Peppermint Lovelies!

With the halls in the house official decked, now it's time to start adding the flavor of Christmas into the kitchen. I already had a package of easy "just add eggs and water" brownies at home, and I decided to see if I could spice those up a bit. It was a hit!

Take your basic brownie mix, and follow the "cake brownie" directions. Instead of baking them in a 8x8 or 9x13 pan, roll them into 1" round balls on a cookie sheet. Bake about six minutes--just long enough for the edges to set. Move immediately to a wire rack.Onto the icing! Now, I'll ease myself out of making brownies from scratch, but canned icing is just not my thing. Here's the easiest homemade icing ever--and it's tasty!

You'll need:
4 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 cup of milk
1 tsp of peppermint extract

**Start with 2 cups of sugar. Mix in the softened butter with the sugar, vanilla, milk and peppermint extract. Add the additional sugar until the icing has the right consistency.

Spoon icing on top of brownies/cookies. Sprinkle crushed peppermint on top of the cookies, and serve!

Enjoy these sweet treats!