Yummy Treats with Christmas Leftovers (Candy Canes and Egg Nog)

So if you hit up the after Christmas sales, you may find plenty of candy canes, candy cane pudding and egg nog at clearance prices or atleast I did!  (or you can always just pin this for next years Christmas Treats!)  I thought it a good time to try out a few recipes and experiment with a few as well. 
I snagged a container of egg nog, 2 boxes of candy cane pudding, and 2 boxes of Hershey's chocolate mint candy canes (but really any minty candy canes would work)– and here are my results (with a few more ingredients added, of course).

This is the first I have ever seen candy cane pudding, the first I heard of it was in a pinterest pin I saw for candy cane chocolate chip cookies, which is what I based my recipe off of for the cookies I made.  The original recipe is pinned here…mine does not vary a whole lot.

The very first step was to unwrap all those candy canes (so tedious) and break them into tiny pieces, I used the dry canister for my vitamix mixer.

Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies

Recipe1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 pkg instant candy cane pudding mix
2 1/4cups flour
1t baking soda
2 eggs
1t vanilla
1/4t salt
about 1/2c crushed candy canes (I used the Hershey choc mint ones)
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:  Preheat oven to 375.  Combine flour, salt and baking soda in small bowl and set aside.  In a larger bowl, cream butter and sugars, beat in pudding mix until blended.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Gradually add in the flour mixture and mix to combine.  Stir in candy pieces and chocolate chips.
Place teaspoon sized balls onto cookie sheet (I use a baking stone, or use a regular sheet with parchment to avoid candy from sticking, I also use the Pampered Chef Small Scoop to make the perfect size cookie!)  Bake for 8-10mins.  Let cookies cool for 5mins on sheet and then move to cooling rack. 

Chocolate Mint Candy Cane Cake(the original recipe I based this cake off of can be found HERE)

Recipe1 pkg Chocolate Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker Devils Food)
1 pkg Candy Cane instant pudding
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c water
1/2 c chocolate chips
about 1 c chopped candy canes (again I used the Hershey chocolate mint canes), divided.
1 container white vanilla icing
1/4 – 1/2 t peppermint extract (according to your own taste)

Preheat oven to 350, lightly grease 2 round cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water; beat with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping side of bowl.  Beat on medium speed 2 minutes.
Stir in chocolate chips and 2 T crushed candy cane.
Spoon into prepared pans.
Bake for ~40min or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10mins on wire rack, then remove from pan to cool completely (still on wire rack).
In the mean time mix in 1/4t – 1/2t of peppermint extract into white frosting
After cake is cooled, ice bottom layer and place about 1/4 c of crushed candy canes to top.  Top with 2nd layer, ice completely and coat in the remaining candy cane pieces.

Egg Nog Pound Cake (Quick Bread) with Egg Nog Glaze Icing

This recipe can be found HERE, I found it slightly dry and in the future may add a pack of vanilla pudding, but otherwise VERY YUMMY!

My Homeschool Swap!

I participated in a Homeschool Swap hosted by www.hsbapost.com, gifts were suppose to be exchanged in October, my swapper was a bit late…but I forgive her

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE getting packages! 

Here is what my swap sister sent me:

In the lot was some pattern blocks, a book of patterns and some copies of patterns to use with the blocks, some postcards from Indians for our state studies, 2 Christmas hand towels and some sour candies (not shown).

I want to thank Janet (my swap sister) for the wonderful gifts!

If you are interested in participating in the next Homeschool Swap keep an eye out at hsbapost.com, One is coming soon (this month to be exact!).  You can read about this exchange, and see posts from the previous exchange HERE.

Year in Review and Hopes for the New Year

With a new year here, it’s a great time to take a step back and look over the previous year.  We really had a great one, lots of great things happened  for us in 2011.

• We had our 9 year wedding anniversary (soon to be 10yr)
• C turned 5, Z turned 2, and c turned 1
• We moved halfway around the world from MD to HI – and had a smooth transition
• I had a new niece born into the family (Q’s side, to make 18 grandkids for my MIL)
• We started Kindergarten in home school (with C)
• I got much more active in my blogging, and have met many amazing and wonderful people around the world! (virtually)
• My parents just celebrated 33yrs of marriage
• My baby brother joined the Marine Corps

These are just the first few things that come to mind, I certainly hope your 2011 was just as blessed as mine, and that 2012 brings many more good things to come (for all of us!)

Hopes for the New Year to come

My Personal New Year Resolutions, if you will, (I prefer to call it my life change plan)

• Spend less time on facebook!  (Make better use of my time)
• Stay more on top of household duties (cleaning, laundry, meal planning)…should be easy since I’ll be on facebook less, haha
• Savor the moments more (they pass by to quickly)
• Work on patience, and responding with kindness (I react far to quickly, and sometimes harshly)
• Scrapbook more!!!
• More meditation/scripture study time for ME
• More record keeping of goals and journal writing (I guess I shouldn’t say more, I should say some, since I currently have none!).
• Keep better track of my spending (I’ll admit it, I spend more than I should).

Homeschool Resolutions

As far as homeschooling, we are making some curriculum changes.  The biggest of which is switching math curriculums.  We currently use Saxon 1, we will be starting Math U See Alpha when we start school back up on the 9th.  I will also be cutting back our geography studies to ONE State a week, and ONE Country a month (one day a week to study).

I also want to be more aware of what is or isn’t working for us, and not be afraid to slow down, step back or change things up more (if I need to).

I want to spend more time with Z working on his speech, he was in speech therapy with the state Infant and Toddlers program, but recently tested out.  However, he is still very delayed in his annunciation of words and sounds.  So I want to spend more one on one time with him working on this.

So what’s your big resolution for the new year??