Starlight Mint Platter and What's Cookin at My House

I've seen variations of this holiday craft floating around Pinterest for the last couple of years. And I've wanted to try it for just about as long. I worried that the candy would melt in a runny, disgusting, takes forever to scrape off the cookie sheet kind of way, or that it would burn and be unsightly. Since I promised to be your guinea pig and report only crafts that work well, I knew I had to attempt this platter. 

It's on the Craft Fail blog, this craft. People complain of burnt candy, weird melty messes. So you can see why I was reluctant. Still, it's so darn cute if it actually turns out right. I couldn't resist the challege. 

I set my oven to 350F, arranged my mints, and off I went. 


Starlight Mint Platter (link)

total time spent: 5 minutes to assemble platter, 6 minutes (about) per platter baking time
cost to me: $1 per platter (already had the parchment and cookie sheet)
craftiness level: beginner

See the link above for full directions, but I have a few tips to help make this craft successful for you:

• space your mints 1/4" apart or less, but not touching. Don't use a ruler, just eyeball it. 
  
• don't worry about slightly larger spaces. The mints will fill in the gaps. 
• keep an eye on your mints. At five minutes, mine looked like this:    
  
  
  and at six, they were done: 

The candy is soft enough when you remove it from the oven that you could drap it over a bowl and shape it into a candy dish, if you wanted to. Just be careful, because it's really hot. 

I'm happy with my platter. I plan to make a couple more later today. 

Now, onto my menu plan. 

Thanksgiving is behind us. Time to get back to healthy eating and shed some of this extra weight I've been carrying around for far too long. This is a busy week for me. I have to make a trip to Vilseck, which is an hour away. I won a gift basket at their thrift shop on Black Friday (oh, PS: Black Friday shopping next year, try your local thrift shops. You may find yourself amazed at the deals!) and we have a few get-togethers to attend. I plan to bring healthy foods along with me to these get-togethers so that I can stay on track. One of them asks participants to bring a soup and dessert to share. Easy enough to make those items I can enjoy! 

I'm also adding a weekly healthy habit to my routine. Today will be the fifth day of my "take a walk every day" habit. In a couple more days, I'm adding "track my water intake" to make sure I drink enough water. I think I do, but I'm going to track it to be sure. 

Many of my meals are links. I don't know why Blogger isn't distinguishing them as links, but if you click on them, they're links. So if you want a recipe that you see here, try clicking on the recipe's name. It's likely a link. Blogger is just being strange as usual. 

Monday

Breakfast coffee as I type this up
Lunch green vegetable minestrone and a fruit smoothie
Dinner chicken pot pie
Snack roasted chickpeas

Tuesday

Breakfast warm cinnamon raisin quinoa
Lunch leftovers
Dinner pan-fried chicken, mashed sweet potato, cole slaw
Snack bacon jalapeno deviled eggs

Wednesday

Breakfast scotch eggs
Lunch eggs scrambled with meats and veggies
Dinner orange chicken and veggie stir-fry
Snack blueberry tarts

Thursday

Breakfast egg white bites
Lunch leftovers
Dinner crock pot creamy Italian chicken tomato soup
Snack chunky candy

Friday

Breakfast raspberry almond quinoa
Lunch meatloaf and roasted broccoli
Dinner chicken piccata, peas and carrots
Snack guacamole deviled eggs (minus the cilantro. I am in the "cilantro tastes like soap" club.)

Saturday

Breakfast pancakes and scrambled eggs
Lunch chili 
Dinner Hungarian goulash
Snack coconut cinnamon apples

Sunday

Breakfast eggs and bacon
Lunch leftovers
Dinner pulled pork waffle sliders , cole slaw with homemade mayo, and sweet potato fries
Snack gluten-free gingerbread cookies (recipe to come next week)