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appetizer wreath
December 22, 2009 – 5:37 am
This appetizer wreath was easy to make ahead. I changed a few things. Their version served 16. Mine will make 28 or more servings.
My version:
3 tubes (8 oz. each) refrigerated crescent rolls
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped fresh broccoli florets
1 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
3/4 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper ~ Reserve enough of the red pepper to create a bow for the wreath. I made the bow first and diced the remaining pepper for the wreath.
I’m guessing on the amount of broccoli, celery and diced red pepper. I just diced and sprinkled it on until it looked full enough.
Remove crescent dough from packaging, but do not unroll it. Cut each tube into ten [rather than eight] slices. Arrange in a circle on an ungreased 16-in. pizza pan. I lined my pan with parchment paper. Arrange the remaining crescent rolls in a smaller circle just inside the first one.
Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing to a serving platter; cool completely.
In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, dill, garlic powder, dry onion, Worcestershire sauce and salt until smooth. Spread a little under the wreath to keep it from sliding off the platter. Spread mixture over the wreath; top with broccoli, celery and sweet red pepper. Create a bow with sweet red pepper to garnish the wreath. If I had had some cherry tomatoes handy, I would have dotted some of those on the wreath, as well.
Slice into 28 or more servings.
I’ll make this again. It was easy and so pretty! ~~Rhonda
menu plan monday ~ december 21, 2009
December 21, 2009 – 5:06 am
This will be a busy week for us. For you, as well, I’m sure. Our two older girls are home and we are expecting our older son and his family to arrive on Christmas Eve. We can hardly wait to see them and to give the grands lots of hugs and kisses. Christmas afternoon, our younger son and his wife will arrive to stay for a few days. This will be the first Christmas in a long time that we have had the entire family home at the same time. I see a family portrait in my near future… My sister Genny will be joining us, too, as her children will be spread from South Africa to Arizona to Missouri on Christmas Day.
Monday
tacos
Tuesday
BBQ chicken in the oven
accordion potatoes
corn
sugar snap peas
Wednesday
pizza braids
Thursday
chicken and noodles
Friday / Christmas Day!
breakfast
pancakes (DH will make any shape you request)
maple/honey bacon
apple dumplings
breakfast ham and cheese casserole
oranges and strawberries
dinner
glazed ham
turkey
mashed potatoes
green beans
corn pudding [I halve the butter.]
spinach salad
pumpkin cake for dessert
Saturday
lunch
ham and turkey sandwiches
chips / veggies / dip
fresh fruit
supper
homemade pizza
Sunday
lunch
baked ziti
green salad
corn
peas
garlic bread
supper
fridge food
You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
I pray you have a Merry, Merry Christmas, celebrating the Good News of Christ’s birth!
~~Rhonda
three cheese spread
December 17, 2009 – 5:40 pm
Three Cheese Spread
This is the recipe I started with, but I changed some things…my version follows this one.
1 package (3 oz. size) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup cubed cooked chicken or turkey
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Crackers or tortilla chips
In a small mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, bouillon and cayenne; mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Spread cream cheese mixture onto a 10-in. serving plate. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, bacon, tomato, swiss cheese, chicken and parsley. Serve with crackers or chips.
————————————————————————————————————————-
Well, here I go changing recipes again…but I wanted a lot more than this recipe makes. So here’s my ingredient list.
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
less than 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 oz. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
9 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
8 oz. freshly shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup cubed cooked chicken or turkey [I left this out.]
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
I combined all ingredients in my mixer, except the tomato and parsley which I reserved to sprinkle on top when ready to serve.
I made the cheese spread the day before the party. I even prepared the tomato and minced the parsley ahead of time. I stored them in little ziptop bags. About an hour before the party, I put the cheese spread in the serving dish, sprinkled the tomatoes and parsley on top, then loosely wrapped it in plastic wrap and returned it to the fridge until time to put it on the table. I wanted to serve it with bagel chips, but there were none at the store. Remember…I live in a town with a Wal-Mart and an Aldi’s. Not much choice available. We have to drive an hour to get to any kind of large store. So we used four kinds of crackers for the party. Hearty, snappy crackers. I bought little bread loaves in the deli to use, too, but didn’t serve them after all. But the cheese spread was delicious on them the next day. What little there was left. 🙂 Thanks to my friend Susan who brought this recipe to our Home Extension Christmas party two years ago and who graciously shared the recipe with me!
~~Rhonda
macro monday and the theme was…drive me wild
December 16, 2009 – 9:16 am
Can’t believe Monday rolled around so quickly this week. Here are the shots I submitted to Macro Mondays for the theme “Drive Me Wild.”
WHERE’D YOU PUT MY KEYS??…and yes, I’m shouting…
Suburban keys / The sunlight shining through the prisms in the window added some pretty color to the shot.
Car trouble / Sometimes it’s handy to have kids’ toys around the house…they can make great props for photos.
~~Rhonda 🙂
baked ziti
December 15, 2009 – 7:41 pm
True confessions…I’ve never made this before. My son is a bit of a picky eater and, on Thanksgiving, after he had only rolls and ham for dinner and no dessert, I asked his wife what he *did* like these days…it’s been a long time since he lived here. She said he likes baked ziti with no meat. So I found a recipe online and am giving it a trial run. If it’s good (and it smells delicious, BTW!), I’ll put it on the menu for Christmas weekend when all our children and their families will be home at the same time.
I’ll tell you what…I begin to wonder if I’m capable of just making a recipe the way it says to make it. I changed a lot in this one. The recipe I found is this one: Baked Ziti. What I ended up with was this one…
Baked Ziti
1/2 pound dried ziti
15 ounces ricotta cheese
3 eggs [Friends gave us three dozen beautiful, brown, home-grown eggs, so I decided to add some to this, since we have a wealth.]
3 cups (or 12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
29 oz. can crushed tomatoes
freshly grated Parmesan cheese [I didn’t measure this…just grated on enough to cover the sauce. Ditto with the Romano.]
freshly grated Romano cheese
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add the ziti. Cook until tender, about 8 minutes, drain the pasta.
Mix the ricotta, the eggs and half of the mozzarella. Stir till well blended. Add the drained ziti and stir again.
Grease a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish. Spread half of the crushed tomatoes on the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the tomatoes with any spices you care to add. I used dried minced onion, garlic powder, dried crushed oregano, dried crushed basil, and dried parsley flakes.
Add the ziti mixture and cover with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with more spices and then with Parmesan and Romano and the remaining mozzarella. I topped it off with a little sprinkle of parsley flakes.
Bake uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, until lightly browned and heated through.
The ziti is delicious.
And the bread was good, too. I used the usual recipe, but took about one third of the dough after it had one rise, and I added freshly chopped rosemary, dried oregano and dried parsley. Also some shredded mozzarella.
I shaped it into a flat bread and let it rise again, then pushed some divets into it with my fingers and drizzled a little olive oil over it.
I baked it at 350*F for 15 minutes. It could have gone a couple more minutes, I think, though it was cooked through.
I had planned to halve some slices, brush them with olive oil, a little garlic powder, and top them with mozzarella cheese before broiling for a few minutes. But I wasn’t sure when DH would be home and it was getting late, so I skipped that and we had the herb bread for supper without the extras. Still delicious. Though, if I had planned ahead for herb bread before I mixed the dough, I would have made the bread with less sugar than the recipe calls for.
But supper was delicious. 🙂 ~~Rhonda
chex mix
December 14, 2009 – 2:39 pm
I’ve had a couple of requests for the Chex Mix recipe, so here goes…
Chex Mix
This recipe makes enough to fill 2 one-gallon Ziplock bags with a bowl left over to snack on right away. 🙂
Fill a large oval roasting pan with:
2 pounds mixed nuts or peanuts
1 16-oz. bag pretzel sticks
5 c. Rice Chex
5 c. Corn Chex
5 c. Crispex
5 c. Cheerios
You may substitute Wheat Chex, other pretzel shapes, rye crisp rounds, goldfish crackers or Cheese Nips for any of the above.
In a small sauce pan, heat til melted:
2 sticks butter
4 tsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
5 T. Lea and Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce
dash of garlic powder
Pour over cereal mixture and stir well to coat.
Bake in a 250* F oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
I always serve this with the cookies at our open house. The salty snack is a great balance to the sweet treats.
~~Rhonda
menu plan monday ~ december 14, 2009
December 14, 2009 – 1:19 pm
There are less than two weeks left until Christmas. How ready are you?? Here’s a picture to help keep you focused.
Our two older girls are coming home this week. We are eager to have them back for a few weeks. Of course, the first evening they are back I’m hosting a Christmas party, so they may be taking their little sister out for supper that night. 🙂
Monday
baked ziti
garlic bread
green salad
corn
sugar snap peas
Tuesday
chicken in the crock pot
rice
stir fried veggies
Wednesday
hamburgers / homemade buns
chips
grapes
Thursday
Home Extension Christmas party
cranberry spiced meatballs
sausage balls
hot spiced punch
cold punch
coffee
Friday
roast beef in the crock pot
baked potatoes with rosemary
green beans
corn
Saturday
beef stew
Sunday
spaghetti
homemade rolls
corn
peas
green salad
You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda
little glitter houses
December 13, 2009 – 10:36 pm
I have stored this magazine page in my Christmas Notebook since 2003. I wanted to make one for myself. As you can imagine, Martha’s was a little pricey for my budget.
Personally, I think the deer are a bit large for this display. My daughter calls them “deerzillas.”
Anyway, I have been collecting pictures and information about Putz houses for some time. This year, I decided it was time to make my own when I found the Little Glitter Houses web site and Big Indoor Trains with patterns and instructions for making the houses. I also found my way to a blog called Pink Trees with patterns from an old crafting magazine called “Pack-O-Fun.” That blog is no longer available, but the patterns can now be found at bigindoortrains.com.
I had a great time making the houses and churches. Here is my finished display.
And here are some closer shots of the buildings. I used the “Bay Window House” pattern for the pink house.
The little yellow house was made with the “Vintage-style Stone Cottage” pattern. The blue house to the left is made from the same pattern, though I enlarged and reversed the pattern for the blue house.
The house on the right, with the blue roof, was the second one I made. I used this “Little Charmer” pattern.
This yellow house was a store bought house that I repainted and glittered, and then I added the trees. I added the silver beads and the glitter to the larger bottle brush tree.
I made this house, using glitter glue to outline the door and windows. I added the wreath, which I made from a small piece of “evergreen” pipe cleaner. I also made the snowman. This house has a pipe cleaner hedge around it, but it’s hard to see in this photo. I used the pattern titled “Green House” at this site for this house, though I had to remake the pattern as it is incorrectly drawn in the article.
The little yellow house was made with the pattern titled “Yellow House” on the same site.
I repainted and glittered this manufactured church to match the houses I made myself.
The fence around this repainted manufactured house was made by cutting thin cardboard with scrapbooking scissors.
I love the door and windows on this manufactured church. I think this one was all white before I reworked it.
I made the bases and fences for these repainted manufactured Putz houses.
Another repainted store bought house. I like my colors a lot better than the original. 🙂
The church and the small house were made from patterns at the Pink Trees site. The house is the pattern titled “Brown House.”
I had a few houses that ended up too large for the display, so I put them on the Christmas tree in the guest room, including this Cottage Beach House.
The patterns I found online at Little Glitter Houses, Big Indoor Trains, and Pink Trees were extremely helpful! My thanks to those sites and their authors for their inspiration!
I moved from making the above houses to making glitter house ornaments from Christmas cards. They turned out beautifully! And they were faster to make as they have fewer details and embellishments.
Overall, I am very happy with the way the little glitter houses came out. And they were a lot of fun to make!
Click this link to see my tutorial for making a little glitter / putz house.
Click this link to see my tutorial for making little glitter house ornaments from Christmas cards.
Update 2016 / My Putz houses have come a long way since 2009, when I wrote this post. If you would like to see more of my Putz houses, as well as Christmas ornaments I have made from upcycled holiday cards, please visit my Etsy shop.
~~Rhonda
the promise of spring
December 13, 2009 – 12:04 pm
This morning, on the way to church, I saw this by the kitchen steps…
December sprouts.
Lovely green on green daffodil sprouts…
During the shortest days of the year, a promise that spring is coming…
I love spring. Even during Christmas, which I also love, I am happy to see a promise that spring will follow. And isn’t that the promise of Christmas, too? God’s promise. New life through Christ. ~~Rhonda