Red Hot Firecracker Ice Cream

 The other day my son told me his girlfriend was so good to him.

He's five.


(Eyebrow-raising is allowed here.)


After I got over being speechless (This has never happened before.  It was an odd feeling),  I asked him what he meant by that, and he said: "Well she's not Trouble like that song on the radio about girlfriends who are just TROUBLE."



T. Swift...  What would I do without you to teach my children about dating??

Seriously.  I don't know.

Will you write a book?

 


This recipe was inspired by a flavor I saw listed on the wall at a local frozen yogurt store.  As soon as I read it I knew it needed to happen for Valentine's Day, so I melted Red Hots into my favorite vanilla ice cream recipe and studded it with more Red Hots.  We love it!  It is cinnamony without burning your face off, since it is sweetened up by the ice cream.  The Red Hot studs give it a little kick and you can adjust the "hotness" by adding more or less of those.  Definitely kid friendly and significant-other friendly.

Except only if they're not Trouble.

Obvs.

Cranberry Walnut Cinnamon Cream Cheese

My New Year's Resolution this year is one word:  Balance.

In everything.

I am an OCD perfectionist.  If I do something, it needs to be done 110%.  Which makes balancing things really hard.  I'm not great at juggling lots of things.  I get stressed out easily.

I am great at developing tunnel vision and spending an entire week a) reading a whole book series b) making forts with my children, creating snack drawers for them with little baggies of portioned snacks, and laminating everything in sight to use for an  upcoming preschool unit c) opening a closet to find a mess and spending the week reorganizing every drawer, closet, shelf, and crevice in the house (that was last week), or d) baking, photographing, and blogging 13 recipes and posting them all in one day.


This tunnel vision method just isn't working for me.  I want each day and each week to be balanced.  And it's ridiculous how hard this is for me, and how much of an adjustment it is for me to live that way.  It is taking awhile but I think it is coming along.


Obviously my other New Year's Resolution involves eating copious amounts of bagels and cream cheese, because they're so healthy and everything.


Derr.

Snowball Pecan Cookies {Mexican Wedding Cookies}

I think this is it!  The last Christmas recipe.  Well, there may be a few more, but they are recipes that are appropriate year-round so they don't really count, right? 

I love Mexican wedding cookies.  Or Russian teacakes.  Or whatever their Italian name is.  The point is that they're crumbly, and sweet, and nutty, and I always figured they were hard to make. 

Turns out they're super simple and are so much better homemade.  These are easily the best Snowballs/Mexican wedding cookies/Russian teacakes/Italian wedding cookies I've ever had.

(If these cookies had a personality it's pretty obvious they would be Schitzophrenic.)

My only complain is fingerprints get left in their pretty white powder pretty easily.  I solve this problem by eating all the ones with unsightly prints.

Peppermint Herringbone Brownies

Winter is the time of year I get incredibly frustrated with blogging and usually disappear for awhile.  It's ten degrees outside.  There's no light.  All of my pictures come out dark and grainy.  And it's really annoying to work hard on something and have the pictures not do them justice.

Apparently I need to start my Christmas baking in August or something and take all my pictures then. Although personally I'd prefer to take the easy way out and move somewhere habitable.

Forgive me for the terrible picture, but just know that these herringbone brownies are gorgeous in real life.  Gor. Geous.

Also delicious.  

Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider Granita

Okay... only 17 days late.  Here is the dessert I made for New Years Eve this year.  100% kid friendly and only two ingredients.  Plus, it looks fancy.


It's not.  It's basically a slushie.


Don't tell anyone.

Pink Peppermint Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches

These little peppermint Oreo ice cream sandwiches were my favorite new creation of the Christmas season.  They are SO good. 

Chocolatey.  Pepperminty.  Cool, creamy, and delicious.  

Plus they're bite-sized little babies, so obviously they're low-cal...

Right?

Peppermint Pretzel Candy Bark

Last year I found some really cute Reindeer candy corn bark over at Your Homebased Mom.  I decided to do a peppermint version since I already had white chocolate peppermint M&M's, peppermint marshmallows, and Peppermint Jojo's from Trader Joes.

Literally as I'm making my version I noticed a picture on her sidebar...

SERIOUSLY??


Right down to the Jojo's.

It's hilarious how people share brainwaves sometimes.

This bark was so yummy.  The pretzels really make it unique and keep it from being too crazy sweet.  Also, its super easy so it's a great thing to whip up last minute when you remember people you haven't given Christmas treats to yet...

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

It feels odd to post all these Christmas treats in January, but I decided it made no sense to save them until next year.  (By which time I probably would have lost the pictures or accidentally deleted the posts.)  This last December was CRAZY for us.  I think I was sick 21 of the 31 days of the month, and amidst Christmas preparations, going on vacation, and baking up treats for our friends, I literally had no time to get these recipes posted.  I hope you don't mind me going back into Christmas mode for awhile, but I promise Valentine's treats are coming soon!  

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  Thanks for sharing some of your time with me this year!

These dark chocolate cupcakes are filled with peppermint whipped cream and topped with peppermint marshmallow buttercream, and peppermint candy pieces.

Terry's Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Early last month I developed a cookie recipe based on my favorite Christmas treat, Terry's chocolate oranges.  Right before Christmas I decided a cupcake version needed to happen as well.

These were scrumptious & had the perfect combination of chocolate and orange.

Nom. Nom.

Now i really want a chocolate orange.