Some Holiday Photos

My two daughters built this gingerbread creation. Does anyone have a guess as to what it is?

Here's another angle. Any guesses?

A couple of photos from the treat tins

Homemade blackberry syrup, using blackberries we picked last summer,

then decanted into a repurposed maple syrup bottle

the label on the front of the bottle --

cropped screenshot of blank circular label, clip-art blackberries,

and text box overlayed onto round label

back label, both labels affixed with shipping tape

tin filled with pancake mix and syrup

tin filled with spiced nuts and peanut butter fudge

snowmen marshmallows packed up alongside homemade cocoa mix

tin with ginger cookies, thin mint cookies (wrapped in baggie
to prevent "spread" of mint flavor), white chocolate covered pretzels

top tin filled with assorted holiday teas

Thank you for the Christmas wishes. 

I'll be back soon. Wishing you and your family a lovely Christmas or Hanukkah.

Blessings,

Lili

Easy-to-Make Snowmen Marshmallows

Like everyone else, I'm super busy this week. But I wanted to take a moment to share something I made this afternoon that will go in the gift tins. These snowmen marshmallows are simply store-bought marshmallows with piped on chocolate "carrot" noses and dark chocolate "coal" eye and nose pieces.

I tinted some melted white chocolate (with a bit of solid shortening mixed in) with gel (not liquid) food coloring, then piped through an icing tip to make the "carrots." After all of the marshmallows had their noses, I added the eyes and mouth by dipping a toothpick into melted dark chocolate (with a bit of shortening added). Easy-peasy. 

As with all handcrafted items, some turned out better than others. The best will go into a bag to give in a tin with some homemade cocoa mix.

By the way, I got the idea from Williams-Sonoma, who sells these for $14.95 for a bag of 12. Going online, I found a few people who had made these at home. Just thought these were super cute and a great and easy addition to gifts of homemade cocoa or for adding to a special occasion cocoa bar.