Christmas Baking

'Tis the season for baking holiday treats, and Susan and the girls have been doing just that--some last weekend and some this weekend. As they finish a batch of something, they store it on the baker's rack on the veranda outdoors just off the dining room (everything stays nice and cold there and easily within reach):


Can you tell what these are (below)? Probably not, but I thought it made a nice pic. These are numerous packets of "snowman soup," each an individual serving of hot chocolate mix along with two Hershey's kisses, four marshmallows, and a candy cane for stirring, all put into a Christmas-themed baggie to which is attached a brief poem with rhyming directions for making the snowman soup (with a snowman picture on it, too):


The ladies also made cinnamon puffcorn, which requires melting Red Hots candy for the cinnamon flavoring. These portions will go to the girls' Sunday school and elementary school teachers:

Other items in the inventory of Christmas baking: almond roca, peanut brittle, fudge, frosted butter-sugar cookies, Scandinavian almond cake, caramel puffcorn, "hockey pucks" (two Ritz crackers with peanut butter between them, dunked in melted chocolate, and decorated with sprinkles), "reindeer eyes" (a caramel-filled Hershey's Kiss placed atop a round bite-sized pretzel, softened in the oven, and then impressed with an M&M), and "porcupines" (large marshmallows dunked in melted caramel and rolled in Rice Krispies).

For our own bodies' sake, we're planning to give away most of it. So if you want some, you'd better visit us soon before we've delivered it all on holiday plates to our neighbors and coworkers!