My Crafty Christmas

 Amanda’s Craving a Crafty Christmas!

I feel like this holiday season I have been super crafty and made some very easy things that can be used for gifts.  The first is a Monogrammed Spice Christmas Ornament.  While I was out shopping downtown with my good friend Kirstan, we discovered a loose spice and tea store.  The store was selling glass ball ornaments with their spices inside.  Well, this is an expensive store so the ornament was $20! Therefore, Yes— I stole the idea and jazzed it up by monogramming the person’s initial with a glitter pen.  You can fill the glass balls with any type of spices based on the person you are giving to.  I have 2 types- Spicy Spaghetti and Southwest Chipotle.  I also made a little recipe and tip card for each spice blend that will go with the gift.

Awesome!

 This past weekend my Mother and I became a candy factory.  It was a lot of fun and a tradition that we do every year.   Our three types of candy are Peppermint Bark, White Chocolate Covered Pretzels, & Chocolate Peanut Butter Crackers.

The preparation for all three is fairly simple.  To make the White Chocolate Pretzels, melt vanilla almond bark (a cheaper melting chocolate) with a few slivers of paraffin.  Next dip the pretzels and place on the parchment.  The paraffin is a neat tip because it helps to thin the chocolate for dipping and creates a glossy finish.

Yummy!

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Crackers are easy to make. Start by making a sandwich of 2 Townhouse Crackers with Peanut Butter in the middle. While prepping, melt the chocolate almond bark with paraffin.  Dip! Enjoy! 

Yes, I ate a few outliers.

The last holiday candy treat is Peppermint Bark.  We always buy high quality chocolate chips for the bark.  First you melt the semi sweet chips in a double boiler.  Once melted, smooth the yummy  chocolate on parchment in a thin layer. Place in the freezer to help firm it up.  Next start melting the white chocolate chips and crush the peppermints in a plastic ziplock bag.  Add some crushed peppermint to the white chocolate.  Now smooth it into a layer on top of the semi sweet layer.  Sprinkle with more peppermint and allow time to harden.  You can use an ice pick to break up the sheet into jagged pieces.  Hooray and so much cheaper than purchasing pre-made stuff!  You can now combine all 3 treats into little gift bags for your friends.

White Chocolate Melting

 

 

 

My final craft project was creating my Holiday Peace Wreath.  All you need is a fake wreath, ornaments that you want to glue on, ribbon, and a hot glue gun.  I tried to pick ornaments that I loved and related to me. Wrap the ribbon around first and then glue on your personalized ornaments  That is all for this crafty Christmas!

On my Door!







Mississippi Bound

Traveling to Mississippi for Thanksgiving is something I have always done every year.  The drive is long but it goes by quickly with the help of my Dad's conversation.  I never thought of myself as OCD like some of my friends,  but when it comes to making long trips I have to know where I am at on the map at all times.  I love atlases and figuring out the route to take. 

The first highlight of the trip as always was Amanda Craving Popeye’s.  I decided to try what their commercials have been advertising- the Crawfish Tackle Box.  It was spicy crawfish tails deep fried with seasoned fries and one of those DELICIOUS biscuits.  I could eat ten of those in one sitting.  I enjoyed the tackle box and I recommend it to anyone.  Flaky biscuit soaked in butter = heaven.

Crawfish, Fries, Red Beans & Rice, Chicken Strips

I know that my last blog was a Thanksgiving recipe but I am going to include another recipe that is my favorite dessert at my Grandma’s.  Everyone is terrified of those strange Jello salads that distant relatives bring for the holidays.  Well Watergate Salad is one of those strange concoctions, but it is amazing.  For your viewing pleasure pictured below (yes it is green in color which comes from the pistachio pudding mix).  What sounds better than cool whip, marshmallows, and pudding?

The End of Watergate Salad

-1 (3 3/4 oz) Package Pistachio Pudding

-1 (1lb 4oz) Can Crushed Pineapple

-1 (9oz) Package Cool Whip

-1 1/2 Cup Marshmallows

               Combine dry pudding mix with pineapple can with juice.  Fold in other ingredients.

One of the final food highlights of the trip was eating at Keifer’s.  I got to experience the second best gyro kebab of my life.  This Mediterranean restaurant is a delicious surprise in Jackson.  They have the kebob meat spinning on the vertical pit and it smells delicious.  The Tzatziki yogurt sauce was the perfect compliment and very creamy.  And then the fresh baked pita created the ultimate experience!  They get it sourced from local baker.  I also liked the fried potato which was a large potato cut into disks.  Keifer’s is clearly a Jackson favorite with people coming in non-stop all day.  

A Few Bites taken before I Remembered to Take a Picture

 Now the Holidays have begun!  Popeye's Trip Count- 2.