Hickory Cheers

For all my readers that have been following the blog for a while, you know I’m committed to giving back to the military community. I had set out to find a website that sends goodies to deployed service members in honor of my birthday next month. As I was growing up I was taught that it’s more important to give than to receive. Last year instead of receiving gifts, I had friends and family donate to TFSP fund. It was an awesome idea and assisted with funding postage for letters and cards, care packages, and my Christmas special. I found one of my childhood favorites, Hickory Farms. As a child I used to sell gift baskets out of the HF catalog. I always begged my parents for the biggest basket because their gouda and sausage is the business. I thought it would be a sophisticated gift as well as one that would hold up for shipping. I purchased the summer sausage and cheese gift box.

The box includes..
2 10oz beef sausage
10oz smoked cheddar cheese
10oz farmhouse cheddar cheese
6oz smoked gouda
2.5oz honey & pineapple mustard
2.25oz sweet hot mustard

All that deliciousness for $40. Shipping is FREE to all military addresses! Hickory Farms is dedicated to giving back to the military as well. It’s so amazing for them to do that because shipping overseas is expensive. The website has examples of how to enter military addresses of different locations like APO, FPO, AE, AP, and AA. I thought it was super helpful because I would have been super confused. I can’t wait until the recipient receives the package. I’m looking into ones that deliver birthday cakes but haven’t found a good one yet. Anyone know of any good places?

Fail Sweetly,
Justina

raspberry jelly buttons

These cookies reminded me of the Knotts Berry Farm cookies I used to get after test taking in high school. They’re so delicious!! I made these with raspberry preserves and they were soooo good! I found the recipe on Never The Same Spice Twice. Stephanie’s grandma is amazing. This is her recipe 🙂

Raspberry Jelly Buttons (adapted from Never The Same Spice Twice)
4 sticks unsalted butter
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 egg yolks (my dad asked for the whites so I didn’t use them)
1 cup brown sugar
approx 1/2 cup raspberry preserves

– using a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar
– add in eggs one at a time and mix after each addition
– add in flour one cup at a time and mix
– refrigerate dough for about 30 minutes
– preheat oven to 350 degrees
– take dough out of fridge
– roll dough into small golf balls and place on silpat lined cookie sheets
– use your finger (I used a chopstick and my thumb but my thumb made the holes too big) to make a hole in the middle of the golf ball but don’t poke all the way through
– fill holes with raspberry preserve
– bake at 350 for about 20 minutes
– let cool and enjoy! 🙂

I actually made my golf balls too big and ended up with 48 cookies. The original recipe said you can get about 80-100 if you make them small so I guess I’ll try them with boysenberry preserve next time!

These were the batch where I used my thumb to make the hole. As you can tell, they were wayyyy too big. A chopstick worked perfectly for the second batch 🙂 THESE ARE SO GOOD!!! It’s funny how they remind me of high school and our STAR testing. My high school gives us snacks during STAR testing and they were always those Knotts Berry Farm cookies. To be honest, I think everyone looked forward to those cookies. These are going to be great as gifts for Lunar New Year. I opted for raspberry because it’s red and red is good luck in Chinese culture.

Fail Sweetly,
Justina

Project Give December Giveaway & Christmas Special

Originally I had a guest post planned and I was going to write a lengthy post but because time didn’t permit either, I’ll keep it short. It’s December! 🙂 It’s one of my favorite months of the year. Because Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, I’m doing a Christmas special in addition to the December giveaway. Here’s a twist..the December giveaway is open to EVERYONE. The Christmas special is open only to military spouses. Please read the links carefully below and enter in whichever applies to you! 🙂

Enter December Giveaway here
December giveaway includes..
A Cuisinart Waffle Maker

Enter Christmas Special for TODDLERS here

Toddler giveaway includes..
coloring book, crayons, twin pack elmo books, sticker book, Christmas snowflake glasses, fish card game, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container

Enter Christmas Special for YOUNG CHILDREN here

Young children giveaway includes..
washable finger paint, play doh, mini fishing game, crazy 8 card game, Christmas tree glasses, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 1 dvd, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container

Enter Christmas Special for PRE TEENS here

Preteen giveaway includes..
nail polish (blue, red, glitter pink), Pillsbury funfetti cookie mix, Pillsbury funfetti frosting, The Karate Kid dvd (Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan version), Despicable Me dvd, mini red and silver Christmas ornaments, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container

Enter Christmas Special for TEENS here

Teen giveaway includes..
ho ho ho! mini pillow, Marley & Me dvd, poker game cards, mini blue and silver Christmas ornaments, red and silver snowflake ornaments, Pillsbury funfetti brownie mix, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container

I’ve received emails about milspouse giveaways to spouses who don’t have blogs. The only reason I require the blog comment with a link to your blog is to ensure that you are indeed a military spouse. However, in light of the holidays..if a miltiary spouse wishes to enter in a giveaway but doesn’t have a blog than please email me asap so we could work something out. Thanks! 🙂

I will use rafflecopter to determine a winner. Only rafflecopter entries will be accepted. Please click on the links above. The winners will be announced next Monday at 8pm via my blog. The winners will have two days to contact me with their shipping information. If I have not been contacted within two days, another winner will be chosen.

Each giveaway will include a Cherish Every Moment bracelet and card to support The Dax Locke Foundation. Please consider making a donation and help Dax’s mom, Julie reach her goal of raising $1.8 million to run St. Jude’s hospital for one day in his honor.

Project Give will have a giveaway posted the first of every month. Good luck to everyone!

Fail Sweetly,
Justina

Project Give: Christmas Special

Hi all! Hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving full of happiness, family, friends, love, and of course food. I stuffed myself with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and cheesecake.

I’ve finalized my Christmas special for Project Give this year. I’m posting a few days before the giveaway begins to let military spouses know what’s in which giveaway. I tried my best to shop for the appropriate age group. And I also tried to have something for both genders and items that were gender neutral (if that even makes any sense). Everything in these giveaways are funded by me unless otherwise stated.

December Giveaway: Cuisinart Waffle Maker (it’s been featured on my blog during my waffle making frenzies)

Christmas Special:
Toddlers: coloring book, crayons, twin pack elmo books, sticker book, Christmas snowflake glasses, fish card game, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container
Young children: washable finger paint, play doh, mini fishing game, crazy 8 card game, Christmas tree glasses, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 1 dvd, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container
Preteens: nail polish (blue, red, glitter pink), Pillsbury funfetti cookie mix, Pillsbury funfetti frosting, The Karate Kid dvd (Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan version), Despicable Me dvd, mini red and silver Christmas ornaments, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container
Teens: ho ho ho! mini pillow, Marley & Me dvd, poker game cards, mini blue and silver Christmas ornaments, red and silver snowflake ornaments, Pillsbury funfetti brownie mix, & Christmas m&ms in a candy cane shaped plastic container

I will be posting several Rafflecopter links December 1st to kick off the Christmas special! 🙂 Stay tuned for more updates. Have fun shopping today! Or staying in and drinking hot chocolate/coffee like my sister did! 🙂

Fail Sweetly,
Justina

Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop

I made a pit stop to this candy store as I was in Pasadena to pick up some candy for the kids in my class. Last week we went to a park in Santa Ana for their pool day. After swimming, we were all gathered in a grass area for snack and we were attacked by hives of bees. A lot of kids got stung and two of them ended up hospitalized. I felt so bad and had trouble sleeping because I kept thinking about it. WTF man? Anyway, I thought this would cheer them up a bit. I went for the soda pop and got them some candy. The pop I got taste like a half and half bar and a orange dream machine from Jamba Juice.

They have some old school candy and bubble gum that I haven’t seen since I was like ten. I got soda pop, two packs of nerds, two laffy taffys, sweet tarts, sour punch chews, warhead chews, and bubble gum. The kids are going to go crazy when they see it 🙂 I’ll be back for more soda pop. They have a huge selection but I didn’t have time to look through everything.

On a side note, I also went to Pappa Rich and their raspberry iced tea is excellent. Strong flavors 🙂 Happy reading

Fail Sweetly,
Justina

Black & White Cupcake (Dots Cupcakes)

I’ve been making regular visits to Pasadena for cupcakes, soda pop, old school candy, ice cream floats, and etc. Dots Cupcakes has my favorite cupcake. I’m not a fan of black and white cupcakes except for the one at Dots. I don’t know what the heck they put in that icing but it’s so darn good. I’ve tried a lot of places to get the perfect cupcake such as ConFexion, Mrs Beasley, Sugar Fix, Sprinkles, Cake Mamas, and etc. None of them compare to this wonderful cupcake. I’m a simple person when it comes to sweets. You can wow me with a chocolate chip cookie. I LOVE good chocolate chip cookies. When it comes to cupcakes, I have the same mantra. Simple is best.

– L to R clockwise: cookies and cream, fleur de sel, tiramisu, strawberry shortcake, raspberry lemon, and chocolate mint
I bought some for my grandma because I was going to visit her after my sweets splurge. The black and white cupcake was $3 and regular size. The mini ones are $1.75 each. I’m kinda bummed that they raised their prices but I still love their cupcakes. The cookies and cream and chocolate mint are good too. I haven’t tried the rest. I heard the tiramisu one is good but I saved it for my auntie. See ya next time 🙂

Fail Sweetly,
Justina

s’more/hot cocoa gift bags

For Christmas I made simple goodie bags for my students. I’m not good at wrapping cello paper so I used Ziploc bags because they’re basic. I bought all the goodies because I was working and driving all over so I didn’t have time to bake them cookies and such. I bought regular and mini marshmallows, hot cocoa mix, graham crackers, and Hershey’s milk chocolate bars. I didn’t have time to take pictures because it was so last minute but the kids LOVED them! They kept jumping up and down and telling me I was the best aide ever..it was a crack up 🙂

S’more/Hot Cocoa Gift Bags (makes 12-14 bags):
4 packets of graham crackers (each packet has 9 big crackers)
2 bags regular marshmallows
1 bag mini marshmallows
2 boxes of hot cocoa mix (8 packets in each)
2 packs of Hershey’s milk chocolate bars (6 bars in each pack)

Each goodie bag consist of one hot cocoa packet, 3 graham crackers (6 crackers in total if you break them in half), 6 regular marshmallows, a handful of mini marshmallows, and one Hershey’s milk chocolate bar.

The mini marshmallows is for the hot cocoa pocket and the rest are for the s’mores. The kids were super excited because they’ve been writing about hot cocoa in their journals. The s’mores were an excellent touch because the kids had a blast trying to toast the marshmallows with a magnifying glass. I had to take the glass away..it was quite the rowdy party 🙂 Feel free to use cello wrap and the like! I was in a hurry and I didn’t have enough cello bags at home.

Fail Sweetly,
Justina