Christmas Cooking

I've never been one to make cute cut-out sugar cookies at Christmas time.  Not because I don't love to eat them, but mainly because I don't have the patience to roll out the dough, cut all the shapes and decorate while trying to help the 4 kids do the same.  Not for me.  So, this year I went a different route.  Chocolate, sugar and butter - what's better than that?

First, toffee.  I got this recipe from a friend and have made it about 5 times already this year.  So good and only 4 ingredients: crackers, butter, sugar and chocolate!

Marvelous!

Next, I tried making turtles with caramel, pecans and chocolate.  My homemade caramel recipe is amazing, but after I made it I realized it's more of a caramel sauce, not a caramel that hardens. (so, it's great on ice cream and apple slices).  So, the first time around it didn't work.  Then, with a little help from a mix, I finally got it to work.

They look pretty don't they?

Then I had some leftover chocolate that was already melted, so I poured some roasted peanuts in and stirred.  Voila - chocolate covered peanuts!

This has been a great outlet for me this week.  I never feel very confident as a homemaker (remember THIS post?) and I've actually had some things turn out this week that other people will eat!  These were Christmas gifts for my kid's teachers: homemade caramel sauce, puppy chow and toffee.  Hope they like it!!