~~~PINK HOT CHOCOLATE TUTORIAL~~~ Romantic Christmas Treat Cones

~PINK HOT CHOCOLATE CONES~

Today I'm going to share with you a recipe my daughter, Adrienne, and I came up with for Pink Hot Chocolate and give you a quick tutorial on how to make Hot Chocolate Cones!  They are surprisingly easy to make and a sweet project for a frosty Saturday afternoon!!!

 ~CHOCOLATE HOT CHOCOLATE~

When my babes were little kids we were always making and baking sweet, fun confections in the kitchen of my La Chaumière de Briarwood.  I think it is amazing today they are such awesome cooks...they have far surpassed me with their culinary skills, I can assure you!

 

~DON'T FORGET THE TAG~

These charming Cones have been around for a long time.  Oprah Winfrey included them in her "2008 Favorite Things Show" and ever since then I was hooked.  The Cones are now used as Wedding and Birthday Favors, Christmas Treats and they are especially sweet for Valentine's Day when done up in PINK!  So...keep this in mind when February comes (maybe I'll remind you!)... 

I made a Word Document on how to make the Pink Hot Chocolate and it explains everything I think you'll need to know!  You can find the recipe, instructions and the ingredients you'll need 

HERE

You'll want to read and print out the document so the decorative instructions below will make sense!  The key ingredient is red-hot candies that have been ground down into a chunky powder with a food processor!  The sweet cinnamon adds a little 'kick' to your Pink Hot Chocolate and it's absolutely yummy!

 ~RED HOT CANDIES~

To decorate the Cones using doilies I did this...

 ~LACY TIPS~

To get the look of a 'lace tip' on your Cocoa Cone simply cut a 6" doily in quarters and form into smaller cones.

 ~FOUR EQUAL PARTS~

Lightly glue edges around tip.  As you will find in the instruction document the Cones are double bagged so you will want to do this on the inner bag!!!

~CLOSE-UP VIEW~

This is easier to do than it might look like!  After doing a couple you'll get the hang of it!

~ANOTHER VIEW~

After you've 'tipped' your Cones with the lace, sleeve this bag into the second outer bag! (The bag showing regular chocolate cocoa was made using gourmet store-bought cocoa!)

~DOUBLE BAGGING~

Begin to layer your selected treats (marshmallows, chips, candies) onto the top of the first bag already filled with your cocoa.

~LAYER TREATS~

After you have layered your cocoa with your chosen treats secure the top of the second outer bag with a clear (tiny) rubber-band.  Take another doily (un-cut) and fold (do not cut this one) into quarters.  Snip off the tip a tiny bit and place it over the tuffs of plastic you've secured with the rubber-band.  Smoosh doily together and tie with ribbon.  Decorate with jingle bells and don't forget a hang tag with instructions (see document).

~FINAL PRODUCT~

~PINK HOT CHOCOLATE~

And there you have it!  I'd LOVE to see your final project when you are done sooooo...SHARE when you can!


Hope your day is awsome!


Love to you...

~~~~SWEET PINK TREATS and THOUGHTS~~~~ About Moving Forward

~AGING RECIPES~

Well...my Mr. AGPMan and I have pretty much recovered from having my website hacked into last Tuesday evening.  Thank you so much to all of you who stopped in and added your two cents regarding the nasty invasion into our lives.  For all the wonderful, kind people out in our world I'm also mindful there are those whose purpose is to only hurt and destroy.  What kind of life is that?  It's something I just can't wrap my brain around!

  Want to know what I think?

I think people who do terrible computer related things (or anything else for that matter!) on purpose need to be mindful just WHAT they do online can be monitored.  When you have a computer-guru as a hubster and a computer-genius for a son it's easy track the IP addresses (that's your computer's ID) for business purposes and/or for monitoring otherwise anonymous detractors.  If you have the right programs on your computer it's simple to take a look at just where (state and the town) your website visitors and even blog commenters come from!

Did you know that?

What does that little scripture in Numbers say~ "...your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:33)  

Yes...I think that's it!  I've been busted enough times in my life to know!!!

 ~ SWEET MEMORY~

Anyway...onto to better days and more hacking protection.  SMILE!!!!  Don't let the idiots bullies idiots (right the first time) of the world get you down!

ONWARD!

I've been working on a tutorial for a sweet, inexpensive (but fun!) goodie treat for Christmas!  I dug through lots and lots of my old hand-written recipe cards to find just the right one for this little project (at least I was before I was sidelined with the above).  I almost have it ready and hope to share it with you tomorrow.  Working on the packing today (which you know is EVERYTHING to me!).  Here's a little hint for all you PINK LOVERS out there...

~YUMMY PINK HOT CHOCOLATE~

It has to do with making PINK HOT CHOCOLATE (the powdered kind) and how you can mix up several batches for the most romantic looking gift-giving treat for the holidays!  Tastes wonderful, too!

While rummaging through my old recipes my heart skipped a beat when I came across an old clipping of a precious poem taken from what I'm going to assume was a woman's magazine from the early 80's.  The tattered clipping use to hang on my refrigerator during my children's growing up years as a reminder for me to SLOW DOWN and actually enjoy the process of parenting (hard to do sometimes as all us parents know!).  I thought I'd lost it a long, long time ago so when I saw it peeking out from within the recipe cards I was overwhelmed with joy.  I'm very sentimental and reading the words one again penned by Patricia Barley were as fresh today as they were 20 plus years ago...

Here it is (thank you Miss Barley)...

~LOVE NOTES TO MY CHILDREN~

How do I say I love you through

the

scoldings of clean up your room,

pull up your socks (I love you,

don't spill the juice?

How do I say I love you through

the reminders of take your bath,

brush your teeth (I love you),

don't miss the bus?

How do I say I love you through

the

nightly rituals of put down your book,

(um...get off the computer!),

turn out the light (I love you),

go to sleep?

How do I say I love you through

the routine of daily living?

I only hope you can hear between the lines.

~~*~~

Hope you day is blessed.  More tomorrow!

Love to you...

~~~ARE YOU SLEEPING? ARE YOU SLEEPING?~~~ Yes I Am! Yes I Am!

~SLEEPING AWAY~

I actually had something super fun (at least I think it is!) to show you today, but by the time you read this I'm going to be sleeping, sleeping and sleeping some more!

Why?

Well...because someone, something or WHATEVAH hacked into my A Gathering Place Website last night and unmarked all the things I had SOLD as AVAILABLE for purchase going back a full year.  It had been WAY TOO LONG since we'd backed up our files (um...that would be my Mr. AGPMan's responsibility because I don't know how to do it!) and so we (him!) had to do it manually (I just watched to make sure he got everything fixed right!) Har! Har!  :)  It took him us hours and hours and as you can see by the timing of this post it is now early in the wee morning hours...about 4:50AM.  We are finally going to bed... Bah!

I hope your day is wonderful...I do!  I plan to get up around, 10:00AM 11:00AM 12:00PM 5:00PM 8:00PM and then I will check and see what you all were up to today!   Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back with the post I was going to do today!

Sooo sorry...more soon!  PROMISE!

Love to you...