Hidden inside these moist peanut butter muffins is a secret filling-your child’s favorite jelly.

Ingredients
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk or soy milk
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup strawberry, raspberry or grape jelly

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12 muffin tin with muffin papers. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, mix the peanut butter with the egg. Add the milk, a little at a time, then mix in the butter. Pour the wet batter into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. The batter will be stiff.
Put a heaping tablespoon of batter in the bottom of each muffin cup. Use a finger to make an indentation in the center and put a teaspoon of jelly in the hole. Cover with another heaping tablespoon of batter or enough to fill each cup about 2/3 full. Spread the batter gently until no jelly is visible. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the muffins onto a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes. Be careful: the jelly centers can get hot. Makes 12 muffins.

Your kids (and maybe even you!) will enjoy the opportunity to smash (I mean crush) the cookies – either into crumbs or coarse chunks.

32 chocolate chip cookies, divided
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1-1/3 cups water
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
½ cup tofutti sour cream
½ cup coconut
¼ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine, melted

Coarsely chop 20 cookies; finely crush the remainder. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix, water, oil and eggs until no lumps remain. Stir in tofutti sour cream and the coarsely chopped cookies. Pour batter into greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Mix cookie crumbs, coconut, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted margarine. Sprinkle over cake batter. Bake for 40 minutes.

What you will need:

Wooden skewers
Winkies candies or thin pretzel sticks
3 x 5 inch plastic bags
Pipe cleaners or ribbon
Marshmallows
Edible markers
Rice Krispie Treats (recipe follows)
Hamentaschen (for recipe see holiday section or store bought are fine)
Glue gun (use with adult supervision)

Color facial features on the marshmallows (this is an edible Haman so its okay to do angry mean faces if you like)
Cut rice krispie treats in rectangles (these will be for Haman’s body). Take one wooden skewer and push it through the bottom center of the base of one plastic bag. Next skewer the rice krispie treat vertically in the bag so the body has the long side up. Add the marshmallow head to the top of the rice krispie treat and then add the hamentaschen as Haman’s hat on the top of the head.

Gather the plastic bag over the hamentaschen hat and secure with a pipe cleaner or a ribbon.
Now add the arms and the legs. If you use thin pretzel sticks, poke them through the plastic bag and into the rice krispie treat for arms and legs. If you use the winkies, heat up the glue gun and put a small amount of glue on the plastic bag and secure the winkies on the glue for arms and legs.

Rice Krispie Treats

3 Tablespoons margarine
10 ounces marshmallows
6 cups rice krispie cereal

Heat margarine and marshmallows until melted.

Add rice krispie cereal and turn off the heat. Quickly stir the cereal into the marshmallow mixture. Press into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan with waxed paper. Allow at least 30 minutes to cool. Cut and serve.

by Sara Rivka Dahan at www.creativejewishmom.com

These gorgeous pomanders are an amazing winter project! They’ll fill your home with the most delicious aroma of orange-scented cloves and you can make them without a huge investment of time. Sit down with the kids, or a friend, and make some together, that’s what I did! Even my 4.5 year old had great success with this project, with Mom only filling in a few holes at the end.

As far as displaying your works of art, well traditionally pomanders were hung, which you can certainly choose to do, or why not display them individually atop candlesticks and placed in footed goblets. Or how about making a whole bunch and filling a cupcake stand for a special occasion. Wow!

You’ll Need:

* oranges(or any citrus fruit except tangerines and mandarine oranges, their skin is too thin)
* whole cloves (make sure you have enough, at least 2 grocery store spice containers full, you don’t want to run out mid project!)
* star anise for a beautiful accent (optional, probably only available in a specialty spice shop)
* ribbon— either gorgeous metallic for an elegant look, or colorful for a more festive look
* tape — either electric tape or masking tape, in a few widths, or cut tape to desired width

How To:

Step 1: Place tape on orange to define areas, as shown

Step 2: Place cloves one next to another, using the tape as a guide. One row of cloves defining every area is really enough, though you can choose to add more if you like, or fill in entire areas. Just remember, it’s wiser to spend time making a nice simple collection of pomanders than to invest lots of time in one (in my humble opinion).

Step 3: Remove the tape and place ribbon in its place. Tie with a bow or a knot, whichever suites your style. I used wired ribbon so I was able to shape the ends nicely.

Almost all kids love pizza. I think my son would be happy if I made it every night for dinner! (Or bought it every night which would certainly make my life easier) So what could possibly be better than a dessert pizza made with that favorite of kid’s desserts – chocolate chip cookies!

1 package Duncan Hines or Gefen chocolate chip cookie mix (or even frozen cookies to be squished down into a 12-inch pizza pan)

Icing:
½ cup tofutti cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup margarine, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla

Toppings (choose 3-4):
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup coconut
1 cup any pareve chocolate candy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cookie mix according to package directions and spread in lightly greased pizza pan. Bake until lightly browned. Cool. Beat together icing ingredients on high speed until well mixed. Spread across cooled “pizza”. Add toppings of your choice (Have your kids do this step for sure!)

Kids will think these are fun just because they have soda in the recipe! And because they taste so good! And if you let them spray on the whipped cream!

½ cup margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 cup root bear
1 (8.8 ounce) can non-dairy whipped topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together margarine and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Combine all dry ingredients and add to mixture on low speed alternating with the root beer. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Fill paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Spray whipped cream on top of each cup cake and refrigerate.

Popcorn is one of our favorite crunchy, sweet, and salty treats. These are some of our family favorites. Although easy to make, children should not prepare these without adult supervision while cooking.
Sweet and Salty Popcorn
Praline Popcorn
Pizza Flavored Popcorn

Sweet and Salty Popcorn
It’s amazing what a little good old-fashioned white sugar can do for a bowl of popcorn! Enjoy!
Ingredients:

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn

3 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil for popping

Directions:
Heat oil in medium sized pan until hot.
Add popcorn and sprinkle all of the sugar and salt over it. Cover and shake continuously until popped.

Praline Popcorn
Ingredients:

12 cups popped popcorn 

1 cup firm-pack brown sugar 

1/2 cup margarine 

1/4 cup honey 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

1 cup pecan halves

Directions:
Place popcorn in greased 15 x 10-inch baking pan.
In a 1-1/2 quart saucepan, combine brown sugar, margarine and honey. Cook over medium heat until boiling, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
Continue cooking at a gentle boil for five minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in baking soda and vanilla. Slowly pour mixture over popped corn. Add pecans and stir gently until pecans and popcorn are evenly coated.
Bake at 300-degrees for 15 minutes.
Stir and bake five minutes more. Turn out on waxed paper. Cool, break into chunks and store in tightly covered container.

Pizza Flavored Popcorn
Ingredients:

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 

1 teaspoon garlic powder 

1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning

1 teaspoon paprika 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

Dash pepper 

2 quarts hot popcorn

Directions:
In blender, blend cheese, garlic powder, italian seasoning, paprika, salt and pepper about three minutes.
Place popcorn in large bowl; sprinkle with cheese mixture.
Toss ingredients gently to coat evenly.

Did you know that people in New England eat more ice cream per capita than in the rest of the country? This proves that ice cream is not only a warm weather treat. Try these easy almond-coated ice cream balls with your kids; they’ll forget the snow…

1 cup chopped toasted almonds or pecans or if your kids would strongly prefer, colored sprinkles
1 quart vanilla ice cream

Place almonds or sprinkles in a shallow dish. Scoop out ice cream and shape into balls. Roll in topping until well coated. Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet and freeze.

Hot Fudge Sauce

1-1/2 cups Rich’s whip, defrosted
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup margarine, cut into pieces
2 cups powdered sugar

Combine the whip, chocolate chips and margarine in a saucepan. Cook, stirring, over low heat until smooth. Add powdered sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Serve hot or cold over ice cream balls. Yum!

We had our first snowstorm last week and after a Sunday afternoon outside, my daughter was inspired to make up this recipe. They came out looking just like the title but tasting like a luscious meringue cookie with a hint of chocolate. She was very proud to share this with you.

3 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounces chocolate, sliced into thin shavings (or ¼ cup chocolate sprinkles)

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar, 2 Tablespoons at a time, beating 2 – 4 minutes until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves. Beat in vanilla extract. Fold in chocolate shavings.

Scoop batter into small round balls and place on the cookie sheet (make each one about 1 ½ inches in diameter).
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Immediately turn off the oven and let the cookies stay in the oven overnight to completely dry.
Store in airtight container.