Omigosh! The month is half over and I have not posted!

Please forgive me, I have not blogged in years so I got a bit busy (ok really busy) and forgot about posting...Yes of course I've been crafty, so I will work my way backwards starting today.

Today I was really wanting something sweet, so I went to my cupboards and looked through my vast ingredients, lol, I settled on some cookie dough. Flour, crisco sticks (instead of butter, are they really better for you?), brown sugar, white sugar, ectracts....yep got it all, but then I saw the half used bag of cake batter from making my cake batter mousse, and thought why not. I had also used it to make some cake batter cookie dough once but I didn't really like the outcome of that. In case you are not familiar with these, it's cookie batter made to be eaten RAW, no eggs are involved, they are NOT meant to be baked, that would not turn out well.

So I started out with my usual cookie batter dough recipe:
1 & 1/2 tbs butter (I use Crisco butter flavored sticks - not really sure if this is better for me or not)
1 Tbs brown sugar ( I use light brown and have used solely brown before no white and it is yummy)
1 Tbs white sugar
Instead of my usual 3 tbsp flour I used 3 tbsp cake batter (French Vanilla)
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp Butter Vanilla Emulsion (you can use Vanilla Extract if you do not have emulsion**)
While this mixed well it was too runny for me, so I added 1/2 tablespoonsful of flour until it reached the consistency I wanted (2 tbsp)

Then I mixed in red, white & green Christmas sprinkles and topped with holly and berry sprinkles. This made 2 servings of what I call Christmas Dough. Next time I make make a special cinnamon swirl and hope it taste a bit like a snickerdoodle. (My plans for this are to separate out about 1/3 of the batter before adding in the 2 additional tbsp of flour and adding cinnamon and possibly a bit more sugar to this, then swirling it into the finished batter)

**What is a baking "emulsion"?  Emulsions are water-based,  alcohol-free alternatives to extracts.  Instead of using alcohol, the flavor is micro encapsulated in natural stabilizers and suspended in water.  The encapsulation enables the flavor to not lose its integrity when exposed to high heat. 
Which means....Use baking emulsions instead of extracts with better results!



You can get emulsions in many places, I found mine on clearance at TJMaxx, but you can order direct here

Christmas Lights of the South SUPER DEAL!!!

If you live in the CSRA you surely have heard the radio commercials for Lights of the South! It's a really great light show put on every year, complete with a hay ride, hot cocoa, roasted marshmallows and of course Santa!

The Augusta Chronicle put out a daily deal today on the purchase of tickets for Lights of the South. Four tickets for $12.00! This is really an amazing deal, adult tickets normally cost $8.50 and children (3-17) $4.50.

This is a limited time offer, right now as I type this is shows 2 days and 16 minutes remain, so that means midnight on Sunday the deal is over. Get yours now, sign up HERE then click HERE for this deal! As a bonus you also get popcorn with this deal.

Crafty Mama tips! When you plan your trip make sure to bring gloves, hats, warm jackets and a heavy blanket (or 2) for the hay ride. You may want a blanket to sit on and one to wrap up in. Even though it does not drive fast the wind can pick up and chill right through your bones as it is about a 30 minute ride. Bring insulated mugs to pour hot cocoa into to keep your hands from burning. Check the weather in advance and be prepared! If your bringing kids stop at the dollar store first and find some light up items like glow sticks, they sell them on location (plus other neat light up toys) but they can be expensive and we're trying to save money right! While your at it grab a bag of marshmallows, the sticks are available at the location, I think one person will have to buy a bag to get the sticks but you can share, or add the marshmallows to your hot chocolate!

More Cake batter!

Ever since trying Cold Stone's Cake n shake I have been in love with cake flavored items. I joined pintrest awhile back and started seeing other cake flavored items. Walmart also has an amazing cake batter ice cream. Anyway, tonight I tried cake batter edible cookie dough, dough that does not have eggs in it so you can eat it raw....all I can say is OMG!!!

Cake batter cookie dough:

cream together 1/2 c sugar with 1/2 c butter (I used crisco sticks butter flavored), add in 1 tsp vanilla until well mixed. Add to this 1 & 1/2 c flour and 2/3 c yellow cake mix then add 6 tbsp water, more till you get the consistency you would like (I used 9 tbsp water). For more cake like presentation add 1 contained or sprinkles and mix in.

This recipe makes 8 servings. I put mine into the small 1 c serving size zip lock containers and refrigerated them. (I'm sure they will be gone tomorrow!) 

I'm thinking you can make this more "healthy" by using splenda.

QUICK Buffalo Chicken for the hubs

My husband Tim, adores buffalo chicken, I like it, but can't take it too spicy. I saw this Knorr rice mix and had an idea (as usual). Sure it tastes like buffalo chicken but that wasn't enough to make it a meal. So I picked up a 12.5 oz can of chicken (any brand will do I used Walmart). Make rice according to package, add the chicken in when you add in the rice. I use a fork and break it up in the can first. Mix in real good then cover to simmer. Now as I said I can't take the spice so for mine I add in ranch dressing, Tim likes the spice so he adds Texas Pete to his. This is great with nacho chips, or would probably be good on a sandwich. I recently had to have my wisdom teeth pulled so I experimented even more and put some into the food processor, it came out awesome, more dip like.

Anyway it's super quick and easy and YUM!