Things I Love Thursday // 12.10.20

Here we are again, taking a few moments to escape the harsh reality of our times and think about some small pleasures. I hope you enjoy this week's list of the Things I Love...

zoom happy hour with "professor baker"

Greg's team from across the country "met" last night in zoom for a virtual gathering to celebrate the season. We all wore ridiculous holiday sweaters and accessories and learned to make two themed cocktails with Professor Baker who was warm, funny, and knowledgable. The drinks were festive and as we consumed them, the gathering became more and more festive as well ;). Featured here is the "Christmas Morning Old Fashioned" and if I ever actually drink one of these in the morning, you can rest assured that I will accomplish absolutely zero for the rest of the day. This recipe makes one cocktail: 1/2 oz real maple syrup, 3-4 dashes of bitters, 1 tsp vanilla extract (I know, but it's so good!), 2.5 oz Cognac. Build in a glass and stir. Add ice and stir for another 15 seconds. Garnish with a rosemary sprig and a candy cane.

lap warmers

Listen, it's chilly outside.  It's also chilly inside. Our house still boasts original windows in many of the rooms --so it's fairly drafty. This is a great reason to celebrate lap warmers. The two best lap warmers in our house are Richard Parker and Avery Piper, but I won't rank them because I don't want to hurt Piper's feelings.

camellia cream

There's a reason why this item was featured in my Holiday Gift Guide post! With the chillier weather, comes dry skin for me. While I do use this amazing body cream year-round, I am especially grateful for it in the winter months. It's texture cannot be beat. It glides on in a velvety finish that is not "wet" or sticky feeling. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the ONLY lotion I can apply and NOT feel like I have to wash my hands immediately. Plus, it smells insanely good. Get you some: Japanese Camellia Cream from The Body Shop (not to be confused with bathandbodyworks). 

"the amazon coat"

People have strong feelings about this zippered coat. I feel strongly that it's very cute, has held up incredibly well, and keeps me toasty all winter long. This year, it comes with a faux fur collar option and I recently found out that it now comes in kid sizes too! Just look how adorable my friends are on the soccer sidelines!

holiday treats

My favorite treats, of course, are the ones that friends and family make for ME. The very best of all-time has always been my mom's homemade peanut brittle. Many of you know that we lost my mom this fall in a swift and brutal battle with cancer. She has passed the recipe and the skills to my sister, Felicity, so there's still hope. If you have some littles around, these reindeer cookies are fun to assemble. (Even if you're not planning to make them, you should visit that link and check out the Jonesies when they were wee.) Santa Hat Brownie Bites are a fun treat for all the holiday parties we won't be hosting or going to this year too! No recipe needed: Add a dollop of stiff whipped cream or white frosting to a pre-made brownie bite, top with a trimmed strawberry. Add a small "topper" of cream for the pom. Know that if you try to use "loose" whipped cream, that wet strawberry is going to slide right off!

advent calendars

I mentioned my love for advent calendars last week. The 99¢ ones from Trader Joe's that feature small pieces of milk chocolate are a yearly tradition. (I'm also very happy to be indulging in the Godiva one that my friend, Tracie, gifted me this year.) Tracie also found one from Aldi that features CHEESE. Can't wait to get my hands on one of those next year. When the girls were tiny, I found a great wooden advent calendar in the shape of a house. As with all advent calendars, this one has doors and cubbies. For most of the days, I put two pieces of candy inside; however, I will also scatter about 5-8 clues (in the form of very poorly written poem/riddles) behind some doors that point the girls in the direction of a small gift hidden in the house (chapstick, ornaments, their annual nutcracker, etc.). I think I might love this tradition more than they do. Advent "calendars" like our house can be found it lots of places. Try Marshalls, TJ Max, or Home Goods for a deal. Amazon has some great options too. I LOVE this white house one with tiny drawers! It comes in two sizes. The same (highly rated) company makes one that looks like a gingerbread house too. This ornate, light-up option has amazing reviews! The drawers appear to be on the small side --but the sweet details might make up for that! AND in case you're still considering getting the "12 Days of Beauty" installment from Trader Joe's, you have until this weekend to gift it in the hopes of starting on time for an accurate countdown.

this makes me laugh

Thank you to my friend, Brad, for sending me this funny. I laughed out loud. It's completely accurate. I do love my air fryer!

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Sweet Halloween Treats

I was inspired by So Yummy's Halloween treat video (which I caught a few weeks ago on Facebook). Have you seen the video I'm referring to? It's mesmerizing. I actually find all of their food videos to be very compelling. And because I need very little reason to justify an opportunity to make some sweet treats, I thought we should organize a Halloween party for the girls and a few of their friends!

2020: I've updated the links in this post to facilitate online ordering of the more hard-to-find supplies for those who are skipping/limiting in-person visits to public places. Affiliate links generate *huge* (LOL) earnings on my end. ;)

I decided to dive in with the girls to see how successful we might be at recreating some of the cute ideas. Plus, it turned out to be a great way to celebrate a random Monday off from school. Knowing how much sugar I would be sending them home with (and they would be consuming along the way), I threw in some fruit, veggies, and some (not-so-healthy) chips & dip. Because, balance.

In case you missed it, here's a link to our video inspiration: 7 Sweet & Easy Treats to Make for Halloween by So Yummy. We didn't take on all seven --but we did tackle FIVE! Most of the ingredients were easy to come by. Purple jimmies (sprinkles) were sold out everywhere so we went with a different shape. The black licorice laces had to be ordered online. Note: the tall jars that I used for the green melts, I just ended up throwing away because after much soaking and scrubbing, there was still so much mess left inside. :(  I will link the more obscure ingredients below for online shopping; however, I was able to find a lot of these ingredients at our local grocery store. I'd bet you could find them on the shelves at Target, Walmart, or Michael's too.

Before you get started, make a "landing station" for each kid (big blank boards pictured above). We worked on one treat at at time and when we were finished with each creation, they transferred their treat to their boards --knowing this would be a sturdy surface they could take home. Pro Tip: Ask your guests to bring a cookie sheet from home that they can load and leave with at the end of your party. Before you begin, remember to show the kids the 7 Sweet & Easy Treats video so they have an idea of what they'll be creating.

[Printable Shopping List]

Peanut Butter Cup Bats

Reese's peanut butter cups

Oreo cookies

small candy eyes

icing for adhering the wings

The trickiest part of this treat was breaking the Oreos into the right shape. But the best part of this treat was eating the rejects. Use the scraped filling from the cookie to adhere the wings to the peanut butter cup. (Cookies will break if you spread too firmly --so consider having a little extra frosting on hand for this step.) We discovered that placing the "wings" either way (up or down) resulted in an adorable bat.

You can see that I had six kids (5th and 6th graders) working side by side. I made two sets of topping/supplies that I placed at either end of the counter/table and everyone shared. Line each individual "station" with wax paper, paper towels, spreading utensil, etc. and divvy up the bigger ingredients (Reese's cups, Oreos for this treat) to each kid. Work one treat at a time.

Frankenstein Monster HoHos

HoHos

green candy melts

purple or grey sprinkles

candy corn

small candy eyes
white sprinkle for the mouth

These Frankenstein Monster HoHos turned out to be a little tricky. We found that when we dipped the HoHo into the melted candy, the heat from the candy pulled the chocolate from the HoHo. Not cute. There must be a secret ingredient to those candy melts in the video --maybe oil? In the So Yummy video, the green candy melts were definitely more smooth and workable than the melted candy we were working with. Instead of dipping, the girls improvised and began spreading the candy onto the HoHos with plastic knives. Their sweet Frankenstein Monsters still turned out super cute!

Chocolate Cupcake Spiders

chocolate cupcakes

chocolate frosting

chocolate sprinkles

black licorice laces

Red Hot candies

I baked the cupcakes the day before and kept them in tupperware overnight. If you can only find the black licorice wheels (best price online so linked above), you'll need to unwind and pull them apart so they are the right shape --or just go with the thicker "legs" for your spiders. This was a very easy treat to create. If you're planning to do a Halloween party for younger kids, I recommend this as a sweet activity for your party-goers! You'll have them entertained and working to create their own desserts. Win-win. Not pictured below, but an excellent and less-messy way to get a thick coating of sprinkles is to frost the top and then turn it upside-down into a shallow dish of sprinkles. The sprinkles will cling to the frosting and you'll have way fewer dotting your countertops and floor! Also, put your sprinkle dish in a rimmed baking sheet on the counter, that way when stray sprinkles make their escape, they land in an enclosed area --much quicker for cleanup!

Creepy Monster Pretzel Fingers

pretzel rods

green candy melts (linked above)

sliced almonds

We found it much easier to work with the green melted candy when we used the sturdy pretzel sticks! This was another of the easier/simpler treats that would be excellent Halloween treat/activity for younger kids too. The tall jar was key in getting the melted candy up the pretzel far enough --of course, you could spread it along with a knife again too.

Purple Oreo Cyclops

Oreo cookies (double-stuffed are strongly recommended)

blue candy melts or purple candy melts

purple sprinkles

large candy eyes

lollipop sticks

Apparently, I didn't capture any pictures of the girls making these. They were certainly the trickiest and I had my hands full helping --which is probably why I didn't take any pictures. ;)  According to the video, you insert the lollipop stick and then dip the Oreo into the melted candy. Again, our melted candy was not nearly as smooth or workable as the candy in the video. When they tried to dip, the Oreos fell off the sticks or broke. Using their knives, the girls just frosted one side instead. Still cute!

After they were finished making their Halloween treats, we enjoyed some Halloween Punch that my friend, Trisha, made (including dry ice smoke and frozen hands). It turned out a beautiful purple-red color and was delicious. The floating hands of ice made it especially festive! Her recipe is below. She filled rubber gloves with water and froze for the spooky ice cubes.

Halloween Punch

Equal parts:

100% juice orange juice

grape juice

7-Up

Each guest left with a tray full of spooky treats to enjoy (with our without siblings) during this spooky Halloween season! 

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Getting Crafty | A Birthday Terrarium for Daddy

The little Jonesies decided that for his birthday, they wanted to make their dad a terrarium for his office. Terrariums are all the rage these days so I thought it would be no problem gathering the supplies we needed to put something together. In fact, I assumed I could find an easy kit that contained all the essential "ingredients." HA!

After finding the BEST online tutorials (there are 7 in this thorough series), I knew what we needed; the trick was in finding all the necessary elements. I had a little driving around to do. The gravel and charcoal were acquired from the pet store (fish department). The jar, pebbles, and rocks came from Michaels craft store. The moisture loving, compatible micro-plants came from the nursery. I found (way too much of) the horticultural fabric at Home Depot. And to avoid having to purchase a huge bag, the small amount of potting soil needed was gifted from our gardener neighbor, Miss Amy.

 I'm not going to go through all the steps because I know I won't do a better job than you can find over at the tutorials. But here is our process in pictures. The girls were very involved and we had a lot of fun getting our hands dirty for daddy.

He LOVED it!

We were sad to see it leave the kitchen table and have immediate plans to make another (with all our leftover supplies) to keep at home.

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