:: Happy pre-St. Patrick's Day!

So, I'm not really a fan of St. Paddy's Day...meaning the holiday. The man, St. Patrick?  Good Christian Saint whose death somehow became synonymous with green beer.  I'm sure there is a whole history lesson in there but mostly what I remember about St. Pat's Day is being pinched a lot for not wearing green.   How mean is that, seriously?!   I'm also not Irish and do not like corned beef or cabbage, so there you go.

:: Happy february!

To start the month off right, (in)courage has a b-e-a-utiful desktop background available.  Since this is a website mainly for women, it has a nice spring-ish flowery look.  It also has a great verse and February calendar on it too.
Right click on the the correct image for your monitor size and "save as desktop".   Enjoy! :)

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Holiday Recipe Cards

One of my favorite online digital scrapbook stores is Little Dreamer Designs. I absolutely go nuts over many of their kits, and have amassed quite the library on my computer...with the hope of someday assembling the scrapbooks I want need to make!

But that is a blog post for another day.

In the spirit of Christmas giving, LDD is offering *free goodies* for each of the 25 days of Christmas (you can sign up here to start getting them daily via e-mail).  Today I received these adorable recipe cards that can be printed and written on with favorite holiday recipes for friends and family: 

Fun and festive!  Unfortunately I am not able to redistribute these for downloading (I pleaded asked).  BUT if you sign up now, there will be more in the future...along with other fun items you might like. 
Oh, and for the record, none of this shameless promotion benefits me.  I just like to share the things I get excited about! :)

Happy Holidays!

Mini-candied apples!

I recently went to a party where someone made candied apples.  Yum, right?  I love candied apples, especially in the fall season.  BUT I just don't like how big and messy they can be.  Not only that, but I like to have the coating with every bite of apple and end up wasting much of the apple.

So, you can only imagine how excited I was to find this recipe for (wait for it) mini candied apples!  This would be a great activity to do with the kids, or even for a Halloween party. 

You will need:

4-inch lollipop sticks
Melon baller
Granny Smith apples (one apple makes about 8 mini apples)
Butterscotch, chocolate, or peanut butter chips*
Chopped nuts, nonpareils, sprinkles, shredded coconut (or whatever your heart desires!)
Small paper candy cups
   *caramel may not adhere to the apple without the peel, per a comment on the website
 

Instructions: 

First, cut the lollipop sticks in half at an angle (the pointy end will go into the apple pieces easier). 

With the melon baller, scoop little balls out of the apple. Each ball should have a section of apple peel. 

Push half of a lollipop stick into the peel of each ball. Pat the apple pieces dry.
Melt the chips according to the package directions. 

Dip and swirl the mini apples in the melted chips, then roll the apples in nuts, sprinkles, nonpareils, or coconut, if desired. 

Place the mini apples in paper candy cups to set.

Enjoy!






p.s. Ok, so I read the reviews and found that many had problems with the coating sliding off. Someone recommended using caramel sheets instead. At any rate, this is definitely a "trial & error" recipe!