, and here is a picture of the scarf.

This thick and chunky yarn made for a super soft, warm scarf.  This time around I wanted to still use a soft and fluffy yarn, but much thinner, so the scarf would be more decorative. I stuck with lion brand but this time used their "Homespun" yarn.

This stuff is SOOO soft!  I often comment that it feels like "I'm crocheting a muppet".  It is a lot thinner than the original thick and chunky stuff, and it works up more fine and airy.  The trick is I was using pretty loose stitches and still using my trusty "N" crochet hook.  Man I love this "N" hook.  I found one with a smooth bamboo handle and it makes things move quickly.

I wanted to make this scarf long enough so that it could be doubled up in half and pulled through, so it could look more like a cowl if the owner wanted.  My link to the original scarf is the same pattern I used here, but to make it longer, I loosely chained 130 stitches.  Chain 4 at the end, then skipping the first chain, DC in the next chain.  Chain one, skip one chain and DC.  It's a pattern you do across the whole scarf to get that waffle effect.

This yarn is so light and fluffy that when you actually put it on, it collapses on itself and looks like a much more complicated pattern than it actually was.

I love that out of 6 women, they each picked their own individual colors

I am very happy how these turned out! Some days I actually made two of these in a row to try and get finished by their Christmas party today.  So by keeping the same pattern and large hook, but using a thinner, softer yarn, you can change if you are making the scarf for warmth or more decorative. Here is the link one more time on the how to to make a scarf like this.  Here is also a link to the original pattern I followed.  Now off to deliver my Christmas cheer...

Molasses Crinkles

One of the perks of teaching piano is that when Christmas rolls around, some of your students will bestow you with gifts!  Some bring cards or candles, and other times they give something they made themselves!  One of my absolute favorite, most talented students (and her mom) baked me some cookies last year.  They were delivered in a tall, pretty cellophane bag with a satin green bow and oh MY were they delicious!  Mr. D literally spent the entire week sneaking them out of my stash when he thought I wasn't looking, and so I thought, I need to MAKE a batch of these!

Molasses Crinkle Cookies

The student's mom (thank you so MUCH Mercedes) was kind enough to give me her family recipe and allowed me to also share it with all of you!  This cookie is easy to whip up, bakes into perfect sugary circles, is great for Christmas goodie trays, sharing with friends (and teachers), and has all the flavors of the holiday season baked in.  The molasses must be the secret ingredient to make these cookies have that perfect chewy factor while keeping the light crisp edges everyone loves.  This coupled with just the right amount of spices, and you've got yourself a new go-to holiday cookie!   Here are the ingredients you will need: (full printable recipe at the end of the post)


Molasses Crinkles

3/4 cup soft shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg 
1/4 cup molasses
2-1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger


Put the shortening and brown sugar into your mixing bowl and cream together

I doubled this recipe, these will go fast, I highly recommend making bigger batches

Add in one egg

then add in the molasses

Make sure everything is creamed together nicely

Next it says to sift the dry ingredients together, however I just added them one by one (I'm such a rebel).  Add the 2 1/4 cup of flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp of cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp of ginger, and1/4 tsp of salt.

Spices... they are the spice of life. (deep thoughts)

Make sure everything is mixed thoroughly

Chill the dough

Once the dough is chilled to firm, roll into walnut sized balls and roll in granulated sugar

Place on a silpat mat covered baking sheet

Silpats rock!  If you don't have any it's not to late to ask Santa to bring you some for Christmas

Bake at 375º for 10-12 minutes until soft set

By the time you pull the first pan out of the oven, your whole house will smell like holiday heaven!  The granulated sugar you rolled the chilled dough in bakes up into a shiny, shimmery topping.  So pretty!  I love the "crinkled" look the tops get, and I also love that each cookie is the same size and perfect round shape.

This makes them easy to stack high into a towering treat you can give away

 

Or, you know... eat warm off the tray with a cold tall glass of milk.  

No judging people, once you taste these cookies you will be hooked!  

This, by the way is a great way to use up extra molasses you might have around after some of your other holiday baking.  Come to think of it, the last day of school is only two days away.  While I had every intention of making all of my girls' teachers homemade ice cream like we did last year, I think I have run out of time.  I'll probably be baking a couple batches of these tonight and wrapping them up pretty for school on Friday. 

Go ahead and try these cookies and let me know what you think!  Full printable recipe found here.  Enjoy. 

Teacher Appreciation Gift - One Smart Cookie

Well it's the last few days of school for us and I realize we still need an extra quick thank you from the girls to their wonderful teachers this year.  Our homemade ice cream as a gift was a BIG hit before the Christmas break, but they wanted to try something different this time.  We have already purchased one of the teachers a very special book they had been wanting, but I thought something else with a homemade touch would be nice.  Also I thought it would be more thoughtful if it was something the girls could help contribute to.  We LOVE baking so I came across this cute free printable on Pinterest and thought I'd pass it along.

Idea, label picture, and adorable free printable from Iris over at her blog: Sweet Metel Moments

All you need is your favorite cookie recipe (I think we are opting for the easy toll house one on the back of the bag of chocolate chips) and a small box or container of some kind.  We will have a fun time baking them up this afternoon and pre-wrapping them in a plastic bag before placing them in the paper container.  Here is a link to the free printable (it will print three on one page of card stock)  Click here for link to the free printable:

Picture from Iris' blog -Sweet Metel Moments - by the way, these printed up beautifully!

Also here is a tip for getting these to print correctly (Found in the comment section of her blog after some people had some of the words not turn out correctly).  First, don't just print from the open file from the website, but save the pdf to your computer.  Next go open your adobe reader program and open the saved file, then hit print.  Cut it out, attach a pretty ribbon and you've got yourself a lovely little last minute gift of homemade gratitude.

Update:  Here's what we came up with for packaging.  We found these adorable boxes at the Dollar Tree.  It happened to be in the same shade of teal green that was on the border of the cookie printable.  I also found some matching teal ribbon in the Dollar Tree craft section (there was only one, I took it as a sign from God).

Just by making this teacher gift YOU become the "smart cookie"

I like how the cream color in the bottom of the box sort of matches the light brown shade of the cookies inside the word "cookies". Cute cute cute.  Alright, now I'm off to bake to fill these babies up.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

A few years back I was in charge of crafts for our MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) group.  One of our easiest and most fun hands on edible snacks were chocolate dipped pretzel rods.  They were a pretty big hit and made for wonderful gifts too.

It's really quite simple.  Melt some good quality chocolate chips with a little bit of vegetable oil or shortening, dip in your rods and roll in your sprinkles or toppings.  We were doing this on a grand scale of 50 women at one time, so we melted a giant 10-pound bag of chocolate chips from Costco into our crock pot.  

Ten pounds of melted chocolate.... you are welcome. (Try not to lick the screen)

If you are doing this at home with your kids or grandkids just take a bag of chocolate chips (and a tiny bit of vegetable oil or shortening) and melt for 30 seconds at a time until the chocolate is warm and ready for dipping.  It's a good idea to have all your toppings out and ready to go before hand.  We chose crushed honey roasted peanuts, mini chocolate chips, heart sprinkles, and red and white sprinkles.  Oh and here is a great tip for cheaper sprinkles.  Go to your local bakery (Fred Meyer, etc) and ask the baking department if you can buy some of their holiday sprinkles.  Often times they can give you a small container of them and you will get a lot more and it will cost a lot less then the tiny jars you get in the baking section.

Toppings, just ready for dippin'

 
For pretzel rods you want to buy the large ones, they come in a bag (usually in the chips section) but you have to watch out when you are buying them and try to find bags without any broken ones inside.

We found large paper plates worked good for each person to have their own "space" in which to create their dips

The crock pot was ideal in the fact that is was deep.  So try to melt your chocolate (if you are doing it at home) in a deep or even long microwave safe bowl so you can maximize dippage.  Another way is to spoon the chocolate over the area you want covered, or tip the bowl as you dip and spin the rod in the chocolate.

Dipped pretzel rods, fresh from the chocolate pond

 
Be sure to leave around 1/3 of the end not dipped for the "handle".  The dipping and dunking was the most fun we had that night.  Everyone loved the variety of toppings as well.  Because of our time constraints (a little over an hour) we ended up chilling ours in the big church fridge, so we could get to the cute packaging in time.

Imagine an unsuspecting church goer opening this baby up and finding liquid-dipped GOLD!

Of course if you are making these at home feel free to eat them as soon as your are done making them.  You can also let them cool on wax paper at room temperature, or in the fridge for 20 minutes to set up.  Store them in an air-tight container and they are best eaten in a few days.  I must say they make great gifts for care givers, teachers, neighbors, and friends.  An easy way to package them was only a quick trip to the dollar store away.

just a few bucks and cute packaging is yours

Some simple cellophane bags in holiday colors (that came with twist ties) and some free "thank you" printable tags, ribbon, and a hole punch was all that was needed to make these treats extra beautiful.

Who would not LOVE to get this as a little Valentine's thank you or pick me up?

So there you have it.  Just a few ingredients and a fun and yummy craft is within your arsenal.  This works great for any holiday by the way, just change out the colors of the toppings and the cellophane bags.  Enjoy and have a very happy Valentine's day.

Snowman Candy Box Thank You

I just had to share what my 5-year-old brought home as a gift from her Sunday school class last week.  It was so sweet and cute and I thought it would make the perfect little pick me up, or thank you to anyone you might know this month of January. Look how festive this snowman covered candy box is!

snowman covered candy with a cute mitten hat

Matter of fact this little guy was so adorable nobody has even had the heart to eat him yet.  He's been sitting on our mantle for the last week.  It dawned on me that if I wanted to make some of these I should research and see how he was put together.  I went in for a  closer look at him and it looks like they wrapped him around a box of...

snow caps for a snow man

Hey very clever, Sno-Caps.  I know you can get these at the $1 store so this makes this little present very affordable, not to mention you can tailor the candy for the recipient based on their likes.  The top of the snowman is adorned with a fuzzy pair of gloves (also from the $1 store) and tied with a simple thin ribbon.

A gift that is clever and useful... that's right up my alley

Around his middle was a black satin bow, making it look like a scarf.

I love you could change up the look by using fabric, plaid ribbon to make it more scarf-like

So now the only thing you need to make one of these is the free printable/downloads to pull it all together.  Of course you could just wrap some plain white paper around and draw your own snowman face and buttons on, but if someone wanted to make up a big batch of these I thought a print out would make it quicker.  I did a little bit of internet scouring and finally did come across a blog by Laurie Furnell that is offering the jpeg printable for free.  Hooray.  Not to mention you can resize it to cover other items such as microwave popcorn, life saver rolls, or a big candy bar.  She also has some cute pictures and variations you can do with the printable.  


Technical side bar:  By the way, once you get to her site and click on the link, it takes you to another site called Aimee Asher Boutique and it looks like you have to "buy" it or add it to your cart.  You have to sign in with name, email, address, click "checkout" but then it shows up as $0 and you can download it.  It is in the form of a zip file. If you have windows 7 you go to your downloads folder (after you have clicked download that is) and right mouse click on the zip file and hit "expand".  After a few seconds it will make a folder inside your downloads folder and you will see one labled "Laurie snowman Free", inside THERE is your free jpeg.  I little bit of a challenge to get to but I wanted you to know it was possible.  If you have any trouble, email me.  :)

So after that whip up a batch and hand them out to neighbors, baby sitters, dog walkers, receptionists, students.  Christmas of course is over but the spirit of giving should last the whole year through.

happy snowman candy box says take me home with you!

I'm going to remember this cute guy for next year, as I thought it would be a really cute gift the girls could give to their school friends and not break the bank.

Ice Cream - as Gifts!

Just a quick post as we are getting down to holiday crunch time, but I am always on the look out for creative gifts I can give neighbors, coworkers, and teachers.  I love to think outside the box and I was thinking especially of what I could give my girls' teachers this year as a Christmas gift.  I already had them fill out my free printable survey at the beginning of the year, so I know what they like and don't like.  I also talked to a lot of my teacher friends on what they would love to receive, because they tend to get an endless supply of mugs, lotions, and candles.  Suddenly it hit me!  I can make them homemade quarts of ice cream!  What?  I was so excited because we have had six months to perfect our recipes, and now it will make a perfect gift!

Quarts of ice cream - Makes for great little gifts

The nice thing about this is, you can tailor the flavor for the person you are giving it to. Since I knew ahead of time none of the gift receivers were lactose intolerant, I opted to make our family's favorite recipe, that also happened to be the very popular holiday flavor of Pink Peppermint.  I just had to go to Cash n' Carry (restaurant supply store) and find empty one-quart paper containers and lids.

The lids and containers were sold in bulk separately but now we will have them on hand for future gifts

After that we use our 2-quart ice cream maker and make a batch of our Pink Peppermint recipe.  I scooped one quart into each container while the ice cream was still in the soft stage and let it come to a hard freeze in the paper container.

Our Pink Peppermint ice cream has chunks of smashed candy cane in it, for extra peppermintiness.

Who wouldn't want to open a gift like this?

cool and yummy ice cream treat

After that it was just a matter of how I was going to present it.  I went and got some ice cream scoops and decided to attach them to the top of the present.  It got a little tricky trying to secure it to a round frozen container.  Let's just say I used extra tape on the bottom and the top to make sure it would stay.

working quickly to wrap as I didn't want the ice cream to melt

After that I made a simple card out of card stock.  Red card stock as the base and white for the message.  I had some old crinkle scissors lying around so I tried to make the edges of the white note fancier.  I added the "Thank-you for being such a cool teacher" to the front.  I used rubber cement to seal them together.

On the back I added a personalized thank you note and also explained what the gift was, ingredients, etc.

I actually did this late at night so I ended up storing these in the freezer with the scoops, ribbons, and all.

I just love the shiny little ice cream scoop across the top with all the curling ribbon

I added the labels last minute in the morning, because I wasn't sure what the rubber cement glue would do in the freezer.  After that it was only a race against the clock to get it to school (luckily it was close by) and present it to the teachers so they could get it to a freezer until the end of the day.  They seemed very excited about receiving their gifts!  By the way if you don't have the ability to make your own ice cream, you could pick up a quart of their favorite flavor and present it the same way.  I love it.  A little unexpected but very appreciated.  

Getting to Know Your Teacher - Male (free printable)

It was pointed out that my printable of 'Getting to know your teacher' I gave out yesterday was aimed at a female teacher.  I went back and retooled it a bit in case you have a male teacher (or wish for a more gender neutral questionnaire). There are no questions of favorite flowers, scented candles or lotions.  To tell them apart, I gave the second version a "star" border instead of apples.  Here is a sneak peek of what it will look like:

Feel free to click the link below and print it out on your home computer.

Getting to Know My Teacher (male) Click here

Thanks for the head up Robb.  

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I hope everyone has a great school year.

Getting to Know Your Teacher (free printable)

I know in some parts of the country, school already started a few weeks ago.  Around here school starts today or tomorrow.  I thought I would give you grade school moms out there a little back to school gift, to start the year off right.  It's a "get to know your teacher" free printable!  I made these for my girls two years ago and have figured out how to make it into a pdf so you can print too! I have my girls take this to school on the first day and give to the teacher.  The teacher (when they have a free second) can fill it out and send it home with your student.  Here's a sneak peek of what it will look like:

  
I thought the cute apple border was a nice touch!  This has really helped us get to know our teachers so much better.  Teachers do so much for our kids all year, and our kids are in their care seven hours a day. This is the perfect way to understand them better as a person.  Soon you will know many secrets, like when their birthday is, what their favorite baked good is, and if they have a favorite scent.  If you know that their favorite kind of candy is a Kit Kat bar, how nice would it be at the end of a long testing week to sneak a king-sized candy bar on their desk.  Do they drink Diet Coke religiously or do they love Wild Cherry Pepsi?  At Christmas time you will know exactly what kind of gift to give them, because you will know they are a huge sports fan, an avid scrapbooker, or that their Scotty dog is the love of their life.  I also learned invaluable things like our Kindergarten teacher does not like candles of any kind (candles are a common present for many teachers) because she owns birds, and apparently birds and scented candles do not mix.

My girls and I always try to make their favorite baked good and bring them a plate of it on their birthday with a kiddie hand made card.  Being thoughtful is the key here!  I think this is a win win for everyone.  You can get the inside track on the things your teacher loves the most (hello, brownie points) and at the same time, the teacher feels extra love and appreciation for the amazing  job they do every day.

So without much further ado, I give you the free printable:

Click HERE for the pdf and print from your computer.  Enjoy!

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Thanks, and have a great school year!

Muddy Buddies - Puppy Chow

We are expert Rice Krispie square makers around these parts.  The girls love to help make them, and we love dying the marshmallows different hues to make a fun and colorful treat.  We were looking for a totally new and different snack to make the other day, when we came across a recipe for Muddy Buddies.  Also known as "Puppy Chow" or "Monkey Munch".  Apparently animals everywhere love this stuff!  We happened to have a whole unopened box of Rice Chex up in the pantry and I thought let's DO this.

Muddy Buddies - The snack crack of the new millennium

You only need a few ingredients to make these yummy treats:

9  cups Chex cereal
1  cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

First, measure 9 cups of Chex cereal into a big bowl (lightly sprayed with cooking spray) and set aside.

Chex totally reminds me of my childhood

In a small (microwave safe) bowl, pour 1 C chocolate chips, 1/4 C of butter, and 1/2 C of peanut butter.

Be sure to make your pile of peanut butter as unattractive and unappetizing as possible....

The girls had fun measuring all these cups, half cup, quarter cups themselves and pouring them into the bowls.  Next you want to put the bowl in the microwave and cook for 1 minute.  Stir and do another :30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until completely melted together.

Mmmm.. melted chocolate and peanut butter

Add the vanilla at this time and stir until combined.  After that you want to immediately pour the chocolate mixture over your bowl of waiting cereal.

Next the recipe says to "pour mixture in a 2-gallon plastic zip lock bag"... Well hello there Chex executives, but my biggest bag is 1-gallon, who has a 2-gallon plastic bag?  Do they even make those?  Instead, I thought let's put it into the container we are going to store it in, and shake it with the lid on!  I'm sure I'll be nominated for some kind of mom genius of the year award for that one.  Once in the container, dump in 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, put on the lid, and shake your money maker (while shaking the muddy buddies).  Hubby wants to add, don't shake it too hard, rather slowly rotate it around till everything was covered in powdered sugar, you don't want broken muddy muddies.

Deliciousness is about to happen... I can feel it.

From this point on, my girls started calling these "Snow Buddies"... because the powered sugar coats everything and makes them white.  Okay, rather a grey/brown/white, but who's keeping track?  Pour your mixture out onto some sheets of wax paper to cool.

You have to sneak one to taste, it's the law

By this time, your whole house smells like you just made peanut butter cookies. It's awesome.  After they were cooled and dried out a bit, we put them right back into the container with matching lid and they were ready to store.  We of course, chowed down on them first.  They have a great flavor of that delectable chocolate peanut butter taste, plus an added bonus of crunch.  Sort of like if Reese's Peanut butter cups and powdered donuts had a baby with a rice krispie treats.  

Muddy Buddies as far as the eye can see...

I must warn you... these are hard to stop eating once you start.  That's why I want to rename them "snack crack".  Another few ideas are: You can package them up in baggies for school treats, preschool snacks, after school snacks, and these would even be great in a cute package for teacher gifts or Christmas gifts for neighbors.  Make a batch for your next movie night.  Enjoy!