Easy Valentines Day Marshmallow Pops

 These are super easy to make, and they are tasty and they are cute.  Three really good things in a treat.  I first saw something like this when my friend Staci made them.  She showed me and I was all, "seriously, chocolate and sprinkles, why did I not think of that?"  

 Then she gave me a smug smile, and think she was all "I am Martha Stewart! Don't be hating!" Or she was just smiling, because I told her how smart she was, either way.  

 So I have not been doing much baking the last few weeks, burn out and my dad in the hospital just left me not wanting to make anything.  But I felt it was about time I send in a treat for Pork Chops hockey team.  So I suggested these and he was all "Marshmallows!!!!!!"  Do I know my boy or what?

I love sprinkles, in case you didn't know that already.  I wait all  year just to use these heart ones!

  So I would prefer to make these with home made marshmallows, but that would totally defeat the point of a simple quick treat.  And kids don't care one way or the other, as long as it is full of sugar, they will be happy.  So I grabbed a bag of large marshmallows, not the jumbo camp fire ones, those are crazy!  Maybe next time.

I just used an old take out container, it was wide enough that Pork Chop could work with it easily.

 Anyway Pork Chop actually wanted to help me so he washed his hands while I got our stuff together.  It was still January, but I figure Valentines day needed to be celebrated sooner rather than later.  So I just mixed some white sprinkles with these heart sprinkles.  And there you go, instant valentines treat!

And since we rolled the marshmallows in the sprinkles, not too many fell on the floor.

  I melted the chocolate and got Pork Chop to set up the marshmallows, he was so proud as he kept telling me he was making a pattern.  It's times like these I love him, other times, well I love him, but I want to hurt him.

Making his pattern.

 So once that was done we had to put the sticks in, and Pork Chop did almost all of them himself.

Putting the sticks in the marshmallows.  Also quick cute story from Hubby.  Pork Chop now plays on my lap top, and one morning it said something like "windows needs to close" and he was all "but the windows are closed!" And pointed at the house windows.  Man sometimes he is so innocent it kills me.

 Then I said, "I have to take a picture!"

He is too big, I may have to stop feeding him.

 And I did, and he didn't really smile so much as he looked like he was trying not to hurt me.  Whatever, I got it.  So once we got that done, we worked as a team.  I would dip the marshmallows and tap off the extra chocolate and he would roll them around in the sprinkles and set them back on the parchment paper to dry.  It seriously took us like 10 minutes, not even.

I was so thinking this didn't look like 1000 and started counting, when I got to 50 and realized there are probably more than 1000 in there, they are thinner than the ones you would buy here thought but they work fine.

  Then as they dried he went and got a drink and I got out the plastic bags and twist ties.  I really like using the twist ties, they are so much faster to work with than ribbon.  But they cost a lot at the baking store, like $30  for 1000, which really isn't much, but I can get that many ribbons cut and tied for less than $2.  I may have to rethink it, I don't know.  Anyway, I got these off of ebay, they were 1000 for under $2, free shipping too.  So they are amazing, and I hope I don't run out soon.

All ready to be wrapped.

  I love how cute they are. And Pork Chops team seems to like them too.

I had to share this picture, he is so big he just jumps on the counter to get things. I used to do that as a kid.  I tried a bit ago when I needed something up high, but I almost broke a hip, so I use a chair.  Man I am old!

I am also linking up HERE

Annual Cookie Exchange

 For the last few years I have been going to a cookie exchange my girl friend sets up.  I had never done one before her and well, I look forward to it now.  I go with the same old every year.  Cakeballs, of coarse.  This year I got containers from Walmart to make them cuter, I should have gotten the smaller size because they looked so tiny in there.  Oh well.   

Here is my huge table full of them, I was so tired I did the simplest thing I could.

See a drizzle of chocolate and a smattering of sprinkle.s

I was even too lazy to dig out my holiday sprinkles, they may never see the light of day.

I have  come to hate these types of sprinkles, you end up with them all over as they bounce off the table.

This was a new trick, I have been wanting to try it for a while, so I finally did.

I gilded my balls.

Yeah I know, I said it.  But there you go a short sweet post, and now on to the holidays!

Christmas Coal, Peppermint Patty's in Disguise

These are the pretty ones, the coal, well it looks like coal.

  So I have not been in the baking mood, just not into it for some reason.  I mean I really want to and I have all these great plans, but then I sit down and I want to stay on my butt for the rest of the day.  It's how I roll. I need to be constantly doing something or else I sit and it is not easy to get me moving again.  Ask Hubby, he is all over it now, but in the first few years he was probably plotting to kill me.  Anyway I actually did something baking like on Saturday and it totally didn't turn out how I wanted.  Which is total proof to me that if I sit down, I should stay that way.

  It's just safer for everyone this way.

This is just a big bowl of peppermint patty innards, is that kind of gross to say?  Well it is, also it is reddish, I didn't want to use too much food colouring, just pretend it's red.

  But I tried and I failed, but I totally got something else out of it, so I actually won.  I knew I was a winner!!!

  So Saturday after work we took Pork Chop to see Wreck It Ralph, and it was adorable, I really enjoyed it and he was all over the video game aspect of it.  So when we got home he wanted to play with his toys and I figured I better do something before I sat down again, and so I did.  I wanted to make peppermint patties in a holiday style.  What that really means I have no idea, I just knew they had to be festive.

This cute little pan I had to have, I think I have used it once, so it's paid for itself really.

Peppermint Patties
Based on something I read on I am Baker

-2 small cans of sweetened condensed milk
-3 TBSP peppermint extract
-red food colouring paste
-icing sugar, as much as you want

Basically mix everything but the icing sugar together, then add the icing sugar until it is as thick as you like.  If you like a runny mint ( you can pour them into chocolate coated molds) then add less sugar.  I like them very dense so I add it until my poor mixer is about to burn out, and then I am good.  Then you shape them and freeze them and dip them in whatever kind of chocolate you like.  I also like to keep mine frozen, they taste better to me that way.

This is an ice cube tray.  Story about this, I made hubby drive me around for like 4 hours one night to find the perfect ice cube tray to make ice for my ice coffee.  Guess how many times I actually used it.  Well if you guessed 3 times, you would be a winner.  Hubby may have tried to hurt me, but I would not know, he does that when I am sleeping.

  So I got to mixing up my patty filling, adding just enough red food paste to make it sort of red and then I got to work.  I had two silicon pans I planned to use.  My gingerbread one and a snowflake one.  I will tell you right now, if you have not figured it out from the title, this didn't work.  I spent all this time smooshing my filling into the pans and then I froze them and I waited a little longer to make sure they set.  I did some normal puddles of peppermint and dipped those first.  I put some festive sprinkles on them, because nothing screams holidays like snowflake sprinkles.

  Then I got out the snow flakes and tried to pop out the shapes.  And they cracked and part of them stayed in the mold and I was all.  "Seriously!  I got off the sofa for this!"  So I just mushed the stuff together into lumpy ball shapes.  Then I dipped them.  I figured my gingerbread men would be better as they had frozen longer.

So far so good right?

 I may have been wrong.  I spend a huge amount of time prying filling out of the pans and smooshing them all together.  I dipped everything in melted milk chocolate that I had really thinned down.  And when I was done, I stood back and said to myself "self, you suck!"

They remind me of the cream cheese wedding mints like this, I should have figured out that these would fair.

  Then I started to clean up a bit.  And did you know that peppermint patty filling is like super glue?  Well neither did I, but I did spend a good half hour trying to get it out of my pans.  I finally gave up and left one for hubby to deal with.  Then I went back and looked at my lumps of peppermint patty and then I said "self you are the smartest person ever!!!"

If you look closely you may notice the one on the bottom sort of has a snow flake shape, sort of.

 Why you ask?  Well I had invented peppermint patty coal.  See right there, that is why I get of the sofa every  now and then.  I screw something up so badly it turns out to be the best thing ever.

  And then I packed a bunch of the ones with the sprinkles up for my co workers, but I kept all the coal for myself.  I am so bad, I deserve it.

I should have stopped, but you know I was on a roll.

  But how great is that?!  Imagine if you will, getting a little baggy or box of these, being told basically that you were such a horrible person that all you get is coal from Santa, but then you eat one and it's awesome.

  I know, sometimes I don't know how I contain all my awesome.

I was just pissed off at this point so this is the best picture of the coal you are going to get, sorry.

 Or my modesty, really how Hubby can handle it is beyond me.  And after the last few weeks, I totally deserve an awesome mistake for once.

These are the nice ones my coworkers got, I could eat these all day, if they didn't make my tummy turn into knots that is.

  Just don't expect this level of awesome again okay?  That will save us all a lot of disappointment in the end.