Hello friends… greetings from freezing cold Alabama!!
Speaking of Alabama, some of you have asked about Bama Belles, a TLC show that was filmed in our hometown that includes our friend Josh… yes, we’ve been watching!
Next up, did one of you email me telling me that your child’s bird dog t-shirt was too small and you wanted to exchange? Either I dreamed this or deleted your email. If wasn’t a dream, would you email me again and we can get the next size up in the mail to you asap!?
And… THANK YOU for all the wonderful Gingerbread Cookie Recipes! I can’t wait to pick one and try it with the kids. I need to call Mom and tell her to forget going out to the barn!
Ok, now for what I actually came here for today… my date with Paiger Raiger! Saturday afternoon Justin took Morgan on errands, Rover was sleeping and Raiger and I had a slam up good time in the kitchen. She loves to be in the kitchen with her momma. When we were at the farm over Thanksgiving she helped Mom make sweet potato casserole & green bean casserole… I sat and listened to every word. Mom taught her how to pack brown sugar, drain green beans, and she just soaked it all in! She wants to help in the kitchen every opportunity she’s given and it’s my pleasure to have her help. I believe the kitchen is a wonderful place for children, if you’ve been reading for long, you probably already know this. I have the most wonderful memories of my mom always inviting us {even as young children} in the kitchen to allow us to help her and teach us about whatever she was making.
So, on our agenda was Alton’s Brown’s Hot Cocoa & Homemade Marshmallows for our friends for Christmas!
I made the marshmallows last winter and knew it was a perfect recipe…
They’re kinda messy but not hard to make and really delicious!! And the marshmallow cream {before they set} is warm and between the two of us, we could have eaten the whole bowl with a spoon!
I busted her, on more than one occasion, taste-testing the powdered sugar/corn starch mix that was set aside for dusting!
While they set we moved on to the Hot Cocoa mix. It called for dry/powdered milk and the reviews suggested “dry whole milk” as opposed to “non-fat” which lacks creaminess! This “Nido” was the only whole milk powder I could find but it worked perfect {and was in the same aisle as the non-fat}! It also called for Dutch processed cocoa, the only I could find was “special dark” but next time… I will go with regular cocoa {even if not Dutch processed}, because this hot chocolate is DARK chocolate hot cocoa and kind of a dark brownish/grey color when mixed with hot water! Live and learn!
The recipe also says to just mix the ingredients together but I wasn’t particularly pleased with how the mix wasn’t completely incorporated…
So I threw it in the food processor and pulsed it a few times so it’d be extra smooth! Worked like a charm!
We put the marshmallows in a cellophane bag and tied it with raffia to a mason jar full of hot cocoa mix and finished it off with a cute tag from pixelimpress!
I got a little crazy on a couple of the bags of marshmallows and added one drop of peppermint oil before adding the marshmallows to the bag… mmmm, divine! But the kids, of course, didn’t like the peppermint ones. I also tried a few toasted, and oh my goodness, they might be better toasted than they are in hot chocolate!!
Santa also came to see me a little early this year, he came via Fed Ex and this is what he brought…
Which made me really, really HAPPY! I don’t know if you saw Coton Colors in the sponsor post, but they have this fabulous “Happy Everything!” platter {that is really big} and I am now the HAPPY owner of one. They have a whole slew of attachments for all different celebrations! I’m buying some for Christmas gifts and from now on will never have a problem picking out a gifts throughout the year… every one gets attachments! Easy, genius, & fun!
Ok friends, I’ll be back soon with some ideas from the archives for fast-approaching Christmas!!!
