What will it bee?

I am at that stage in my life where my life is baby showers :) My cousin threw the most adorable baby shower up in NY that was bee themed because the expectant parent's (her sister/my cousin and her husband) did not know what they were having; what would it bee? (It ended up beeing the most beautiful baby girl).  I said I would make the cookies and bring them up to NY via the bus. I tried to plan ahead so I wouldn't be stressing out because October was a crazy month and I made the royal icing ahead of time......however, I messed it up because it seemed too stiff to me so I thinned it a little bit but once it got back to room temperature it was too thin!!! I ended up having all sorts of issues and the royal icing was too runny and I couldn't seem to be able to fix it. I ended up being a nut and the next day trimming the cookies so the icing wasn't all over the sides (I think this is about when I texted my best friend and told her I officially lost it).  I also ended up using lemon flavoring instead of lemon extract and had to guess on how much I actually needed (I also walked down the hallway with the bowl of icing at like 10pm to havemy neighbor try it!) While they didn't come out perfect they still looked cute and tasted awesome, even better!  I really have to get better on remembering to take good pictures but at least I got pictures of my cousin's totally cute beehive cupcakes. She really threw the most amazing shower, every detail was perfect!

Sweet and Salty!!

I feel like there are two types of people in this world: sweet or salty. I am definitely a sweet person.......taste preference not always in behavior :) When I started thinking about what I was going to make for the BaBy Q my mind kept wandering back to a great recipe I saw on Bee in Our Bonnet and I decided that this was going to be the time to make these caramel and chocolate covered pretzels.  Since I tend to be forgetful and overthink things (such a great combo) I couldn't remember what blog I saw the recipe at and so I started doing google searches and honestly the Bee in Our Bonnet recipe was the easiest and the best one so I am glad I finally found it again.  These were a HUGE hit and someone told me they tasted like a Twix - to me like a sality twix. They do take some time to make.

I used the Kraft Caramel squares and it worked out well; Bee in Our Bonet also suggested the caramel bits but I couldn't find them. I followed her directions  with melting the caramel in a pyrex and using the edge to scrape off a lot of the caramel.  I rested then ona cookie rack but then it got the lineson them so then I hand rolled all of them. However, they got the lines again with the chocolate but when I put the decorative chocolate on it I tried to  cover the lines up.  I was pretty lucky and my bag was pretty good and didn't have a lot of broken rods but I did break some when I was doing it so maybe have a second bag just in case.  The original recipe said she got around 30 ish.



I used approximately 2 cups of these and threw in 2 tsp. of water.  I microwaved it for 1 minute, then stirred, then microwaved it for 30 seconds more.  Your times may vary a little but this worked for me.

A 2 cup pyrex measuring cup is perfect to use.  It doesn't even have to be totally full.  If you tip it on it's side and roll the pretzel, you can get about 30ish pretzel rods out of it.  I bought plenty of extra pretzel rods because about 1/4 of the bag was always broken.

CARAMEL & CHOCOLATE COVERED PREZTELS
(Source: Bee in Our Bonnet)

INGREDIENTS:

1 bag of caramel squares - it is about 2 cups
2 tsp water
1 bag of chocolate
Something to decorate - colored chocolate, nuts, sprinkles

Directions:

- Melt 2 cups of unwraped caramels with 2 tsp water in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave for 1 minute then stir and then add another 30 seconds.
- Angle the Pyrex and using the lip take some of the caramel off.
- After you let them dry a little bit melt the chocolate in the mircowave and then it can be helpful to use a Pyrex or taller. I can not remember but I might have done the chocolate in batches.
- Depending how you want to decorate either let the chocolate dry and then use the decorative chocolate or let it still be a little wet to dip it in the nuts etc.
-You can use a tall glass to disapply or just eat right away!!