There are around 500 recipes so far on SouthernPlate.com so it can get a bit overwhelming at times.

Today I thought I’d pick out a few of my Christmas Candy and Gift Mix posts to make your holidays a bit easier. Feel free to browse through the entire index of recipes on Southern Plate my clicking here. 

Candies and Christmas Snacks 

Microwave Chex Mix

Holly Jollies - One of the most popular posts of all time on Southern Plate. Click to see why!

Double Layer Peppermint Bark

Brady’s Butterscotch Chow Mein Candy - Some folks call these haystacks. I just call them yummy

Homemade Caramels – You’ll be spoiled! 

Homemade Caramel Corn - This makes great gifts!

Quick, Easy, and Delicious Homemade Turtles  - Ever made turtles out of pretzels, rolos, and pecans? They sure are good!

 Want to give a gift from the kitchen but short on time? 

Below are some of the gift mix recipes on SouthernPlate.com and each comes with printable tags as well! 

Fruit Crisp Mix

Pecan Pie Muffin Mix

Chocolate Gravy Mix

S’more’s Kits - great to hand out to classmates or co-workers!

Snowman Soup - another classroom favorite! I actually got this recipe from my First Grade teacher  

 Sugar Free Cappuccino Mix 

FUN Crafts for your little ones (and you!)

Easy Reindeer Shirt – and fun Reindeer gift ideas for Grandparents!

Christmas Mice with Candy Cane Tales (Includes printable template)

Click here to see my favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes! 

 ”Appreciate what you have before it becomes what you had.”

Submitted by Mona Hickey. Contribute to our collection of inspiring and uplifting quotes by clicking here. 

So you have a book signing and you want to make something because you know your mother is going to be there and she can go down the line and hand it out for you, but you’ve been sick and are really not up to a grand production in the kitchen – what do you do?

Or how about Christmas is coming up like a speeding freight train and you really want to make just – one – more – thing but don’t have a lot of time? Well let me tell ya, this candy is DELICIOUS. So I don’t care what time of year it is, how busy you are, or whether or not you really need one more thing, I do really hope you’ll make it today because you are going to love me when you do!

Special thanks to our friend Susie Braun of Pecan Pie Muffin Fame, who gave this recipe to Mama at their stitch group meeting the other night!

You’ll need: A bag of pretzels (get the square kind like these), a bag of rolos, and some pecan halves.

I thought I’d need two bags of each but here is how it turned out: The pretzels will be enough for a gazillion of these puppies and you’ll likely have plenty of pecan pieces too. What you’ll need two of (if you want to make more) is the Rolos, you run out of them before you run out of anything else.

Place a rolo on top of a pretzel and fill up a cookie sheet with these.

Notice how I had my pretzels laid out all orderly like and then it just all kinda goes into disarray. I generally start out things like that, its the good intentions that make me orderly at times, but it is not a natural state for me to be in. Ain’t life fun like that, though? Kinda crazy, kinda fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, and all about being who I am and enjoying it rather than trying to be something that I’m not.

Okay, so now you’re going to put these in the oven at 350 for two minutes.

Get that? Only two or you’ll have a mess on your hands.

As soon as they come out, press a pecan piece into the top of each of them.

~sighs~ Aren’t pecans expensive? Pains me to use ‘em.

Let these cool until hardened completely, which will take ten forevers.

So make them early in the day if you want to serve them or let them set up in your fridge for a while. If you live in a place that is really cold (which is always hit or miss here in Alabama) you can just set this cookie sheet outside for a few minutes.

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Homemade Turtles, Book Signing, and a Challenge for you!

Ingredients

• 1 package Rolos
• 1 bag square pretzels (the waffle weave ones, such as Snyders)
• Pecan Halves

Instructions

1. On an ungreased cookie sheet, place an unwrapped Rolo atop a pretzel. Repeat until you run out of Rolos or room on your cookie sheet. Place in a 350 degree oven for two minutes. Remove and press a pecan half into the top of each one. Let cool until hardened again.

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Photos from last night’s book signing

I’ve really enjoyed getting to meet you all on the book tour. To see a list of where all I’ve been, click here. Last night’s book signing was extra special to me, though, because we got to raise money for Manna House, a local organization that helps feed folks in need. Here are some photos and more details at the bottom. Be sure to read my challenge for a chance to win one of five $20 Wal Mart Gift Cards!

I gave the kids who came little Christmas straws, and then showed them how to use them as whistles ~giggle~

I heard the line was really long but I never got to see the end of it from where I was. The event was scheduled from 3-5 and I left around 6:30 so we had a really good turnout. They had a craft table set up for the kids. If you look directly over my head, that is Katy Rose working on making a Christmas tree .

This is much later on, look where Katy Rose still is? lol

Here are some other kids at the craft table. I love to see kids at Southern Plate events!

These are my new friends Allie and Jake. They did such a great job with their Christmas trees!

We also had a cupcake decorating table. It was $3.00 each to decorate a cupcake and all of those proceeds went to Manna House (thank you Barnes and Noble!).

This is my new friend Lillian and her gorgeous cupcake!

THIS is little CJ! I met him back when I had the Southern Plate Scavenger Hunt on the day my book debuted, but he was in his Mama’s tummy then. What a THRILL to get to see this precious little boy now! (gotta love his name, too!)

So I just snatched little CJ up and went right back to signing. But Mama came in so she could get some time with him, too! Mama stole my sweet little CJ!

Katy Rose loved him. She said “Mama, wasn’t that little bitty baby so cute?”

Katy Rose put a baby brother or sister in on her Christmas wish list this year. While that isn’t happening on this end, if y’all happen to have one already born I will gladly accept baby donations:) (don’t you think I’m kidding here!).

My family got to sign a few books as well. This is Katy Rose signing a book. She thought that was neat.

This is Miss Holly, she was Katy Rose’s first dance teacher, back when Katy said she was “a ballerino!”

This is Jason. He was the senior editor of our high school literary magazine and I was the junior editor. That was a verrrrry long time ago but Jason keeps telling everyone we graduated ten years ago, which is yet another reason why I’m gonna keep him around! He was kind enough to take all of these photos for the event for me. I’m tellin’ ya, it just doesn’t pay to be in my inner circle of friends these days, because eventually I’ll put ya to work!

This is Buck and Valerie. I know them from the bygone days of being a teller at the credit union for the city of Huntsville’s employees and yet, knowing me, they STILL stood in line to see me! hehehe

And this is my whole family. Daddy (Bill Davis, retired from the Huntsville Police Dept), Janice Davis (Mama, retired to pursue a career as Grandmama), Me (I’m smiling because some folks in this world actually take me seriously these days), Ricky Jordan (the guy lucky enough to have married me a little over twelve years ago ~snort~), Katy Rose (who currently has a sign on her bedroom door that reads “Welcome to Princess Fairy Wonderland”), and Brady (who has a sign on his door that reads “Welcome to Abbey Road Recording Studio).

Yup, that’s us.

To view all of my photos from the book signing, click here.

This is Fran from Manna House in Huntsville and I am so very grateful to her for giving me the opportunity to do something extra special with this book signing. A percentage of all books sold tonight went to Manna House as well as money from the gift wrapping table and cupcake decorating table. We also had folks bring in canned goods as well to help support Manna House.

Manna House gives food to families in need in our area and so many people rely in it.

It was such a privilege for me to be able to help with this, even though I know it was just in a small way. Thank you to Barnes and Noble for hosting this great event and orchestrating all of the wonderful activities along with it. Between Barnes and Noble and Manna House I hope we helped make a few more Christmases special.

We were also fortunate to be able to repeat something we did last year. We chose a local nursing home and bought bottles of body wash for each resident – the nursing home staff said that was the one thing everyone could have and they were always in need of. We’re going to wrap each of the 78 bottles individually because I know that for some of them it will be the only gift they get to unwrap this year, and deliver them on Christmas Eve to let the staff pass out. I don’t personally know anyone at the nursing home but I have seen how loving the staff is towards them and I know it will mean a lot to them to get to give their patients gifts. Thanks to everyone who bought a Southern Plate Gratitude Basket this year for helping us be able to do this.

And now I challenge you.

~grins~ I challenge you to do something this year to help others. If you already do, then I challenge you to post what it is you do or have done in the comments below to help inspire others. It doesn’t have to cost money, it doesn’t even have to take a lot of time, it just needs to come from your heart. I know times are tough for a lot of us right now but you know my Mama always said that when times were tight, it was more important than ever to find a way to help someone else out and I have seen the wisdom in her words more times than I can count.

If you are looking for a way to help, with just a few dollars, please click here to read about Santa’s for Seniors.

So tell me, how do you help others at Christmas time?

I want to thank you for inspiring me every day and I look forward so much to these comments. I get to see first hand what good hearted people you are every day by your comments here and on facebook and I know that we will all be touched and moved to more acts of kindness by getting to read yours.

Merry Christmas.

Gratefully,

Christy

I am only one, but still I am one.

I cannot do everything but still I can do something;

and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do

something I can do.

~Edward Hale

Time is flying and Christmas is nipping at our heels. I’ve had a busy week with school parties and behind the scenes Southern Plate work so in order to help me get caught up on the work involved in getting my own family ready for Christmas, my friend Jyl of The Post It Place has graciously offered to guest blog for me today. Now I just need her to follow up this blog post by bringing me some of these Oreo Balls when I see her this weekend… Thank you, Jyl! Gratefully, Christy

Jyl says: This is one of the most requested treats that has made its way out of my kitchen. Everyone that has tasted them wants more and every year I get asked hundreds of times when I am making them again. For them to be so good yet so easy is almost sinful.

To make these, you’ll need: oreos, almond bark, and cream cheese.

Christy’s Note: Jyl! You bought generic oreos. I’m s’proud I could jes cry!

~sniff~ I just love it when people are cheap. Gets me right in the heart!

Crush up your Oreo cookies very fine, filling and all.

I know it doesn’t look like I crushed up the filling in here but I promise I did.

I use a food processor for this step but if you don’t have one you will need to put your cookies in a sealable bag and hammer the heck out of them.

You will then add your softened cream cheese to the crushed cookies.

I use my hands to mush it all together until you have a dough but you can use an electric mixer if you like. Once you have it mixed really well shape a spoonful into bite-sized balls.

While all of this is happening you want to have your almond bark melting in a double boiler or whatever you have. I don’t have a double boiler so I make my own by placing a glass bowl on top of a pan with some water in the bottom pan. I keep mine on about medium heat to keep the almond bark from scorching.

Then dip each ball into the melted almond bark until it is totally coated. I use a toothpick to dunk mine and pull them out. Once you have them all dipped and they have completely set you will want to store them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Mmmm, these don’t last long at all at my house so I have to make a TON! But one batch will make about 60-70 balls.

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Oreo Cookie Balls- 3 Ingredient Easy!

Ingredients

• 1 package Oreos (or generic)
• 1 brick cream cheese, softened (8 ounces)
• 1 package white almond bark

Instructions

1. Crush cookies very fine either by using a food processor or by placing them in a sealed bag and crushing them with a mallet or rolling pin. Using an electric mixer, add softened cream cheese to crushed cookie mixture and mix until well blended. Scoop out and form into one inch balls and place on waxed paper until ready to dip.
2. Melt Almond bark either by using a double boiler (Christy just uses the microwave, heating for 45 seconds at a time and stirring in between until completely melted). Dip each cookie ball into almond bark and place back on waxed paper to cool completely. Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator. YUM!

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Blessed is the season which engages the whole world

in a conspiracy of love.
 

~Mabi. Submit your quote by clicking here.

Felt and glue are two of the best things to have on hand during Christmas time with your kids. I can’t even begin to count how many different ornaments and crafts we made up as kids to hang on our tree or give to friends using mostly those two simple supplies. It’s so important to let kids make gifts for friends because it really teaches them that the best gifts, the ones they should get excited about, come from the heart

These little mice are a great place to start with your kids. I know its difficult to find red and green felt this time of year so don’t worry about those colors, just think outside of the box. Why not make them in your favorite colors or school colors even? Think of your sports fan and how much they would enjoy a gift from your child in their favorite team colors!

Either way you go, you’ll have fun and your kid will be proud at the results. I’m including a template you can print off to trace onto your felt to make this a breeze. There ya go, excuses are gone and its time to get crafting with your younguns!

This is a fun little craft for kids and adults alike.

You’ll need: felt, little pom poms, googly eyes, scissors, glue, and the little template I’m using.

I am using Tacky glue but a glue gun and even good old school glue would work.

You really should print off the template if only to see what happens when you draw two shapes on a piece of paper, hand them to a mechanical engineer, and say “Can you make me a template of this in a pdf file so I can upload it to the website?”

~blinks~

Methinks he gets a bit technical!

(You can also click on that photo up there to print it and it will pop right up on your screen)

Cut out the mouse body and ear templates and trace them onto your felt. I like to use two different colors for ears and body but there isn’t a rule that says you have to!

Here is my little army of mice just waiting to be made.

All of my photos are a little off tint here because I did this tutorial indoors at night and because I haven’t a clue how to work photoshop or any other fancy schmancy program. And I’m cool with that…

Then cut two little slits for the ears to go through.

I have these marked on the template to give you an idea of where to put them and about how big they need to be.

Then you just slip the ears through the holes of the mouse.

Doing this creates a little pocket on the back that the candy cane slides through.

Then glue on little googly eyes and a pom pom nose to each one.

Katy Rose has been having fun gluing three eyes and two noses to some of hers. Let your kids have fun and create three eyed mice if they want!

It’s quicker if you just set up an assembly line, dotting little bits of glue for eyes and noses as you go along and then placing them.

Here are the little mice babies as they dry

Then turn all the little guys over and insert a little candy cane in the pocket the ears made.

They make  cute little set! Don’t forget to make some in your school colors!

You can hang them on the tree or use them as little favors.

These are great little gifts for your kids to make for their teachers and friends.

Print the template for making the mice by clicking here.

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It isn’t the size of the gift that matters,

but the size of the heart that gives it.

~Quoted in The Angels’ Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman

This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Mary Jo F for winning and please enjoy the recipe. Thanks!

This is an old fashioned candy recipe that I’ve received a lot of requests for. Mama said her Mama Reed used to make it around the holidays for all the kids. Mama Reed had ten children herself, but was known for her hospitality and open table policy: If a meal was being served, you were welcome to come join them. She made her potato candy a little different than how I’m making it here, but there are so many ways to customize this recipe that I’m sure you will be able to make it your own as well.

Mama Reed liked to divide her dough into two batches, tinting one pink with red food coloring and leaving one white. She’d then pinch off bits of dough and roll it into balls, storing the balls into the refrigerator until ready to serve to the younguns or whatever guests happened by. I’ve also seen folks roll out little balls of potato candy and dip them into melted chocolate to serve as a sort of poor man’s bon bon. Either way is delicious.

Now if you’re thinking potato candy sounds weird, I can see where you’re coming from so I’m gonna let you know what to expect : Old Fashioned Candy Heaven. This candy is kinda in the same taste category as Fudge or Divinity. It is just that good! You won’t be disappointed!

The ingredients for this are simple ones, my favorite kind! Peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, and a potato.

You can add a teaspoon of vanilla if you like, but you don’t have to. Y’all know I like things as simple as possible.

You can also leave the peanut butter out and just roll it into balls like Mama Reed did, but oh my goodness, I love the peanut butter!

You could also use nutella or a soy butter or such if you need to substitute.

Peel and slice your potato and cover it with water. bring to a boil and cook until tender.

Drain your potato water and place the cooked potato in a mixing bowl.

Beat it up real good.

Add about half of your confectioner’s sugar and mix it up well again.

Until you have a pulpy, liquidy, mess.

Dump in the rest of your sugar.

Sure you can add it “gradually” if you have all day but it’s just as good to dump it all in there and get on with making some candy.

After that second mixing, you’ll have yourself a good stiff dough, like the consistency of cookie dough, only maybe a wee bit stiffer.

You may need to add a little more sugar, depending on the size of your potato, to get this stiff consistency.

Now, because we don’t have all the time in the world to clean our kitchens and because we want this to be as easy as possible (so we enjoy it more, of course!),

place a big old sheet of waxed paper on your countertop.

If anyone is feeling particularly technical today, I think this is like…18 inches long – ish.

*I have a strict policy against unnecessary math in my life so go with an estimate here.

Put some confectioner’s sugar on that to keep your dough from sticking like tar.

Dump your blob of dough on that. You’ll have to scrape down the sides a bit to get it all.

Dust the top with some more sugar.

Okay, I didn’t dust, I just put a handful on there but sometimes I worry that y’all will think I have no grace at all so I throw out dainty little words like “dust”. While I was typing this I was drinking iced tea at the same time and just to help emphasize my supposed daintiness, I lifted my pinky as I held the glass.

~takes in a deep breath then a big old swig of tea~

Okay, I’m over that now.

Roll that out until it is about a quarter of an inch.

~tilts her head sideways and squints one eye~ Hold your head like this and it will look like a more even-ish blob.

Smear some peanut butter on that.

I have no idea how much peanut butter you’ll need so just go with your gut here.

You can do this because you are awesome!

Now roll that up log style, like you’re rolling up cinnamon rolls.

until you have this.

Now since we have the waxed paper already out there anyway, roll your log up in your waxed paper.

To make life easier, I cut my roll in half.

Then they will both fit in a gallon zipper bag. Place this in the fridge until thoroughly chilled.

When ready to serve, remove waxed paper and slice into inch slices.

Makes about forty pieces of candy.

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Old Fashioned Potato Candy

Ingredients

• 1 small potato
• 2 pounds confectioner's sugar
• peanut butter

Instructions

1. Peel and slice potato. In small sauce pot, cover potato slices with water and cook over medium heat until soft. Drain potato and place in mixing bowl. Beat until mashed. Add 1/2 sugar and mix well. Mix in remaining sugar, scraping down sides as needed.
2. Line a countertop with a sheet of waxed paper dusted with confectioner's sugar. Scrape out dough onto waxed paper and dust top with more confectioner's sugar. Roll out to a thickness of about 1/4 of an inch (don't go getting a ruler here, just eyeball it. This isn't rocket science). Spread dough with peanut butter and roll up like you are making cinnamon rolls. Once you have rolled up into a log, roll log up in your waxed paper and cut in half. Place halves in a gallon zipper seal bag and store in the fridge until ready to serve.
3. When ready to serve remove waxed paper an slice into 1/4 inch slices. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

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This post is part of the Nestle Family Holiday Exchange, which means one person who comments will win a great prize pack courtesy of the Nestle Family.

Today’s prize pack is a Baking Package, great for a fun evening of baking with your family!

Baking Prize Pack Includes:

• VIP Coupon for free Carnation Evaporated Milk
• VIP Coupon for free Toll House Morsels
• VIP Coupon for free Refrigerated Cookie Dough
• $25.00 Visa gift card to cover other baking supplies.

This contest closes at midnight, Thursday December 9th. Winner will be notified by email and announced on this post Friday December 10. Please note that I will be out of town during this time for my Friday appearance on The 700 Club so the winner will not be announced until late Friday night.

To enter, leave a comment below sharing your favorite holiday recipe (you can just tell me the title of the recipe or include the whole thing if you like!). You can also visit Nestlefamily.com and tell me a recipe there you’d like to make this year.

Check out the Very Merry Cookie Wreath idea while you’re there!

“Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget.”

~Hugh Downs

Disclaimer: I have partnered with Nestle Family to be a part of this holiday exchange series of posts. I have not been paid for a positive opinion and all opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Today I’m bringing you yet another twist on one of my favorite quick and easy bar cookies. If you haven’t made a variation of these yet. I hope you will today! With everything coming up fall, it’s always fun to do some pretty fall baking and these are just the thing we need for a beautiful but low maintenance office or classroom treat. The great thing is that no one will know you took shortcuts when they taste these buttery, butterscotchy, brown sugary good cookie bars!

(Okay, so Brown sugary and butterscotchy weren’t words until now but hey, that just makes us pioneers in advancement of the English language, right?)

You’ll need: your favorite baking mix, a stick of butter or margarine, brown sugar, oats (I use quick or old fashioned depending on what I have on hand), vanilla, an egg, and butterscotch chips.

You’ll also need some candy corn and fall sprinkles if you like.

Place your baking mix, oats, and brown sugar in a bowl.

I prefer dark brown sugar but use whatever I happen to grab. I always whatever I have on hand no matter if the recipe calls for light or dark.

Melt your stick of butter or margarine and pour that into the bowl.

I love it when we get live action photography on Southern Plate! Wooohoo!

and add your egg and vanilla in there as well.

Stir that up with a spoon.

See? One bowl wonder and you don’t even need a mixer.

Add in butterscotch chips.

Stir again.

Spray an 8×8 pan with cooking spray.

You can also double this and make a 9×13.

It just takes a few minutes longer to bake so watch it if you do that and remove from oven when lightly browned.

Pour your dough into the pan. It will be kind of crumbly and rough looking.

Pat down with your hand into the pan.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Sprinkle caramel corn over the top and return to oven for 2-3 minutes to allow caramel corn to soften enough to stick.

Be sure and watch it so the caramel corn doesn’t melt, just sticks to it a bit.

Allow to cool completely and sprinkle with fall sprinkles if you like.

Isn’t that pretty?

Now when you cut them the caramel corn will stay on top and you can serve them up in festive fall style!

Cookies are best made just before your kids come home to surprise them with!

Easy Festive Fall Cookie Bars

• 1/2 Cup Old Fashioned oats (Can use quick)
• 1 Cups Brown sugar, packed (I use light or dark, whatever I have on hand)
• 2 Cups Baking Mix
• 1 Egg
• 1 Stick butter or margarine, melted
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup Butterscotch chips

Combine first five ingredients in large mixing bowl. Mix until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pat into greased 8×8 pan and bake at 350 for twenty five to thirty minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle top with candy corn. Return to oven, watching carefully, for two to three minutes, just to allow the candy corn to warm enough to stick. Watch carefully so candy corn doesn’t melt. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

View other versions of this recipe below:

Oatmeal Scotchie Bars

M & M Oatmeal bars

*If you have a loved one serving overseas, this is a cookie bar that travels VERY well! I use margarine instead of butter when making them to ship long distances.

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Last week was my first full week away from the kids for the book tour. We drove through the night and arrived home around 3:00 AM. As I hit the road again I wanted to bring you this quote from my youngest, Katy Rose, because I just thought it was so precious. When she woke up Friday morning she said:

“Mama, I knowed you were here before I saw you because I felt someone cover me up and kiss me when I was asleep and I thought ‘I bet that’s Ma’ “

I played around a bit this morning and decided to do a voice version of this post introduction as well. If you’d like to hear me reading this post, please click the play button below the photo. We’ll see how this works. I talk fast naturally, so if ya want you can read along

Today I am bringing you a recipe that was shared with me by my friend Jyl, but I gotta tell y’all about Jyl for a bit because she is a hoot and a half, especially when standing next to me. You see, Jyl is from my sister state of Georgia, the north Georgia mountains to be exact, which is surprisingly where my husband comes from. I say surprisingly because anytime you meet a man who is from the north Georgia mountains but doesn’t like gravy, it’s kind of a shock, but I digress.

Jyl’s smart as a tack, got horse sense like nobody’s business, and has been helping me on the back end of things with southern plate. You see, I’m about as cluttered in the brain as they come. Unorganized, skipping from one thought to the next at warp speed, and where most people might plan their blog posts, I’m more of a kind of a “lets wake up and see what I feel like writing today” type gal.

Jyl keeps me straight. While I’m looking at scenery and planning a tea party for the occupants of my car, she reminds me that I’m also driving the train and maybe I should look towards the tracks from time to time. But the funny thing about jyl is that compared to me being pretty high strung and talking-at-housand-miles-a-minute, Jyl is laid back. It takes her a bit to get a sentence out because she thinks before she says things.

Having the personality that I do, I’m kind of baffled by someone who actually pauses in conversation to think! My mama used to say that I wake up talking and don’t draw breath until I go to bed and I reckon I couldn’t negate that, especially if there was any chance of lightning being nearby.

The first few times we talked on the phone Jyl would pause to think or take a breath (two things I don’t do) and I’d say “Jyl, you there? Did we get disconnected?” she’d take another moment just to torture me and then say in her slow mountain drawl, “Yep, I’m here”. I could feel her rolling her eyes at me on the other end.

So I had a meeting recently at my house for the big UNA event coming up. The head of the alumni association, the head of the department I graduated from, and several other folks of importance (I say this to differentiate them from myself, I’m just someone who cooks for people) came over to meet in my kitchen and talk over the event around the dinner table. It was on a Monday morning and as Ricky and the kids went off to school and jobs, Jyl and I were left to get ready for the meeting. Now Jyl is one of those folks who just pops out of bead ready. Me, I require a bit more maintenance to avoid scaring neighborhood children. So I headed off to my room to get ready, rushing as quickly as I could so I’d have time to clean up the kitchen.

And my word, did the kitchen ever need it. Dirty dishes were in the sink, muffin pans from where I’d made apple spice muffins for the meeting were on the stovetop, baking sheets were dirty from cookies over the weekend and stacked on the counter. Overall, lets suffice it to say my kitchen looked well lived in. REAL well lived in.

But you know, as more and more folks come to visit for one reason or another in connection with southern plate, I’ve had to relax a bit .you see, very few people live in a show home ad we sure don’t. I tell folks “you know how people will say, this is a real working farm? Well this is a real working house” and so I clean and tidy as best I can but I’m not exactly putting fresh cut flowers in vases and strategically arranging throw pillows in the latest fabric trends on my couch. As a matter of fact, if you ever come to my house its best if you don’t lift up a throw pillow, because I most likely stuck a wayward Polly Pocket or Lego building block under it at the last minute right before you arrived.

As I got to getting my face on, Jyl took it upon herself to clean up the kitchen for me. When I walked back in thinking my work was just beginning, it was as if the fairy godmother had just left. My kitchen was spotless. I had no idea how one person could make a room look so good in so short a time, but she had.
Everyone arrived shortly after and I ushered them into the house as we all sat down to coffee and muffins and plotted out our plan for world domination through banana pudding.

I tried to look casual as I sat there, marveling at how clean my kitchen was amid talk of tickets sold and planning the menu (Did I mention we’re feeding around fifteen hundred that night?). They left a few hours later and Jyl and I sat down with glasses of tea to relax a bit. “Jyl, I don’t know what I would have done without you today. I can’t thank you enough for all your help. My eyes got even wider with wonder as I added “Especially that kitchen.”

Jyl cocked her head to the side and looked over at me with a knowing grin as she spoke in her slow deadpan drawl..

“Well, I wouldn’t be too thankful, coz all them dirty dirty dishes you had are in the oven.”

~LAUGHS~ I about shot tea out my nose. It was priceless.

So this is Jyl’s recipe for candied apples that you eat with a fork, for those of us (myself included) who love the flavor of an old fashioned candied apple but don’t wanna put out the effort it takes to eat one. I love the taste of a good old fashioned candy apple (Mama’s recipe is in the cookbook!) but as I get older I find myself not as eager to bite into one of them. Well this is the full flavor (and then some) of a candied apple, that you eat with a fork. Jyl says sere them hot or cold and I agree, but I think my favorite is cold. Least that’s my favorite way this week. If you wanna go visit with Jyl on her blog, you can mosey on over there by clicking here. Be sure and tell her you like her way of washing dishes.

You’ll need: Four or five apples (about three cups chopped), 1/4 cup butter, and a bag of cinnamon candies (often called red hots).

I had the worst time trying to find those little cinnamon candies. I went to Wal Mart first, thinking surely they’d have them. But my Wal Mart had just rearranged everything. You know how folks get used to a store layout and it seems to make sense, so they gotta toss it up in the middle of the night just to keep ya on your toes? I finally found where they should have been, in my mind at least, and came up empty handed. Thank goodness for Krogers, they had them right there on the candy aisle and I didn’t have any problems at all. My third option would have been to try a gas station with a decent candy aisle (as they all seem to have nowadays)

Peel and chop up  your apples and put them in a large skillet.

You can slice them if you like but I wanted mine to be a bit easier to eat, fork size pieces .

Pour in your candies over the apples.

and toss in that butter.

Now put this over medium to medium high heat and stir it up a bit so the butter and candies will start melting as the apples are cooking.

Right about now it looks like it is slowly contracting the chicken pox. Raise your hand if you remember cornstarch baths!

Okie dokie, here we have everything all melted and stirred up.

It’s also bubbling nicely so I’m gonna turn my head down to medium low ..

Cover it. Now reduce heat and just let it simmer until the apples are tender.

Not like..falling apart mushy, just not crunchy anymore.

Unless you like your apples falling apart mushy, in that case knock yourself out!

That is the cool thing about cooking, you do it how YOU Want to. No critics allowed!

If any happen your way, show ‘em the back door.

oooh this smells so good. Here are my finished apples

This is a great little side dish or dessert. You can serve it hot or cold. Now I served it hot the first go around and it was really really good, BUT later on I ate some of it cold and WOWEEEEE. Tasted just like a candied apple then!

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Candied Apples that you eat with a Fork!

Ingredients

• 1 package cinnamon candies (1 to 1-1/2 cups)
• 4-5 apples, peeled and chopped (about three cups chopped)
• 1/4 Cup butter

Instructions

1. Place apples in a large skillet. Pour candies over them and add butter. Place over medium high heat and cook, stirring often, until candies are all melted. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer until apples are fork tender. Serve hot or cold.

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I make my own sunshine.

It comes from within.

The start of a day is a start of a new me.

Submitted by Joan. Submit your quote here.

This is the busiest time of year for most of us. We have all of the decorations to put up and tend to, presents to shop for and wrap, visits to Santa, to see lights, to see family…and on top of it all we really want to bake and prepare treats for those we love and appreciate!

I prefer, whenever possible, to give a homemade gift rather than a storebought, but sometimes I just don’t have the time in the kitchen that I’d like. Ironically, the time of year I’d like to cook the most is also the time of year I have the least amount of time to do it in. Holly Jollies come to the rescue! My kids love making these with me and you can easily turn out a customized candy in very little time and using very little money. Chances are, you may even have some of the ingredients on hand already.

For this tutorial, I made enough Holly Jollies to send to twelve teachers and staff members of my kid’s schools in about half an hour, start to finish! Could it get any better than that? It sure can – I only had one bowl and on spoon to wash when I was done! ~grins~

Ingredients are mostly up to you but they start with mini muffin papers and almond bark. I like to get a different color or pattern mini muffin paper for each variety, and then give an assortment to folks that they can easily tell apart. I love using almond bark in these because it is just a little over two dollars a package and each package, with add ins, will make about 36 mini muffin sized treats.

The kids really like rice krispies added in there but Ricky’s favorite is salted peanuts.

Now some folks will tell you to melt this big old hunk of chocolate in a double broiler but last I checked, not many of us had a hankering to make something difficult when it could be easy. So what we’re gonna do instead is plop this thing in a large mixing bowl and stick that puppy in the microwave.

Let’s microwave it for 90 seconds to start.

I know, I know. It doesn’t look like it’s making much headway but hang in there, honey bunches.

Now stick it back in for about 45 seconds and then stir it up a bit. The package says to microwave it for thirty seconds at a time but you know how I like to live dangerously and all that… Keep on doing this, stirring it after every thirty seconds, and in a few cycles it will be all smooth and creamy.

While that is melting, put your mini muffin papers in your mini muffin pan.

I bet y’all are ashamed of me for using this one. It’s old and stained, but I promise it’s clean. Usually, I make regular sized muffins for Southern Plate because I have what I call a “stunt pan” that I use only for posts so it doesn’t get all stained up like muffin pans tend to do. I’ve caught Ricky about to use that one a time or two and get this look of horror on my face as I seem to call out in slow motion “nooooo! That’s my stunt pan!”.

But hey, it’s Christmas, we’re all a bit overextended, so I figured y’all could just pretend this one was all pristine and such.

Looky here, almost done.

Smooth as can be and ready to go!

This is where I call in the experts. Everyone knows that candy tastes better if you let kids do it.

They’re just naturally sweeter than us

Getting my kids in the kitchen is extremely important to me, but especially so at Christmas. If I’m making something for them to give, I want them to enjoy the happiness (and learn the importance) of giving something you personally had a hand in making. In my mind, this is one of those activities that helps them to grow up with their heads in the right place.

They are also very proficient at the latest quality control techniques and therefore will insist on tasting the rice krispies before they use them!

I use several things in these Holly Jollies, but I only do one ingredient per batch.

• Peanut holly jollies, with salted peanuts stirred in (Ricky’s favorite)
• Rice Krispie Holly Jollies, with rise krispies stirred in (kid’s favorite)
• Raisin Holly Jollies, with raisins stirred in (one of my favorites)
• Cranberry Holly Jollies with dried cranberries stirred into white almond bark. (My top favorite)

The sky is truly the limit with these.

Whatever add in you choose, you’ll want to add about two cups of it as Katy Rose is doing here.

Speaking of Katy Rose…

She goes to preschool in a church and brought this coloring picture home. She took it out of her backpack and brought it to me and asked:

“Mama, is Jesus wearing a Snuggie?”

~snickers~

And stir it well.

Once you have your add ins mixed in there well, spoon it into your mini muffin papers.

This is going to make about three dozen.

But what I do is once I fill up my muffin tin (it only holds 24), I just spoon the rest onto waxed paper.

Allow those to harden, it won’t take long.

Here are our muffin paper ones…

and here are the ones from the waxed paper.

Now just go crazy and have fun! I use a different add in for each package of almond bark. This is peanuts.

Remember to get the salted ones, they are just wonderful in this!

I love dried cranberries stirred into white almond bark and it’s really pretty for the holidays, too!

This would also be great with nuts added in as well, or why not just do the white with cashews or other dried fruit that you like?

Seriously, knock yourself out with these.

Once you get your chocolate melted you can have these babies done from start to finish in about five minutes and it only dirties up one bowl.

This is the most fuss free holiday recipe I have!

In about half an hour, I was able to turn out enough Holly Jollies for twelve teacher’s gifts.

I packaged them in the little clear cellophane party favor bags you get in the party section at Wal Mart or the grocery store (my Dollar General has them, too). You get about twenty for a little over a dollar. I LOVE THOSE THINGS, especially this time of year. I use them for so many things. They are perfect for candy, cookies, and even miniature loaves of bread. They are also pretty enough to just tie with some curling ribbon and deliver as is.

Most importantly, it allows you to create gifts for folks and not have to spend more on the packaging than you did making the gift!

For my Holly Jollies, I found these little tin buckets at Target for $1.00 each, and picked up a few. I normally don’t spend that much on packaging, though.

I also picked up a package of plastic Christmas themed cups at Wal Mart, they were three for $1.50 but you can also get others that are 5 for $1.00 there if you like. I just put my Holly Jollies in a clear party favor bag and stuck them down in there. I included a couple of each type of Holly Jolly with each cup for variety. The kids just loved being able to take these to school! Doesn’t it make you feel good to see kids so excited to be giving things to folks?

I love those little munchkins.

Holly Jollies are so quick, easy, and economical that you can afford to give treats to all of the kind people you encounter regularly throughout the year.

We always think of teachers, but what about the school’s support staff? Does your child eat in the lunchroom – what about  the lunchroom ladies and the school janitor? All of these are folks who can make your child’s day with a smile and a kind word. I’ll just bet that if you sent them some Holly Jollies, you’d make theirs, too.

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Holly Jollies

Ingredients

• 1 Package Almond Bark (white or chocolate)
• 36 mini muffin papers
• 2 Cups of one or more of the following (get creative!): Salted Peanuts, Rice Krispie Cereal, Dried Cranberries, Raisins, crushed candy canes, Other salted nuts,Your favorite dried fruit, chopped to the size of raisins

Instructions

1. Line a mini muffin tin with mini muffin papers. Place almond bark in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for a minute and a half; stir. Return to microwave and microwave for about thirty seconds at a time, stirring each time, until bark is smooth and creamy.* Remove from microwave and stir in two cups of your choice of add in. Spoon into mini muffin papers and allow to sit until cool and hardened. You can put them in the refrigerator to speed up the process if you like.
2. Package and give with a smile on your face and a grateful heart. *Note: Take special care not to allow even the tiniest drop of water to get into the bark as it will clot up if you do.

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Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”

~ Peg Bracken.

To submit your quote, click here.

I made this a while back but wasn’t going to post it, thinking it was likely something everyone did and y’all might think I was crazy for actually doing a tutorial on it! Yesterday though, I went to my son’s school and sat with his class while the teacher’s had a gathering. I took a bag of this peppermint bark to bribe them with (I am a firm believer in substitute teachers bribing their class) and their reaction caused me to rethink my post. I actually had third graders trying to buy the remainder off of me!

This is another good one to make with your kids because they get to do the fun part : Crushing the candy canes!

You’ll need: White almond bark, candy canes, red paste food coloring, and peppermint oil.

Peppermint oil is sometimes difficult to find. You do not HAVE to have it for this recipe so don’t fret over it if you can’t find it. Likewise with the paste food coloring. Don’t use regular liquid food coloring because that will mess up your chocolate (okay so its fake chocolate but still – just don’t use liquid food coloring). The food coloring I am using is made by Wilton and can be found at any arts and crafts store as well as most Wal Marts – in the craft department. If you can’t find the paste coloring though, just omit that too and you’ll be fine. The candy canes will give it enough color so don’t sweat it.

There are important things to worry about, lets conserve our energy for those.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. I am using two bricks of almond bark and a 13×15 inch pan here.

Unwrap a mess of candy canes. “Mess” is a term referring to a quantity of items which you might not find outside of the southeastern united states. “We had us a whole mess of greens!” “She made a big old mess of cookies for the party!”.

In this case, I would estimate a “mess” to be somewhat equivalent to ten or so…but it is up to you.

Place them in a bag and hand the bag to a kid. Give the kid a blunt object which they are not very likely to kill themselves with. My son’s weapon of choice varies. For this particular exercise, he chose a soup can.

Stop them in between “finely crushed” and “clouds of peppermint powder descending upon the entire house”.

Place one package of almond bark in a microwave safe bowl. Get a spoon or spatula handy. Make sure everything that touches your chocolate is dry, no water droplets on anything at all.

Now you can melt this in a double broiler but that seems an awful lot like work to me so we’re gonna use the microwave. Put this on about 45 seconds and then stir.

Repeat, stirring every forty five seconds, until it is melted and smooth.

Don’t cook for more than 45 seconds at a time. We just want it melted and it can actually burn.

Smooth and creamy!

Now I add just a bit of peppermint oil. Normally you would add anywhere from one to two drops. I just put a few drops in a cap and poured it in. Be very sparing with this stuff because it is extremely strong.

Put a dab or two behind your ears and I bet reindeer come a running!

Now add a bit of food coloring. I held on to all of my kid’s baby spoons and I use them all the time for things like this! There are two ways of doing this, I am going to show you both in this tutorial. You use whichever you prefer.

Stir that up just a wee bit, not too much because you want a swirl here, rather than pink.

Spread into prepared pan (on top of waxed paper)

Have kidders sprinkle crushed candy canes over top.

Now we’re going to melt our second batch of chocolate and pour that over the first layer.

This time I took out a cup of chocolate and dyed it really good on its own.

Then I dolloped it onto the top layer.

and gave it a good swirl with a butter knife.

then let the kidders finish it off by sprinkling the rest of the crushed candy canes over the top and let cool!

Let it cool until hardened and then break into bite sized pieces. Enjoy!

And here is a Merry Christmas from Brady’s third grade class. My two are in the bottom right corner. It was pajama day at school.

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2008/12/peppermint-bark-especially-for-mrs-alexanders-third-grade-class.html/feed 33 http://www.southernplate.com/2008/10/pay-day-candy-mix-and-varying-degrees.html http://www.southernplate.com/2008/10/pay-day-candy-mix-and-varying-degrees.html#comments Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:02:00 +0000 Christy Jordan http://southernplate.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/pay-day-candy-mix-and-the-varying-degrees-of-fits-thrown-in-the-south/ Pin it

I am posting this recipe so my Mama will stop having dying duck fits wanting me to.

Has your Mama ever thrown a fit? Have you ever thrown a fit? If you answered no to either one of those, you just can’t be a Southerner. You see, Southerners throw fits and we all have varying degree of fits, which are not “had” but “thrown“.

There is the classic hissy fit, which is rather mundane but still entertaining to watch. This is typically thrown by otherwise demure and well behaved ladies and consists mostly of high pitched voices being pitched even higher as hands wave around in the air and heads shake, sending dangly earrings bobbing after the jerky head movements.

Hissy fits aren’t that big of a deal unless combined with heat and humidity, then it can get ugly. A hissy fit might typically be thrown if you were about to have guests arrive for a party only to find that ice hadn’t been bought ahead of time or the sherbert in your punchbowl had already melted. The script for a hissy fit usually begins with “Oh lord! What are we gonna do now?!”

Cow fits are a bit more urgent, usually requiring some form of action to soothe the nerves of the fit thrower. One might throw a cow fit, for example, if you were running late for an appointment and discovered that your favorite heels had been chewed by the puppy. The cow fit script in this case would sound something like, “My shoes!! My favorite shoes!! Those were the ones I was going to wear today!”. Now dying cow fits require immediate action, but mainly just to get the fit thrower to hush so we can all have a bit of piece (In the interest of self disclosure, I am rather prone to cow fits due to my extreme lack of organization and ever growing to-do list, which wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t spend half my time looking for the dern list).

A duck fit is really one of the most minor fits but when it becomes a dying duck fit – you post the Payday Candy Mix recipe so you can get your Mama to stop quacking so much. ~grins~

The reason Mama wanted me to post this was because it has become quite the “pass along” idea among her quilting friends. Its like this fad all of a sudden, go to anyone’s house we know and you’ll see a pretty bowl (usually pressed glass) filled with this candy mix as soon as you step into the foyer (Which Southerners tend to pronounce “Four-yer” rather than the much more fashionable “Foy-yay”.). So see, her intentions were good, she wants y’all to have some of this candy, I just had other things on my plate and hadn’t got around to it until now.

If you like Payday candy bars, this is right up your alley because it tastes just like a payday, but is a heap prettier when presented in a nice little pressed glass bowl.