I'm Back!!

Homemade ornaments are the best!

I spotted this adorable gingerbread man on our friends' tree yesterday;

turns out it's the handiwork of their granddaughter (with a little help from grandpa :) 

Seeing as this is the second time I've 'popped by' when I'm supposed to be taking some time off, I'm guessing my bloggy-break is now officially over, lol! I trust your Christmas was a merry one; ours was lovely. I was actually quite excited this year in anticipation of the Kindle Reader Santa was bringing me - don't ask me how I found out - I never reveal my sources... :) So far I'm really enjoying it. I'm a hoarder collector of books and will likely end up picking up many of the books I read on the Kindle at Goodwill for my collection anyways. I finished Harry Potter a few days before Christmas and have started a new book series which I downloaded to my reader (see my Good Reads page)

Food is such a big part of any Christmas, that I thought I'd share a few recipes with you. I made an apple crisp for our dessert on Christmas Eve and a Sour Cherry Trifle for Christmas Day. I put it together early on Christmas Eve, except for the whipping cream and almonds which I added just before serving. If you haven't yet decided on a dessert for your New Year's celebrations - this would be a perfect one. Very showy and delicious!

The above photo is from the Canadian Living website where I found the recipe (link). I had full plans of posting a pic of my trifle but in all the excitement, I only realized I'd forgotten to take one after having dished out numerous servings...! You'll just have to take my word that it was essentially identical to the one above :)

Something I did manage to get a shot of was one of the numerous pans of Graham Breakaways I've made over the past week (my sister calls them 'Crack' because you can't have just one, lol!) This was just before I'd broke them into pieces. Below is the recipe (which I've adapted) from the Kraft website. (link)


Take 1 sleeve (30) Honey Maid Graham Wafers and 2/3 cup butter and 1 cup packed brown sugar and mix & match your recipe from these options...

	chopped nut options	topping choices
	pecans	flaked coconut
	walnuts	dried cranberries
	peanuts	Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped
	almonds	Baker's White Chocolate, chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. On parchment paper spread wafers onto large baking sheet.

In a saucepan melt butter on low heat with brown sugar until incorporated, then raise heat to med-high and boil for 1.5 minutes. Quickly pour over your prepared wafers, spreading mixture evenly.

Bake 5 min. or until topping is bubbly and lightly browned. 

Remove from oven, sprinkle generously with chocolate (I use semi-sweet chocolate chips) and put back in oven for 2-3 minutes, remove from oven and spread melted chips over caramel layer.

Add your toppings (nuts, cranberries, coconut) Press down gently and bake another 2 min. max.

Cool completely in fridge. Break into pieces. Enjoy!

Note: Other yummy toppings would be Skor pieces &/or substituting 1/2 butterscotch chips for regular chocolate.

Also: Do not use carob chips - they won't melt properly!

Here's another one of Jinnaya's creations :)

Cheers!