Holiday Baking With Germs!

Okay, so…I kid with that post title, but only a little, ha.

But joking or not, just look at the lovely—if germy—results of our efforts! That’s some high class/low class smooshed together, right there.

The background is this: I had my twins/not-twins home from school today with some sick ick that began Friday, peaked yesterday morning, and is already getting a teensy bit better.

But both of them needed just one more recovery day to regain some stamina and color to their cheeks—and to reduce the frequency of those yucky coughs.

So…I let them sleep in (and both of them naturally enjoyed more than an hour of extra snooze time, past their typical wake-up calls—woohoo!). And then I let them watch a bunch of TV—in increasingly hilarious positions, I might add. ;)

And then, to break up all the TV watching (though, let’s be real: that’s was you do on sick days), I hauled them into the kitchen to be my little helpers.

I’ve been earmarking a handful of recipes—cooking and baking—that I want to try this season, and since we’re hosting both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’m always looking for the two-thumbs-up variety that rise to the top among my crew so I can bust them out when we have a full house.

Luckily, these yahoos were mostly eager to pitch in and help—so long as I gave them regular TV intermissions, ha.

And our first task was some dark chocolate bark. Easy peasy.

I decided to try out some salty sweet for this round.





A lovely visual result. But I must say…I prefer my bark with some toffee below it, ha. So I think that’s what we’ll try next. This was a bit too simple.



But…while the lovely bark was cooking in the refrigerator, I decided to put my crazies to work making their own lunch, ha.



Thanks to another simple but adorable baking idea i recently spotted in a magazine.









And while that was in the oven, I set the sick nuggets up with some Thanksgiving coloring.



And a few minutes later…voila!



I think we pretty much nailed the wreath concept just like the magazine. :)





Yummy but oh so simple. Next time I think I’ll add a bit more flair in the crescent rolls beyond the simple li’l smokie. They needed a bit more oomph.

But the presentation really was so lovely.



I saved one additional test recipe to tackle once Chica was home so she wouldn’t be bummed she missed all the baking fun.

And though she was an excellent, dedicated and beautiful helper, I’m sorry to say that this particular recipe didn’t make the cut, either.

What can I say??7 guess we have high standards these days for our winners, ha.

Or perhaps we’re just not adept at achieving optimal yumminess from the recipes, ha.

But we sure are trying!

Happy Monday, peeps. And here’s hoping the germs clear outta this casa!

Over and out.