Too little time ........ too much to do.

I have spent the last two days, buried in the kitchen with lots of baking ingredients. Not that I was actually doing any baking!!! But I have created quite the mess!!!

First of all......... I love my co-workers. But I live a totally different lifestyle than they do. I personally think that eggs, sugar and flour are staples that everyone should have in their kitchen. Their staples ......... ramen noodles, Eggo's and Pop-Tarts. Hamburger Helper is a delicacy. So needless to say, making gifts for these gals is a struggle!!

I have come up with a few things............ but I KNOW the cookie-in-a-jar thing maybe a problem. After all, you cream butter with eggs and vanilla and add the mix. And they don't keep eggs or vanilla in their homes. But the cookie-in-the-jar is triple chocolate so there is a chance of them getting baked!!

Just for clarity ......... they are all over thirty. Two out of three have children. Don't get me started on dietary standards! Fortunately, they also don't read blogs! But they know ...... I just shake my head and say "Don't you feed me that crap after you put me in the old folks home!"

I did mix up 5 batches of an ultra-creamy cocoa mix. Little different recipe than most, as it uses cocoa rather than Nestle's Quick chocolate drink. Each batch does 2 quarts of mix.

4 cups non-fat dry milk
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup non-dairy creamer
2/3 cup cocoa
1 pkg of instant pudding .... I used chocolate fudge (fat-free/sugar-free.......... Yea. The diet starts Jan 1 ..... me and Oprah on the scale!)

And finally .... biscotti! I made a chocolate-white chocolate chip --dipped in white chocolate. Good ...... but not great. Great was the orange-cranberry biscotti dipped in dark chocolate. Good thing they are all packaged up or there would be more weight to lose come Jan. 1st!!!