Hello Paula!

Paula Deen just makes my heart swell!! Along with my fat cells and my health issues LOL! While I adore and love Ms Paula Deen I try not to ever eat any of her recipes. I'm not kidding myself I know her food is delicious but absolutely horrible for you. And with my renewed effort in losing weight (watch out 2011 I'm kicking my butt) I really don't ever look at any of her recipes. But for baking day with my Mom and Seester I found a great new recipe that did indeed belong to Paula. I thought why not? I'm not going to be cooking or baking with her at all next year I might as well give it shot. So I made her Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies...now doesn't that just sound so healthy??

You only need a few ingredients, which is always nice, - Powdered Sugar, an egg, butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and a moist chocolate cake mix.

First you cream together the butter and cream cheese, then you add in your egg, vanilla, and cake mix. Beat well and then refrigerate for 2 hours. The batter looked delish!!

After two hours in the fridge you roll them into 1 inch balls and roll in powdered sugar. Then place on a cookie sheet and pop in the oven.

And out they come looking like crinkles but tasting oh so much better! Don't get me wrong I like chocolate crinkles but these heavenly chocolate cookies are so much better. I don't know if its the cream cheese or what but these were amazing!!

These were so amazing the my Mom pondered what it'd taste like with a different cake mix. We decided to give it a whirl and tried it with a lemon cake mix. Can you say AMAZING!! I can, in fact I can shout it from the roof if you want! These lemon cookies are so good! They are light and fluffy but with the perfect amount of lemon. I give this recipe 4 thumbs up...oh yes it's worthy of two sets of hands!

I also tried them out with Strawberry Mix and Funfetti! Check it out!

The funfetti ones were really yummy!

The strawberry cookies not so much! They just were too moist and I even cooked them a lot longer than I was supposed to! But that's okay you can't win them all!

It seems like you can't go wrong with this recipe and I am so happy I came across. A BIG HUGE THANK YOU TO THE BUTTER QUEEN PAULA DEEN!! You have now provided us with a new cookie recipe to make each year!

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney With Care

I am happy to report our Stocking Holders have finally arrived! They have screwed up our mantel decor but that's okay. I think they are so cute and even though they don't match our snowy mantel they will be staying!

And because I love our tree so much I wanted to share another picture! We now have a bunch of gifts under the tree but it's so pretty on its own!

All lit up!!

Somewhat funny/goofy fact! Every night Chuck and I say "Goodnight" to the Christmas tree! I was thinking about it and whenever we have kids they better love christmas. I'll be crushed if they do not get into the holiday because in my family its a huge holiday! We have so many traditions and we really get into the Holiday Spirit!

Who else has their trees up and decorated?? Please share any links to your pictures or blogs about Christmas decorating as I'd love to check them all out!

Little Bo Peep Would be Proud!

I'm not sure if I have ever had traditional Shepherd's Pie but now it doesn't matter. I made an Italian Shepherd's Pie the other night, recipe courtesy a Taste of Home reader, and it was so easy and so delish! The two qualities I look for in a recipe!

And you should have most of this stuff on hand - 1lb ground beef, marinara sauce, parmesan cheese, flour, baking powder, butter, italian seasoning, onion powder, salt & pepper, and milk!

Brown yourground beef, then drain. Because I used 93/7 meat I totally forgot to drain it since it really didn't look like much. Add your seasoning and the marinara sauce!

Then pour that mix into a greased casserole dish. Now it's time to make the topping which is so easy! butter, flour, milk, italian seasoning, baking powder and parmesan cheese!! Mix well.

Make sure to mix this well and it should start to form a ball.

Then the recipe calls for dropping by spoonfuls but I chose to spread it over the top. I wanted to make sure it was all over the meat!

Bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Yum doesn't that look good? This is so amazingly easy and good, just the way I like it :-) Even Chuck liked it!! I was suprised that he enjoyed but this is now going to be a regular in our house! It was so much fun to try another new recipe and have it be a success!! I can't remember if I have ever had a traditional shepherd's pie but Chuck said this is pretty different. So if you like traditional shepherd's pie this may not be a recipe for you but it is a great recipe in general so I say give it a shot :-)

Chicken Soup

Remeber back when I said I would be taking a break from reading to concentrate on studying for an exam. Yeah while I did study my butt off for the exam I couldn't stop reading. Instead of reading a novel I chose to read one of the Amazing Chicken Soup for the Soul books! Awhile back I bought my Paps this book and he said it was really good and I should read it.

Let me preface this by saying since I moved out of my parents house I have not kept up with Nascar. While I know the old time drivers names because my Sister and Paps are totally into Nascar I don't really have any of my heart invested in it. I still have a favorite and that's Kyle Petty but that's cause I wanted to have a driver of my own in the House of Nascar :-)

Despite not having much interest in the sport I chose to read the book anyways because I love the Chicken soup books!

Source

Let me first say that Chicken Soup never lets me down. I cried, I laughed, and I was honestly very interested in finishing the book of short stories. I am so glad my Paps passed this along to me to read because not only was it out of my element (other than baseball I don't care to read about Sports) and I loved every minute of it.

A lot of the stories were about Dale Earnhardt who was a great driver and who it seems like was such a great guy. His fans loved him and so did the NASCAR Family. And let me tell you this sport is definitely a Family! I was very touched by those stories because I can remember when that went down and how sad it was. Not all the stories about Earnhardt were tear jerkers though, there were some funny ones where pranks were involved that made me laugh out loud!

The other stories I really enjoyed were the ones about people who were never into Nascar but when assigned to write about one of the events they felt a love and appreciation for the sport. I think Nascar has changed a lot since I was a kid but what do I know? I don't follow it and I only hear snippets now when I'm with my Paps and Sister, but to me it doesn't seem as Family oriented as it once was. These stories definitely bring that back into view and I highly recommened anyone who has ever had Nascar as part of their life to get this book, curl up with a hot cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and get comfy because once you start it you won't want to put it down!

Next up I am adding another book to my list :-) I just downloaded Giuliana and Bill Rancic's book "I Do, Now What?" because I LOVE those two! They are such a cute, real couple and I find their show to be hilarious and heartwarming. After that it will be Water for Elephants (for book club) and then my final one the Eggnog Chronicles, which will complete my 2010 List of Books!! Not only will I have achieved my original goal but I also added books throughout the year! GO ME!! Now I need to sit down and evaluate my 2011 list, it's beginnning to get a little long and I have other goals for 2011 that are more important, like losing that weight I've been wanting to. I didn't completely fail this year as I lost 10 lbs and have kept it off but I have many more to go!

Has anyone else started their 2011 goals?

Exploding with Crafts!

Well I've been back to my Holiday crafting :-) This year I put together a few things that I wasn't planning on. I honestly thought I would only have one wreath to make and that'd be it for Holiday projects! But I couldn't do that to myself now could I? :-) I decided to sit down and put together a little pointsetta plant for our home. We can't have a real pointsetta cause the cats can get really sick from it but both Chuck and I love pointsettas.

After two trips to the craft stores this is what I was able to put together! The colors are little different which I kind of like. It's not your average pointsetta! Do you see all those little gold sparkly balls? Oh yeah those got EVERYWHERE! Thankfully Chuck was so helpful and picked up 99% of them while I continued to spill them all over the place :-) But they were a perfect filler!

A view from the top. I placed all those individual flowers in. It was quite the process as I probably readjusted every single one to get it just right!  

Overall I was pretty happy with the pointsetta and it now resides in our downstairs bath. I wish the pictures would have turned out more accurate to the colors but it's the best I can do :-)

Next up was a centerpiece for our dining room table. Originally I was going to keep our everyday piece out but put green and red candles instead of white. NOPE! I got inspired at the craft store, picked up the mini wreath, took some leftover ribbon (from the wreath for the front door) and started wrapping it around. Then we had the candle from awhile ago that matches the ribbon exactly. Now the ribbon doesn't look quite rigth in the picture but it really does match the candle exactly. The only thing left to buy was the gold charger which just set it off perfectly.

 

Now it may look a little small for our table but trust me it fits it perfectly! I was so exacted to find all matching colors and I still get some christmas cheer in our dining room YAY!

And I'll let you with a little sneak peak! I took a quick shot of the christmas items while working on our pointsetta but some of those pieces are going into a wreath I am working on for my girlfriend Alycia! So far it's turning out great! I will post a pic soon as I give it to her!



What has everyone else been working on?

What to do with all those leftovers?

With all that Turkey I had leftover I knew I needed to get in the kitchen and expirement! So I made a Turkey Casserole! And let me tell you how easy this was!!

All you need is some cheddar cheese, milk, 2 slices white bread, cream of chicken soup, onion, white wine, 10 ounce bag of peas, lemon juice, canned water chestnuts, 2 cups cut up Turkey, and celery!!

Combine your turkey, water chestnuts, peas, onion powder, and celery in a bowl

Then on the stove top combine your cream of chicken soup, milk, cheese, white wine, and lemon juice. Make sure that the cheese melts and you get a smooth mixture.

Pour that mixture over the top of your turkey mixture and stir well. Coat everything in the bowl with the soupy mix.

Then put in a baking dish, top with your bread crumbs and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes top the casserole with some cheese, pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.

And voila..you've got yourself a turkey meal!

Along with the casserole I made up a batch of mashed potatoes with gravy and some crescent rolls!

This was so good and so easy! The recipe actually came from Taste of Home's Guilt Free cookbook and while I didn't have all the low fat, low sodium stuff I would love to make it the healthy way and have it again. I think instead of an entire 10 ounce bag of peas I'd prefer some peas & carrots & broccoli. Essentially more of a variety of veggies, but you must try it. And the great thing about turkey is that it freezes, so even if you are burnt out after Thanksgiving just freeze the turkey and plan this meal for a cold winter night later on :-)

Anyone else doing anything creative with Turkey leftovers?

Annual Baking Day!!

We had our Annual Baking Day on December 4th and it was a BLAST! I always get really excited when Baking Days comes because in case you weren't aware I love to bake! I'm sure you had no idea from my blog posts but I can never get enough of baking and cooking :-)

Back in the day it used to be all the woman in the family getting together at my Grandparents home and baking up a storm for hours and hours! After speaking to my Grammy she said the most we did one year was 177 dozen cookies!! Crazy right??

Since some family moved to Reno our annual baking day people started to get smaller and smaller. And then my Grandparents sold their home and moved out of town. We no longer (and haven't for a few years) do baking day with all the woman in my family or at my Grammy's house. But that doesn't stop us from doing our own (doesn't stop my cousins either who also continue to carry on this tradition YAY) Baking Day in December. While Mom and I are the only two who bake, my Seester still joins in on the fun and hangs out with us, she even decorates sugar cookies and is happy to sample all the cookies!

Here we are ready to get our bake on at 9 am!!

My Mom made these (requested by Mandy) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Caramel Bar! These are so yummy!! My work agrees to as I brought in a plate of our cookies and these were devoured!

Next up is a new recipe I tried this year called Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies from Paula Deen. And yes they are as amazing as most of her food LOL!! Totally bad for you but worth it!

Inspired by the chocolate ones we decided to try these with lemon. Now this recipe is super easy to substitute the flavor because you use a cake mix, so my Mom grabbed a lemon cake mix and voila. Instead of Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, we made Lemon Gooey Butter cookies! These were even BETTER than the chocolate ones. And we've decided they are a recipe to make every year!

Of course we had to have our Peanut Butter Kiss cookies. Mom made these and they are so good!! And you can see in the left corner we also made Party Peppermint Patties (another must have cookie).

I made another new recipe this year and they were Peppermint Meltaways. So easy and so yummy. While I was the only one in the family to really like this these ones they were another favorite at work! They were just loved by my coworkers! In fact I dropped them off Tuesday morning and Wednesday when I came in all of the peppermint ones and the caramel bars were gone!

Here's my goofy dad! He got to hang out with us most of the day and of course sample cookies!

Not only did he sample cookies but he also became a cookie artist! Can you tell what?? Yes you guess it right it's the United States! While at first it was a "What are you doing you weirdo??" it turned into a "Wow that's pretty cool" LOL Props to my Paps for being creative!

Here we are with the finished products! It was such a successful and fun baking day! And we made.............

35.75 dozen cookies. A total of 429 (add a few more for those eaten before we counted)! Considering Mom and I were the only ones who baked I would say it was a SUCCESS!! We had plenty of cookies!!

Here's a list of all the cookies we made that day and the totals of each. I create a "spreadsheet" each year so we can track them and see if we made more or less than the year before!

And of course I'll leave you with some yummy shots of all the cookies I brought home! Underneath the kiss cookies are awesome caramel bars!

These were so good! I made a pretty big plateful for work because not only do I not want a bunch of cookies that I LOVE sitting at our house but my coworkers would be upset if I skipped a year of bringing in cookies. I think they look forward to it :)

With one baking day down I have one left. My girlfriend Alycia and I are starting  a new tradition of our own baking day too! I am so excited to get our bake on and try out ALL new cookie recipes! So keep your eyes posted for a bunch of new cookie recipe posts! They will be coming your way shortly :)

What are some of your holiday traditions?

Mint M&M Cookies

Back when  I went shopping with my girlfriend Alycia I picked up a bag of the Seasonal Mint M&Ms. My favorite type of chocolate is any chocolate with mint so I knew I had to enjoy these!! What did I do with them?? I made Chocolate Chip Cookis with Mint M&Ms of course!!

Who doesn't love homemade chocolate chip cookies?? No one!!

Gather up your typical ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, then a 10 oz bag of Mint M&M's.

Just a close up shot because they are so lovely!

Combine your ingredients just like you would with Chocolate Chip cookies, but then....

ADD IN THE M&M's!! I just love how much more colorful these are going to be than regular chocolate chips!

Now because I felt there was not enough M&M's and I was pretty sure no one would complain about too much chocolate, I dumped in half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips!

YUM! I could eat the entire bowl of batter!

Place on cookie sheet, then place in your oven and as always wait for the sweet cookie aroma to fill your house! Speaking of aroma's sometimes I am super jealous of Chuck! You know how sometimes when you are cooking you just gradually start smelling your food! He gets to come in the front and be hit by the smell in full force! I sometimes want it to slap me in the nose cause I'm sure it's way better LOL!

Are you ready for this?? I bet you are! Check out your final product! A little festive but you also get that warm fuzzy feeling that everyone must feel from homemade chocolate chips! I know that I get that feeling whenever I bite into a homemade chocolate chip cookie!

Since I wanted to be creative one night I thought what better than a cookie sundae?? UMM NOTHING!! So I grabbed a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream, one cookie, some whipped topping, and chocolate syrup! Oh yeah it was so good!!

I love the holidays and the specialty candies. It makes for some pretty awesome desserts! :-)

I highly recommend you run out and pick up a bag of mint M&M's, even if you don't put them in cookies you will want them just to "melt in your mouth"!!