Tomorrow is my last day of work before the holidays and I can’t wait!  I had my friend Vanessa over tonight and we made my favorite lemon bar recipe so she could share treats with people tomorrow.  I snuck a couple of pictures and will share them along with the recipe tomorrow, but until then, take a look at the sweet surprise I got at work today along with two of my other favorite ladies!  Aren’t they the cutest cupcakes ever?!?

These tasty things sure made the day better!!

Lemon bars are one of my favorite desserts and I think this recipe is one of the best!  If you want a super simple dish to make for any party this holiday this season, this should be it!    This is from the lovely Paula Deen, so you need to remember to totally ignore the ingredients.  Just remember that they taste delicious and don’t think about Paula and her butter! 😉  

The only tip/trick I will share is that I don’t use real lemon juice. I have tried it both ways and it never seems to turn out right with the real stuff…go figure…

Check out the recipe here!

The final treat Taryn and I made for work was chocolate bark and it probably turned out to be my favorite!  We made two different versions of this.  One with crushed candy canes and the other with chopped pistachios and cranberries.  It was such a simple dessert to make, but looked so beautiful and festive once it was done!

For each tray we used almost two full bags of chocolate chips – one of milk and one of semi-sweet.  By this point in the night we decided to microwave our batches of chocolate which works just as well as melting it on the stove-top.  I would recommend doing this in one minute intervals to be sure you are able to stir the chips enough.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, pour the chocolate on and add the treats!  

One good thing to do once you have put your treats on the melted chocolate…try to gently push the toppings down.  It helps to insure things really stay put once the chocolate is dry.  These should sit out to harden over night and even longer if you test a corner out and it doesn’t feel like it can break easily. 

So pretty, simple and delicious!