Thursday, February 7, 2008

Valentine's Craft, A Yummy Recipe, and My Big CTR Boy


So, this is the fun craft that Adam and I made on Tuesday (sorry for the blurry picture): Candy Cane Hearts! I saw it a few weeks ago on-line, and was bummed because I didn't have any candy canes. When I went grocery shopping on Saturday, though, I found them for 10 cents a box, so I bought a bunch. It turns out, it's really fun to melt candy canes! I had no idea you could do this! I put the first batch in for a little too long (about 10 minutes) and they melted flat. They looked kinda cool, with the colors swirled. But, the next batch, I just baked for 6 minutes and they were perfect.

Candy Cane Hearts
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees
- Unwrap the candy canes (leave them whole to make hearts, but break them into longer pieces to spell words and make other designs)
- Place them on a a silicone map or parchment paper on your cookie sheet
- Bake for 6 minutes (check them... it could be more or less, depending on your oven)
- With oven mitts on, smoosh the ends together for hearts, curl longer pieces around the end of a wooden spoon for curls, or spell out letters (Adam loved doing his name)
- Let cool. Hang up with ribbon and decorate or eat them (ewww... I hate candy canes).

I thought they turned out pretty neat looking. It was pretty fun, too. I hung ours on some ribbon in the hall, and now Adam has taken to jumping at it, and trying to lick them. It's fairly funny to watch.


Yesterday, we decided to melt some MORE candy to make these yummy treats. Mike has had a few rough days at work, so I wanted to make him a treat. He LOVES Take 5 candy bars, and so I found this recipe for Pretzel Turtles (which is a bit similar).



Pretzel Turtles
- 1 bag miniature pretzels (I wanted to use the waffle-style ones, but couldn't find them)
- 1 bag Rolos (or you could substitute any flavor Hershey kiss BUT the caramel-filled ones)
- 1 bag M&Ms (or whole pecans or chopped peanuts)

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Place pretzels on silicone mats or parchment paper. Unwrap Rolos (or Hershey kisses) and place on top. (Adam had fun helping with this part) Bake for 7-8 minutes (mine took more like 10). The chocolate won't be completely melted and flat. But take it out, and immediately push M&Ms (or nuts) on top. Let cool in the regrigerator.

Mike was very surprised when he came home and he loved them! Well, we all did. They are SO good. Try 'em sometime. I am planning on making another batch and putting them in Valentine's day baggies for a visiting teaching treat (and for my CTR 5 class).

Adam was SO excited yesterday... because he finally got a CTR ring! The Primary pretty much left getting CTR rings for the kids up to the parents, so I ordered one on-line from the Distribution Center a while ago (they were on backorder). It finally came. Adam loves it... and all day yesterday he went around telling everyone to CTR! When Grace dumped out the bag of pretzels while I was taking a batch of candies out of the oven, he told her, she needed to Choose The Right and let her wear his ring. So sweet!

Well, I'm off for now. Have a great day everyone, and remember to Choose The Right! :)

2 comments:

Grammy Suzzy said...

I love all the neat things that you discover to make! The candy cane creations are just amazing! And those turtles look soooo yummy. Congrats to Adam for finally getting your CTR ring, and for always Choosing the Right. Are you going to let him know about what always happened to your CTR rings? Love you ...

Amanda said...

Those hearts are totally cute. Hmm...I have some left over candy canes. Guess I know what we're doing tomorrow.