food:: I am a messy cook

My name is Lisa Victoria, and I am a messy cook.

But damn…I have fun.

I am working on Christmas gifts for my neighbors and friends (and a couple for myself) and thoroughly enjoying my kitchen time.  Most of the time I spend in the kitchen I see as a chore.  I mean, don’t we all?  Every night, get your butt home from work and try to hit all the food groups to feed the ones we love so they will get the hell away from us and we can move on to do what we really want to do in the evening instead of catering to their basic human needs?  OK ~ that’s a little harsh…let’s go with Mommy is a little tired after a long day, and she needs some relaxation instead of cooking and cleaning…

Not so much lately.  I am doing my Christmas “baking”.  I am making the fun stuff after I give them a nutritious frozen pizza…or at least something that resembles all the food groups.

I have been told on more than one occasion that it’s not dinner unless something hits the floor.  I get into my cooking.  This endeavor has been particularly messy.  Deciding to make Christmas gifts in the kitchen takes commitment, or maybe I just need to be committed or something like that.  I have been working on ranch mix, cocoa mix, onion soup mix, and Texas Roadhouse style honey butter.  If you haven’t been to Texas Roadhouse and had the honey butter slathered all over their yeast rolls – my friend – you are missing out.  Anywho, I have made a deplorable mess of my kitchen.  All I am hoping is that my friends enjoy the stuff I have been working on.

hot cocoa mix:

1 c. powdered milk

1 c. cocoa powder

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

mix and pour into 3 pint jars

or layer ingredients and add a layer of 1/2 c. mini chocolate chip or 1/2 c. crushed peppermint candies and use 4 pint jars to leave more room at the top

I write the directions on the lid *1/3 c. cocoa mix with 1 c. boiling hot water*

Then I moved on to a double batch of  honey-butter…

and then a few chocolate filled spoons to stir the hot cocoa, because really who doesn’t want a little more sugar in their cocoa?

I made the onion soup mix for me.  I seem to always need a packet of it when I hit the grocery store ~ so hopefully it will taste good when I season the roast this weekend.  BTW…I used crushed celery seed instead of the celery salt listed above.

And now friends, break time is over and I must go prettify these jars for gifting and clean my kitchen so I can do it all over again tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!