New Blog name

Hi Everyone,
As you can see I actually changed my blog name as after a couple of posts, I started realizing that baking and crafting is more what I do or more focused on.
If you can continue to follow me under the new name I'd appreciate it:

http://www.woodenspoonandcrafts.blogspot.com

Thank you so much!

Darlene

Happy Thanksgiving!

Girl Scout Mint Cookies Anyone?

I have to admit that every time the girl scouts come knocking at my door, I usually don't answer the door as I don't like to turn away and not buy anything from them to be honest, or I just don't have the funds to buy a box at that time (yes,  I know that sounds harsh), BUT I've gotten to not do that anymore as I slowly fell in love with their cookies.

One in particular that I totally did not care for is the Mint Cookies, I was never a mint fan, even with it being in ice cream and let alone in a cookie!

So here's how I ended up making this:

My son's school was hosting a Holiday Fair and I volunteered to bake. As I accepted that task, with perfect timing, my oven decided to part ways, unfortunately.  So it turned out that I had to immediately think of a recipe that required no baking, I had less time to prepare and less time to actually make it.

I came up with this recipe which I called Thin Peppermint Cookies.  The only cooking part was making the chocolate dip other than that, it's semi-homemade and easy to do!

I was pretty surprised at how easy this was going to be! It's a great gift for the holidays if your thinking of giving this away as treats for your friends and family and it costs way less than popular brands out there.

Give this simple recipe a try!

Here is what you need:

**1-2 c milk chocolate chips
**1-2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/8 (dash) of peppermint extract
15-20 Andes Chocolate Mint
1 Box of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers

**Note: Reduce the amount of chocolate chips to 1 cup if you are only using 1 box of the Nabisco Chocolate Wafers as this makes a lot of the chocolate mixture.

1. When it comes to melting the chocolate, I usually prefer the slower and safe method rather than having it to melt in the microwave. If you really have to use the microwave, then I remove the chocolate after 30 seconds, then put it back in for another 30 seconds intervals until the chocolate it melted. In my opinion, I choose not to do this method as I always end up with burnt chocolate chips and I end up wasting it and throwing it away. This time, I  took an empty medium pot, added water (half way) and simmered it, while the water is simmering (not boiling), I took another empty bowl and placed it on top (but make sure the bowl does NOT touch the water).

2. Pour in both the milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips, just like the picture below:

please make sure to constantly stir it every so often until it gives a nice smooth, glossy consistency

4. Next, once the chocolate has melted, remove from heat and throw in the Andes Mints and continue to stir until the Andes mints have been incorporated into the chocolate mixture.

5. Once it's all mixed in, Add a dash or 1/8 tsp of the Peppermint Extract and stir:

6. Take one of your chocolate wafers and with a fork, dip the whole cookie and then remove it trying to shake the excess off the cookie. In this case, I ended up just coating it on one side as I was in a hurry and trying to get these cookies in a holiday tin can. 

7. In a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place the newly dipped cookie on the baking sheet to cool for about 30 minutes. 

8. You'll notice that I kind of got tired of the solid chocolate layer, so I ended up getting a fork, dip it in the chocolate mixture and drizzled it on top of the cookie. 

Well, I hope one day you'll give this a try or if your thinking of what to serve for a small dinner party at home, this I think is a perfect dessert accompanied by hot tea to end the evening. 

- Darlene

Deck the halls... already?

Can you believe this is an ornament?

Each year I always go to the Christmas Store in the mall even though we have yet to celebrate Thanksgiving. Even though I can't wait to celebrate Christmas, I do go by what Nordstroms has posted on their glass doors with the saying " Celebrate one holiday at a time" hence, their stores are not quite ready to welcome the holidays just yet. I really love Christmas time and the beautiful ornaments, lights and the air being so festive! One night after eating dinner at the mall, I could not resist going in the store that's totally calling you from outside with a big christmas tree all lit and reindeers with lights twinkling at you? So, my son and I went inside the store and was amazed at each ornament, nutcracker that they had displayed! I totally wanted to buy the whole store (that would be awesome) but I grabbed my phone and started taking photo's because they were just way too pretty, I was being careful that the staff wouldn't see me as I left the store w/o buying one single thing (just between us).

Here are some beautiful ornaments to inspire you when you are ready to decorate your own Tree this Holiday season:

How OWL you?



love this stuffed animal tree





San Francisco, All in one

 

Check out this Sushi ornanment!

This is one of my Fave ornaments in the store



I totally love this Japanese Girl ornament

                                                


love the detail done on this Dragon Lion Ornament

Candy Cane theme

who does not like a Silver/White Christmas?

                                                 Here are some other festive decor for your home:

Green Thumb

I know I have not been on here for a while due to the amount of lovely school activities, work & home projects! Any how, I'm here to share my dad's (yes, we call it "dad's" garden) as he's the only one in our family that can make a lonely root/leaf bloom into a full grown plant! Sadly, My sister and I did not quite inherit his green thumb when it comes to caring for plants.

I was visiting my sister's house the other day where my parents live, they are situated in South San Francisco, despite the city being known to be Foggy all year round, where my sister lives, to our surprise, it's actually sunny & warm in her area!

We were about to go and have dim sum that day when we visited her, but she said that she will have to water my dad's garden before we go. So I ended up with her and my son outside, I was so amazed at his garden and the type of plants he's growing back there, so I ended up grabbing my camera from my phone and snapped a couple of pictures that I'd like to share with you.
 I could not get enough at how the different types of vegetables/plants he has growing at his garden. I sure hope one day I'll get the urge to try and create a garden of my own in my backyard, but not sure, as I'm still struggling (yes, struggling) to water my plants in my house! (no joke). I feel so bad for them, who reminds me to water them is my 6 1/2 year old, thank goodness!

Here are some pictures from his garden:

here you have 3 monkeys watching over the garden

Lovely Hydrangea

garden from a different view

this is a Philippine Lemon known as " Calamansi"

I remember when this Bamboo was only 3 ft tall

These look like eggplants, but I think it's another form of a succulent plant

these type of plants I think I can grow - haha!

My sister got a helper for that day, it's my 6 1/2 year old son:

He also grew vegetables: 

Green Peppers - I think they will only this big I was told

 look how bright red these turned out!

I got more photo's to share, here we go:

Rosemary

apologize, I'm not familiar w/ this flower, however, I managed to get a photo of an insect eek!

Spider plant

Love this Park in NYC...

Hello Fellow Bloggers & Followers,

Today I'm working from home as the NYSE is still closed due to Super Storm Sandy that hit the east coast yesterday and is still lingering today. I decided to blog some of these pictures while I'm on a break from reading emails.

The pictures that I'll share with you comes from my family vacation from the month of July of this year. My hubby and I were thankful that we went with New York as our vacation spot this year and we are so glad we did! There's just so much to see in that city that never sleeps, however, one special spot that I loved while vacationing there, was this park, it's called High line Park .

Our Auntie Bei was eager to show us this park to see how the city of New York preserved and then converted it into a park for all NY residents to relax, read a book, walk, enjoy the landscaping, beautiful flowers, food and so on.
It's a public park that they built on a historic freight rail line that's sits above the streets of Manhattan's West Side.
Reading the history of this park, it was founded in 1999 by the community residents and operated by Friends of the High Line.

When we got there, it was a little after 5:30pm, where the sun was setting in, it was a glorious but humid day since we were there the week of July 4th. It has a great atmosphere. I've read that it runs so long to across towns which we did not even attempt to go to the end of it! I know my hubby would say that walking is nothing, but I sure don't like to hear the word walking, same goes with my 6 year old.. haha! Anyhow, I talked my hubby to not walk all the way to the end, so we stopped and relaxed a bit.

Ok, so long of me babbling on and on, here are some photos:

This was the start of the park, loved the landscaping!

I wish I took a shot where the benches are that overlooks this glass window

Lola Bei had an idea that Zach stands in front of the glass window & wait for the NY Taxi's to drive by, cool shot!

Mi Familia! I look all tired here as the heat was getting to me, excuse my son's face reaction in this photo!

I love this photo, love how the sun is beaming behind the plants & my son contemplating about life

oh boy! he found his stash of m&m's, here he is sitting w/ Lola Bei before heading out

Another photo I took with the American Flag just peeking thru the plants

I was not able to take too many photos as my phone unfortunately was about to run of juice! ( I hate that when it happens). Anyhow, if ever you decide to visit the Big Apple, I encouraged you to visit this wonderful park but not in the summer (hot, hot!) unless your ok with the heat :-) I hope you enjoyed this short post for today!