Country Crock is giving away 100 dollars!

At Burgh Baby, she is making an awesome macaroni dish and giving away 100 dollars via Country Crock!

check it out!  http://www.theburghbaby.com/burghbaby/greek-macaroni-n-cheese-and-a-giveaway.html

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT!

Over at A Southern Lady's Ramblings she is cooking up something in the kitchen you don't normally see:  LAUNDRY DETERGENT!  Check it out!

http://asouthernladysramblings.blogspot.com/2011/07/homemade-laundry-soap.html

A Presence A Day: Homemade Christmas Star Cookie Wreath : Day 12

Is this star COOKIE wreath so adorable?



Cookie wreath made by The Farm Chicks!



The tutorial made by The Farm Chicks is here!

Mt 2:9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.



I love how this verse says the star went before them....We all have a star within us...our soul.  Also, our soul has Jesus in it or it doesn't.  Our soul is saved or it is not saved.  Our soul is seeking the young child or it isn't.
 
I am so glad when I first heard THE king that I departed from old self (flesh) and followed the star to where Jesus was and is!  A lot of times I say, "All I know for sure is that I am saved!"  I know this for a surety!  Thank you Lord for bringing salvation down to me and countless others.
 
God bless your Christmas!

A Presence A Day: Homemade Casseroles: Day 10

Do you have a neighbor ( hint:  a neighbor is not someone that necessarily lives next door to you!) that is TIRED of cooking and you just LOVE to cook all the time ( I know this is a stretch, but bear with me!)?  Have you ever given someone an unexpected gift?  Do you give your mailman a present?  Do you give your Sunday School teacher a gift?  Do you give your Librarian a present?  Do you give someone UNSUSPECTED a gift?

YOU COULD!  Make them a covered dish!  It would give them a night off during this joyful but BUSY time of the year.  Here are a few recipes.  After the recipe is assembled, cover with the dish lid or with foil.  Give them a card and tell them what temp and how long to cook the dish made with love. IMPORTANT NOTE:  Increase the cooking time by 15 minutes if you have refrigerated it!!!!

Midwest Living has a great Chicken and Wild Rice Recipe here!

Or make a breakfast or brunch for someone with this recipe:  Morning Pecan Casserole



Or make them Hashbrown Casserole (this has ham in it, so it will pass as MAIN MEAL!)







Or do you want to give a pie that is a main dish?  Check out this Inside-Out Spaghetti Pie.



Luke 10:29 But he (the RICH MAN to JESUS), willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

We all have views of what a neighbor is, but what is Jesus' view?  He didn't answer the rich man's question, but he gave him a story (Jesus always wants us to decide what to do, he doesn't force us to believe his way). 

 A man, going to Jericho, fell among thieves.  They beat him and took all that he had.  Three different people passed by the beaten man:  Priest (man of high office/ranking), Levite (man from the lineage of Jesus Christ), and Samaritan (man that was reviled by most, lowly).  We all know the Samaritan helped the man in need.  Then Jesus asks the rich man this:  Luke 10:36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?  The rich man replies with this:  Luke 10:37  And he said, He that shewed mercy on him.   Then Jesus ends with this reply:  Luke 10:37 Go, and do thou likewise.

Did Jesus just pick these three guys out of a hat?  NO!  He chose one with high rank, one with the same lineage as himself, and one with no rank at all.  The rich man could be classified with the priest (my opinion), but Jesus asked the rich man, "who was the neighbour?"  The rich man said  "He that shewed mercy on him."  So no matter your class, you know what to do.  DOING it is the hard part.  So show mercy as much and often as you can....someone is depending on it!

God bless your Christmas!

A Presence A Day: Homemade Sugar Cookies: Day 7

A great Christmas present to make for your special loved ones is sugar cookies.  This is not any "normal" (how is my build-up?) sugar cookie.  This is the best recipe for sugar cookies ever!  IT IS!  Try it and tell me if I am wrong!

I had some help from MOM ADVISE on this recipe. We made some Saturday morning and all of them said they were the best sugar cookie they have ever eaten.  Even Hubby liked it!




put 3/4 cup sugar in a mixer and pulverize it to make super fine sugar



Add 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour and 1/4 tsp of salt

Add 2 stick of butta

your mixture will be course and crumble-ly-ish..then add 2tablespoons of cream cheese and 2 tsp of vanilla extract

form into two disks and refrigerate for 15 minutes

Place between to sheet of wax paper...

make sure the shiny side is facing up...less stick...you don't have to use extra flour!

roll out your dough...

decorate to your liking...

press and roll again...

we were getting tired of rolling so much, so I made dough into balls and pressed them into sprinkles...

and they turned out cute too!

These cookies won't get to see tomorrow!

Prov 20:17 ¶ Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

When I am eating a cookie (who am I kidding, eating a half-dozen!) it is so good, so yummy, and it can't be bad, right?  There are other "things" that are good in the moment but have a consequence, which may not be favorable. 

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man means  "any good obtained by deceit, or any good which deceives in its possession."  Bread of deceit is unjustly gotten gain.  Have you ever been deceived or has someone gained advantage from you?  We all can say yes and we all can, if we look closely enough, think of a time we may have partaken of the bread of deceit AGAINST someone. 

For whatever actions you may have, they have a very real influence on their doers.  Your actions modify character and form your habits.  They will drag after you a whole trail of consequences. Each strikes inwards and works outwards.

'A sower went forth to sow,' and 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' The seed may lie long dormant, but the green shoots will appear in due time, and pass through all the stages of  'first the blade, and then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear.' The sower has to become the reaper, and the reaper has to eat of the bread made from the product of the long past sowing. Shall we have to reap a harvest of poisonous tares, or of wholesome wheat?  Before tempted to do evil take a momentary pause to see if you want to harvest that crop!  If you sow corruption you will also reap corruption.

If you have been deceived by others, do not render evil for evil.  Why?  Because he that has eaten the sweet bread of deceit will later have a mouth filled with gravel...let me tell you, a mouth filled with gravel is painful.  God will recompense...not you. 

God bless your Christmas!


Here is the recipe per Mom Advise:

Perfect Cut-Out Sugar Cookies (Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)


Recipe says it will yield approximately 3 dozen cookies. I doubled the recipe & got 32 cookies with my cookie cutters. The amount of cookies will definitely depend on your cookie cutter sizes!


2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar (just whipped 1 cup sugar in the food processor until it was blended and then measured out 3/4 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2″ pieces & softened
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract



Whisk the flour, sugar, & salt together in a large bowl. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, then continue to beat until the mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the cream cheese & vanilla until he dough just begins to form large clumps, about thirty seconds.



Knead the dough in the large bowl by hand a few times until it forms a large, cohesive mass. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter, divide it in half, and apt into a two four inch disks. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until they begin to firm up, 20 to 30 minutes.



Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375. Work with one disk at a time, roll out the dough to a 1/8″ thickness between two sheets of parchment paper. Slide the rolled dough and parchment onto a baking sheet & refrigerate again until firm.



Working with one sheet of dough at a time cut out shapes using cookie cutters and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced about 1″ apart. Bake the cookies until light golden brown, about ten minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking.



Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely, about thirty minutes. When cooled, the cookies can be decorated as desired.


****************
Sugar Cookie Frosting

4 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup shortening
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Food coloring

In a large bowl, cream together confectioners sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about five minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

****************



Day 6: A Presence A Day: FRIED APPLE PIES

Want one?

What tastes really good and yet, is really not-so-low calorie?  I  am referring to FRIED APPLE PIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They are so yummy, tasty, and irresistible...and if you made these for someone for Christmas....I know they would love you!

I made 24 and that is all the energy I have!  So here is the recipe:

Gather flour, salt, butter, and water

lay wax paper down when rolling mini pies, less mess

pretty pies basking in the sun

this is what the apples should look like after 30 minutes of cooking

place a dollop of apples on one side, taking care not to get any around the edges

Press a fork, dipped in flour, and seal all edges

fry me to the moon

just taken out of the deep frying pan, it was hot in there

Leah's Fried Apple Pies

Apple filling:


Peel and cut 9-10 apples
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1/2 brown sugar
2 tablespoon of corn starch mixed with 1-2 tablespoons water

Cut and peel the apples. Place them in a huge pan with the water, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, and brown sugar. Cook them on med-high for 30 min. or more. Cover them to decrease cooking time. After they are cooked, get your cornstarch mixture and add to the apples...this will give the apples more thickness. Refrigerate for an hour (make the mini pies while they are chilling).

Pie Pastry:  makes 12+, double this recipe to make 24 mini pies
21/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) and 2 tablespoons of  butter, well chilled
5 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Place flour and salt in mixer.  Turn to lowest speed and mix about 15 sec.  Cut butter into pieces and add to flour mixture.  Turn to lowest speed and mix until butter particles are size of small peas or crumbles, 30 to 45 seconds.

On lowest speed, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until ingredients are moistened and dough begins to hold together.  Divide dough in half.  Pat each half into a smooth ball and flatten slightly.  Wrap in plastic wrap.  Chil in refridgerator for 15 min.

Take a mini pie, place a small dollop of cooked apples in the middle or side, (stay away from edges).  Take some water and rub around the edges (this will help to seal them).  Fold one side over, and take a fork, dipped in flour, and press down to crimp all the edges.  Repeat till all pies are made

Fry in a skillet or deep fry with the oil on med-high.  Cook for 3-5 minutes.  Place on a plate lined with towels (to soak up extra oil).  Fry until all are done.

Anyone want to clean a kitchen?

Give these to a special someone or enjoy yourself!

Psalms 17:8 ¶ Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 9 From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.  15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.


What does APPLE OF THE EYE mean? Something, but usually someone, that you cherish above all others.^[1]

Wikipedia states that the phrase was applied to the dark central portion of the eye within the iris because of the tiny image of oneself, like a puppet or marionette, that one can see when looking into another person's eye.

David was writing this passage and he was telling God to cherish him above all others.  He even wanted to be hidden under the shadow of God's wings.  I like David...No, I love David.  He was not being arrogant or "above his raising"....he was that close to God that he was talking with him as a FRIEND.  Furthermore, since David commanded, if you will, that God cherish and hide him under his wings, God wanted that reciprocated.  David even goes on to say that he and God have the same likeness!  Wow! 

What is my point?  My point is this:  What is the apple of the eye to you?  What are you cherishing above all others.  David was not being untoward to God, they were just that close that he could make a request of God to Cherish him above all others.  When you look in the dark central portion of your eye, what are you seeing?  Does it reflect a likeness to God?  Can you make a request to God as David did?  Can you cherish God above all other things? 

God bless your Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving and cooking at 12:00 a.m.

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for so many things.  I have had a wonderful blessed year, and I know that is a cliche, but I truly do not deserve the fortune and blessings that come my way, so I am so grateful for all that our founding fathers did for this country so that we can have this freedom of religion and speech (there are others, but I need to brush up on my constitution history).  When we study about what all the early settlers faced, it is so powerful.  They wanted religious freedom more than their safety, comfort, and self-gain.  Their joy was God...they are true examples for us to follow, second of course to Jesus.

So I am up baking and thankful that my dear sweet mom and dad bought me this for my b-day:

This machinery makes me feel like a culinary queen.  I feel like all my dishes taste better because she( I will name her, I promise) is touching each ingredient and skillfully folding and cuddling and whipping....sorry.  But to not drag this out, I really love her!  One of my dear friends told me that when you get a Kitchen Aid mixer you "HAVE ARRIVED."  So that is how I feel!  Hello everyone, you can't tell?  It is me, the one who has arrived!  Please, please hold down your applause!

O.k.  on with the final dishes.  I made:

PUMPKIN PIE, crust is sad looking but the pumpkin will make you sing!

PECAN PIE

Sweet Potato Casserole...recipe is going to follow!

Mashed Potato Casserole....this is great too!

Each year we all bring different things.  I was given the starches.  I loved taste testing!  You, have been so patient reading, listening, crooning, so without any further delay, here is the Sweet Potato Recipe:

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

3 cups, sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled or canned (I bought the yams, and they taste great and easier)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Mash sweet potatoes. Mix all ingredients into sweet potatoes. Pour mixture into greased casserole pan. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top of sweet potato mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

TOPPING:

1 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix together and sprinkle over sweet potato mixture. Can brown a few minutes in the oven.

Happy Thanksgiving!



Recipe: Creamy Potato Soup with Bacon

Recipe:  Creamy Potato Soup with BACON



Courtesy of All You Magazine

The days  nights are getting cooler and what is a great way to warm up and pig out  dine in for little cost (only 1.44 per person!)?  Creamy potato soup with BACON! It can be made quickly and the cost is minimal for how great the taste is.  A win-win situation.  So let's get to it! 

Ingredients


6 slices bacon (about 6 oz.), cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
3 baking potatoes (about 2 lb. total), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives (optional)

Preparation

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook bacon, stirring occasionally, until crisp and browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. When cool enough to handle, crumble.



2. Discard all but 2 Tbsp. fat and return pot to medium heat. Add onion, garlic and thyme and sauté until onion is soft, about 7 minutes. Add potatoes and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer until potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Working in batches, process in blender with sour cream until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.



3. Ladle soup into bowls and top with chives and bacon.



Nutritional Information

Calories:275
Fat:13g (sat 7g)
Protein:10g
Carbohydrate:29g
Fiber:4g
Cholesterol:42mg
Sodium:877mg

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

O.K.  I posted not-so-light Cheesy Chicken Rollups, so now I will post a lighter dessert, Crustless Pumpkin Pie. 

Picture courtesy of Lisa Prater

This pie (or dessert, if you will) will show your family you hadn't  slaved in the kitchen for them all day.

In a large bowl, beat together the following ingredients:


15-ounce can of unsweetened pumpkin
12-ounce can of evaporated milk (fat-free works fine!)
 2 eggs, or 3 egg whites
 1/2 tsp. salt
 3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
 1 tsp. vanilla extract
 2/3 cup sugar (you can use baking-friendly granular artificial sweetener to save calories)

Beat the ingredients until smooth and pour into a 9″ pie plate sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
Bake at 400 degrees F. for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature and bake at 325 degrees F. for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean.

If you have some refrigerated crescent dough around, you can use it to make rolled-out mini maple leaf embellishments. These went on the pie about 20 minutes before it was finished baking. So there’s a little crust after all! Believe me, though, you don’t need a bottom crust on this pie. It holds together great, and the pumpkin flavor is phenomenal!

This pie is good as soon as it’s cool enough to eat, but it’s even better right out of the fridge the next day.

ENJOY!



Cheesy Chicken Rollups

I found a recipe while scowering glancing through various blogs.  My Life As A Domestic Nerd had a recipe that I needed wanted to try immediately.



Picture courtesy of My Life As A Domestic Nerd

 I have made this recipe once a week for the past two weeks.  My whole family loves them...even my husband who doesn't particulary like chicken. I hope you like this recipe..it is a keeper in our house.




Ingredients:


2 c. chicken breasts, cooked & diced
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1-2 c. frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
8 oz. package reduced-fat crescent rolls
15 oz. can low fat Cream of Mushroom soup (or homemade version)
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. milk

Directions:


In a large bowl, combine chicken, cheese, and broccoli. Season with salt & pepper.


Open package of crescent rolls and unwrap into 8 triangles.


Place a large scoop of the chicken mixture onto the big side of the triangle.


Roll and place onto a greased 9x13 pan, seam side down.


Repeat with remaining rolls.


(You will likely have some of the chicken mixture left over, I usually just pour it over the rolls).


In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, soup, and milk. Stir until well combined.


Pour mixture over chicken rolls.


Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.



8 servings, 8 WW points each (using Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup)