Beehive Messages - Preparing for Annual EASTER EGG BASH!

My children are WAY EXCITED for Sunday to roll around.  They are finally on Spring Break and ready to play.  Monday night for Family Home Evening...we decorated Easter Eggs for our annual FAMILY EASTER EGG BASH!!!  I posted this event under family traditions a few months ago so you'll have to pull it up and read about it.  All I have to say is that the Hawkins Family is going to take down the Lowe Family.  That would be my sister Amy's Family.  She is the only sister I have that lives near us.  I'm sure the Uncles and Grandpa will join in as well.  My children have a few surprises up their sleeves...let's just say they have named a few of their eggs.  We had so much fun preparing and I got a kick out of our son Stockton as he decided that he would try to eat a hardboiled egg for the very first time.  I think he liked them since he ate 3 or 4 of them.  Personally...they are not my favorite.  I'll be sure to post the Egg Bashing Results after Easter.  May the BEST EGG WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS...You're going DOWN Lowe Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Family Traditions - THE ELVES...Santa's Helpers!

Long ago...my sister Stacy came home from Elementary School telling all of us about a friend of hers that had put her shoes out by the front door during the holidays and when morning came she had received a gift from Santa's Helpers. Well...Stacy decided she would leave her shoes out by our front door to see if by chance the elves would leave her a surprise. At the time I must have been in Middle School and I knew that my parents were not going to do anything so I took it on as my job to put a surprise in her shoe. I think that first night I put stickers or some money in her shoe. She was so excited and as you can imagine...she continued to put her shoes out throughout the month of December until Christmas Day. After a day or two of surprises in Stacy's shoe...the whole family decided that they would place their shoes out as well. I'll never forget placing toilet paper in our Dad's shoes and writing a note to let him know that the elves only come to young children. This tradition has continued and every year the children place their shoes by the front door. The elves come every night in the month of December until Christmas. I can tell you that this works great in motivating the kids to get to bed early or the elves will move right on by. The elf gifts can be as simple as a dollar store item, a note, a candy, etc... You will have so much fun with this tradition!

Yearly Cookie Exchange - 2009 Party

Can you smell the cookies? You can?

For the past few years we have had a tradition in our ward of having a Cookie Exchange hosted by my dear friend Isabel. This year...Isabel ran off prior to our scheduled party to be with her daughter who is expecting any day now. We sure missed her! The Cookie Exchange is the highlight of the holiday season for all of us girls. Each of us brings 4 to 6 dozen cookies which we proudly display on a table that is set up each year by one of the sisters. Then, we have a yummy dinner, play games, and proudly share with the others the story behind our cookies. A few years ago, three of us decided that we needed to be in all of the cookie photos. The first year we just jumped in. The second year we snuck around and popped in without the ladies seeing us and this year we decided that we should judge the cookies. I'm sharing with all of you just a few of my FAVORITE photos from this year. As you can see...we got a little silly!!! Sure was fun!!!

I'm also going to share the cookie recipes with all of you for the cookies I made. I got both of these recipes from the Land O Lakes 2009 Cookie Magazine. They were delicious. You must try them!!! Enjoy and happy cookie baking!!!

CANDY CANE BISCOTTI

The lively aroma of sweet peppermint will drift from your oven as you bake these small and tender biscotti cookies.


Preparation time: 45 min Baking time: 30 min
Yield: 4 dozen cookies


Cookie Ingredients:

1/2 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 LAND O LAKES® All-Natural Eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup finely crushed peppermint candy canes*


Coating Ingredients:

1 (14-ounce) package (almond bark) vanilla candy coating
2 drops red or pink food color
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, if desired
Decorator candies, sugars or crushed peppermint candy canes, if desired


Heat oven to 350°F. Combine butter and sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and baking powder; continue beating until well mixed. Stir in crushed candy.

Divide dough into fourths on lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands. Shape each into 9x1 1/2-inch logs. Place logs 3 inches apart onto lightly greased large cookie sheet.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until tops are cracked and ends just start to turn light brown. Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Cool logs 10 minutes on cookie sheet.

Carefully remove logs to cutting surface. Cut into 1/2-inch slices with sharp serrated knife. (Discard ends). Arrange pieces on same cookie sheet, cut-side down. Continue baking for 12 to 14 minutes, turning once, or until cookies are lightly browned and crisp on both sides. Remove to wire cooling rack; cool completely.

Place candy coating in 2-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted (5 to 7 minutes). Remove from heat. Stir in food color and peppermint extract, if desired.

Dip each biscotti half way into warm coating; shake off excess. Place onto waxed paper. Immediately sprinkle with decorator candies, sugars or crushed candy canes, if desired. Let set at room temperature until coating is hardened (about 1 hour).

*Substitute 30 starlight mint hard candies, crushed.

Recipe Tip
To crush candy canes, place candy in heavy-duty resealable plastic food bag. Seal bag; pound candies with rolling pin or hammer to crush. (If bag starts to puncture, place bag in another bag and continue pounding.)

Recipe Tip
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup and to prevent candy in dough from sticking to cookie sheets.

Recipe Tip
Leftover candy coating can be used to dip pretzels.



SANTA SUGAR COOKIES

Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter and decorate the cookies upside-down to create these cute Santa faces.


Preparation time: 1 hrs Baking time: 7 min
Yield: 3 dozen cookies


Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour


Glaze Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1 tablespoon light corn syrup


Decorations Ingredients:

Sliced miniature marshmallows
Red decorator sugar
Coconut
Mini chocolate chips and/or mini candy-coated chocolate pieces


Combine all cookie ingredients except flour in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a ball; flatten slightly. Wrap each in plastic food wrap; refrigerate until firm (at least 30 minutes or overnight).

Heat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

Combine powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon butter and corn syrup in small bowl. Beat at low speed until powdered sugar is moistened. Increase speed to medium; beat until smooth, adding additional water, if necessary, for desired spreading consistency.

Working with 1 cookie at a time, frost pointed part of cookie to make Santa’s hat. Place cut marshmallows onto frosting for hat trim; sprinkle hat with red sugar.

Frost curved portions of cookie. Sprinkle with coconut; press down lightly to make Santa’s beard. Use glaze to attach chocolate chips and/or chocolate pieces for eyes and nose.

Recipe Tip
If dough is too cold and cracking when rolling, let soften at room temperature a few minutes before rolling.

Recipe Tip
For ease of decorating, place decoration ingredients into individual bowls.

Family Traditions - Pumpkin Magic

This is a fun family tradition that started a while back in my husband's family. They have a huge garden in Wisconsin where they grow pumpkins. In the late summer...Grandma & Grandpa pick out a pumpkin for each Grandchild. They pierce the pumpkin with that child's name. The pumpkins are still green at this point. As the pumpkin matures and turns orange...the name becomes more clear on the pumpkin. They are so neat! We were so excited because a few weeks ago we had the chance to visit and the kids were able to pick out their own pumpkins this year. We can't wait to share how they turned out.

Step One - pick out green pumpkin in the pumpkin patch
Step Two - use a tool to scratch in your name
Step Three - wait until the pumpkin in ready to harvest
Step Four - display in home

I think it would be fun to try this using stencils or a pattern. I think they are Martha Stewart quality!

Family Traditions - Easter Egg Bash

This past year we tried out a family tradition that was passed on by my husband's brother's family to ours. We were going through a family photo album while visiting them this past Spring and there were some family photos of the children with Easter Eggs and a towel on the floor. I asked my sister-in-law what they were doing and she explained that it was family tradition. They have the children decorate their Easter Eggs and then they have a battle on the floor to see who can make the other person's egg brake. It sounded like something that we needed to try at our home. We had so much fun battling it out to see who our ultimate EASTER EGG BASHING CHAMPION was. We replayed the game when all of the cousins were over for Easter dinner. Even the Dad's and Grandpa joined in the ultimate battle. What a blast this game is for the entire family and one that will be carried on for year's to come!

CAUTION...make sure the eggs are hard boiled!!!

To Play:
1. Place an old towel on the floor.
2. Put masking tape across the towel to separate the towel in half.
3. Place one player on one side and one on the other.
4. Each person rolls their SPECIAL EASTER EGG across the line to try to hit the other's egg.
5. The person who gives the other the largest crack wins the round and move on.
6. Continue to play until you are out of uncracked Easter Eggs.
7. HAVE FUN!