Face to face time!

Kristine, Ginger, Melissa
Me, Denise, Sue
(I "borrowed" this picture from Ginger's facebook page)

I had a wonderful time with some wonderful women Friday night. Sue from Praise and Coffee opened her house up so that we could come meet Melissa from Mel's World who was visiting from Florida. We forgot to take the picture at the beginning of the night (when everyone was there) so Jaime isn't in the picture. To read about the night hop over to either Denise's blog or Ginger's blog.

I received a request from Melissa and Ginger for the recipe for the Apple Dip I brought. What a better way to "wake up" my blog then to share a recipe. Wink!

Apple Dip

1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
1 c. chopped dry roasted peanuts
8 oz. cream cheese

Mix all together and serve with tart apples.

Hint: To keep cut apples from browning soak in pineapple juice after cutting.

Yummy!

Friday night Melissa stopped by and dropped off a wonderful surprise Christmas gift of homemade goodies that she spent all afternoon making and an individual little gift for every member of our family. The picture only shows a small portion of what she gave us. We love you Melissa!!!

Saturday was our family Christmas baking day. To start the day Kaylyn and I made Stuffed French Toast that I got from Sarah. Although I didn't make the Fruit topping for it even though it sounded absolutely delicious to me I don't think the rest of the clan would have been brave enough to try it over their much loved maple syrup.

Once everyone was fed it was time to get busy. First on our list was a recipe that Lauren shared from Family Fun for Holiday Pretzel Squares.


Next up, Easy Peanut Butter Cookies we were going to dip these in chocolate like this but I miss calculated my chocolate and ran short. They taste great anyway so we will save that thought for later.

Somewhere in there we also made White Chocolate Chex Mix.


After that we moved on to dipped pretzel rods. I just melt some chocolate squares. After they dip them in the chocolate they rolled them in chopped peppermint, chopped nuts, or rice crispies.

The last thing on the agenda was Peanut Clusters. This is a super easy recipe. It sits in the crock pot while we make the other stuff and then you just drop it by spoonful onto parchment paper.

Anna thought we also needed a couple pictures of the messy kitchen. The sad thing is I left it not much better than these pictures because Mark and I had to be at a wedding at 2pm.

Anna and Kaylyn did a great job of getting all the food taken care of while we were gone. My most wonderful hubby cleaned up the rest of the kitchen after church this morning. I had to stay for 2nd service to help in YC&W. I love that man!

As I type he is cleaning up from making eggs, bacon, and toast from homemade bread a wonderful lady from church, Noreen, gave us. She loves Mark so we are blessed with her homemade bread on occasion and he blesses her with flowers from work.

Smiles!

Lynnea's Potato Soup

Lynnea's Potato Soup

In a large pan add:
6 lg potatoes or more, peel and dice (if using red-skin potatoes, I don't peel and I use about 8)
3 celery stalks, cut in bite size pieces
3 lg. carrots, cut in bite size pieces
1 sm. onion, chopped
Cover with water and boil until veggies are soft. Stir occasionally.

In med. sauce pan add: (I do this part in the microwave)
6 T butter
6 T flour
* make a paste
salt and pepper to taste (I just pepper, the ham adds enough salt for us)
Also add:
1-1/2 c. milk
8 oz. cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
Stir until all ingredients are smooth.

Then combine with veggies. (Note: I remove some of the veggie water before adding the rest because hubby doesn't like "watery" soup. I usually remove enough so that the veggies are just above the water line.)

Add some ham chunks - amount is flexible.

Simmer for an hour.

Enjoy!