More Boxes...and Goodies!

Anyone else find this picture attractive? My name is Jenn and I'm a member of Containers Anonymous. My fetish started out as just one of the tasks I perform weekly as part of my job. I unload the paper order when it arrives on Thursdays. (BTW, this is time management at its best, because I don't have to feel like I need to go to the gym after all the boxes I schlep from the lobby of the cafe to various places in the back room. Imagine me on a stepstool, and you'll get the idea.)

As I unpacked things, I came across sturdy cardboard boxes. Harmless to you, but to someone who sees many mundane containers as possible altering opportunities, it was the beginning of the end. It was the packaging for the retail products that really got me in trouble. A beautiful blank canvas was what I saw, and since I knew their final destination is the recycling dumpster out back, it became my own little mission to repurpose some of these beauties for a better end.

Such is the case with three of these. They came stuffed with dark chocolate covered graham crackers in packs of 4. I loved the flap opening, and claimed them immediately. I have not felt all that much in the spirit of the season, but yesterday a wild hare of an idea snagged my creativity and my love of baking. Okay, that's just a fancy way of saying that I finally got my rear in gear and made cookies and altered the boxes to prettify them for the neighbors.

I employed the same simple fold as you go method that I used on the smaller Christmas Countdown boxes, and each box used a 6 5/8" x 12" piece. This didn't cover the bottom of the box, but I didn't care. Who looks at the bottom of a box of cookies anyway?

I used up some more of my stash of retired Dashing DSP, and pulled sentiments from Snowflake Spot, Sincere Salutations, Many Merry Messages, and Peaceful Wishes to create the card. I wanted to keep it simple, so I used Real Red and Baja Breeze and embellished them with Felt Flurries and some of that great non-SU! (Michael's) ribbon.

Now I just have to deliver them, and I want to do that after the mailman completes his rounds. A side note: the cookies are called cream cheese spritz cookies. They are the best little sinful things you'll put in your mouth, I promise! They're called "spritz" cookies because the shapes are made using a cookie press, which spritzes them out. (I don't know why really, I just made that up.) They can be made as cookies you roll into balls and bake, and they taste just as good!

Here's the recipe. Double it, or you'll be sorry!

1 stick butter (no substitutions), at room temp
3 oz. cream cheese (you can substitute lowfat or fat free here)
1 C. sugar
1 egg yolk
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
2 1/4 C. flour

Combine the ingredients in the order listed and chill if desired for 30 min. Bake on UNGREASED cookie sheets for 13-15 min. at 350. Sprinkle with colored sugar BEFORE baking if desired.

Let me know if you try them, and what you think!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today I start my 41st year of life! 40 has been one of the most interesting years of my life--moving to the South, meeting new people, learning how to relate to family who are now living far away, finding new places to do everything--shop, eat, worship, and recreate.

I'm a chocolate fiend (shouldn't I be after 6 years of working at a gourmet chocolate shop?) and so I made these cakes for my coworkers at Starbucks. The recipe is called Deep Dark Chocolate Cake from the Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook, which I received as a wedding present 17 years ago. Someone had me pegged, even back then! I know the ingredient list by heart, so here it is:

2 C. sugar
1 3/4 C. flour
3/4 C. cocoa
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/2 C. oil
1 C. milk
2 eggs
1 C. boiling water (1 T. instant espresso powder or strongly brewed coffee, optional)

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add milk, eggs. and oil, mixing well for 2 minutes. Add boiling water (batter will be thin). Stir until incorporated. Bake at 350 degrees in a greased and floured 9x13 or 2-9" rounds or in cupcake tins. Cool and frost.

A frosting I didn't use today, but ADORE, is this one. We call it caramel frosting, but it's really brown sugar buttercream frosting. If you know what penuche fudge is, you'll LOVE this frosting.

1 stick butter
1 C. FRESH brown sugar ( I don't know why, but it works better and crystalizes less if it's fresh--I also like DARK brown sugar)

Bring to a boil in a saucepan. Add 1/4 C. milk and stir until well incorporated. Bring back to bubbling. Remove from heat and place in mixing bowl. Add 3 1/2 C. powdered sugar and beat vigorously. FROST IMMEDIATELY, or it will harden like a rock! YUMMY!!!

Let me know if you try either of these. When I first entertained my husband's family, I made this cake because it was one of the few things I knew how to make! I made the frosting and my father-in-law's comment was, "Brown frosting. Never seen brown frosting before." He's not a sweet person, except in the morning, so what did he know!

Hope you have a great day today--I am!