The time of December 25th is drawing near, almost as fast as the lightning of summer and the cold windy days of fall. We will have to draw on the memories of snow of the past years to talk about howling winds or snowflakes getting in your eyes. The Year of 2020 is rewriting so many traditions and I am sure that many prayers have been sent to various places for a new program for 2021.

Last week I shared one of my new projects for this year and that was the Hot Chocolate Bombs. I have been going through a lot of chocolate to make these goodies and have totally enjoyed decorating them with more chocolate and related goodies.

My other new project of the year was making German Kite paper window stars. I took a ZOOM class from the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild on creating them. Most of the Google searches for German Stars will give you the 3-D kind that are made with paper strips but these are very different and it’s almost impossible to find directions on how to make them. The paper is a special paper made in Germany and widely available there but not in the United States. This was a whole new process for me so I got a little behind in the class but remembered enough to complete most of the class projects and show Neighbor Rose how to make them. Rose found sites by using the term “window” added to the search. Now we both can go “to town” and make a wide variety of these beauties to place in our windows and let the light filter through to show how amazing they are.

The chocolate truck may have to come again as I got the cookie making and baking fever this past week and the supplies really took a hit. For those of you Loyal Readers that do not bake you can still do a lot of “Christmas baking” by just having a good supply of chocolate chips of various kinds on hand. A few weeks ago I posted the no-bake Biscoff based cookies with Hersey’s Kisses. An old timer recipe in the no-bake department is the one using chow mein noodles and melted chocolate chips. That one used regular chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and the noodles mixed together. I used the Hersey’s Extra Dark chips, chow mein noodles and 2 cups of Rice Krispies as part of the noodle measurement and added a cup of diced sweetened ginger pieces. A whole dried cranberry was pressed in the top of each right after forming, then sprinkled with Christmas decos.

A supply of purchased chocolate mint cookies jumped up at me and said “do something with me”. Since the whole cookie was already chocolate dipped, I just dipped the tops and then added on the diced Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips on some and chopped up candy canes on top of others. (The Andes pieces are usually only available at Christmas and I got mine at Coborn’s). Now might be a good time to also stock up on the Sea Salt Caramel and Cinnamon Chips. Not sure if these will become seasonal products. I also saw that Corborns had a good supply of Lady Fingers. HyVee would also be a good place to check out for unusual goodies stock up time.

Also, at Coborn’s I picked up a package of tricolor tortilla strips which were intended for a salad topping. I laid out a small number of them on a sheet and dropped melted chocolate on them and then added more strips on top and pressed in place to make a small mound. I then added a big drop of the melted chocolate and added a Kiss on top of that. This creates a not so totally sugar treat and its very pretty!

2020 canceled the Girl’s Crazy Baking and Candy Land weekend for Margaret and myself so we hope 2021 will be extra special and twice filled with joy and creative wonders. Same to YOU!