Cherry Kiss Mice! Cute Food for the Holidays

Baking and making is my favorite part of the holiday season. I love to give home baked treats for gifts. Nothing brings an expression of joy like homemade food… even more when the food is cute, like this:

Along with the usual spread of traditional cookies, Aunt Hattie’s Date Nut Bars (a 150+ year old recipe), and whatever else I feel like making, we’ll throw in some fun foods like ice cream cones, and the chocolate covered cherry mice pictured above.

Everyone makes a fuss over these cherry mice each year, so we always make them. They’re a cute and affordable gift to make up in a pinch; or you can whip up a quick batch to bring into the company party or carry-in, these mice are a guaranteed conversation starter. They’re fun and easy to make, and the kids can help!

Collect the following:

One or more jars of Maraschino Cherries – make sure you get the ones with stems.

Melting chocolate or candy coating, and a melting container

Hersheys Kisses or Hugs

Plain M&Ms (alternate: sliced almond slivers)

Small tube of decorating gel

Waxed paper and a cookie sheet to set them on

You can use chocolate or white candy for dipping. I think the mice look cuter with the white chocolate Hersheys Hugs, if you can find them. This year, we could only find regular Kisses so we used brown chocolate for dipping.

Melt a few squares of the candy coating or bakers chocolate according to directions on the package. Start small, you can always add more; but be sure your melted candy is deep enough to dip the cherries.

Dip a Maraschino Cherry into the melted chocolate, leaving the stem exposed.

Pull the cherry out of the melted chocolate, and push an unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss onto the end opposite the stem, into the soft chocolate.

Lay flat onto waxed paper, making sure the cherry and the Hershey’s Kiss stay together. Add two M&M candies for the ears. You can also use sliced almond slivers, but I think the M&Ms are more fun, they look like little cartoon Christmas mice.

You can see where this is going… allow them to sit for a few minutes while the chocolate hardens.

Last step, add eyes and a nose using a small tube of decorating gel. You can also use melted white chocolate and a toothpick, if y0u want something that dries hard and doesn’t rub off as easily, or candy sprinkles, or whatever your creativity inspires you to use. Have fun with it!

Our tray of chocolate covered cherry mice is ready to go in the fridge. Chill until they’re ready to eat or be gifted; put in a covered container if they will be stored for more than a day.

While we’ve got the chocolate candy melted, and half a bag of M&Ms left over, we’ll break out a bag of Bugle corn snacks and make up some ice cream cones – another holiday favorite with the friends and family (thanks, Mom, for the idea).

No tutorial needed on this one, just dip, top and eat. But I get requests all the time for the “recipe.” If you want a how-to, please leave me a comment here, and I’ll pull one together before Christmas.

Enjoy!

Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap for a Great Cause

Celebrating an Earth Friendly holiday this season? Please take a moment to check out the beautiful wrapping paper and gift cards available at Snail’s Pace. Your order can help benefit the children who attend Livingschool of Joshua Tree, CA.

All paper is 100% recycled, handmade by Monks at Abbey Press Printing in my home state of Indiana. Snail’s Pace is owned and operated by Saint Meinrad Archabbey, a 150-year-old Benedictine monastic community in the southern part of the state.

From their website: “Every step in the Snail’s Pace production process is designed to be as environmentally responsible as possible, and we strive to make the most ecologically sound choices in materials. We use only FSC-certified recycled papers and soy-based inks for our products. Most of the paper we use in the Snail’s Pace line is produced to be carbon neutral, through the purchase of Verified Emission Reduction credits and Renewable Energy Certificates that support renewable windpower. Even our packaging puts the earth first—from the plant-based, compostable bags we put our cards in, to the recycled boxes, bags, packing materials and tape we use to ship your order.”

When you order your cards, wrapping paper or anything else from Snail’s Pace, Livingschool can receive 50% of sales. Please follow these steps to make sure the funds go to Livingschool:

1. Add items to your cart
2. After filling your cart, indicate that you wish to benefit a group in California
3. Click on Livingschool Joshua Tree
4. You can even indicate your sales person! Sage Quinn is my friend, but you can select any child from the list.

This is an unpaid endorsement, I’m just spreading the word to help out a friend. I’m so glad he brought this to my attention, I’ve spent all morning adoring the pretty cards and papers offered by Snail’s Pace… calendars and mini-notes and scrapbook paper, oh my!

Beautiful paper, 100% Earth friendly, and helping the kids… it’s an all-around feel-good thing.

www.snailspacepaper.com

Quarter Moon Trunk Show at Funky & Darn Near New

Quarter Moon Curios will have a “trunk show”, featuring handmade sterling silver and gemstone jewelry by Allan and Carey Hays, at Funky & Darn Near New vintage clothing store. Jewelry, gemstone curios and unique handcrafted gifts will be available for sale during the month of December.

For more info visit www.quartermoon.us, and check out Quarter Moon’s shop on Etsy. Funky & Darn Near New is located at 55812 Hwy 62 in Old Town Yucca Valley.

Quarter Moon Jewelry Display at Cosmic American Outpost

Quarter Moon jewelry on display at the “Cosmic American Outpost.” Quarter Moon was one of several area artists featured in a pop-up shop on Mane Street in historic Pioneertown, CA.

For the month of September and most of October, the Cosmic American Outpost featured Quarter Moon’s handcrafted sterling silver jewelry, polished gemstones and crystals, carved gemstone jewelry, and handmade gifts. We debuted our recycled notepads (made from Kleenex boxes), and handmade cold porcelain pendants. Both were very well received!

Cosmic American Outpost also featured Christy Anderson’s Trailer Tags and Wasted Bracelets, vintage and western clothing from Funky and Darn Near New (a shop in Yucca Valley), and brightly colored paintings and painted objects by Audrey Green from Happy Trails Art Studio (located in Pioneertown).

Adventures in Knitting – Beekeeper’s Quilt

My first attempt at knitting a “hexapuff” was a dismal failure. I abandoned ship halfway through, but this story has a happy ending…

I stuffed my ugly little hexipuff with catnip, bound off at the halfway point, and finished with a crochet chain stitch tail. Not that the kitties would notice, but I tied a short black thread onto one end for the whiskers. Success!

True to form, JuJu promptly lost it.

Yummy Lemon Sorbet

When life hands you lemons, grab a cup of sugar and make Lemon Sorbet!

Not long after we moved to California, we started getting sackfuls of free lemons from a friend with a tree.

He’d give us a few oranges, too, but said nobody wanted the lemons. What?! Bring ’em on! I love lemons. I love to look at them. So pretty! And so yummy. I love lemonade, and lemon bars and lemon cookies. I love to scrub out the sink with a half lemon dipped in baking soda. A lemon wedge floating in a cocktail. And a bite of lemon sorbet on a hot summer day, mmmm….

Lemon Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup freshly squeezed juice (about 3-4 lemons)
2 teaspoons fine grated lemon zest

In a small saucepan on medium high heat, make a simple syrup by heating sugar and water until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool completely. You can stick in the fridge or freezer to speed up the cooling (but don’ t let it freeze!) Mix in the lemon juice and zest into the cooled simple syrup.

If you have an ice cream maker, freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can pour the mixture into a shallow pan and freeze in your freezer until semi-solid (hint: I like to add 2 Tbsp. of rum or vodka to the mixture before freezing, to keep from freezing completely solid).

Remove semi-frozen mix from the freezer ; let it stand for a while to soften slightly if it’s frozen too hard. Process in a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour into an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve. Scoop out and enjoy!

Quarter Moon’s First California Show

Here are some photos from Quarter Moon’s first vendor show in California, at the Yucca Valley Grubstake Days in May, 2011.

We did pretty well, despite the high setup fee and relatively poor attendance. Plus we’re still pretty understocked, having sold off most of our stuff to lighten the load for the cross-country move.