Menorah Light-Hanukkah Night 3

I promised you a pic of our set up and here it is....

The menorah on the left hand side we have had for a while, but the menorah on the right is brand new. They are both really pretty, though I think I'm partial to the older one. 

Hanukkah Info

So, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about when I say Hanukkah, here are some great articles that explain this wonderful Jewish holiday: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-hanukkah-2076477, http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/What-is-Hanukkah.htm. 

And no, I'm not Jewish; I am Messianic. This explains that concept: https://www.gotquestions.org/Messianic-Judaism.html.

Hope this helps. Tonight, I'll try to capture a pic of our menorahs with the candles lit.

And Yet Another Back Cover

So, you know how I told you that my front cover took me like 500-1,000 steps? So, my back cover apparently decided to carry over its predecessors traits. It took me that many steps and like eight different copies or so. You can see the final product if you go here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/chloe-st-clair/redemption/paperback/product-23451388.html.

And then, under the cover image click preview and click to the back. I think that it looks awesome.

PRINNNNT BOOOOOK is done.

If you want the print book, it is FINALLY done. You can get it here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/chloe-st-clair/redemption/paperback/product-23451388.html
 

REDO DEMPTION

If the title of this post doesn't explain itself, you may want to look at it a little harder. I have never done so many versions of one document in my life! It's amazing the differences between an ebook on one website and a print book on another. There are so many different stipulations and demands. I'm not kidding you when I say that in the life of this one document, it has been changed 50 times. And it feels like most of those have been in the last two months. I still have a ton of marketing to do. Very, very, very tired. 😒

Dreidels-Hanukkah Night 2

The two desserts that I made before still kind of have ties to Christmas, so to rectify that, I decided to do another dessert with ties to Hanukkah. I wanted to make these: https://www.ohnuts.com/blog/peanut-butter-fudge-dreidels-recipe/.

They were adorable, and looked and sounded delicious. I did half the fudge recipe and it was really good, though I made it a tiny bit too thin for the kisses and it was a little crumbly. So, I embarked on the journey of using candy dipping chocloate for the first time. It made a mess, but it was a lot fun. By the time I had finished dipping though, my dreidels had become mice. Ironic since we have a few of the real, and not nearly so delectable creatures, running about the house. I didn't add the pretzels, it would have looked even more mice-like.

The result was about 30 tailless mice that taste amazing. My granny, almost to the point of tears, said that the fudge tasted like her mom's. Made 12.13.17

  

Another First-Hanukkah Night 1

 

To me, this time of year screams peppermint and chocolate. I have always wanted to make peppermint bark and since it's Hanukkah, Mom is letting me get 'tons' of sugary items to make sweets. The recipe was fairly simple and tastes amazing. It's super rich though, so I would recommend smaller pieces (the ones pictured are still too big.). I even cut the recipe in half and it made about 25-30 bite sized pieces. Next time I'll probably use dark chocolate. Oh, and with the crushed peppermint pieces, I put them in a quart sized Ziploc bag and hit the individual candies with a hammer. It worked quite well. Here's the article if you want to check it out: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/185194/peppermint-bark/  Made 12.12.17.

Hanukkah Gingerbread House-(two days before Hanukkah)

The reasons why this gingerbread house took me so long:

1: It was my first time making a gingerbread house and I had to look up a lot of different how-to articles. I ended up using this article: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gingerbread-house-recipe-1963254 (I know it doesn't look anything like that, but hey, I tried.) Word to the wise, use another icing recipe or more sugar.

2: The icing required a ton of sugar and, even though I thought that I had enough, the icing wasn't thick enough. 

3: Liquidy icing equals falling walls. So when I went to assemble the roof and the walls and the doorway, they fell over again and again. Finally, I used tape dispensers to hold up the walls and that worked. Until...

4: I ended up using peanut butter to put the roof on, and its heaviness caused the walls to fall down.

5: Needless to say, I had to make the roof flat, though it did end up looking quite good.

So this project was frustrating from the start. It took me from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but, lucky for me the gingerbread and the icing both tasted fabulous. And those are pine trees, not Christmas trees. 😛 Made 12.10.17