Visiting Guests and Bringing Treats

As I said in a recent post, we will be visiting our great friends this weekend. We love going up there, it is nice to hang out and just let the kids play. However, when we stay there, we eat all our meals in and hang and graze most of the day. Even though we reciprocate when they come to visit, I hate showing up empty handed.

As her kids also have food allergies, one reason I think we are so close, these recipes are all egg, dairy, treenut and peanut free. The fudge is also wheat free.

So this is what I will be bringing with us to enjoy a day of watching Christmas movies, doing Christmas crafts and anything else Christmas that we can think of.

This may not look like much, but it is delicious. I got the original recipe from my sister, who got it from a coworker. All you do is take a store bought cake mix, I used a yellow mix. And then take a can of diet lemon-lime pop and mix together. Bake according to the directions on the cake box, it is that simple. However, my husband had an idea to take the yellow cake and mix it with a diet can of orange pop. So that is what this is, and you know what? It tastes like a creamsicle! It tastes like an orange and vanilla creamsickle, it is so good.

I also made these chocolate chip cookies. This was a new recipe for me and I did it as is, however I am thinking I will have to tweek the recipe as it didn't come out as soft and chewy as we like our cookies. But these too are delicious and are better for travel as they stay together much better than my other recipe.

I also made my pumpkin muffin recipe here, but this time I put it into two loaf pans and baked them for 55 minutes. My almost 9 month old LOVES this stuff. He can really shove it in!

Finally, I made some fudge. It isn't as solid as other fudges, but it is super tasty. And my daughter with food alergies loves it, which is the whole point. Here is the recipe.

3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

dash of cinnamon

1/2 cup milk free margerine

1/4 cup vanilla soy or rice milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

Line an 8 x 8 inch pan with wax paper. In a bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the margerine and rice/soy milk to a boil. Turn off and remove from heat. Combine with the sugar mixure and mix well. Pour into the pan and refrigerate for atleast an hour, or until it sets. It doesn't taste like traditional chocolate fudge, but it is very tasty and gives my little one another special treat to share.

So that is it, we have a weekend of spending time with great friends, making crafts, sitting around a bonfire and just enjoying our families. We are so looking forward to it.