Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Almond Clusters

Yes, I put sea salt, chocolate, and almonds in the title of this post. Yes, this is a recipe I tried this week and let me tell you....it is amazingly delicious and very easy to make with only 3 ingredients!

Ingredients:
2 cups of whole almonds
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolates
sea salt

Directions:
1. Place almonds in a single layer on a baking pan covered with parchment paper and place in oven for 10 minutes, stirring one time, at 300 degrees.
2. Melt the chocolate either using a double broiler on the stove top or in the microwave. If using the microwave, use a medium size safe microwavable bowl. Melt the chocolate in 30 seconds increments, stirring between each time. It took about 3 minutes for the chocolate to melt.
3. Stir the almonds into the chocolate, making sure to coat almonds completely. Scoop a spoonful of almonds out and onto wax paper. If wanting large clusters using a larger spoon and scoop 10-12 almonds at a time, if wanting smaller clusters use a small spoon and scoop 6-8 almonds. Continue till all almonds are used.
4. Sprinkle sea salt on top of the clusters and allow to set. For mine to set quickly, I placed in the fridge.
5. Enjoy! You can s
tore clusters in fridge for up to four weeks.
 

Mmmm, Girl Scout Caramel deLites....

Wait, what did I just title this entry? Girl Scout Caramel deLites.....what are those? I only know of Girl Scout Samoas. At the end of January a few girlfriends and I were headed back to Ohio from North Carolina from a girls weekend and right before we crossed the NC/Virginia state line we stopped at a Walmart to look for souvenirs. With no such luck we stopped outside the store at a Girl Scout booth to grab some cookies for the drive home. When we walked up and I read the cookie box titles I asked if they were knock offs, I even glanced at the girls vests to make sure they were actual Girl Scout vests with badges, they were. The scout leader explained to me that the Girl Scouts use two different bakeries to make the cookies and depending on where the bakeries shipped to is what type of cookie you purchase.
There is some confusion based on where each bakery ships to and it's not necessarily geographically divided. Some states have both bakeries ship to them and others only one bakery covers the whole state. According to some of the articles I read, one of the bakeries has been around for decades and they do not necessarily need catchy names for individuals to remember. The other bakery is "new" and chose to have catchy names so individuals could remember and want to continue to purchase them. The only cookie both companies have named the same are the Thin Mint cookies and that is because the name "Thin Mint" is trademarked by the Girl Scouts.

Yellow= ABC Bakers & Purple= Little Brownie Bakers

I was floored reading about the bakeries and the cookies in general.  Each bakery sells the same cookies (except for the lemon flavored ones) but in reality they truly are different; not just the name but even the recipe! I couldn't wait to get home to compare the two, and there is a slight difference in appearance and taste. I added some pictures below to share the differences I found, I can say regardless, they both are still my favorite cookies. (PS if you live in an area where ABC Bakers ships to you must try the Lemonades! They are delicious and I am on the hunt for them!) To learn more you can read this article by the L.A. Times.

Christmas crafting and cooking

This season, as I prepare for Christmas I have been crafting like crazy thanks to Pinterest and even though I did not see this exact wreath, I did come up its the concept. It was simple o make but I did need help from my mom to hold the wreath while I glued. To start I gathered Christmas bulbs, a wired hanger, feather boa, and a hot glue gun. I opened the wire hanger and did my best to make it round (I used a tree trunk to help with the shape) and randomly looped the bulbs on the to the wreath. While my mom held the wreath I hot glued the bulbs together so that they would stay in place. I closed the wire hanger with pliers and then hot glued the feather boa to the back. Took me about a total of a half hour to complete and I love it!! I also spent last weekend busy making cookies. I made fruit drops, pistachio cookies, peanut butter cookies, no bakes, and sugar cookies!!! This weekend I am planning on finishing the Christmas gifts I am making. Photos will come after Christmas.

Baby Shower Cake

For my cousin's baby shower, I decided to make the cake at home. We aren't sure what the baby is going to be so I decided to use both pink and blue colors. I got the idea for the cake from Charm City Cake's Cake Tattoos. You can purchase them at any Michael's and they are simply pieces of icing that have print on them. So I baked two cakes an 8in and 6in round cake. For the 8in I had to stack two cakes together so I placed a Nutella butter cream in the middle. Once Stacked I iced both cakes with homemade butter cream icing. Then I placed the cake tattoos on and added some more butter cream decorations. I think it turned out great! And it was delicious.

Cookies!!

The other night, I baked some cookies and finished them up by decorating them last night. This was my first time working with these shapes and they were a baseball hat and a basketball jersey. I think they turned out pretty well and I cannot wait to perfect them in the future.

p.s. hope you like my new background color, the pink was kind of getting old on me.