Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been super busy the past week! I made care packages for my brother and his friend in Korea, baking goodies for my family, and trying out new recipes.

Winter is my favorite time of year and the holidays are the perfect excuse to bake homemade goodies. Having someone to send them to makes it more fun!

I put chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, cinnamon pecans, and the easiest and tastiest cocoa brownies ever! The cinnamon pecans are a huge hit with my hubby, girls, and really everybody that eats them! I made them once and a friend of mine said "I don't like pecans." I said, "Ok, but just taste it." She did, smiled, and said "You have just changed my mind about pecans!" The recipe is simple, but the end result is so tasty!

I made praline iced brownies for my family and they were amazing! I loved the praline topping and would have been happy to eat it by itself! The brownies were almost fudge like and they were delicious!

I tried my hand at monkey bread and it was good, but I have a pretty cheap bundt pan, and the topping stuck to the pan so I had to scrape it out and place it over the dough balls. Maybe I'll spring for the more expensive one next time! The topping was awesome though and my hubby and I kept snacking on it all day!

I will be baking more throughout the holidays. I'll be making my hubby's favorite cookies, Thumbprint cookies, more cinnamon pecans, and who knows what else I'll get into!

My New Toy

My husband and I received a Sunbeam mixer when we got married almost ten years ago. It was a great mixer, worked well, and I got a lot of use out of it. My middle daughter recently ran off with one of the beaters and after searching this house multiple times, I still haven't found it. I'm sure when we move it will show up! Anyway, I've still been using my mixer, with one beater. That beater mixed up things well, but I could tell it was tired of trying to mix cookies and cupcakes all alone. It never gave up though! I have had my eye on the KitchenAid mixer for a while, but could never justify the purchase because my mixer was still working.
I got my Christmas present early from my sweet hubby! A new mixer, the fabulous KitchenAid mixer I've had my eye on for a while! It's an awesome mixer and I have had so much fun using it the past couple of days!
I was sad to see my old mixer go...it has been loyal and hardworking. When we threw it out my oldest daughter petted it and said, "Good-bye old mixer, we'll miss you."