Last Thursday I took you through part 1 of my holiday happies – Adventures in Soap. Today is all about part 2 – the other half of my holiday happies for friends and families – I’m talking about the Bark part. The Peppermint Bark part.

My dear friend, Sara, so graciously opened her kitchen to me this past Saturday (brave, brave move on her part) and we set out to dominate Paula Deen’s recipe for Peppermint Bark. It seemed easy enough and after Sara told me exactly how many boxes of candy canes and how much chocolate I needed to buy (her first real inclination just how lost I am in kitchen related situations), I was ready to give Paula a run for her money.

First step was unwrapping all the candy canes. *good thing we had an extra helper for this one, thanks Claire! Next up was my kind of cooking step…taking a hammer to the bag to crush the candy canes. I’m a firm believer that any recipe which calls for the use of a hammer is A-Ok in my book! I started hammering away (hammer in one hand, glass of champagne in the other – somehow Paula missed that ingredient) and just to make sure they were all broken up enough Sara put the pieces in her food processor for one last cut.

While I was getting the candy canes going, Sara was working her magic with the white chocolate chips. We didn’t have a double boiler to melt the chocolate, so when in doubt – microwave it out! When the candy canes were chopped and the chocolate melted, it was as easy as mixing them together and spreading it out on wax paper to harden.

After an hour in the refrigerator, and a few more sips of champagne for us, the peppermint bark was ready to be broken into little pieces to fit my mason jars. (I didn’t really take a bite out of the whole piece of bark. Just for kicks, of course.)

After only a few short minutes of snapping the bark up, part #2 of my holiday happies was officially complete!

*Champagne not included in holiday happies but highly recommended! ;)

And there you have it! Maybe two hours max time investment and I walked away with 12 tiny mason jars filled with peppermint bark and an extra bag to fill more jars when I got home. I had no clue it was so easy to make such a tasty little treat!

Quite the nice pairing with my Soap Bars for lovely holiday happies – leaving my piggy bank still intact. I think I could really get the hang of this whole being crafty situation. I love giving anything but there’s something about giving something you made …. that makes the giving part even better. Am I turning a new leaf?! Oh dear. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on that one. Still waitin on that phone call from Martha, but I’m sure she’ll come around eventually.

A very big { THANK YOU } to my dear friend, fellow Sassy Steel Magnolia, and office partner in crime, Sara for opening her kitchen, being so patient, and helping me through my Adventures in Bark!!

*And for always knowing when I can’t make it to Starbucks and having one sitting on my desk when I get there. (I swear she has ESP when it comes to that!)

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You can still enter {Stocking Stuffer Give Away #2} & snag a bag of Anne Taintor goodies, just for you!