Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookie recipe

i had a friend from college email me last night looking for this recipe....i found it and instead of just emailing it to her, i'm going to share it with ALL of you!  here ya go...

1 C flour

1/2 C + 1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 C + 1 tbs brown sugar

1/2 C + 1 tbs sugar

6 tbs soft butter

1/2 t cinnamon

generous pinch of: black pepper and cayenne pepper (yep, you read this right!!)

1 t vanilla

1/2 overripe banana (i used an applesauce cup last year)

heat your oven to 350 degrees

(ewww, picture before we painted the cabinets and got rid of the purple plastic counter tops!)

combine: flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt- mix with a whisk and set aside.

combine sugars, mix well.

in a separate bowl beat butter till creamy and add sugars, cinnamon, peppers and vanilla. beat on high for 1 min. now beat in the banana.

add the flour mixture and beat on low just until it's incorporated. 

role into 1 inch balls and put on a greased cooking sheet.

bake 12-14 min.

get ready for some spicy goodness!!! (makes approx 16 cookies)

DIY Christmas mirror ornaments

darling and i made these the other night...AT night.... hence, the really icky pictures!  but, disregard the pics and make the easy-peasy ornaments!

Here's what you need:

✪ package of mirrors (easy to find at places like hobby lobby!). for every 2 mirrors, you'll get 1 ornament. the bigger mirrors can be heavy, so if you have a REAL tree (like we do this year) make sure they're not so heavy they pull down your branches.  though hard to believe, i had a whole lunch meat container FULL of different sized mirrors (don't worry, the turkey was gone).

✪ E-6000 glue (hot glue is not good for this craft!)

✪ silver string or fishline or whatever you want to use (we used some silver elastic string)

1.  put some E-6000 on the back of 1 mirror (this stuff smells NASTY)

 2. put a loop down into the glue, smear it around a little to make sure the string gets nice and gluey.

 3. stick the other mirror on and press GENTLY! be a little careful, these ARE glass!  gosh, do i even have to say that? you're smart!! just like those tubes of cream for vaginal yeast infections that warn you not to eat the stuff!  thankfully, they say that as i've often contemplated using it as toothpaste! geesh....

 4. hang on tree!  i find that more is more and more is better in the case of mirror ornaments! i say add so many that people feel like they need a polyester jumpsuit and ABBA playing!

~Merry Christmas~

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!!!!

lawwwwd..... it's glittery up in here!! 

 thankfully, i have been up to my eyeballs in paint and glitter! i've been doing pretty well with my initial ornaments and have been painting, glittering, packing and shipping!

(yes, i blurred her address, i don't have some freaky pen!) 

 Whewww....

i have pre-painted letters that are READY to go, or i can do a custom letter/letters for you! just go HERE: chinamommy on etsy

i'm not just doing letters, here's a peek into my glittery studio

yes, i have found glitter in my mouth, yes, i have found glitter in my eye and no, i will NOT mention the other places it's creeped into....cough, cough!

come on back tomorrow for an easy DIY mirror ornament tutorial. seriously, i'm going to write it now so i don't forget....

~Merry Christmas~