Thursday, December 13, 2012

25 Days of Christmas: Cookies for Santa

So yesterday my Sister spent about five hours baking cookies! 
Every Christmas she makes tons, and tons of chocolate mint cookies that she then gives out to friends and family. They are a bit more time consuming than most cookies but they are ooh so worth it!! 


INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 chocolate mint wafer candies (or they make bags of Andie's candies chips) 

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool of slightly.

2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes. While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint (or a pinch of the chips) on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the mint on top of cookie.

*Makes 18 servings (without a serving size this is pretty useless)  

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations...


You have won the Regine's Book Prize Pack provided by Zest Books!
Patricia actually has a book blog of her own called Children's Book Heal where she talks and reviews a lot of great books! So if you haven't been there before be sure to stop by!

25 Days of Christmas: Giveaway!

Who's ready for another giveaway?!?
Next up...

Synopsis:
Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

25 Days of Christmas: A Boy Band Christmas

 While most girls left behind their "boy band phase" years ago I never left it. 
My ipod is loaded with music from One Direction, Big Time Rush, Backstreet Boys, etc., all the great boy bands of history ;) 

So for today I put together a list of my favorite Christmas songs by you guessed it. Boy bands!
Enjoy!



Anybody have any boy band Christmas song recommendations for me??

Saturday, December 8, 2012

25 Days of Christmas: Giveaway!

Christmas is a time of giving, and I want to give a book to you!
I recently cleaned out my bookshelves and have a small stack of books to giveaway throughout the 
25 Days of Christmas, so keep checking back.
 First up...

Synopsis:
Joy delamere is suffocating.

From asthma, from her parents, and from her boyfriend, Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out. She can take his cruel words, his tender words . . . until the night they go too far.

To escape, Joy sacrifices her suburban life to find the one who offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. He introduces her to a world of fierce loyalty, to its rules of survival, and to love--a world she won't easily let go.

Set against the backdrop of the streets of Seattle, Holly Cupala's power-ful new novel explores the subtleties of abuse, the secrets we keep, and the ways to redemption. But above all, it is an unflinching story about the extraordinary lengths one girl will go to discover her own strength.