Shame on Me...

     I realize that I have not posted in quite a while, but life gets hectic around the holidays. Because of this, I haven't been baking very many new recipes.
     For Thanksgiving, I made a Turkey Cheese Ball found on the Taste of Home website. I made the same thing last year, but this year I decided to be lazy and didn't decorate it as a turkey like the picture shows.


Turkey Cheese Ball as seen on Taste of Home website - Photo Credit to Taste of Home

      I find it easiest to put the cream cheese, turkey, cheddar cheese, and onion in my Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Chopper (one at a time, dumping into a medium bowl to mix all ingredients together). By doing this, you are making sure the pieces are all the same size so there aren't chunks in the cheese ball.
    When it comes to actually forming the cheese ball, it is easiest to take a bowl that is rounded and line it with plastic wrap. I have found that it really only takes two pieces of plastic wrap that have been criss-crossed. After you have done this, spoon your cheese ball into the bowl, pull the edges of the plastic wrap around the ball, and then place in the fridge.

     Earlier tonight, I made The Busty Baker's Orange Spritz Cookies. They are quite good. Unlike the picture below, mine are in the shape of Christmas Trees because they are for a Christmas get-together.



Orange Spritz Cookies - Photo Credit to The Busty Baker



     In her recipe, The Busty Baker said that if the dough is too sticky, you should stick it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. I highly suggest doing this as it makes a huge difference. Make sure to do it in between batches or the dough will soften up in the time that the cookies are baking.

     I sprinkled mine with some sugar to give them a little extra something. Also, rather than using 1/4 tsp orange extract, I used about 1 1/2 teaspoons of juice from the orange that I zested. (Don't worry, I didn't waste the rest of the juice; I poured it into the pitcher of orange juice that was in the fridge.) The directions also say to use an electric mixer, but sadly I don't have one so I just used a hand mixer.

     For the Christmas get-together, I also made snow men candy bars as seen on the blog "Rock Paper Cricut" using Hershey bars. On the blog, they stamped the faces on, but I just used Sharpies and drew them on. For the cheeks, rather than chalking them on, I used a Q-Tip and blush.



Snowmen as seen on Rock Paper Cricut - Photo Credit to Rock Paper Cricut

     I have a few Christmas gifts that I am making and will hopefully write a post about them. I'm not entirely sure when that will be though because I am waiting for some of the supplies I ordered to get here. They're supposed to be here sometime next week. Utnil then, happy baking (and crafting)!

"SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!"

-Buddy the Elf from Elf