A little bit of chocolate

OK, here's the deal. I love making Christmas treats for my friends and neighbors as presents and just to show that I care. It's a fun excuse to get a few different ingredients and get a little more involved in the kitchen. (Well, for me at least.)

The hard thing about living in a student area, or where everyone leaves to go to their home homes, is that I have to really be on top of my game to get things done in time. That time is coming, so I stopped at the grocery store today to pick up my supplies for treats, including the Mint Thins Ritz mentioned Monday. (Funny that her nickname is Ritz and the recipe calls for Ritz crackers??)

I get home...and my roommate has made a disastrous mess in the kitchen...and she's not one to clean it up for a few days at least. And I HATE cooking in a messy kitchen; I simply can't do it. So after putting off cooking when I got home, and then finishing some to-do list stuff, going to the gym, and visiting a friend leaving tonight, I return home ready to prepare. Not that I expected any differently, but the kitchen is still a disaster. Normally (it happens quite often) I clean it up, but it was beyond what I had time to do tonight. (How is that possibly in just one evening?!?) I even cleared off one section of our counter space before I realized that my extensive Christmas cooking projects would take more room, make more of a mess, and would take too much time to both clean the kitchen and complete. Which is why today I am only sharing my plans and some idea links.

I'm still really excited about these treats so I'll post pictures later. Promise.

Ok I think the theme for this post will be things dipped in chocolate. It just seems Christmasy doesn't it?

Mint Thins: I didn't get the Mint extract the recipe calls for, but did get some peppermint candy canes and spearment drops. I'll crush this to get the minty taste, plus a cool looking outside.

Chocolate Candy Canes: (She has some good pictures) The idea is to be able to use these in hot chocolate to add extra chocolate taste, plus a little mint. I'm couldn't find peppermint sticks so I have canes, and am not quite sure how to wrap them or make them look cute to give out.

Chocolate Cinnamon Bears: Do these need any more explanation?

Last year I used pretzel sticks and made a caramel sauce that they were dipped in. I did a few with chocolate too, but didn't have actual melting chocolate and burned my melted chips. Which is why I LOVE this tip (not so much the cookies) from this video tutorial for making Rudolf's Christmas Cookies.





See 1:35
Pour almost boiling water into a bowl.
Put the chocolate chips in a zip-lock bag and place in the water.
Wait about 5 minutes while the chips melt.
Cut off a corner of the bag and drizzle away.

How easy is that!