Festive Trees

Festive Trees

You may be setting the dinner table for the holidays and realize you need a centerpiece. We have the perfect, crafty idea for you this season. All you will need is some old magazines, spray paint, and/or glitter. Make sure the magazines have a binding in them. Don't use the magazines that are stapled together (they don't work as well).

First, you will break the binding.

Next, you will start to fold the pages and create the tree. Take the top left corner of the front cover and fold back down towards the bottom. You will basically make a right triangle. You will fold the entire magazine until you have one big triangle.

The next step is to fold the magazine again. You will repeat the actions from the last step. Once you fold towards the center there will be a small leftover wing on the base of the new triangle.

The last step of making the tree is to fold the smaller triangle up into the folded page. This will hide your wing and make the bottom of the tree flat.

Now all you have to do is decorate your tree! We used white spray paint and silver glitter. 

You can use any color you wish. If you want to create festive holiday colors I would suggest green, white, silver, even blue could look pretty. 

This project could be an easy craft made by your kids and could make a beautiful centerpiece for the holiday dinner. These festive trees are great for getting into the holiday spirit!

Peppermint Bark Brownies

If you haven't tried these brownies, you're barking up the wrong tree. These Peppermint Bark Brownies are the perfect dessert for the Holiday season. Let's get started!

2/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons dark or dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

For Topping:
6 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3 to 4 candy canes, coarsely chopped or crushed (about 1/2 cup)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Line the bottom and sides of a 8-by-8-inch pan with parchment paper, leaving a slight overhang on two edges. Wax paper could work but you might have a little more trouble pulling off the brownies.

Sift together flour, cocoa, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or a medium-large bowl set over gently simmering water. Stir until smooth, then remove from heat. 

Whisk in sugar and stir until slightly dissolved and mixture has cooled slightly.

Whisk in eggs, vanilla, and peppermint extract until just combined (do not overmix). Sprinkle flour mixture over top and fold in to chocolate mixture using a large rubber spatula until just incorporated. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Gently melt white chocolate and shortening together in a double boiler or in short bursts in the microwave on low power (white chocolate is very fragile and so you want to be sure you melt it very gently). Cool slightly and then pour over brownies. 

Crush candy canes and sprinkle over top. Put in fridge to harden chocolate. Cut into squares, pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy!

The great thing about these brownies is that they are PERFECT for anytime of the year. Just take out the peppermint extract and candy canes. For Halloween, sprinkle some candy corn on top. For Valentine's Day, find some pink sprinkles and serve to your loved ones!

snowman

Do you need a perfect gift for someone special this Christmas?  Well look no further.  We have the perfect thing for you, a snowman.
Now this isn't any ordinary snowman, this is a masterpiece that is filled with joy.

Ingredients:
One half-pint canning jar
Mini marshmallows
Black paper or fabric
Paint
Hot Glue(Optional)
Extra half-pint canning jar(Optional)
Ribbon or scrap fabric(Optional)
Hot Chocolate mix(Optional)

To start with you need a half-pint canning jar.
Fill the jar with mini marshmallows, nearly full.  We used large marshmallows because we did not mini ones.  It did not work as well as we wanted but we made due.
Next we want to cut the fabric or paper into the brim of a hat.  This pretty much is a circle with another circle cut in the middle, it should fit just on the outside of the jar.
Then we cut another piece of paper or fabric into a long strip for the actual hat part.  This is just a strip of paper that we wrap around the lid of the jar.
Next we will paint the face on the front of the jar.  You can do whatever you want but we did a classic snowman face with eyes, an orange nose, and a smiling mouth.
You can be done here if you want and it would look like this.
You can also continue and for that you need your second jar.  You want to take the jar and fill it with hot chocolate mix.
Then take the lid and hot glue the top of the lid to the bottom of the other jar that is filled with marshmallows.
Next you need to wrap a strip of fabric or paper around the middle of the snowman to create a scarf for him.  This should be a black or red color.

Here we are gluing the hat together.                                                        Here is the hot chocolate mix.

The final product looks like this.  We substituted a pink ribbon for a red or black one.  The red or black one would look much better.  You can also add another layer, you could put peppermints in on a bottom layer.  Just adding to the coolness.

Anise Hard Rock Candy

Around Christmas time when I was young I remember my mother braking a pan of hard red candy with a mallet into little shards of white powdered deliciousness.  Anise candy is a quick and simple desert for the holidays.  This candy, with little ingredients, can be made in bulk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
• 1 cup of water
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon oil (can use any flavoring oil)  
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring

Prep time: 15 min.

Cook time: 45 min.

First get all of your ingredients together to make sure you don't have to run to the store.  Next, find a medium sized pan and cover and roll the edges of the pan with 2 16 in. square pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil. Make sure to sprinkle the foil very generously with confectioners' sugar.

In a large heavy saucepan or dutch oven and combine the white sugar, corn syrup, and water. Then heat over medium high, stir it constantly until the sugar dissolves. Stop stirring, and boil until a candy thermometer reads 300 to 310 degrees F.  If you don't have a candy thermometer than fill a cup with cold water and then to check if the candy is done you drop a little bit of the boiling candy into it and if it hardens as soon as it gets into the water than it is done.  Note: We cut the ingredients in half and boiled till the candy thermometer read 280 degrees F to make a smaller batch.  Ours served at least 24 people but it normally serves 48.

Finally, stir in the cinnamon oil (we used cherry but you can also use almond oil or actual anise oil) and food coloring.  Pour the finished product into the foiled pan and allow it to cool and harden.

Wait for the candy to harden for at least 2 hours and then sprinkle more confectioners' sugar over the hard candy.  Then, brake the candy with mallet into little shards.  Note: store the pieces into an airtight container.

Peanut Butter Cup Bars

Peanut Butter Cups Bars

Are you interested in a different Christmas treat? 

Christmas is right around the corner and what better treat to serve than quick and easy peanut butter cup bars! These yummy treats will have your guests begging for the recipe.

Prep : 30 minutes

Yield: 1 large jelly roll pan full or 48-60 cups

Ingredients:

½ package graham crackers, rolled fine

1 lb powdered sugar

2 sticks butter melted

2 cups peanut butter

3 bags milk chocolate chips

1 teaspoon shortening

3 tablespoons peanut butter for decoration

small cups (optional)

mini muffin tins

steps

1. Crush the graham crackers. We used our hands and crushed them.
2. Place the butter in a medium sized mixing bowl and melt the butter in the microwave.
3. Add the peanut butter, graham crackers, and powdered sugar to the butter. Using a wooden spoon, stir until all ingredients are incorporated; you could add more graham crackers to make the bars less sticky.
4. In a glass measuring cup melt the chocolate 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each cooking interval. When the chocolate is almost melted, let it sit for about 1 minute. The heat from the chocolate will melt the remaining chips.
5. Stir the shortening into the melted chocolate.
6. Press the peanut butter mixture into a pan and spread the chocolate on top. Throw it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set up and you are good to go!

Peanut butter mixture pressed into the pan.

melted chocolate spread onto the bars.

we cut circle shaped cut outs. 

                                                                             

recipe adapted from Claudia Halterman

1. Crush up the graham crackers. I use a mini food processor. these are so great and can be purchased for under $10 at Wal Mart.
2. Place the butter in a medium sized mixing bowl and melt the butter in the microwave.
3. Add the peanut butter, graham crackers, and powdered sugar to the butter. using a wooden spoon, stir until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. In a glass measuring cup melt the chocolate 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each cooking interval. when the chocolate is almost melted, let it sit for about 1 minute. the heat from the chocolate will melt the remaining chips.
5. Stir the shortening into the melted chocolate.
6. put the cups in the mini muffin tins
7. place about a teaspoon of chocolate in the bottom of each cup
8. roll the peanut butter mixtures into balls and place on top of the chocolate
9. add another teaspoon or so of chocolate on top of the peanut butter ball and smooth it out with a butter knife.
10. melt 3 tablespoons of peanut butter in the microwave and then drizzle it over the top of the cups.
11. slide them into the refrigerator to let them sit.
12. When i am in a hurry...or quite frankly, just out of patience i press the peanut butter mixture into a pan and spread the chocolate on top. throw it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set up and you are good to go!

Festive Turkey

Fun Fall Turkey Craft

Want a festive craft that the whole family can do together? Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Maybe you don't have a center piece for your table. You can gather up the family and make this cute creative turkey.

Step 1: Gather all your supplies together (Not Pictured: light and dark yarn, glue gun, scissors, and tape).

Step 2: Grab 9-inch polystyrene ball and your dark-brown yarn. Start wrapping the ball neatly until it is fully covered.

Step 3: Take colorful construction paper (or in this case we used earth tone colors) and start cutting them into turkey feathers.

Step 4: Bend each feather in half (lengthwise). 

Step 5: Place your wooden craft sticks (We found wooden dowels cut in half worked better) on the back of the feather and adhere with tape.

Step 6: (optional) To make the turkey feathers more realistic, you can rip the edges to make it more rugged.

Step 7: Wrap a 4-inch polystyrene ball with light-brown yarn. 

Step 8: Using a wooden dowel, insert it into the light-brown polystyrene ball.

Step 9: Push the light-brown ball into the dark-brown ball

Step 10: Insert three wooden dowels into the bottom of the turkey to make it stable.

Step 11: Arrange the feathers into a fan shape on the backside of the turkey.

\

Step 12: Glue black pom poms (we used a snippet of a pipe cleaner) to the quarter size eye cut out of white felt.

Step 13: Glue a red felt wattle (made by cutting felt teardrops) underneath the light-brown ball.

Step 14: Place the yellow beak an inch underneath the eyes.

Materials:
9-inch polystyrene ball
4-inch polystyrene ball
Thick dark-brown yarn
Thick light-brown yarn
Wooden dowels (cut in half)
Felt (black, red, white, and yellow)
Colorful construction paper

Instructions: Wrap large sphere neatly in thick dark-brown yarn, covering surface completely; knot on bottom. Wrap a 4-inch ball from light brown yarn and attach to body with a wooden dowel. Create simple facial features using felt: white circles (approximately the size of a quarter, with 1/8-inch pom-poms for pupils) for eyes, yellow triangles for the beak, and long red felt teardrops as the wattle. Cut feather shapes from colored craft paper and bend in half lengthwise to create seam. Glue wooden craft to the bottom third of the feather and insert in a fan shape on turkey body.

In addition: You can customize your turkey by writing messages of thanks on the feathers. You could also do small turkeys for place card holders out of two sizes of marshmallows, toothpicks, and frosting.