Tips From Kan's Kitchen & A Movie Star

Saturday was the annual "Christmas Cooking Day" at the Bryant house.  This is a tradition that has been going on for several years and we were able to do it earlier in the month due to the fact that I didn't have the stress of finals (yahoo)!  It is an exciting/educational/exhausting day when the Bryant (and Ludlow) women ages 10+ get together to make holiday goodies for our friends and neighbors.  It's a full day of cooking, dipping, laughing, and sometimes, crying.  My usual assignments include paper products (which is actually harder than it sounds) and bon-bons.  This year, partly due to the fact that I am trying to hone my domestic skills, I also tried out a new recipe.  Peppermint brownies.  I'm still not sure the results outweighed the effort involved, especially considering the real cooks in the family made awesome new contributions this year, too (JaKayla's cookie dough balls were to die for and Shanel blew us all away with her almond joy cupcakes).  But I think we really outdid ourselves this year!  Becky Jo and Jocelyn joined us for the first time and although Jill was still recovering from her recent surgery, she made an appearance to join in the fun!

You may think it odd that the goodies were in the garage......but it's actually the best way for the chocolates to set up before we prepare them for packaging and delivery.  My dad came up with this idea and set it all up for us! (Don't worry, everything complied with FDA regulations).

So here are a few tips if you're thinking of doing your own holiday baking this year:

1.  Don't double the bon-bon recipe.  Ever.  You might think that if you have a large volume of treat plates to give out, you should double the recipe to make sure everyone gets some.  This is a trap and will result in the development of carpal tunnel from all of the ball rolling you will have to do.

2.  When your sister says that she will help you with your brownies, what she really means to say is that she will mix 4 ingredients together and then leave you to fend for yourself.

3.  No matter how hard you try, no matter how careful you are, when you dip chocolates you inevitably end up spilling and smearing chocolate on random body parts that were not used in the dipping process.

4.  Ziploc bags are heaven sent and whoever thought of "the holiday collection" was a genius.

5.  Porcelain mugs will break when you drop them into the sink.  Even from a height of 6 inches.  Even by accident.  Just leave the dish washing to those with more experience in the kitchen.

In other news, we have a movie star on our hands (or at least a budding celebrity)!  My niece Taylor was featured on the local news for the efforts her school class made in helping to save an eagle.  Check it out! (I still have not learned how to embed videos to the blog, thus the link instead of the actual video).