This post contains affiliate Links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support. I've written you about my youngest son Jacob a few times. I told you when he became an Eagle Scout here and here. I told you about when he was called to be a missionary in Africa, here. It is hard to believe that he has been home from that 2 year mission for 3 years now. He has also been serving in the National Guard during that 3 years, as well as going to school and working another job. But, he was recently sent away on a year long deployment, so we are back to long distance communication. When he was on his mission, it was very expensive to send him care packages and knowing that he had to move around a lot, we couldn't send very many things that he would have to carry around with him. Now that he is deployed, the situation is much the same, but he has even less room in his luggage for unnecessary items. So, everything that we send him needs to be consumable. Jacob recently had a birthday, so I started racking my brain about what I could send him to help him have a happy day and let him know that we are thinking of him. He was happy with what I sent, and I also spoke to him about what his suggestions would be for care packages in the future. I thought that I would share some ideas for those of you who find yourselves in this situation. Also, I am including a free printable of labels with jokes that you can attach to the items you include to lighten their spirits a bit more.
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This post contains affiliate Links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support. We can't get through February without recognizing that it is National Cherry Month! It goes hand in hand with President's Day, right? (You know, the old story about George Washington and his father's cherry tree?) We have shared lots of great cherry recipes with you in the past which I will link to below, but rather than do a new round-up of those, I thought that this year deserved a totally new recipe that we've never done before. I remember as a teenager going to IHOP and ordering Cherry Cheese Blintzes. They were all the rage and so good! There is just something great about cream cheese and cherries mixed together. (Think Cherry Cheesecake!) For some reason that memory came back to me recently and I decided to make some and share them with you for this year's cherry feature!
This post contains affiliate Links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support. These Valentine Cinnamon Rolls are definitely a work of love! Maddy first had the idea to make pink, heart shaped cinnamon rolls. She wanted to make them quick and easy, therefore, she didn't want to use yeast. After 3 tries, I think she got them just about perfect! To make the dough of these cinnamon rolls pink, she added regular pink liquid food coloring. Getting the heart shape was the most difficult task. First she tried just shaping them like hearts in the pan. That didn't work. Then I suggested she tried a ball of foil to make the indent between the two bumps. That didn't work either. The dough simply expanded around the foil. Alicia came up with the idea that worked the best! Instead of making one big roll of dough with the filling inside, she suggested rolling the dough from either side, meeting in the middle. That resulted in two spirals that created a natural heart shape when sliced. Genius! The next try was going to be purchasing heart shaped cupcake pans, but we avoided that! The frosting for these rolls is made with cream cheese, orange juice and orange zest, along with the confectioners sugar. Maddy piped the frosting into a heart shape to help enhance the Valentine look. The slight orange taste of the frosting, blending with the cinnamon is delicious! Of course, nothing would be complete around here with out some cute sprinkles! These cinnamon rolls are easy to bake and will make a great Valentine's Day treat for those that you love! Add a Hot Cocoa Bomb for a special Valentine breakfast! Maddy came up with such a fun way to make Valentine's Day Special!
This post contains affiliate Links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support. 2022 was not a great year for our family and to top it all off, I didn't get very many Hot Cocoa Bombs made. Happily, now that 2023 has begun, the weather has been a little more the way that it should be with rain and colder temperatures, so there is still time to enjoy some delicious Hot Cocoa Bombs to warm us all up! Hot Cocoa is such great comfort food! (or drink!) This particular flavor is one I came up with in 2017 and we made our first Hot Cocoa Bomb tutorial video about it! Since chocolate covered strawberries make a great Valentine's Day treat, I thought that I would share this post with you again just as we get into February! Enjoy! Today is the big day! We are publishing our Hot Cocoa Bomb Video Tutorial! It is available for your viewing pleasure right here on this site, or on Facebook or on YouTube! Take your pick and watch it over and over again if you want. (I probably will!) While the tutorial basics are the same as in our picture tutorial that you can find here, this video also introduces a new flavor of Bomb that we are sure you will all love! It is Chocolate Strawberry! At Valentine's Day, one favorite gift is chocolate dipped strawberries, so we thought, why not a Chocolate Strawberry Bomb? And look how pretty they are with the Wilton iridescent Valentines sprinkles sitting in those cute cupcake cups. I found mine at Walmart, but there are similar ones here and here. These will definitely be making an appearance on our Valentine's Day breakfast table. Without further ado, here is the video! The basics for creating these Strawberry Bombs are the same as you will find on this link, but here are the differences that make this flavor unique.
If you want a hard copy of the directions, You can find the printable version of our Hot Cocoa Bomb Idea Book in our Etsy shop! It contains many ideas for flavors and for decorating your Hot Cocoa Bombs. Once again, here is a link to the Wilton Molds that we use, here and here. For those of you who live in colder climates, Hot Cocoa Bombs are a great way to get cozy and warmed up on a cold winter's night. For those of us in Phoenix, we have to hurry and take advantage of our cooler mornings and nights for just a little bit longer and get in our Hot Cocoa Bomb fix while we can! Chocolate Strawberry, or Cherry Cordial are perfect for a cold Valentine's Day morning! After you watch the marshmallows pop up to the top of the cup, add some more, or whipped cream and sprinkles to make them extra sweetl for this sweetheart of a day! If you are looking for recipes to make a wonderful, romantic dinner, check out Renny's Recipes! If Valentine's Day isn't your cup of tea, try these ideas from Alicia for an UnValentine's Day party or date. (Hot Cocoa Bombs will work in either situation though.) Let us know how you liked our video and if you try making Hot Cocoa Bombs, let us know how it went! We can give you some tips to help you be successful, if you have any questions.
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
June 2024
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