Peppermint Brownies and a shout out!

I know I have been unpardonably delinquent in posting. I am hoping to make amends by bringing you brownies. Electronically. Although if you want to stop by my house you can have actual, non electronic brownies. Which sound much better. 

I am a big fan of the much celebrated crème de menthe brownies. However, they are so rich you can really only eat a tiny bit and let's face it, when I'm eating brownies, I want a lot. And let's face it, there's several steps. And sometimes I don't want all those steps for fancy brownies. So I came up with my own invention last night. They're rich but not so much that I can't eat one... and a half. And maybe some crumbs in the bottom of the pan. I offer up my invention to you for your snacking pleasure. I hope you enjoy!

Since we're going for easy here, make a pan of brownies per brownie mix instructions. You might think I'm crazy but Aldi brownie mix is the best by far of any I've tried. I'm sorry if you don't live near an Aldi. Your brownies just won't be as good. 😞 My mom actually buys some while she's visiting to hoard away at home. If you get a different brand, get the fudgy ones.  

Ok, back on track. Make your brownies. I made mine in a pan that's a half size of a 9x13. Or you could use a 9x9. If you make a 9x13, I would probably double the frosting recipe. When they're cool, mix 1/4 c. butter and 1 c. powdered sugar with the wire whip until creamed. Add 2 T. crème de menthe and 1/2 t. peppermint extract and a few drops of red food coloring if you desire. Spread on your cooled brownies and add a few pieces of crushed candy cane or starlight mints. Ta da! Easy and pretty!

Ok, I hope you stuck with me through all that because I want to give a shout out to my sister who recently sent me something I didn't even know I needed but once you see it, I'm sure you'll want one too!

Yes, that's right it's a bag from mood!!!! (This probably means nothing to you if you haven't seen Project Runway.) It's awesome and huge and I'm super excited to use it. I don't get to NYC much  but next time I go, mood is on my list!!! A big thank you to my sister! 

It's already a merry Christmas around here!

-t-

Christmas craziness

Out of the four of us, I'm the only one with kids in school. If you have kids in school, you know this time of year is absolutely insane. Between shopping for gifts, keeping kids from tearing the decorations down (that's my two year old), and making sure everyone has socks/shoes/coats/hats/gloves when they leave the house.... Let's just say that my kids don't have socks about half the time.

Something has got to give. 

And don't even get me started on the "here's what our elf did last night that took me an hour to set up" or the "here are our gorgeously styled holiday pictures with no one screaming in them" or the "look at the amazing activities I planned for every day of the month in our Pinterest perfect countdown calendar" Facebook posts. It's amazing we all survive December. Our elf has yet to make an appearance this year, our Christmas card pictures (if they in fact make it to a card) will be from our vacay, snapped on a beach with an iPhone, and my countdown calendar is so disorganized - I think we are about four days behind, and I'm pretty sure one of those days the activity is "drink hot chocolate." Not exactly spreading goodwill towards men. 

And then there are the gifts for teachers. Ah, I wish I had a dollar for every conversation I have had with other moms about this. I could pay for post-holiday therapy. Or at least a massage. It's so hard to figure out - what do you get them?? Certainly not one more thing with an apple on it. What teachers do you give gifts to? Just the classroom teachers? The dance and private music lesson teachers? Each and every staff member at your elementary school?????? I can't make that decision for you - but I can show you something relatively easy and altogether lovely to make for gifts. 

If you have not yet discovered the joy that is making sugar scrubs, I highly recommend it. They are quick, easy, and are a nice change from some of the usual gifts. This is my very simple version of a sugar scrub. 

First, you need coconut oil (this is the ginormous size from Costco). 

Spoon some out into a bowl. I made a ton of scrub when I did this, and used the whole tub of oil. But I did it in two batches. 

Then dump sugar in. I used boring old granulated sugar - but it works fine. 

The measurements on this aren't exactly precise. When you mix it, you will get a feel for the consistency, and change it to what you like. If you prefer a crumbly, high-roughness scrub, add more sugar. If you prefer more of the moisturizing and softness of the oil, not as much sugar. 

You will also want to add oil for scent. I just use baking oils, they work perfectly fine. This will be candy cane scrub, so I used peppermint. And I may have poured the whole tiny bottle in. But you use your discretion. You like how I'm giving you so many choices???

Mix mix mix. 

I wanted mine to end up candy cane striped, so I split it in half and colored half of it. With food coloring for baking. It's all good. 

Then it's pretty easy!! Get a jar, start layering. 

I stuck my fingers down inside between every layer and evened it out. 

Keep layering until it's filled up!!

Pretty. Or it would be if my pics weren't so terrible. Sorry. 

Half of my tub of oil (which was about 27 ounces) made this many scrubs. And my containers were probably a little big. But they were cute. I will probably make a tag (and by make I mean scour Google images until I find a cute printable. But that's me.) They make a great gift, you can get several gifts taken care of with one batch, and your hands will be lovely and soft afterwards!! 

Merry Christmas! 

-k-