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Valentine Chocolate Covered Spoons

February 8, 2012 By Laura 5 Comments

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Chocolate covered spoons are something we have been intending to try making, for awhile now. There really needs to be no upcoming holiday to make them. But when there is a holiday coming up, it’s another good reason to go ahead and make them!

If you have never heard of chocolate covered spoons, they are just what they sound like they are: spoons covered in chocolate! And then prettied up. They can be used to to stir your coffee, hot chocolate, warm milk, etc – to add some chocolatey flavor to your drink, or make licking your spoon that much more enjoyable! Meanwhile, if you’ve made a whole batch, they just look pretty sitting in any container in your kitchen.

Chocolate covered spoons can be made as simply or fancifully as you’d like. You’re the designer, with each and every spoon, and that’s the fun of it! I already had an idea of how we wanted to make some chocolate covered spoons for Valentine’s Day, so that’s what we’re sharing with you in this post.

005_valentine-chocolate-covered-spoons1 Here are a bunch of our spoons, already finished. I thought they looked nice in this simple white gravy boat. We made even more than this though. We’ll be using some ourselves, but we really made them for the kids to give to their friends. And our oldest made some for her whole basketball team. lol. I made a simple Valentine card printable, to go with each spoon, and you can get that for yourself HERE, if making these spoons is an idea you’d like to use for your kid’s friends or classmates, too. It’ll make a unique Valentine, don’t you think?

I did not photograph the step-by-step process, but I think it is simple enough directions to explain. All you need is some hard plastic spoons, *chocolate to melt, a tad bit of shortening (optional, I guess), and whatever you’d like to decorate the chocolate covered spoons with! We used Valentine sprinkles and marshmallows for this batch. But you can drizzle with white melted chocolate after, use sprinkles on other (holiday) colors, cover in nuts…whatever you’d like!

*Because we have a boy with a severe peanut allergy, we cannot use the chocolate melts (like Wilton’s) that are sold in stores in the baking / candy supplies aisles, because they are not guaranteed peanut-safe. They are convenient though, and melt very nicely, if you can use them! Since we cannot, we use Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips, and so the best we can with those. I believe we can find peanut-safe melts online though, if we planned ahead.

001_chocolate-covered-spoons We got everything out that we needed: spoons, chocolate (chips), sprinkles and marshmallows, and shortening. You can melt the chocolate in a mug or a glass measuring cup – just choose something deep. We got a few cookie sheets out, and covered them with some wax paper.

We began melting about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips at a time, in a mug, in the microwave, with just a 1/2 teaspoon of shortening. (I normally avoid shortening for anything, but a tad bit does help the chocolate melt and stir up smoothly.) We started at a minute, and then did 10-1secomd intervals, stirring completely in between, until all of the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Two important tips: 1) You do not want to overheat the chocolate, or it will be ruined. Little by little is the way to go, and add a dab more shortening if you feel it needs it. 2) I use the handle end of a wooden spoon, for stirring chocolate. I saw that tip somewhere a long time ago, as it doesn’t heat and cool like metal does. Stir rapidly, for smooth and shiny chocolate.

When your chocolate is melted, dip a spoon! It does take a little patience to wait for each spoon to stop dripping off excess, unless you want to make a big mess. Then, over an extra the cookie sheet or wherever, sprinkle on your decorations! For the ones we were adding marshmallows to, we pressed those in first, and then added the sprinkles. We had fun with our little Valentine variety. Simply rest the handle of the spoon on the edge of a cookie sheet, and the wet chocolate end of the spoon on the wax paper to harden. As soon as the sheet was full of spoons, we put the sheet in the refrigerator, to further harden.

A couple of other things we have learned: The spoons really need to be kept in a cool place. Cold, is best. SOME of our spoons, developed white specs on the chocolate the next day. We know that tends to happen sometimes when the chocolate is overheated any amount. It could very well have something to do with our needing to use chocolate chips too. (You know how milk chocolate chips have that white-ish coating sometimes?) But we did notice, that they spoons we left int he coldest place, are still looking perfect!! Those are the ones we’re giving away! lol. Regardless……the little change from the smooth chocolate you see will not hurt you or any different. It’s just prettier to prevent it, if you can.

To package nicely, we got some skinny clear bags sold in the baking/candy making aisles. They have some for chocolate covered pretzels, and that what we used! We just cut them down to about 8 inches, and they were perfect! Then we tied on curling ribbon, and curled! As I said, I designed a Valentine for each spoon, for these. But this is a fun project for you (maybe with our kids too!), and it’s certainly a pleasant treat that will bring a smile to anyone’s face, when given away, or served with a hot drink!

ENJOY!

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Valentine Printable (free, to go with Chocolate Covered Spoons)

February 8, 2012 By Laura 1 Comment

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This is a free Valentine card printable, that I specifically designed to go with our Valentine Chocolate Covered Spoons, for our kids to give as Valentines to their friends. But, we are also offering it to you all, as a free printable!

First, here is what the Valentine looks like in detail:

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(Minus the watermark….if you print out a sheet of them. Link at end. )

I mentioned I wanted to get back to enjoying some of my hand artwork, and so I did sketch the cup, in a chocolate brown colored pencil. It’s been awhile, but I had fun doing it! I hope you like it.

This is what it could look like, given with a chocolate covered spoon, as a very unique Valentine:

free-valentine-printable-2 We chose to also add a pack of hot chocolate. That an option.

Here is how we simply attached it all together:

I apologize for the lousy photo. It was growing dark and I was having a hard time focusing. But you should get the idea with an explanation: A single hole punch towards the right side, through the sealed packet of cocoa if you are adding that too. Then using the pretty silver twist ties that came with the clean bags, we just twisted it around the spoon handle, arranging the spoon to be ‘inside’ the cup, visually. Easy! Cute!!

So if you’d like the free printable, 5 come on sheet. I would recommend printing on white card stock, instead of floppy printer paper. Just make as many sets of 5 as you need, and cut them into individuals! This below is not full size, but just to give you an idea of how they are arranged on a sheet:

Each card is the same size as Swiss Miss Cocoa packets, if you’d like to bundle those with your spoons!

HERE is the printable as a full size PDF.

If you grabbed these valentine printables, consider it a little gift, and have a Happy Valentine’s Day.

If you didn’t, please have a Happy Valentine’s Day, anyway!

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Granola Goodness | Recipe

February 1, 2012 By Laura Leave a Comment

We love granola around here! It’s such a good and wholesome snack, handful after handful, with CrUnCh! (Oh, how I love crunch.) It’s really a great way to start your day off right too, in the morning! Throw some in a bowl with a few splashes of cold milk, or load it on top of a serving of yogurt!

Unfortunately, it’s next to impossible to find ‘peanut-safe’ granola at the markets. Added to the allergies now, is cashews and pistachios. Even small amounts of granola are kind of pricey to buy, ready-made, anyway. So, if we want granola (and we do!), it’s up to us to make it homemade. But we don’t mind, because it’s easy and fun to make, and we can make BIG batches.

granola-recipe We have posted another granola recipe here on the blog before, and that one can be found here. There is so many ways to make granola! Experimenting with different ingredients, is half the fun and surprise! Here is the granola recipe we’ve been crunching on this week!

Granola Goodness

(Note: All C.(cup) measurements are heaping – not level.)

4C rolled oats
1 1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
1 C wheat germ
1/2 C natural bran (We used Fiber One cereal.)
2 C raisins
1/2 C cooking oil
1/2 C honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla

(*Chopped nuts optional. We have a kiddo allergic.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, combine oil and honey. Stir over low heat until the honey is melted and it’s warm and blended with the oil enough. (About 5 minutes.) Stir in vanilla. Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients, little by little, mixing to blend well. Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, and bake for for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring and flipping mixture over about half way through time. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 12+ cups!

Granola Goodness

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

There is nothing like a good granola! Here we are sharing our recipe with you, in hopes you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

: House of Joyful Noise blog

: Snack

Serves: 12 Cups

Ingredients

4C rolled oats
1½ C shredded unsweetened coconut
1 C wheat germ
½ C natural bran (We used Fiber One cereal.)
2 C raisins
½ C cooking oil
½ C honey
½ tsp. vanilla
(*Chopped nuts optional. We have a kiddo allergic.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan, combine oil and honey.
Stir over low heat until the honey is melted and it's warm and blended with the oil enough. (About 5 minutes.)
Stir in vanilla.
Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients, little by little, mixing to blend well.
Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, and bake for for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring and flipping mixture over about half way through time.
Let cool completely.
Store in an airtight container. Makes about 12+ cups!

Valentine Ladybug Mint Cookies

January 24, 2012 By Laura 4 Comments

These adorable Ladybug Cookies I came up with, come right in time for Valentine’s Day, and I promise you, they couldn’t be easier to make! (There’s not even baking involved!) I think you are going to love what they are made with, too! (You know…besides LOVE.) I’m talking ingredients. These cookies are also a sweet idea for a little girl’s birthday party, or to send in with your kids to school, to share with their class. You’ll look so clever. (You don’t have to tell a soul it was my idea. ; )

Does the word fondant scare you? Ever heard of the stuff? I know it makes more than a few nervous. But it can actually be a LOT of fun to play with! (Think Play Dough. ; ) Truth be told, in this recipe, we did make and dye our own marshmallow fondant, simply because we knew how, and we think it tastes a little better than store bought. But you don’t have to! Rolled and ready fondant is available in craft and baking supply stores, and even comes in colors! I know Wilton sells ready-made fondant, but I heard a brand called Satin Ice, tastes better. I see that the Satin Ice brand is available to order online. I’ve seen it in a container so you probably roll that out yourself. I have not tried it yet, but I will. But if you’d like to learn how to make your own marshmallow fondant like we did, we have a tutorial coming up on that. For today, we’re just going to show you how simple it is to put together these cookies, with some light pink fondant all ready to go!

Participating Ingredients:

Keebler Grasshopper Fudge Mint Cookies *(peanut safe)
Junior Mints Candy (*peanut safe)
Fondant – in light pink (rolled and ready)
Any kind of icing (for piping glue)
Sprinkles in Valentine shapes/colors (*peanut safety varies with brands)
Confectionery Sugar
(Mini marshmallows and color dye seen are for making your own fondant, if you are.)

* One of our boys has a serious peanut allergy, so we are always checking ingredients carefully, for his safety.

We rolled out our fondant on wax paper and a little dusting of confectionery sugar, making sure to roll it thin and even.

Next, we cut circles out of the fondant. These will be the wings. We started with this small cookie cutter, but it turned out to be a little bigger than we wanted the circles to be, as the cookies were smaller than this. It was the smallest actual circle cookie cutter we had, so we needed to improvise. And so the search began throughout the house, to find something that will cut the circles smaller.

Phew! Good think we have a drink now and then! ; ) This shaker/mixer top turned out to be just right!

Cut the circles in half, and the wings are done!

valentine-ladybug-cookies-5 I told you! Easy, right?

It’s mere assembly, from here on out, Friends.

Put some of that icing in a piping bag, with the smallest tip, and just put a little on each side of the cookies.

(These cookies do tend to come a little stuck together in the packaging, so we made efforts to pipe on the messy sides, leaving the smoothest and nicest part of the cookie at the bottom, where it will show between the wings.)

Put the wings on, as shown above. Like a ladybug’s wings, slightly spread.

Pipe a little dab of icing on the back/flatter side of a Junior Mint candy…..

….and stick on the head.

All that is left to do, is decorate the wings a little! We tried to arrange them, like the dots usually on the wings of a ladybug, as we recalled. You do want to be sure, that you press the decorative sprinkles down into the fondant. You may even want to add a dab of water? (Didn’t try that). If the sprinkles aren’t pressed down enough, they’ll fall off when the fondant sets up more.

THAT’S IT!! How CUTE are these? How EASY are these?

You can make a whole bunch, in no time at all. And it’s fun!

Our kids all got in on the action! They were on their own (the three younger ones are 9 years old here.). But even younger ones can put these cookies together with a little help!

We used the red cots from Confetti Sprinkles too.

If you think about it, you could use some alternative ingredients, to make these cookies similarly as well. Oreo cookies could be cute. Dark brown M&M’s can be used as heads. (They are not peanut safe, for us.) Use your imagination!

Just for fun, can you spot the ladybug, who’s wings were cut too big?

We hope you liked this cute little idea. Share it. 🙂 And thanks for stopping by the House!

Stay tuned, for more thoughts and shares on the way! Valentine’s Day related, and otherwise.

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Delightful Cranberry Muffins

January 17, 2012 By Laura 2 Comments

The rest of my family loves anything made with cranberries. But loving these muffins came as a big surprise to me, the first time my daughter made them. Reason being, I personally have never cared much for cranberry bread of any kind. I figured, it was cranberries, period, that I didn’t like. And between you and me, that felt a little wrong, and perhaps a bit of info I should keep to myself, living in an area simply surrounded by cranberry bogs, and in the town that until fairly recently) was the home of Ocean Spray Cranberry World. You’ll also never hear me say “Pass the cranberry sauce” at the Thanksgiving table, either. Although, I don’t mind a little spread on 2 slices of toasted bread with plenty of mayonnaise, when making my turkey sandwiches in the following days. I do enjoy cranberry juice now too, and with Ocean Spray still nearby in Massachusetts, there is plenty of that around. At many warm- seasoned waterfront events, representatives of Ocean Spray are often set up giving out free samples of their large variety of juices. So….they were bound to grow on me, so to speak. Cranberries are wonderful to decorate with, too! I especially love using them with my winter ice sculpture yard decor! They add such a beautiful splash of color, against winter.

In the next year or so, we plan to take a cranberry-related field trip or two, with the kids. So you’ll likely be seeing some interesting educational information and photos about cranberries and cranberry bogs around here, in the future. And perhaps more recipes as well. We hope you enjoy this one as much as we have.

. . . . . .

Delightful Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped frozen or fresh cranberries

TOPPING:

2 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Fold in sour cream. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Fill greased or paper lined muffin tins 2/3 full. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick, or until the muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to wire rack. When completely cooled, store in a container.

Makes about 18 muffins.

These muffins freeze very well, also. We like to make a couple of batches at a time, and freeze some, to take out and pop in the microwave, on any morning we fancy. : )

cranberry-muffins-recipe Enjoy!…Warm or cold, with or without butter.

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ENJOY!

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