Holiday Fun in the Kitchen

More and more I am finding that I have a growing passion for cooking, baking and just generally creating edible art in the kitchen. Today, I decided that I wanted to do something simple, easy and Christmas-y because I love the holidays. In most families, there are traditions for these times of the year but in my family, we didn't have those types of traditions. My endeavor is to compile some fun festive things to do each holiday, so that when my husband and I are blessed with little ones we may start some traditions of our own. 

For Thanksgiving, to take to my families house along with Green Bean Casserole and Cherry Pie, I made Chocolate Acorns! They were so easy to make and everyone loved them, especially my niece. So for Christmas, I thought I would make something just as pleasing to the eye and fun to eat. I call them "Holiday Lite Brites" pretty much for lack of a better name. Got a better one? Leave it in the comments for me please, I would be delighted to have something better. I decided to make them using the candy cane Hershey kisses and green M&M's for the Christmas effect. I plan to make more of a variety a day or so before Christmas. 

Here is how my Holiday Lite Brites turned out: 

Holiday Lite Brites

Ingredients

1 bag of waffle pretzels

1 or 2 bags of Hershey Kisses (regular, caramel, or festive candy cane)

  or you can use Rolos chocolate and caramel candies

1 or 2 bags M & M's (regular, or festive red & green only) 

it is better to only use the milk chocolate for this snack

1 roll of parchment paper (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 170 degrees.

Place parchment paper on baking pan. 

Place the desired amount of waffle pretzels on the baking pan.

Unwrap Hershey Kisses and place one atop of each waffle pretzel on the pan, 

then place the pan in the oven for 3 minutes (SET YOUR TIMER!!)

Remove the pan from the oven and quickly top each slightly melted kiss with one M&M.

Gently press down on the M&M to allow all three to adhere to each other.

Move the finished Holiday Lite Brites to a storage container or candy container to harden while you make more. You may store them in the fridge and they will harden much faster but they will lose their glossy appearance, especially if left uncovered.