Tiny pies and cholcolate spoons

For those of you who still have last minute Christmas shopping to do or baking, I have some ideas. Yesterday I realized I had another Christmas party to go to and no gift to bring for the gift exchange. So I loaded up the kids and headed to the dollar store, picked up some coffee cups, marshmallows, plastic spoons and wax paper. The gift exchange is for gifts under $5 the cups were only a dollar each. I already had some supplies on hand at home like, chocolate chips, m &m's, celophane bags, pepermint candies and hot chocolate. To make the spoons you take the chocolate chips and melt them in the microwave, it doesnt take long. Dip the spoon in the chocolate so the part you eat off of is covered. You can either leave it plain or dip it in assorted toppings.

 My boys loved to crush the candies with the hammer and they also loved to decorate the spoons. When you get your toppings on, place the spoons on the wax paper so they can dry. When dry I put mine in a ziploc bag and put them in the fridge. I put the celophane bag in the coffe cup and then placed two packages of hot chocolate in it and added small cookies, two spoons and some candies for the kid cups. Here's the finished product, looks like a good gift to me and the leftover spoons are awesome in my coffee this morning. On the left is the kids cup and the right is the adult cup.


Tiny pies
I have lots of jam and jelly left so this is a good way to use up your canned goods. You can either make or buy pie crusts, I chose to buy this time because Im in a time crunch. Lay the dough out on a lightly floured surface and using a circle cookie cutter (biscuit cutter or coffee up), cut out lots of circles, place a 1/4 tsp or so of jam or jelly in the center and some butter (because who doesnt like butter?)


Fold the circle in half and with a fork press the edges together, make tiny holes in the top too. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake until lightly browned on top. I think I have my oven on 375 to 400. Cool on rack and enjoy! These are messy to make if you are like me and insist on putting too much jelly in the pies. I used blackberry jelly and apple preserves, I wanted to use pear honey but I found out that it is too runny and squishes out the sides easily.