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Monday, December 22, 2008

But What About The Purse?

Yes, I know I should have it done already, but I have spent quality time with my children and husband today. The purse will be finished and in time to be opened on Christmas morning. Today I did finish several gifts with my children and cleaned house and went shopping with my husband plus went on a little drive with my husband, so to count today a total loss would simply be a sad misrepresentation of a perfect day.

Here are a few of the items that did get finished.


In the jar is a drink mix I have always called Russian Tea. I was first introduced to this drink when I recieved a jar of the mix from a dear friend at church. Since that first hot sip of Russian Tea, I have enjoyed it as a staple in my kitchen every fall and winter.

Here is the recipe as it was passed on to me:

2 Cups Tang
3/4 Cup instant tea
1 Cup Sugar
3 oz Lemonade Mix
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Allspice

Mix all the ingredients together then divide the mixture into two pint sized jars - one for you and one to share.

When you are ready for a nice warm cup of tea just add 2 heaping teaspoons of the mix to one teacup of hot water. YUM YUM!!

This jar of spice tea will be given to a friend of mine tomorrow along with these lovely little cards I purchased from KatieMayFlowers. They are the perfect size to use as gift tags, lunch box "love notes" for the hubby, "you're special because.." notes for the children or ...so many options.



The other gifts from our kitchen are these amazing Raspberry Truffle Brownies.

The children and I always love to gobble these up around the holidays. The recipe comes from one of my favorite cook books in my collection. I hope you will enjoy these also. One pan of these brownies will be divided up among our friends and ourselves the other is going to a Christmas party at my husbands work place.

BROWNIE LAYER
1 1/4 C ~ semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C ~ butter or margarine
3/4 C ~ packed brown sugar
2 Large eggs
1 tsp ~ instant coffee dissolved in 2 Tbs water
3/4 C ~ All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ~ baking soda

1.) Heat oven to 350* . Grease a 9X9 inch baking pan
2.) To make brownie layer, melt chocolate chips with butter. Cool slightly. Beat brown sugar and eggs in a large bowl. Add chocolate mixture and dissolved coffee. Mix well. Stir in flour and baking powder. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes. Cool

TRUFFLE LAYER

1 C ~ semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp ~ instant coffee
8 oz ~ package cream cheese, softened
1/3 C ~ seedless red raspberry preserves
1/4 C ~ powder sugar

1.) Beat cream cheese and preserves until smooth.
2.) Melt chocolate chips with instant coffee.
3.) On low speed beat powder sugar with chocolate mixture then add to cream cheese mixture and beat on low speed until fluffy.
4.) Spread over brownies.


GLAZE

1/4 C ~ semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp solid vegetable shortening

1.) Melt chocolate chips with shortening.
2.) Drizzle over filling.
3.) Chill for 2 hours.
4.) Cut into bars.

Yes, a lot of instructions but well worth the effort and the two hour wait for them to cool!

VeryVerdant


One more thing, I am not sure where to find the original recipe for Russian Tea but the Raspberry Truffle Brownies are from a small spiral bound book called Prize Winning Cookies published by Current, INC. Colorado Springs,Co 80941 (1990)

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