Just Call Me Betty Curtis...

This year, Troy and I decided to make baskets full of homemade goodies for our family members for Christmas. Great idea, but not so fun in our tiny apartment kitchen with zero counter space. Troy made these yummy spicy pretzels, we made homemade cinnamon candy, & cranberry bread! The candy was so much fun to make, I think it will become a new Curtis family tradition! WARNING: if you ever try this at home, resist the urge to put your hand under the dripping spoon when you remove it from the pot of boiling hot candy...I'm pretty sure I have a SEVERE burn on both my toe and my ring finger. OUCH!

After we created all of these goodies, we wrapped them in individual servings and put them in festive Christmas tins! Everything looks so cute, I'm so excited to give them to everyone to enjoy!

As if that wasn't enough baking, I am in charge of dessert for the Dearing Christmas at my Nannie's & the Streater/Garner/Houghton/Dearing Christmas at Kerri's house. For Nannie's house I made a FROM SCRATCH coconut cream pie. Blind baking the crust was an adventure to say the least..it isn't very pretty, but it's not burnt and I think it tastes pretty good. We'll see how the meringue topping goes this afternoon before I leave... I had a request for Pumpkin Pie from Chase, I won't be creating that one from scratch..Field's makes a lovely one.  For the Streater/Garner..well you get the idea Christmas, we made Troy's favorite Chocolate pie. Before you get too excited, a child could make this pie. Store bought graham cracker crust, layer of cream cheese, powdered sugar & cool whip, then a pudding layer, then a cool whip topping..easiest pie ever! I also made a "better than almost anything cake" recipe courtesy of Mrs. Bridget Crocker aka Bridget Brownback. This cake is wonderful but I'm pretty sure you gain weight just by looking at it so family get ready to grub!!

Aside from never wanting to step foot in my kitchen again...well at least for a few days, I'm SOOO excited for Christmas with all of my family! Our 1st married Christmas is sure to be an adventure! Happy Holidays!!