The Prize

Gift Basket Prize (yes, that is green grass out the patio window - yay winter on Vancouver Island!)

The gift basket I won from the grocery store is shown above.  Hubby and stepdaughter were hoping for things like hot chocolate (stepdaughter is addicted), chocolate(both) and bath products(both). What we got were baking products - score for me!  The only bad thing about this basket?

About a billion calories. For anyone outside Canada Nanaimo bars (shown below) are one of the very best tasting squares you could ever hope for, created right here in the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island but famous across the country.  If you want to try them here is the recipe from allrecipes.com. I have never made them so it is nice to have a kit to do so.

Three kinds of chocolate chips including mint and one that has white chocolate and milk chocolate in swirls.   I had been wanting to make some chocolate chip cookies so one of these bags will likely get used this week.

Of course I saved the basket, paper grass, bag and ribbon for future use as part of the "No More Christmas Crap Campaign".  

Mom and I are planning a jam session (as in blackberry jam, not the musical kind lol) this Sunday to finally turn most of the frozen blackberries filling my freezer into jam.  Which reminds me, she has blackberry brandy brewing, might be time to break one of those open.  Next week - baking!  I will save some of this for the New Year however as had already planned to make sugar cookies and candied popcorn and one can only take so many sweets in the house.  Are you baking/cooking/creating any special treats this season?