Avery enjoying some Thanksgiving dinner. The sparkling apple cider and cornbread were her favorites.

If you are wondering what I have been up too, I have been baking. 'Tis the season", right? Not all have been a success. First, I made brownies last week and forgot to add the water. Totally my fault, but sometimes it is hard to concentrate when you have a 2 1/4 foot tall little monster following you around and screaming at you for attention. Real fun! So yeah, I forgot the water and they were DRY! So dry that it hurt your jaw to chew them! Don't worry though, we made sure to eat all of them. Round # 2 of the brownie adventure was much better. Then, I tried fudge. I bought regular condensed milk rather than sweetened condensed milk. I thought, "oh no big deal". It is a big deal! Now I have a ton of chocolate goo that is not setting 24 hours later. BOO! But, the toffee I made is EXCELLENT! It sounds a little complicated, but really is easy and I did not use a candy thermometer.

White Chocolate Almond Toffee

• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut up
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• 12 ounces white chocolate chips
  

1. Line a 15x10x1" jelly-roll pan with non-stick foil,or spray regular foil with non-stick spray. In medium saucepan; heat butter, sugar, corn syrup, and 2 tbsp water. Heat over medium heat to melt butter. Increase heat to med-high and insert candy thermometer.
2. Cook mixture about 12 minutes until golden brown and temp reaches 300°F DO NOT STIR. Remove from heat and remove thermometer. Carefully stir in 1c. chopped almonds.
3. Quickly pour toffee onto prepared pan and spread to edges. Let stand in pan on a wire rack for 30mins.
4. Melt half of the chocolate in microwave on High for 45 seconds. Stir to smooth. Spread over top of cooled toffee. Refrigerate 20 minutes until firm.
5. Once bar is firm, flip over onto a piece of wax paper; remove foil. Microwave remaining chocolate on High 45 seconds and stir to smooth. Spread over toffee bar; sprinkle with remaining 1/4c. almonds. Use wax paper to slide toffee bar back onto baking pan. Refrigerate 20 more minutes.
6. Once chocolate is firm, break bar into 2.5" pieces. Store airtight at room temperature up to 1 month.

Our mini table top tree. Aka The Trailer Tree.

We tried to go see Santa yesterday, but Avery projectile vomited all over a restaurant and herself right before we had been planning on going. She was not sick, but kinda choked and had some OJ for the first time. Oooops. It smelt pretty horrible, but she is fine. She has been EXTRA grumpy lately. She cut tooth # 11. She has a total of 9 more teeth until she is completely finished teething. 1 incisor, 4 canines and 4 2 year molars. She has also come up with some new dance moves. I have been trying to get a video uploaded to FB, but our internet connection is VERY slow. We do not have much planned for the holidays as Sam is on call through Christmas. Sam's Mom and Step Dad are coming to visit for a couple days near Christmas and we are going to dinner Christmas day with some friends, but that is about it. The countdown to our Alaska trip has begun. T-48 days!