Easiest Ever Non- Dairy Fudge

So this fudge is pretty much a non-recipe.

You need:
1 can sweetened condensed coconut milk (I used Nature's Charm)
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips*)
pinch of sea salt
1tsp vanilla extract
1 8x8 pan, "buttered" with coconut oil
1 jar of maraschino cherries (I used Tillen brand Merry Cherries)

Heat the milk in a heavy sauce pan on medium heat, stir in the chocolate chips and pinch of sea salt. Stir until the chips are melted and everything is well mixed. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Spoon into 8x8 pan. Dot the top with the cherries and cover and chill until set.

*Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips are prepared on the same equipment they make their milk chocolate on so there may be a trace of milk in them. There are good completely vegan chips available. I used the Guittard because I love the flavor of them.

So I whipped this up, and handed the pan off to my children because apparently you never get too old to "slick the pot" and TG said "This is really good chocolate!" Since she's the chocolate fiend in the family, that is a great endorsement. She wound up sitting there with a bag of open potato chips scraping out the last of the fudge from the pan.

Last night, my husband tried a piece and declared it was delicious.
I said "TG saw me make it."
"Well, that might be dangerous." he responded.
From the back corner of the living room we hear her say happily "Yup."

I suspect she's going to make a batch with potato chips on top.

Disclaimer- I got the Nature's Charm Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk for free to review. I was not compensated or asked to provide a recipe or review on Don't Eat the Paste. I'm sharing the recipe because it's really, really good and I wanted to.

Banana Chocolate Good

The name of this is because TG and I couldn't agree if it was more like a frozen pudding or a soft serve ice "cream". We did both agree it is FANTASTIC. The hashtag? Because we used a Bella Rocket Extract Pro to make it. We kind of love this blender. It has a 700w motor, and when we got it, one of the first things my daughter did was throw coffee beans in it. I screamed "STOP!" and she stopped the blender. I was convinced she might have broken it because coffee beans in a blender? In that couple of seconds between her starting the blender and me figuring out why it was so noisy- the coffee beans were ground to a espresso fineness.

So for this treat? No problem.

This can be made vegan easily by using a non-dairy milk. We used regular milk.
Banana Chocolate Goodness
Makes 2 servings
You will need:
2 1/2 frozen bananas- we just peel them, cut them half, and freeze them on cookie sheets, then put them in a zipper bag in the freezer
1/2 of a frozen ripe avocado- same thing as above
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp. sweetener of choice if you like it sweet- we used organic cane sugar
1 pinch of salt- we used French grey
3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder- Oh the antioxidant goodness! We used a raw cocoa powder, but use whatever kind you like

Just put it all in your blender and blend until smooth. The photo above isn't quite as smooth as the one I'm eating right now- because TG blended my serving just a second or two longer.
It's all full of nice healthy things, but it's absolutely a treat.

Bright Creme Egg Box

My family looks forward to the weeks approaching Easter because I wind up buying candy especially for these boxes. Then they get to eat them after the photo is taken!

This box is my Cadbury Creme set, it will hold 4 eggs. I do recommend gluing the bottom tab as well as the side tabs because of the weight of the eggs.

Click on the images for larger versions, print 2 pages of the egg boxes, and one of the base. Cut out, score folds, fold and glue!

You can buy the blank template to decorate yourself at my Etsy store.

Duck Tape® Kisses

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Duck Brand provided by ShurTech Brands, LLC. All opinions are 100% mine.

Well, you all know I'm wild for Duck Brand® Tape Crafts, and so is my daughter. This holder for candy kisses is very easy to make using Duck Tape® in colors and patterns, or even the shiny metallics and some scrap plastic.

What is scrap plastic? It's the stuff from blister packs, or the sides of milk jugs. I cut down a lot to useable flat peices that are stored in a drawer for when they would be handy, then recycle the scraps in the usual way. If you don't have a spare blister pack or an empty plastic milk jug- plastic needle point canvas would work as well.
Duck Tape® has designs for a lot of holidays, for Valentine's Day there are Cheetah Kisses which is the pattern I used in my project and Wild Hearts which my daughter used very well in a project of her own (photo at the end of the tutorial of her project!). The patterns inspire Valentine’s Day craft ideas.
First you'll need to cut 3 squares from the plastic. At least 1.5 inch squares. Mine were a bit bigger and my Kiss holds a lot of candy kisses. Just work with the plastic you have available and how big or small you want the finished project to be.
Cover those squares with tape on both sides.

Now cut 2 lengths of tape long enough to cover one side of a square. Cut those two pieces in half lengthwise (like a hotdog!) and tape up 2 edges on 2 squares.

Trim tape edges neatly if you have any overhang. Cut 2 more strips and cut them in half lengthwise. Now it's time to put in the back/bottom piece.
The first piece tapes in very easily. You'll tape the untaped edges of one square to the edges of the backing square.

To finish, you'll tape the last piece into place on the backing square. The plastic will give enough for you to be able to do it.
To open, just squeeze the corners where the two open pieces meet the back piece. In larger sizes, there maybe a noticeable gap, but it does hold the candy kisses nicely.

Follow @TheDuckBrand on Twitter for so lots of great ideas, links and new product information.
Do you have a favorite Valentine project? Pin it and share it with Duck Tape® fans around the world using #DuckValentine
This is what my daughter made using Duck Tape® for Valentine's Day. She used a water bottle as a mandrel to create the quiver.

Chocolate Squares Printable Slide Box

I hope you enjoy this printable slide box! The box will fit 3 Ghirardelli squares and this one is decorated to look like a present. I like these both as table decorations and as stocking stuffers.

Click on the image for the larger version, print on card stock, cut out, score folds, fold and glue! You can buy the blank template to decorate yourself with an instant download at my Etsy store.

Frozen Malted Hot Chocolate and about malt

The Amazing Turnip Girl and I were going through a couple cookbooks that I'll be reviewing soon and there were two recipes that caught her chocolate loving eye immediately. One was for a malted hot chocolate, the other was for a frozen hot chocolate. We discussed making our own malted frozen hot chocolate which was an idea she was very enthused about.

First, I had to learn about malt. Because I know I'm not really a fan of Carnation malted milk which is the kind most easily available at our super market. So after a bit of research, I learned that malted milk is made with non-diastatic malt and dry milk. So then off to find out more about diastatic and non-diastatic malts. Diastatic malts have active enzymes in them that work well in baking in small amounts with yeast for a great rise and brown. Non-diastatic malts are generally used as a sweetener and flavor and don't have active enzymes. A bit more research pointed up that a lot of home beer brewing is done using non-diastatic malt extracts. Since I knew my recipe would have milk in it, I just wanted a good malt flavor.

So off to the local brewing supply, Arctic Brewing Supply where they had a ton of options for malt. We had decided powder already, malts are available as both liquid and dried powder. Then we picked out 3 different malt powder extracts to bring home and try. Light, amber and dark. The very helpful person working that day specifically recommended against dark for baking and recipes because she had fielded complaints from people about the flavor.

We got home, and mixed the malts in chocolate milk. Just a chocolate milk powder, milk and a small amount of malt, and we tried each one. We actually liked the dark malt best. It has a toastier, warmer flavor.

After all that time looking into malts, we also decided to use a better chocolate.

Frozen Malted Hot Chocolate- makes 4 tall servings (12 oz)

You will need:

• 6 cups of milk
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar- we used Lindt
• 4 Tablespoons dry malt extract

Cut up the candy bar into small pieces.

Put 4 cups of milk, pinch of salt and sugar into a sauce pan and heat while whisking in the sugar until small bubbles are forming around the edge of the pan. After it's hot, add the chocolate and malt and keep whisking until the chocolate melts completely and you have no clumps of malt extract powder. Take off heat and whisk in the vanilla. 

If you have silicone ice cube trays, just pour it into the ice cube trays and put them in the freezer. If you have regular ice cube trays, let it cool a bit so it doesn't warp the plastic. Freeze into cubes.

After it's frozen, put half the ice cubes and a cup of milk into a blender, and blend until all the cubes are completely crushed and mixed in. At this point it looks a lot like a milk shake. Fill 2 cups with that, then repeat with the other half of the cubes. Serve with whipped cream or marshmallows!

Because of how it's made, you could make 2 servings, then save the rest of the cubes for another 2 servings later, or even make just one serving at time by using 1/4 of the cubes and a 1/2 cup of milk!

It turned out really delicious. Even my husband who is hit or miss with malt really likes the flavor. 

Cookie and Milk Chocolate Candies

Aren't those pretty with their strata of cookie crumbs? The Amazing Turnip Girl made them for her grandfather keeping in mind his tastes the entire time. Dad's a chocolate with more chocolate sort of person, so these were perfect. He also prefers milk chocolate to dark chocolate, so these instructions use that. You can absolutely use dark chocolate.

You will need:

• 7-8 ounces of good quality chocolate*
• 8-10 Oreos- crushed
• Coconut oil

You will also need:

• Double boiler or a heat-proof bowl (I use a glass mixing bowl) and a sauce pan
• spoons!
• knife
• silicone candy mold
• cookie sheet
• wax paper

*I've said this before- but good chocolate is one that's only a few ingredients. If you see a bunch of kinds of oils, or see any chemical names other than lecithin- put it down and pick a different chocolate. I don't know how those types of chocolate, or chocolate candy will work in my recipes. We used Godiva because it was on sale and I know my Dad likes Godiva chocolate. 

You can crush the Oreos in a food processor, in a heavy duty zipper type freezer bag or just using a spoon and some muscle in a good mixing bowl. The second 2 methods are fun for kids. 

Put 2 inches of water in the bottom pan of the double boiler or your improvised version of one, and then set the top or bowl on top of it. Cut chocolate bars into small chunks using a sharp knife. Bring water to a simmer over low heat, and add chocolate and 1 tsp. of coconut oil to the top bowl. Melt chocolate. As it starts to melt, stir it to incorporate unmelted pieces and just keep stirring, it melts pretty quickly. Using the coconut oil makes for shiny chocolates without having to temper the chocolate (which is another skill set and a bit more work with more tools) but the chocolate WILL have to be kept chilled because it hasn't been properly tempered and milk chocolate likes to melt.

Get your clean and completely dry mold set on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. This helps keep any accidents off your counter tops! 

Spoon a small amount of chocolate into each mold, and then a small amount of cookie crumbs using separate spoons, after you've done that in the mold cavities, fill each cavity with more chocolate.  

Then you just set it in the freezer or fridge to chill until hardened, and unmold the chocolates. The reason I like silicone molds is that you can pop them out from the bottom by pushing up on the bottom of the mold and they come unmolded beautifully. If you want to, you can put them in candy papers or mini-cupcake papers, and chill until you're ready to serve them or give them as a gift.

The flavor is wonderful, since they used a good chocolate as a base and the cookies add a nice crunch. Her Grandpa will probably love them since they combine 2 of his favorite things. Chocolate candy and chocolate cookies. You can use different cookies in them if you prefer. Ginger, vanilla, even graham crackers.

T

Cadbury Creme Egg Printable Box Set

I haven't made a creme egg box yet this year! I hope you enjoy this one. Click the images for larger versions, print at 8x10 inches on card stock. Cut out, score all folds. Glue side seams, then glue the bottom tabs of the egg boxes (seriously! those eggs are a bit heavy), fold top lip of base box over and glue to the inside to reinforce. Fill egg boxes and put them in the "basket". You can find more complete instructions and another creme egg box here. Print 2 of the egg box pages, and one of the base box pages.

You can buy the blank template in PNG, JPG or PDF format from my Etsy store (emailed) or in PDF format from Craftsy (instant download on Craftsy!)

Printable Andes Mint slide boxes hearts and stripes

New template! I've posted a few slide boxes that fit 4 mints (you can buy a blank template here or here)- this template isn't listed yet. It will hold 6 Andes Mints, and fits 2 to a page.

Click the image below for a larger version. It needs to be printed at 8x10 inches to fit Andes mints. Print on card stock, cut out, score, fold, glue!

Peppermint Printables!

I could probably modify the recipe above into a good jar gift for people like the Turnip Girl (also known as Dea occasionally) who look forward to this time of year just for all the places that have peppermint chocolate things. More about that in a minute. First, a printable peppermint themed gift box, and some blank printable cards you can use as recipe cards, gift tags or just as very festive note cards!
Click on the images for the larger version, print on card stock. For the box, cut, score, fold, glue. For the cards, cut them apart using the crop marks as guides.
More peppermint printables

The Turnip Girl has peppermint in common with her great-grandma. Grandma always had peppermint candies on hand. TG may be 17, but peppermint chocolate love goes back years for her. As far as cocoa goes, she loves the stuff, but only drinks instant very occasionally. She has a definite preference for homemade. She also always wants to whip the cream for it herself. She'd rather I make the cocoa, but whipped cream is her domain. She uses either a whisk or an old-fashioned hand operated egg beater. We have a stand mixer, and it gets used only very rarely. She suggests adding in the sugar and peppermint near the end, that way, if you accidentally break the cream, you have a good plain butter that just needs to be washed and have salt added.  In the winter, she chills her bowl and whisk by putting them out on the porch for a few minutes. BRR!
She requested more peppermint printables after seeing 1D on a peppermint stage recently on TV. She's not a 1D fan really. She kind of likes their music, but she loved that peppermint stage.

Chocolate Cream Cheese and Whey Bread

This is from my old blog. Originally posted July 2008.

I was too impatient to try baking bread with whey to wait the amount of time it takes to make a sourdough starter without yeast, so I went ahead and made up some bread today. It turned out good. E is planning to have some tomorrow with strawberry jam and the chocolate cheese we made.

Chocolate Cheese
Okay, this is fun to do with kids because of how it works. Milk has a lot of protein, sugar and fat solids in it, and the protein is resistant to acids, so when you add an acid to milk which is heated up so the molecules are less tightly together, the acid mixes fine into some of the sugars and liquid of the milk, but not into the proteins, which causes the proteins to separate from the rest. It winds up looking curdled, with solid curds and liquid whey. Most recipes call for a gallon of milk, but I had, like I said, a half gallon of organic milk.Measurements are American, I apologize, worse, we cook by volume, not weight. There are a lot of sites with conversions though.
Sauce pan, one big enough for a half gallon of milk, plus a couple inches head room, spoon, I have a wood angled flat stirrer I use, strainer, bowl (to drain the whey into), cheese cloth, a container to put the finished cheese in, some jars for the whey, spoon, hand blender or food processor (I don't HAVE a food processor, I do have a hand blender)
1 half gallon of milk
3 Tbs white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
1/4-1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar, or sugar to taste
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup of milk
Line the strainer with a couple layers of cheese cloth, and set it over the bowl. 
Bring the milk to a simmer, about 185° F, or until bubbles are just forming on the sides, stir frequently to keep from burning the milk. Add in the vinegar, you'll see curds start to form immediately, keep cooking and stirring over a low flame or low heat if you have electric pulling the pan off occasionally to keep it from boiling over. Lots more curds will form. After 10 minutes, pull it off the heat and pour the whey and curds into the strainer. You'll probably have to take the strainer off before you get it all poured to pour some of the whey into a jar, so do that, then set the strainer back over the bowl and finish pouring. Take the sides of the cheese cloth and fold them over the top of the solid curds, and push down with your spoon to express a bit more of the whey out, then put a cloth over the top, and set it all some place cool for a couple hours to finish draining.
After a couple hours, take the stainer off the bowl, pour the whey into the jars, close them, and put it in the fridge to use for baking later, it can be used for the liquid in almost anything. Rinse the bowl out, and turn out the cheese into the bowl, add in the other ingredients, blend well. The extra little bit of milk helps make this very creamy and spreadable. I think with a bit of powdered sugar, not too much, this would make an amazing not too sweet frosting for cupcakes. I'm thinking a bit of chocolate ganache, and a dollop of this cheese on top of devil's food. Oh yeah! That's what I'm forgetting, put the cheese into your container for it. I love my Lock&Locks!

Whey Bread
Recipe makes two loaves of bread.
big bowl, wooden spoon*, oil/fat of some sort to grease the pans and the dough while it's rising, 2 bread pans
Proofing the yeast
1/4 cup warm water in the bowl
1 tsp sugar or sweetener**
4 tsp yeast or 2 packets.*** 
Proof the yeast, which means mix the sugar into the water, then sprinkle in the yeast. Give one stir with the wooden spoon. 
Let it set for 10 minutes, if it's foamy looking at 10 minutes, your yeast is living and you're good to go.

Mixing the Dough
2 cups of whey
3 Tbs butter or other fat
6-8 cups of flour, I used an unbleached, organic all-purpose flour, if you are using a dark flour, you might need a bit more.
1 Tbs salt
2 Tbs sugar
Preparing the liquid parts of the bread
My old Betty Crocker cookbook from the 60s calls for scalding milk, but microwaves make it so easy.
Put cup and a half of your whey mix into a microwave safe cup, I use my Pyrex measuring cup, add 3 Tbs of butter, zap it for a minute. Stir in a half cup of cold whey to cool it down to "won't kill happy little yeast" temperature. Pour into your yeast mixture.
Put 2 cups of flour, the salt, and the sugar, and stir it in the liquids. 
Keep stirring in the rest of the flour a cup at a time until you can't stir anymore, then flour your hands, and get in and start kneading in more flour. After you've added most of the rest of your flour (I've never needed all of it before I can't add more) keep kneading until it gets smooth and elastic. Kneading develops glutens, which creates the chemical reaction that turns your mix of whey and flour into a big mass of nice smooth uniform bread dough. I love this process. Now, most people turn it out onto a counter top, with a working surface of some sort put on to it, I just knead in the bowl, less clean up. When it's all a nice big smooth uniform ball of dough, oil the dough ball all over, and cover the bowl with a clean towel, and let it rise for an hour in a warm place. 
Baking the bread
After an hour, grease your bread pans then check to make sure the dough doubled by pushing down with a fingertip, if the indention doesn't rise back up out of it, it's doubled. Punch it down, and knead again. Divide it into two balls, form loaves, and put it into the pans. Lightly grease or butter the tops, cover again, and set someplace to rise again. After it's risen the second time, put in the oven at 425°F for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, check by thumping the bread, if it just goes *thud* it needs a couple minutes more, if it sounds hollow, it's done. Let it set for as long as your family will let you. Which in my case was less then 10 minutes, then E was finding my bread knife. I think it's a hint I don't make bread often enough. She had a big slice off the heel of buttered bread fresh out of the oven.
The bread turned out a bit sweet, whey has a lot of milk sugars in it, and it rose a bit more then my usual recipe rises. It's a lovely bread.

*Yeast can be reactive with metal, and slow down or even stop the process, so I always use my big glass bowl, and a wooden spoon, it does make a difference in how much rise you get.
**NOT a no sugar sweetener, yeast won't grow on Nutrasweet. Honey, molasses, cane sugar, raw sugar, organic cane sugar, maple sugar, or birch syrup is fine. Something with sugars in it for the yeast.
*** Since E loves making pizza, we always buy jarred yeast, but if you only make bread occasionally, packets are the more economical choice since you won't risk it going bad waiting for next time. My ex-husband never saw the point of proofing the yeast until a batch failed on him. He wound up making cinnamon-cayenne crackers (also unintentional, he meant to make cayenne savory and cinnamon sweet) which were good, and an excellent reuse of failed bread, but really, it only take 10 minutes to proof.

This recipe, and several more yeast bread recipes are available in my Kindle e-book.

Sugar Free Mocha Cafe Pudding using Nectresse™

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nectresse™ Sweetener for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I've tried a lot of  sweetners in making sugar free desserts for loved ones on sugar restricted diets.  This new sweetener by the same people who make Splenda is a new favorite.
NECTRESSE™Sweetener-
It's the only no-sugar, no-calorie 100% natural sweetener made from monk fruit, it's available very reasonably priced at your local supermarket. 1 packet is the equivalent of 2 tsps of sugar in sweetness.
I tried it first in a cup of coffee to see how it tasted. I was pleasantly surprised. There is no bitterness to it, and tastes natural. The rest of my family also tried it, and my husband and daughter both really liked it.
So after talking it over with my daughter, we decided to try making pudding. I asked her if it should be a chocolate or vanilla pudding, then realized what a very silly question that was right after asking. She thinks the world should be chocolate flavored.


Sugar Free Cafe Mocha Pudding-
Ingredients:

• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 Tbsp instant espress
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp corn starch
• 7 packets NECTRESSE™Sweetener

Supplies:

• Large sauce pan
• whisk
• spoon
• bowl

Measure 1 1/2 cups of milk, the espresso, cocoa powder, vanilla and salt into a pan. In a the bowl, mix the half cup of milk, the sweetener and the corn starch, mixing well until the corn starch is dissolved. Set that close by.
Bring the milk and cocoa mix to a simmer over a low heat, whisking as you cook to mix in the cocoa and other flavorings well. When it's bubbling and everything is mixed in, pour in the milk and corn starch mix, whisking constantly. Keep whisking, it will soon come back up to a bubble.
Keep whisking, and it starts to thicken. Homemade cooked puddings are so good. This is the point my daughter told me "It smells good!"
When it's nice, thick and glossy, take it off the heat and put it in the fridge with plastic wrap over it to keep it from forming a skin. Makes 4 half cup servings. Serve after it's chilled.
I recommend topping with whipped cream. Unsweetened and lightly flavored with vanilla.
Click here to try a  FREE sample of NECTRESSE™Sweetener
I liked cooking with this, the pudding turned out good and my family who aren't on sugar restricted diets all enjoyed it. One of the things I liked best about it was that it doesn't foam up like some sweeteners do.
Check out what Lisa Ling has to say about it!

Spring Color Slide Box- Ghirardelli Squares

A new template! A slide box that will fit 3 Ghirardelli squares, and prints 2 boxes to a page. To make these, you, click on the larger image, print at 8x10 inches, cut, score, fold. The inner box, you glue the tabs to the inside to make an open topped box. The outer slide, you glue the tab to the inside. Click on the image for a larger version.The blank template is available in my Etsy shop.

Little Christmas Chocolate Box

Who doesn't love Christmas? The smiles and good cheer, the music, the fantastic deals on pajama bottoms and it's just the most wonderful time of the year. And oh yeah. Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark. My poor darling put upon husband. All this chocolate I buy seasonally for the site, then tell him he can't touch it until I get photos. About 3 minutes after I took this photo, he was happily snacking on one.
Since according to the bag, 3 squares is one serving, this box fits 3 squares, and 2 boxes fit to one sheet of card stock. There are approximately 15 squares per bag, so enough for 4 boxes and the leftovers are yours.
Print on card stock, cut out, score folds, fold, and glue. If you don't print it at 8x10 inches, it might not precisely fit 3 chocolates. Click on the image for a larger version.

Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding Recipe

Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding that's so good my non-vegan teens love it. Also good for pudding lovers who have a lactose intolerance. Another plus is that pumpkin and almond milk are both high in vitamin A and this is so much tastier than carrots!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup tofu- yes. Tofu. Since this is vegan, it won't have the body and silkiness that an egg offers. Tofu helps! A soft tofu works best. You can skip this if you want soy free.
• 2 cups almond milk- the first time I made this, I used soy milk, but the almond milk tastes so much better!
• 1/2 cup pumpkin butter (recipe HERE)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup sweetener- I used a raw sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch

Blend the tofu, almond milk, pumpkin butter, cocoa and sweetener until very smooth.
Put aside 1 cup, and put the rest in a medium sized sauce pan. Whisk the corn starch into the cup you put aside until the corn starch is well incorporated
Cook the mix in the pan over medium until it starts bubbling, whisking to keep the almond milk from scorching. Pour in the cup you set aside, whisking constantly.
Keep cooking over a medium heat until it's thickened to your liking.

I compare making pudding to making gravy. You use a thickener and cook to let some of the liquid evaporate until you have the consistency you like. For pudding, this takes about 10-15 minutes of cooking and whisking to keep it evenly heated and not let it scorch.

Serve chilled, with pumpkin seeds on top for garnish if you wish. The photos are of a tiny demitasse glass cup and little decorative pumpkins.
Here's another one!

Cookie box- new template!

My cookie boxes are pretty popular but I haven't posted one in a while. Here is a new one that uses a brand new template. It will fit 4 Oreos, even the mint ones which are just a little thicker than regular Oreos, in the photo above, the plain ones are the ones in the front. A craft knife will work best to cut out the notches, but if you don't like using them, I suggest using a hole punch in the middle of the notch, then using small scissors to cut it out.
This is scaled for US Letter sized paper, it should print at exactly 8x10 inches.
Click on the images for larger versions. One version says Sweet Treats as pictured, the other has a blank spot to personalize how you wish.

The blank template is available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Eggs in a Basket - Cadbury Creme version

Another paper egg basket. This one holds 4 Cadbury creme eggs.

These boxes are sized just right for Cadbury creme eggs, and the bottom "basket" is a snug fit for 4 boxes. 

Lately a few people have asked for instructions to put some of my boxes together so at the bottom of this post, I'm including instructions.

The printables are all 300 dpi, and yes Liberty, there is a black and white coloring version! Recommended for adults or very patient younger people because it has a fair amount of detail. Click on the images for the full sized versions. The boxes print 2 to a US letter sized page.  Print the pages on card stock. The lily used on these boxes was previously used here. Because of the weight of Cadbury creme eggs, I recommend taping or gluing the bottom tab of the egg boxes. I will be posting this box template in my Etsy shop.

 

Side note- when I was done photographing the box, I asked Turnip Girl and my darling husband if either of them wanted a Caramel creme egg, they both said "Yes!" so fast it sort of stunned me. I think maybe next time I shouldn't leave my "props" out where they can see them but not eat them for more than a day!

Most of my boxes have gluing tabs that are just over a half inch wide to accommodate people who would rather use double stick tape. The basket on this set is an exception, the little flap that folds to the inside is narrower, but it can be cut off completely and that will loosen up the box marginally. The egg boxes are a very snug fit!

To put together the egg boxes, or any of my boxes that are that style, print on card stock. You'll cut it out, and score the folds. I can't stress enough how important scoring the folds is, it makes a lot of difference in how neatly card stock folds. But you don't need a fancy bone folder to score. My bone folder was misplaced months ago. I use the back of a steel crochet hook and a ruler to score straight lines. The crochet hook gives me a lot of control and the rounded end doesn't cut my paper. Just weakens it enough for a nice fold. I've also used guitar picks, yarn needles, pens that were out of ink, and even collar tabs from my husband's dry cleaned shirts. 

So, cut out along the black lines, score and fold along the blue lines. Pre-fold the box, then add glue or double stick tape to the tab marked in red and glue that to inside of the box on the other side, lining up the edges carefully. Fold in the top and bottom tabs. If you need to glue the bottom tab for security, do that as well. Use the glue on the tab that's on the square bottom.

Again, cut lines are marked in black. The fold lines in blue. You can see the tab side directly opposite the slanted lines on the tab is the cut line. Score and pre-fold, then glue the red tabs to the inside. The pink tabs are glued down last. Burnish them well so they aren't bulky. Burnishing means to rub it, I use the rounded top (not pointy end) of a stick pen to burnish down folds.

Pudding! Recipe and printable recipe sheets

I love making pudding as a treat for my family. It's a major sense of accomplishment for me. When was learning to cook, pudding always failed for me. Too impatient, cooked it at too high a heat and wound up filling the house with the delicious smell of burnt milk and chocolate or vanilla. 

Now it's a fairly regular treat because we almost always have the basic ingredients for pudding, and it's an easy dessert to make for weekends. 

This week I made a chocolate butterscotch pudding because butterscotch chips were on sale at the local grocery store. 

Here are some printable recipe sheets, including the recipe for the chocolate butterscotch pudding. Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions.

To make the pudding:

In a mixing bowl- 

1 egg lightly beaten

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

In a sauce pan:

2 Tablespoons corn starch

2 cups milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Whisk the ingredients in the pan well to dissolve the corn starch. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened. Pour the hot pudding slowly over the egg and chips whisking until the chips are melted and it's all smooth. Put into individual dishes or just cover the bowl and chill for 2 hours. 

Makes 6 half cup servings and is wonderful with fresh whipped cream!