Monday, November 19, 2007

Jar Mix Recipes, Snowman progress and this and that!

Boy I've been busy and you wouldn't think it seeing that I'm finally down with a cold....you know the one that has been circling around like a predator, just waiting to attack??? I was pretty good at evading it but I don't know what happened......guess I let my guard down for a minute cause it pounced on me like an orangutan on a banana!

So I'm here, not feeling wonderful, but not dying either, just here, still crafting and cooking of course. If I don't go 100 miles a minute then I don't feel right!

Anyway, a couple of you asked for the recipes for the Jar Mixes I'm making, so here you go, pull out the pencils and paper or just copy the whole thing to a text file or whatever you're doing....get ready to do it.

Minty Holiday Candy Cookies


3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 packed brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup holiday-colored candy-coated chocolate pieces
1/3 cup chopped peppermint candy

Layer ingredients in 1-quart food storage jar with tight-fitting lid in following order; granulated sugar; brown sugar; combined flour, baking powder and baking soda and salt; chocolate pieces; and peppermint candy.

Seal jar. Cover lid with fabric circle, if desired. Attach gift tag and fabric to jar with raffia or ribbon.


Cranberry & White Chocolate Scones

1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

Layer ingredients in 1-quart food storage jar with tight-fitting lid in following order: combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; whole wheat flour; and sugar. Place cranberries and chocolate chips in plastic bag; seal bag. Add bag to jar.

Seal jar. Cover lid with fabric circle, if desired. Attach gift tag and fabric to jar with raffia or ribbon.




Now these are the drink mixes, the jars in the picture above are small 8.oz ones.

FLAVORED COCOA MIX IN A PINT JAR

Flavors: Amaretto, Hazelnut, Vanilla, Irish Creme

Ingredients for Jar


Mix the following 3 ingredients in a small bowl:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons flavored powdered coffee creamer
1/2 cup dry milk

1/2 cup chocolate flavored drink mix (like Quik)

(flavored coffee creamer is available in several flavors including the ones listed above)

Place Ingredients in Jar in This Order:


Place half the milk mixture into jar.
Place half the chocolate drink mix into the jar next.
Add the remaining milk mixture.
Add the remaining chocolate drink mix.
Decorate the jar.
Attach recipe below to jar. Name cocoa by the flavor you chose.

______ Cocoa

  1. Empty cocoa mix into a large mixing bowl.

  2. Blend very well with a whisk.

  3. Place mix back into jar or a container of your choice.

  4. Place 2 tablespoons mix into a cup. Add 1 cup boiling water and stir until completely dissolved.

  5. Top with whipped cream if desired.


CREAMY CAPPUCCINO MIX IN A PINT JAR

Flavors: Amaretto, Hazelnut, Vanilla, Mocha Almond and Irish Creme

Ingredients for Jar


Mix the following 3 ingredients in a medium bowl:

1/3 cup dry milk
2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar ( regular white sugar, not powdered)
2/3 cup flavored powdered coffee creamer

1/3 cup instant coffee

Place Ingredients in Jar in This Order:


Place half the milk mixture into the jar first.
Place coffee into the jar next, spreading evenly.
Add remaining milk mixture.
Decorate jar.
Attach recipe below to jar. Name coffee by the flavor you chose.

Creamy ______ Cappuccino


  1. Empty coffee mix into a large mixing bowl.

  2. Blend very well with a whisk.

  3. Place mix back into jar or a container of your choice.

  4. Place 2 tablespoons mix into a cup. Add one cup of boiling water and stir until mixture is completely dissolved.

  5. Top with whipped cream if desired.

There ya go, those are the ones I'm making this Christmas. The ones in the jars above are actually Gingerbread Cocoa Mix. It's YUMMY! Just follow the directions for the Flavored Cocoa above and use Gingerbread Powdered Coffee Creamer.

Now yesterday Curt took the kids to a birthday party and since I wasn't up to going I stayed home, of course that meant I would throw myself into cooking and crafting seeing as I had a quiet house and didn't have to worry about kids taking supplies or touching everything around me.
Tell me that is not the cutest thing you've ever seen???? I'm in love with these snowmen and can't wait to get them all done. Oh and BTW Barb, if you have twigs, send them my way LOL
I can't for the life of me find twigs in my yard, is there a Twig Thief lurking the neighborhoods???

Anyway, as soon as I finish this one I'll post the pictures so you can all see what it looks like. Here are the directions too, they're SO easy to make.....just click on the image to see it bigger:


Now while Curt and the kids were gone I looked over to the counter and saw two beautiful Butternut Squashes, just sitting there all cute, one was actually leaning up against the other, not sure if it was tired or just sad knowing what thought flashed across my mind. Butternut Squash Puree! OH YEAH.......Head on over to my Food Blog to see the recipe.

And while they were cooking I realized that I couldn't just sit there and do nothing, I mean, that's not normal for me I actually get the hives if I sit on the couch and pretend to be relaxed.....so in order to stop my body from breaking out I looked over to the other counter. I tell you I never realized that looking over at counters could be so interesting or productive LOL

I saw an empty small koolaid plastic canister that I had saved for.....well......for whatever I wanted to do....just as quickly my mind said "Hey, you need a pencil holder for the gazillion pens and pencils around the house AND you have scraps of fabric that would look OH.SO.PRETTY". I jumped off the couch, grabbed my glue gun and set to work, just wait until you see how cute it turns out.

Here's step by step of what I did, Jasmine and Nicholas both want one for their own bedrooms now....to hold their crayons you know?

Take empty plastic canister and make sure you've washed, obviously.....the canister, I meant washed the canister, not YOU. Pick out a fabric you want to use, don't worry that it's too long, we'll cut off the excess at the end.

Using a glue gun, start glueing the fabric around, starting at the top and making sure you're right up against the edge, continue glueing all the way around.

At this point I cut off the excess fabric leaving just enough to go over the other fabric already glued, I did however make a little fold so it looks neater.

At this point you can also cut off the excess fabric on the bottom.

Grab some scraps of cotton lace you have laying around, or ribbon or whatever you want......you could even do raffia like I'm doing for Nicholas one, cause you know, he's a boy and I doubt he would want lace. Actually he probably wouldn't care, but Curt wouldn't be too thrilled! *snicker*

TADA! In a minute I had this adorable pencil holder, is that not the cutest thing you've seen in a while? (probably not, I'm sure you've seen something else cute) Now my mind is in overdrive and I'll probably do this on a ton of empty canisters etc, for the bathroom, for the craft area, for the office area, in the kitchen.......possibilities are endless! You can even find fabric to match the bathroom decor or the kitchen or whatever.....see what I mean??? I'm just babbling on about it, maybe I should write it all down, I'm bound to forget it here in OH, 10 seconds? LOL


So that's what's been going on here, I'm leaving you, for now, so that I can take my cold medicine and start working on my snowmen. I have errands to run too and I really don't feel like going anywhere but what can you do???

God Bless everyone,

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sandra, You always inspire me! What a lovely bit of energy you are!

Have a blessed day!

The word verification is a funny one...
rxotc = over the counter drugs!

davec777 said...

Thank you for sharing your recipes with us =)

Anonymous said...

I love your ideas! I make the gift jars with the mixes in them too :) I just started doing that last year and plan to do it again this year. I love the way they look!

Hope you are feeling better soon,

Sherry

Michelle said...

Hi Sandra
Thanks for the blog visit.McKenna likes the idea of the Holiday Minty Candy Cookies.I can see those in our very near future!!!we'll re-name them Auntie Sandra's cookies :)have a great week

Sandra said...

Heather - LMAO must be cause I'm sick and in need of meds LOL

Michelle - That is so sweet :) Hope you like them, let me know if you try them!

Eden said...

Sandra, thank you for sharing all of your wonderful ideas and recipes. I'm going to save them in a text file.

Love the pencil holder!

The squash looks so yummy!

TTYS

Mari said...

Everything looks great - thanks for sharing the recipes!

Renee said...

You are so gifted! Thanks for sharing. I'll be making some of these for gift baskets this year.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Jen said...

Me and Madison start our gifts in jars Friday....black friday. We are making Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies, Dreamsicle Cookies and Chocolate Shortbread ones...I cannot wait. Your Mint cookies look really great.

Anonymous said...

"Hi Sandra!!"

Wishing you and your lovely family "Happy Thanksgiving!!" I hope you have a Yummy time!! (don't eat too much..lol!!)
xoxo Jeannene

In Pursuit of His Call said...

Your ideas are awesome!!! Thank you for sharing them and the instructions on how to make the jars!

Hope you feel better soon!

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Anonymous said...

hi there!

What lovely ideas!! Just wondering where you get your glass jars from.

Izabela

Tammy said...

Wonderful homemade gifts! I just love them...thanks for sharing these!

Lulu said...

such lovely goodies..
have a wonderful Thanksgiving..

La Dolce Vita with LeAnn said...

More amazing ideas from you. What a sweetheart you are to share all this with us. Hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving. Blessing, LeAnn

smilnsigh said...

I'm so sorry you have a ding-dang cold! :-((( But I wish I had 1/2 as much get-up-and-go-do-stuff, all the time, as you have, even with a cold! :-)))

Are those gifts of layered recipe ingredients, a new thing this year? Or am I just discovering them? Probably the later...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Hugs,
Mari-Nanci

smilnsigh said...

Back again...

Happy Thanksgiving.

Mari-Nanci

someone else said...

I hope your cold goes away soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

gail@more than a song said...

They look so good, thanks so much for doing this!

Laura said...

Sandra, I just bought the other day the cookbook those minty cookies came out of and made them just yesterday. They are soooooo delicious and got rave reviews from everyone! I'm also doing jars up for gifts. I love them!

Alexis Jacobs said...

I love the jar mix ideas. I'm going to have to steal them. Thanks!