There was a whole lot of baking going on in December. I also tried out a few new recipes too. One was a success, and the other still needs a little work. It was a super tasty trial and error though. Here are a few photos from the kitchen.

With Christmas quickly approaching, I was craving all things that involved either Hot Cocoa or Peppermint. I like my Hot Cocoa with a bunch of extra Marshmallows.

So a few months ago Casey’s opened up here. As a Missouri kid, Casey’s was always my favorite stop for snacks, and tasty fountain drinks. I’ve been trying to resist a weekly trip to our local Casey’s for my favorite snack. At check-out they have little cups of snacks to go, and my favorite is the Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treats, smothered in yummy Chocolate. O.k., I did pick up one, but it was strictly for research. Really delicious research.

I came close with my copycat recipe, but it wasn’t quite it. Casey’s yummy snacks are a very thin layer of sticky super peanut buttery rice krispies goodness. Mine were not quite sticky enough, and needed a bit more peanut butter flavor. I also added (dare I say) too much chocolate to my top layer, and I think that was what over powered the peanut butter. They were pretty darn good, but not quite Casey’s. I’ll keep trying though.

Breakfast for dinner. This one involved last minute Christmas lunch planning with Pancakes and Bacon, oh and a Pepsi too. In 2015, I’m trying to cut back on my soda intake… By the way, I like my pancakes with Strawberry Jam.

I made a homemade Chocolate Bundt Cake for my family, one extra chilly evening. We decided to sit around, drink hot cocoa, enjoy some cake, and watch the seasonal Fireplace on netflix. The kids loved it.

One very strange night, I woke up at around 3:00 a.m., and was craving Hummus. I started searching pinterest for some recipes, and it looked simple enough. I decided to give it a go, and then see who in my family was brave enough to try it. I added in lots of extra lemon, cumin, and used plain greek yogurt instead of tahini. Holy moly it was delicious, and the tiny kiddos kinda liked it. James even tried it too. I loved it, and I will be making this recipe again, very soon.

So last minute, I decided to serve Chicken and Noodles with all of the fixings for Christmas lunch. I baked up two batches of wheat rolls.

I also made a double batch of Butter Rolls. Then I started baking all of the cookies and cakes for Christmas.

The kids also helped with some of the cookie decorating. They were in charge of the Sugar Cookies.

They had a blast decorating the cookies, and eating lots of sprinkles too.

After all of the cookie chaos, and nonstop baking, I made myself a giant cup of Hot Cocoa. This batch was Milk Chocolate with Peppermint, and extra marshmallows.

Towards New Years, I baked up a yummy batch of homemade Cornbread to enjoy with Chili.

Yum!