Happy Day

Today was a great day for Maddie. She received a package in the mail from her friend Nate. It was addressed to her c/o Mike and inside she found TWO empty peanut butter jars! Not only that, but there was a heart shaped valentine message just for her. What a lucky dog! I guess it's true, it's who you know that matters.

I'm going to post my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe today. Heather loves the monster cookies, but this is my favorite. This comes from a super hero tv food network idol who's initials are P.D. I love many of her recipes, but this one rocks! I use an ice cream scoop to measure them out and then flatten them down just a bit to help them bake more evenly. They are beautiful and good.

THREE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

1 C (2 Sticks ) Butter
1/2 C vegetable shortening (crisco)
3/4 C sugar
1 3/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 3/4 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 12 oz package semisweet chocolate morsels
1 C milk chocolate morsels
3 (1-oz) squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 C almond brickle chips

Preheat oven to 375*. Lightly grease baking sheets or use parchment paper.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and shortening at medium speed until creamy; gradually add sugars, beating until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in chocolate morsels and almond brickle chips. Drop cookies by 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11 or 12 min, or until lightly browned. Let cool 2 min on baking sheets. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Sunday without the sun

It is very cold again today. I promise to not take for granted any future days that have sunshine, and temps over 50* for the rest of my life! Who am I to question God and his gift of a new day, even if it is cold?!?

I'd like to apologize for past, present and future spelling errors on this blog. I tend to type very quickly and my spell check does not work. It could have something to do with the fact that my iMac is really old and often the OS (operating system) doesn't jive with all of the programs I want to run. Any way, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I'm headed to our mall today for a book fair for the children in our community. Our church has a booth and I'm going to hang out for a couple of hours to see how many of my students (present and past) I can see. While I'm there, I might have to check out purses since that is another love of mine. Heather inherited that gene from her mum :-).

I looked at the past recipes and tallied how many desserts, main courses, & appetizers I had posted. Much to my surprise appetizers are dead last - and I really enjoy them! Today I will start to even things out with a recipe that you can keep in the freezer and then pop as many as you want in the oven for surpise guests, or just for yourself.

LITTLE CRABBIES

1 stick of butter
1 jar Old English cheese spread
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp mayo
1/2 tsp Accent
7 oz can crab meat
6 English muffins

Mix together butter, cheese, mayo, seasonings and crab meat. Spread this on the english muffins that have been split apart - so now you have 12 little muffins. Cut each circle into four pieces, then put them in the freezer until you are ready to bake them. Layer them with wax or parchment paper to keep them from sticking to each other.

Bake @400* for 20 min.

This recipe comes from my friend Ann, one of my card club buddies. You can't even imagine all of the fabulous food when we have cards once a month. I really think we should call it foodies anonymous.

Now this really is a bonus day, because I'm going to add a 2nd appetizer recipe. Yes, that's right..two for the price of one!

SNACK MIX

1 box Quaker oatmeal squares cereal (not the cinnamon flavor)
1 box Wheatables original crackers
1 jar dry roasted peanuts
1 bag pretzels
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
3/4 C vegetable oil

Combine the oatmeal squares, crackers, peanuts and pretzels in a large oven proof pan. Mix together the ranch powder and oil. Pour over the cereal mixture and bake in a 250* oven for 20 min. stirring a couple of times while it bakes. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

This recipe always reminds me of Heather playing high school fast pitch softball, we took it to every game and shared it with our friend Dean. We probably had more fun there than she did ;)
TTFN!

COLD cold cold

This has been a true midwest winter, SO cold and a lot of snow! When I was a kid we had snow waist high and that was the norm, then we went through several years where there was hardly any snow...and we became spoiled. It's important to have other things to focus on to get through the winter meanies.

Friday at school we made a very cute art project, the children painted penguins. It's a blast to see how different they all turn out even though each child was given the same prompt. I forgot my camera in the morning, but I caught the afternoon kids in this photo. Don't you love it!?! I think that painting is one of thier very favorite projects, I really should do it more often.

Last night we went out for supper with some friends and then came home to watch a movie. Tonight we plan to support the local highschool boys basketball team that will be playing an old familiar rival. Sometime before the game I'm going to get into the kitchen and make a wonderful recipe that can be used for dessert or as a coffee cake type pastry. I've made this for more years than I care to admit, but every time I take it somewhere I always get requests for the recipe...mostly from men.

CRESCENT CREAM CHEESE BARS

2 pkg. crescent rolls (pop-n-fresh type)
2 - 8 oz. cream cheese - soften
1 egg
1 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
cinnamon sugar (approximately 4 tsp. sugar to 1 tsp. cinnamon)
chopped nuts (pecan or walnut)

Mix the cheese, sugar, egg & vanilla with a mixer until smooth. In a greased 9x13 pan spread the first package of crescent rolls and pinch the seams together. Cover the crescent rolls with cheese mixture and top with the other package of crescent rolls.

Bake at 350* for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture and chopped nuts. Return to the oven and bake an additional 25 min. Cool completely before cutting, and store in the refrigerator.

Use your dicression when sprinkling on the cinnamon sugar, see what looks right. It needs to cover the top but doesn't have to be terribly thick. Also use the amount of nuts that you prefer.

This recipe was one I found in a church cookbook from Milwaukee. You've got to love those church cookbooks, they are the BEST!

Have a happy Saturday.

Ash Wednesday

It's really hard to believe that the season of Lent is already here. Tonight our choir at church served a supper before the service, the first of several weeks to come. There was a nice crowd...maybe 160 ish, it's always so wonderful to have visitors and fill up the pews almost to the front! After all, at our church the back rows always fill up before the front (ha-ha).

I love getting home at the end of the day and kicking my feet up. This winter has been so cold that it's very easy to become an introvert - good thing I have my blog?!?

Today at school we made coffee can ice cream. We have been learning what effect salt has on ice, and so to demonstrate it in a fun way we made ice cream. The kids were very impressed! Here is the recipe I sent home with the little people.

COFFEE CAN ICE CREAM

You will neeed two clean coffee cans with lids, one of them the 13 oz size and the bigger one the 39 oz size. I'm pretty sure on those sizes, but if I'm off a bit, you get the idea.

In the smaller can pour in:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup half & half
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt
Put the lid on tightly, you may want to reinforce it with some heavy duty tape wrapped around a few times. Shake well to mix up the ingredients, and place it into the larger can and pour ice in pushing it down between the two cans almost to the top. Now add 1 cup of rock salt. Place the lid from the large can on snug as a bug and get ready to roll!

In my classroom we take turns, two kids at a time rolling the can back and forth for 2-3 minutes until you have rolled it for 20 minutes. When you take the small can out of the large can you are going to find ice cream just like Dairy Queen soft serve! It may still be a bit too soft, so just pop it in the freezer for about a half hour. It's great!

There are variables to this recipe. Some use heavy duty zipper bags and give individual ingredient amounts, some have you roll it back and forth with a blanket or large towel doing a teeter totter move, yada-yada. Just Google coffee can ice cream and you'll find more information than you ever wanted.

It's time for me to find a warm blanket and call it a day. As my friend Shannon would say, tatafornow!

Deep in thought (about eggs?)

This is one of my favorite pictures! It's my dad and my dog, both very important to me. Don't they look like they are concentrating on something important?

My parents say that they have a rent a dog, when we go places they come over and "dog sit" miss madelyn. She loves them very much, it doesn't hurt that they bring her biscuits when they visit!

My dad likes to cook, he often puts together stews, soups, etc... in the slow cooker. He is very conscious of his health and what he can and cannot have. Often when I make something that may not be good for him he'll tell me, "My Dr. tells me I don't like that." He has a lot of will power, that's for sure. I guess that's how you get to be 86 years old and stay so active.

Mom & Dad go to the "office" every day for coffee. Actually the office is Target, they have a favorite booth where their friends all know they can find them. It's such a great social spot for them, and everyone knows them there. They are also able to get in their laps with their mall walker friends. Whatever they are doing it's working! Thank you God for family.

My recipe today is a fun way to make omelets for a crowd. Each person can add whatever ingredients they like, and it's a real time saver. Check it out!

ZIPPY OMELETS

Quart size Ziploc freezer bags, permanent marker, eggs, and a variety of ingredients for your omelets like cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, tomato, hashbrowns, salsa, etc...

Have each person write their name on a bag. Crack 2 eggs (no more) into each bag and shake it up. Then add in their choice of ingredients and mush it around again. Get all of the air out of the bag and zip it up.

Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot. For more, make another pot of water.

When finished boiling just open the bag and the omelet will roll right out. Watch out for steam. This is a great way for everyone to get their eggs at the same time exactly the way they want them, truly amazing! This originated as a camping recipe back in the day... hope you like it.

This is a PS to my earlier post. Some of you reading this will

understand this photo, if not...that's OK. We'll call this a

Kristin - Howie moment.

Three BIG days...

Sometimes there are so many things going on in one weekend, and other times there's nothing on the calendar. The last few days were full of friends and family.

Friday night we said goodbye to a wonderful family/friends - Howie, Leslie, Tim and Rachel. They are moving to Idaho and we will certainly miss them. A group of us got together to send them off, it was a really fun evening. We shared a lot of memories & stories and most of us left with a lump in our throat. We do know however, that the new home and people they are going to will be blessed beyond belief to have them in their midst.

Another bonus - the biggest one actually, was the fact that my girl Heather was home for a couple of days. We had so much fun hanging out, and she got to catch up with some friends that don't get to see her very often.

Last night was our card club night, always too many laughs to even try to remember them all. We played 10 pt pitch between practical jokes.

Today we are headed to Miles & Shannon's house for the Superbowl. It doesn't seem so super since our Packers are nt in it, but we'll make the best of it. Here is my game day pick for today's recipe.

LITTLE SMOKIES

1# package of bacon

1 package of smokies

1 C brown sugar

Wrap each smokie in a piece of bacon, I usually cut each slice into 3-4 pieces so that the bacon isn't wrapped so thick, this allows it to get crispier. Secure each one with a toothpick. Place them on a foil lined baking sheet, leaving some room in between each one. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and bake @ 375* for 35 minutes. Check on them to see if the bacon is crisp, but don't let them get too dark on the bottom. You can keep them warm in a crock pot if taking them to something like.....a superbowl party!

Have fun, whoever you are cheering for!