Scrumptious & Easy

I found the "recipe" for these chocolate pretzel cookies on the Swallowfield blog, and the author described the ease with which they are made by saying "the hardest part is unwrapping the kisses, seriously." With that, I forwarded the link to my sister-in-law and recommended we make them with my three and a half year old niece on Saturday night. 


They were a hit to make and to eat. My niece helped out with every step, which totally  included the runs-in-the-family "one for me, one for the cookie sheet" move. Once you put the chocolate on the pretzels, you just pop them in the oven for about two minutes at 350 degrees, which is just long enough for the chocolate to soften, but not long enough for the kisses to lose their shape. Once out, we smooshed M&Ms on top, then popped the plate of cookies into the freezer to cool for about ten minutes. 


It took us less time to eat the whole plate. Yum!!

Flat Stanley Is In The House...

And has been in my house for months. Whoops. After confessing this to the mother of the 2nd grader who sent me Flat Stanley, I actually brought him to work with me today. We took some photos on the subway which was really exciting. I liked giving the people around me something to puzzle about.

I'm giving him to my coworker who lives in a cool town in upstate New York. After that, I plan on either sending him to Maine or Colorado. Do we have any volunteers?!

Sagittarius

We celebrated my cousin's birthday over Thanksgiving, which is just two days before my own. She requested a yellow cake and allowed me to pick the icing, so I tried a key lime buttercream for the first time. It was delicious, and very easy to make. It's the same basic recipe as a regular buttercream, except you substitute the juice of two or three limes for the milk you would usually add the to confectioner sugar/butter, and also add the rind of two limes. I gave it a couple of drops of green icing for good measure, and topped with coconut. All were pleased, even if it was more of a tropical themed cake, and we were snowed in.


Mr. SevPrez loved it so much that we picked up a plastic knife and fork at a rest stop on the ride home so he could cut a piece from the hunk of cake we were sent home with. That's devotion.