So roughly add the following to your taste, you can easily vary any of the ingredients. I suggest put some together, try a little taste it, and modify it if it doesn’t fit your liking the first time.

Hot Cocoa Mix:

2 cups powdered milk
1 cup non dairy creamer
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar

Mix together in a small bowl. Serve by adding hot water and mixing well. (3-4 spoonfuls per mug is about right)

So google brings me this recipe. and in the photo it looks amazing.
So here is their recipe:

Melinda’s Homemade Granola Recipe

2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup peanuts or toasted almonds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup coconut (I always use unsweetened, but you can go for the sweetened kind if you’d like)
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (I often omit this ingredient, as I tend to forget to buy it)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried fruit (dried apricots, craisins and dried apple are all delicious choices)
scant 1/4 cup cooking oil (not olive)
1/2 cup honey

1. Mix the oat, nuts and grains in a large bowl.
2. Measure oil into the measuring cup and swirl it around before pouring into bowl.
3. Then measure out the honey in the same, unwashed cup. The oil will help the honey exit the cup.
4. Toss everything together until evenly coated and then pour out into a baking pan. I use a large roasting pan, as it keeps everything contained. A cookie sheet with a lip also works, but you have to stir it slightly more carefully if you use that.
5. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, turning it with a spatula every ten minutes or so. You want everything to be an even golden brown.
6. When it is finished cooking, returned the baked granola to the mixing bowl, add the raisins and fruit and stir to combine. Stir gently several times as it cooks, so that it doesn’t clump together too much.
7. Enjoy!

Well, I didn’t follow this recipe exactly:  This is what I did.

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds (couldn’t find toasted)
3/4 cup coconut, sweetened (didn’t see unsweetened)
1/2 raisins
1/2 cup currants
1/2 craisins
scant 1/4 cup cooking oil (not olive)
1/2 cup honey

I don’t like peanuts really, I don’t know where to get sesame seeds, wheat germ doesn’t even sound appealing, so I made some accommodations…

I followed the rest basically the same, baked the oats, nuts, oil and honey together until nice and brown. This went pretty well, but it baked longer than the 30 minutes. At 30 minutes it still seemed really gooey so I put it in for longer.

Once it was done, and I stirred in the fruit, I added fruit as I felt looked right. So the measurements are approximates. Since currents are very similar to raisins I didn’t want too much of either in there, so I tried to use less of those. I used more coconut, because it didn’t seem very balanced.

The only thing I’d really do differently, would be to let the granola cool before mixing in the fruit. This recipe doesn’t mention anything about letting it cool first, but I think it would make it nicer. Otherwise, all in all I don’t think I’m personally that impressed with this. I’m really not impressed with the costs to make it, it cost a lot more than I had thought.

Having no helpers now this year I came up with a few more tips to make my fudge-making a success.

Ok without further adieu:
Fantasy Fudge
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup margarine
1 can (5 oz.) evaporated milk
1 pkg. (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate pieces
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla

• Combine sugar, margarine and milk in heavy  saucepan (large)
• Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
• Continue boiling 5 minutes over medium heat or until candy thermometer reaches 234° F., stirring constantly to prevent scorching.
• Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate pieces until melted. Add marshmallow creme, nuts (optional) and vanilla.
• Pour into a greased pan. Cool at room temperature. Cut into squares.

Well, this is the official recipe you find on the back of Kraft Marshmallow Creme. Knowing me, I don’t stick to the standards so these are my instructions and tips:

Get a big pot out, if you are doubling this batch, then an even bigger one. I used to use the big (old) pressure cooker pot at my parents’ now I use the big stock pot out of my Circulon set.

Put the butter the pot, and let it melt a bit, then add the sugar and milk. I just don’t like to have plain sugar on the bottom of the pan, it probably doesn’t matter, but I’m strange.

Once it starts boiling let it boil a bit. Who on earth owns a candy thermometer? Certainly not me. You can see with your eyes that it is boiling good, you just need it to boil for a while really good like this,they say 5 minutes, that sounds about right. I can tell just by looking if its ready. I’ve never used a candy thermometer in my life.

Turn off the heat, and mix in the rest. I always start with the vanilla, and I always put more in than it calls for. Not sure how much exactly since I don’t measure this in any way. If you do feel you need to measure this, by all means go for it, but I’d get it ready ahead of time, because this is go time, you don’t have time to be messing around looking for a measuring spoon at go time.

The hardest part about making fudge is getting the darn Marshmallow Creme out of the jar. It is a huge pain in the butt. It sticks to everything you try to scoop it out with, and takes forever to get it all out of the jar. This is a problem because at go time you need to get the stuff in the pan and stir it up so it can melt properly. This is why I’ve had helpers in the past, so they could stir the fudge while I poured in the chocolate chips and scooped out the marshmallow creme. However, the cat is no help, so I came up with this rather brilliant idea. I took a large bowl (I made a quadruple batch – yes I’m crazy) and while the butter, sugar, evaporated milk was warming up I poured my chocolate chips into the bottom of the bowl. (I used Mini chocolate chips because they melt so much nicer!) Next I scooped out the marshmallow creme and put it on the chocolate chips. This way the marshmallow creme really was only sticking to the chocolate chips and not the side of the bowl. When it was go time, I easily picked up the bowl with one hand and poured it in to the pot. Meanwhile I could keep stirring with my other hand, and then I had more time to concentrate on what was important: getting the fudge stirred up.

The other hint I have is, if you are having problems getting everything melted, you can cheat and turn the heat back on low. I don’t take the pot off the burner for this very reason. I almost always make huge batches of this stuff, and getting it all melted is very important and sometimes more difficult. I did not have to do this with my new technique, but had I been trying to scoop out marshmallow creme I certainly would have needed to.

This fudge is really rich, a little goes a long way, but somehow the pans seem to always be empty.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
4 cups (2 12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels (Mini sized!)

Obviously this is just the plain ol nestle recipe for chocolate chip cookies. However, I made a most interesting discovery at the grocery store: mini chocolate chips. Not only do these little guys melt better, they will also mix better in cookie mix. Turns out I was right.

I decided to double the amount of chocolate chips. After all, what makes chocolate chip cookies but the chocolate chips.

Honestly these turned out great, I was really happy. I made them small and packed them in a tin for mailing. The left overs went to work, and despite abundance of “Christmas Goodies” we have at work, I still got kudos on my cookies.

Of course it does help that I used the finest flour on the planet: Wheat Montana four.

This beats the pre-made cookie dough you buy in the store hands down. Plus its not like it takes long, you can have cookies in less than a half hour if you have the ingredients.

C is for Christa too!

Oh, and of course I used my patented “eh close enough” measuring technique.

I woke up with such a scare when I heard Santa call…
“Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!”
I ran to the lawn, and in the snowy white drifts,
those nasty reindeer had left “little gifts”.

I got an old shovel and started to scoop
Neat little piles of “reindeer poop.”
but to throw them away seemed such a waste,
So I saved them, thinking you might like a taste!

As I finished my task, which took quite a while,
Old Santa passed by and he sheepishly smiled.
And I heard him exclaim as he rose to the sky~~~
“Well, they’re not potty trained, but at least they can fly!”

I found this over at Organized Christmas and thought it was a neat idea, but they want to just package malted milk balls and call that poop. I did some more Googling and found some other people using other things for poop, including no bake cookies. OMG I love those cookies! So I was sold on this idea.

Reindeer Poop: AKA No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups rolled oats (quick cooking – not instant)

• In a large saucepan combine sugar, milk, cocoa, and butter. Bring to a boil stirring well.
• Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter.
• Add oatmeal and mix well.
• Let it stand a bit, about 10 minutes, and stir it occasionally. It should start to harden up.
• Drop by spoonful onto wax paper, and let harden. 30-60 minutes.

Notes:
How can you go wrong here? I really don’t understand why you have to put the peanut butter in after you remove it from the heat. Basically you need to make sure that the sugar is all melted when you boil it, so I boiled mine for a couple minutes (2-3). Really to me, if you do any kind of cooking you can just tell when things are done, although I did remove it from heat before adding the peanut butter, but if I had problems getting that melted I wouldn’t hesitate to put the pan on low heat. (Or just leave it on the still hot burner)

I’m also certain you could use crunchy peanut butter in this one, you’d just have some little pieces of peanuts in the cookies.

I made these, let them cool and then froze them for mailing. I personally found that I liked to eat them frozen, since they don’t really freeze solid.

I also modified their free printable tag, because I thought their reindeer was funny looking. Here’s mine:

My modified tag

9 cups Corn Chex (Generic honestly is just fine) or Crispix (those were very expensive when I looked)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2cup butter (1 stick)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz bag)
2-4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:

• Measure out the cereal and place it in a large bowl, and set aside.
• In a grocery bag with no holes or a large plastic bag measure out 2 cups powdered sugar and set this aside also.
• In a large saucepan melt together the chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter until it is completely melted and well mixed together.
• Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and stir the whole mixture gently, to coat all of the cereal in chocolate.
• Pour the mixture into the bag, tie it or close it and shake it, to coat the cereal in powdered sugar.

My Experience/Notes:
Honestly I tried a grocery bag, and had all kinds of problems. They either have tiny holes in them or break fairly easily, plus it just doesn’t seem as clean. I instead used a large gallon sized zip lock bag. My friend would be laughing at me now. She thinks I have too many zip lock bags anyway so might as well use some. Since I doubled this recipe when I made it, I actually used 3 gallon zip lock bags. The advantage of this was, after I used it, I could also store it in the bag without any more work, just seal it up, and stick it in the freezer. Yes they do freeze really well. Since I was sending these I did want to freeze them as I read that often helps cookies ship better, especially since the destination is warmer (Texas) I also want to keep some on hand for my family gifts at Christmas and needed to get the packages mailed out earlier, so freezing them keeps them nice for both.

Also the recipe I read said “If you want to add more powdered sugar to your preference, you can.” My idea was to make the little buddies white like they were little snowman turds. So I was very generous with the powdered sugar. I think in a recipe like this, you have to find out how to do it to your own taste.  Also I scooped my mix into the zip lock bag, instead of pour, because pouring it seemed like I’d be more likely to spill it. I scooped some in, shook up the bag, and repeated. Next time, it will be more chocolate, and less powdered sugar.

I should also mention, that measuring things requires work and effort and I’m far to lazy to really measure anything precisely. If I were to write this recipe, it would be something like: half of the big clear bowl of cereal, a stick of butter, two pretty big spoonfuls of peanut butter, a bag of chocolate chips, and some powdered sugar in a zip lock bag. You can’t do this with any recipe, but this is certainly one that you can.

I read on another site, that people made this out of cheerie-o’s. Now that sounds good, but definetly less powdered sugar!

• 4-6 pork chops
• 1 can Minute rice
• 1 can Cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
• 1 can Milk
• 1 packet (Dry) Onion Soup Mix
• Celery

Cube the pork chops or leave them whole on the bottom of a 9X13. Dice about a 1/2 cup of celery and add to the pan. In a bowl add the cream of soup. Add 1 can milk (yes the soup can), and 1 can of minute rice. Stir that up, then add the onion soup mix. Pour over the pork chops.

Bake for 15 minutes covered, then uncover and cook for about another 30 until the pork is no longer pink inside. Whole pork chops will take a little longer. If the rice is getting too dry, cover the pan again.

When serving whole chops, spear a chop, put it on the plate with a scoop of the rice mixure.  If chopped, just scoop out some casserole.

Materials

• 1 4 serving package Bear Creek Soup mix
• 1 cup baby red potatoes
• Water

I began by quartering the potatoes and boiling them until they are fork tender. Then I drained them and set aside. In the same pot, (different water) I brought 4 cups of water to a boil. Then I wisked in the soup mix as directed and re-added my potatoes. 15 minutes later, I had soup!

It didn’t taste quite the same as Pat’s, (I think she may use some milk, or cream), but it was pretty darn tasty!

Boil the pasta as normal, while this is cooking do the following: Dice your roma tomatoes and put them in a mixing bowl. Roughly dice and add marinated artichokes to bowl (don’t be too picky about draining them well, the oils from the marinate contribute to this dish nicely). Drain capers and add to bowl. If you don’t omit the black olives, slice them and add them also. Then add the garlic and basil. By now, the pasta is probably done, drain it, and add it hot to the bowl. Mix the ingredients together. If serving hot, place on plate and top with grated Parmesan. If serving cold, cover and place in fridge, and add Parmesan just before serving.

This is one of my favorites, I like it either as a cold pasta salad or served hot. I took this to a potluck before and it was a huge hit. Prep time is very little, mostly cutting up the ingredients, and then the time to cook the angel hair pasta. I had this at a restaurant named Carinos before. Their Artichokes and Angel hair consists of: “Artichokes, fresh  Roma tomatoes, garlic, capers, basil, black olives & Parmesan cheese tossed with angel hair pasta.” I thought, ‘I can do this at home’ and it is a very easy dish to make. The capers, while the perhaps the most expensive part of this dish, make all the difference, and I would not recommend substituting or omitting them.

Boil the pasta as you normally would. When the pasta is done (or even just a bit undone) drain it and place the cooked noodles in the bottom of a casserole pan (9×11). Add to to this the Sauce (desired amount, I like lots so I used a whole jar) Mix them together a bit and try to make sure the bottom of the pan is coated with this pasta/sauce mix.

This is your base. Its like the crust and sauce. Next you should decorate your “pizza” however you like it. I personally topped mine this way:
I added some chopped Olives, then Mushrooms, some chopped Green Pepper from my mom’s garden, and some Onion also from her garden (just a bit not a lot) then I spread out Pepperonis all over the top of it and covered in Mozzarella Cheese.

I put this in the oven and baked it at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Its done when the cheese has browned nicely on the top, just the same way you’d tell if your pizza was done.

It smelled like pizza when it cooked, and for the most part tasted like pizza too. It was really good and I will certainly try this one again. I hate leftovers, but this all got eaten up just like leftover pizza does.