Nellie & Phoeb's

Design, Food, Kids, Laughter, Love...

DIY Gingerbread Man Kits

Homemade Gingerbread Cookies Packaged with Icing, Ready to Decorate

Christmas Gifts for Neighbor Kids


My neighbor Kathy Rogers gave our girls gingerbread men and icing one year and it was the most adorable, and sweetest little gift.  The girls and I decided to make our first batch of gingerbread this year, and thought we would share this fun treat with our younger neighborhood friends!  Baking is a huge Christmas tradition in our family, we do lot's of cooking the entire month of December, and we buy pounds and pounds of butter, sugar, and flour, and this is great addition to our festivities.

You can do little gingerbread men or big ones. You can fit 8 or so small cookies or 2 of the extra large cookies in a standard size plastic treat bag.  Add a little bag of frosting, that can double as a piping bag, and you have an instant kid gift.  It's a craft and snack all in one!

For reference: The gingerbread recipe we used made 4 extra large cookies and 20 small cookies.

Supplies needed:

A gingerbread recipe, I used this one- Gingerbread Man Recipe 
Store bought frosting
Gingerbread boy/girl cookie cutter- Cookie Cutters
Any treat bags (mine are from Party City) - Treat Bags
Bakers Twine or ribbon
DIY Gift Tags or any gift tags
Mini bags for frosting - Snip off a corner and use it as a piping bag




Merry Christmas to our Littler Friends!

Christmas Wrapping Paper

Gold, Stripes, Plaid, and Ugly Sweater: Christmas Wrapping Paper

 

Almost everything I do happens organically, rarely is anything ever planned, because I'm too busy to plan!  I picked up my Christmas wrapping paper this year at three random place and it worked out beautifully!  Nothing is more trendy this year than plaid, & black/white/gold, &  I personally think the ugly sweaters are starting to get cute again.  Fashion faux pas gone cool.

Paper #1: The black and white stripe is from Hobby Lobby, I found it in the gift wrapping section, not with the Christmas papers.  It was priced $6.99 (use a 40% off coupon on their website), and the quality and quantity was great, their rolls are huge.  There are grids printed on the backs of their papers, which makes it so much easier to cut.  Plus, it's extra thick and doesn't rip when you are gliding your scissors across it.

Paper #2: The red plaid with glittery gold gift tape is from Dollar General.  The wrapping paper quality is mediocre but the gold tape quality was excellent.  The wrapping paper was a smaller roll, but still wrapped a handful of presents.  The cost- wrapping paper was $1 per roll, and glitter tape was $2 per roll.

Paper #3: The green ugly Christmas sweater paper is from the Dollar Tree.  The quality was extremely low, I wasn't able to run my scissors across it without it tearing.  But, the roll was wider than a standard roll so I was able to stretch it further.  I added a little extra tape to my packaging to make it a little stronger, and it looks cute, so it's still a win!

Gift Tag:  The chalkboard label sticker is from the scrap-booking section at Michaels.

Happy Wrapping!!!

In the Kitchen: Confetti Rock Candy

Confetti Rock Candy






My husband's sister Monica, use to make this for us every Christmas, and it was one of the things I looked forward to the most at his family gathering!  I was so happy when I found a rock candy recipe online, I COULD NOT wait to make it.  Hers always reminded me of confetti, it was tiny little pieces or shards of rock candy in different colors, and each color had a different flavor, packaged in a tiny little tub.  I think the tiny pieces was one of the things that made it different, and it was easier to eat than a normal sized piece of hard candy.  Probably because you could get more flavors in and didn't have to commit to one large hunk of any flavor.  Does that make sense?  
The flavors I remember her having for sure were peppermint, anise (licorice), butterscotch, cinnamon, and spearmint.  I want to say there was cherry and orange in there too, but I'm not positive.  I do not like black jelly beans or black licorice, but the anise flavored tiny rock candies were my favorite.  So, I was on a short mission to find some candy oil, which proved harder than I thought.  I found them online, but didn't want to wait for shipping.  I went to Michael's craft store and they did not have them, so I opted for a less potent version and got  the flavor extracts from the baking isle at the grocery store, these are not as potent as the pure oils (go with the oils if you can, the flavor is stronger).  Sometimes I have zero patience.
So... if you have never made candy before, I would highly recommend that you just start with one flavor, multiple flavors can be a little overwhelming (and a whole lot of work).  I broke mine up, and did one or two flavors a week, over a period of a few weeks.  You also need a candy thermometer for each batch, if you only have one, you can only make one batch at a time.  Be careful with the glass thermometers, the first time I ever used one, I broke it in my pot of toffee, insert sad face.  Find a quick tutorial on how to use a candy thermometer here: How to Use a Candy Thermometer
I this would make a cute teacher or neighbor gift, packaged in a fun Holiday mug, or a Christmas tin:


Step by step visual guide:











Confetti Rock Candy Recipe

Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients:
3-3/4 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup corn syrup
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon candy oil flavoring (or 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon flavor extract)
10 drops food coloring

Tools:
Candy thermometer
Sheet pan
Parchment paper
Large spoon
1 quart Ziploc bag
Hammer
Plastic wrap

Instructions:
Prepare sheet pan, with parchment paper and a coat of non-stick cooking spray.  In a medium sauce pan, bring water, corn syrup, and sugar to a boil, stirring frequently until sugar dissolves.  Continue to boil on medium high heat, when the temperature reaches 260 degrees, add in the food coloring (do not stir).  Continue boiling until the candy thermometer reaches hard crack, 302 degrees (this takes about 30 minutes), do not stir.  Remove from heat and stir in candy flavoring.  Carefully (because it's hot), pour onto prepared sheet pan.  Let it dry, (it takes about 30 minutes).  Cover the sheet pan with plastic wrap and break candy up using the pry side of a hammer (the blunt side crushes too much and makes too much powder).  The smaller the pieces, the better.  Place candy pieces and powdered sugar in a quart Ziploc and shake to cover.  Combine multiple flavors in different colors for a confetti look.

Recipe adapted from: Serendipity Mommy and LorAnn

Where to purchase LorAnn candy oils: LorAnn Oils and Hobby Lobby, each dram holds 1 teaspoon of oil, therefore, each tiny bottle makes one batch of hard candy.
My favorite girls modeling candy (their favorite food group):



 Cheers!

DIY Gift Tags from Paint Samples

Paint Sample Gift Tags

Okay, I've seen a few things floating around out there using paint chips for art, and party decor, etc.  None of which I've ever actually done.  But, today  I ran out of all the cute gift tags I bought for Christmas gifts and decided to pull out my tag shaped hole punch and make a few out of some scraps of scrapbook paper and card stock.  As I was cleaning my counter off to make room for this simple task, I started to put some paint samples (that I picked up at Sherwin Williams this week), in my junk drawer, when I realized they were the perfect size to fit in the hole punch.  So I grabbed a handfull of paint samples out of that handy junk drawer... and, there was born, a stack of cute free gift tags!

While I got my hole punch at a garage sale (score!), you can find one here: Tag Hole Punch
Get one, you may never buy a gift tag again!

You will need a regular hole punch too, not all the tag punches have holes in them.  You will also need some twine, yarn, or ribbon to attach your little crafty tag.



  
Cheers!

In the Kitchen- Mom's Divinity Christmas Candy

Mom's Divinity

Traditional Christmas Candy

If you can imagine that there is a food that tastes like Heaven, this is it.  It even looks like Heaven.  My Mom made lots of candy at Christmas, peanut butter cups, peanut patties, coconut truffles, but this was all I cared about.  Her divinity just melted in my mouth like cotton candy.
 
I love the way it looks, the soft chewy, chalky texture, and the clean, simple, sweet flavor that dissolves when you chew it.  If you are a fan of pecans, add them in, the nutty flavor is a nice contrast to the sweet.
 
So many of my favorite memories of my Mom are centered around food and restaurants.  Up until the last year, the girls thought my Mom lived at Buffalo Wild Wings, every time we would drive by they would say "Granny Crecia lives there!", it was cute.

I want to give you a quick lesson in how to attach a candy thermometer to your pan, in case you've never done it before.  I am trying to spare you the cooking disaster I had when I first used one (I am still not over the loss of the entire pan of toffee).

 

How to Use a Candy Thermometer

A quick step by step guide to attaching a candy thermometer to your pan:

 There is a metal clip attached to the top of the thermometer, do NOT push the clip over your pan like you would a pen going into a pocket, do not pull it straight out either.  The pressure may break the glass.  You shouldn't have to apply any pressure, tilt the thermometer horizontally and slide it over the lip of the pan.

 Once the end of the clip is touching the outside of your pan, simply tilt the thermometer tip  towards the inside of the pan till it's at approximately 45 degrees (see image below).

 The thermometer should slide right into place, you should not have to push it.

You should attach your thermometer to your pan once all your ingredients have already been placed in the pan.  The tip of the thermometer should be nestled in the middle of your ingredients, but NOT touching the bottom of the pan.

How to make divinity:

 The ingredients and tools (medium sauté pan not pictured).

 Butter a sheet pan and set it aside.

 Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in a medium saucepan.  Cook on medium, stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved.

Beat egg whites until they are stiff, they should stand straight up when you take the beaters out.
 

 Once your sugar has dissolved, attach the candy thermometer to the pan.  Simmer the syrup until it reaches 260 degrees.  Initially the bubbles will look foamy but will turn into a clear simmer (see below).


Add the vanilla to the egg whites, then slowly add the boiling syrup to the egg whites. 



Beat on a medium/high speed until the mixture becomes firm enough to hold shape.  This will take longer than your think, but don't over beat it or the texture of your candy won't be smooth.  Start checking it when you see it pulling away from the sides.  
(See the three progression pictures above.)  I over-beat mine a smidgen and the texture was not as smooth as I would have liked.  


QUICKLY drop spoonfuls onto the prepared sheet pan.  The candy starts to dry really fast, as soon as it's ready, get it on your pan as fast as you can.


A better idea of what the texture is like, once it dries.  They melt in your mouth!

Lecrecia's Divinity Recipe

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions:
Grease a sheet pan with butter and set it aside.  Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in a medium sauce pan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.  In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Continue cooking syrup until it reaches 260 degrees Fahrenheit.  Gradually pour syrup mixture into egg whites.  Add vanilla.  Beat till the candy holds shape (this takes a while).  Quickly drop from a teaspoon onto a prepared sheet pan.  Let it harden for 30 minutes, then store in an airtight container.

*Note: I used Karo brand corn syrup and it has natural vanilla flavoring in it, and I used the full amount of vanilla that the recipe calls for, and it was a little vanilla-y.  Select a non-vanilla flavored corn syrup or decrease your vanilla add in.


In Memory of my beautiful Mother.