My Favorite Holiday THINGS.....

 Looking back on the last 2 weeks......what were YOUR favorite things? 3 of mine are right here....
Grandma's little cookie testers and tasters......Loved making cookies with them in December.....

Seeing the smiles while we bake and play in the kitchen.....

And taste test all our cookies of course.......

  Another one of my FAVORITE THINGS  was
watching a 3 and 4 year old Christmas Dance Recital....hysterical and heartwarming!

This was a present to myself.....a year of Taste of Home Magazine....to go with this cool cookbook!  I love this combo! and I'll use it all year long....Woot!  (do YOU buy yourself presents too? If so.....you are my friend....lol)

I LOVE cooking....and I love cookbooks with pictures....and I love cooking blogs too.....

My husband got me this absolutely cool "Bridge" camera from Sony......it is like a DSLR in clarity and lens,
but it is idiot proof for dummies in the photog department like me.....I can snap a picture in the middle
of taking a video...how COOL IS THAT?   yEAh!  I LOVE this.....

When I turn it on the lens cap pops off and hangs by a ribbon....yeah that's another thing I LOVE about it!
No messing with lens caps and worrying if you are going to lose it or forget to put it
back in your camera bag!  (can you tell I have forgotten stuff like that?....ahem....yes...well....I'm a
creative sort......not an organized kind of mind.......)

Cheering for peppermint ring pops.....I scream you scream.....we all scream.....for    RING POPS!
Aren't they the bee's knees?   Yeah....they are so cute..... and watching my hubs
play "Cootie" with them?   Oh yeah......VERY priceless.....

Me being a happy camper....after all the buying, wrapping, cooking, baking, stressing...
it's finally all ready on Christmas Day.....and I can finally PLAY!  It's that moment
before anybody comes down to eat or open anything when you look around and say...
I FRICKIN DID THIS!
Because...hey......my work is done here.....

Hot cinnamon rolls just out of the oven before the cream cheese icing is slathered on...
can I get a cheer for mom?  Oh yes.....these babies cause grown men to cry....
Okay I'm kidding there....but they ARE goody, yummy and perfect! 

My famous and traditional breakfast brunch casserole....Yummy! 

It's one of my favorite things getting the family together for brunch at the table to eat yummy food

and have great conversation and laugh.......yeah.....it doesn't get any better than this folks....Family!

I love the little kiddie table I make up for every holiday....My 2 girlies love it too......yay!  

Happy laughter and chaos reining and ripped up wrapping paper to jump in!  

Neighbors who deliver homemade yummy stuff to your door! I just  LOVE THAT!  

Homemade Christmas cards out of kitchen stuff (Karo syrup and food coloring)  mmhmmm.......

Seeing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert......with  my peeps.....

And enjoying all the lights of the season.......So pretty....

These are a few of my favorite things....

Hope you get a year full of favorite things in 2012....

                                                                                                               Pattie

Artichoke Pasta Salad (with Feta Cheese)

Artichoke Pasta Salad with Feta Cheese

 Artichoke Pasta Salad

How many meals are you making this weekend? I get all mixed up unless I plan out my meals and ingredients at holiday time. It is kind of like a list of meals board...if I don't I get overwhelmed with all the cooking and company. . Then I can go to the market with my list and hopefully not forget anything.

 New Year's Eve is one menu, New Years Day is another. It is hard to keep it all straight and not repeat anything you did on Christmas Eve or Christmas Brunch or Christmas night! No wonder us moms are all stressed out during the holidays! Geesh! 

I found this colorful "Wacky Mac" in the store last week. It looked
kind of festive so I bought it for our New Year's Buffet.

Boil up the pasta in salted water.....Wacky Mac I mean....snicker....

Then drain and add your cut up veggies....I ran out of olives...so I didn't include them
but this salad is better with the black olives....for sure! 

Salads have to be a little more special than normal, because, well......IT'S NEW YEARS!  Here is one that everybody loves no matter where I bring it.  

RECIPE FOR ARTICHOKE PASTA SALAD

1/2

Green, yellow, OR  yellow bell pepper, diced (The colorful veggies make this salad so pretty!

1

cup artichoke hearts, drained, diced up into pieces

1/2

package FINELY crumbled feta cheese (about 1/2 cup)

2/3

cup pitted olives sliced in half 

1/2     cups of quartered and sliced celery or cucumber (for crunch)

3/4     cup chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes

3        cups cooked and drained pasta (9 oz) (bowtie, shell or rotini) or 1 bag

3/4     cup Greek vinaigrette with Feta Cheese (I like Gerrards-find at Target)

1/4

teaspoon coarsely ground pepper

A few shakes of Johnny's seasoning to taste (find at Costco in a large bottle)

OPTIONAL - FOR A MEAL ADD 2 CUPS TORN WHITE ROTISSERIE CHICKEN MEAT.

OPTIONAL - 1/4 CUP DICED RED ONION FOR ONION LOVERS

I usually buy my artichoke hearts from Costco because they are good quality and cheaper in the large jar.  I only use about half of this jar in one salad though. And you do have to cut them up into small chunks. The feta cheese is cheaper NOT in the quickie deli section. Look in the cream cheese section instead for a better price. 

I love these Girard's salad dressings...they are not cheap, usually $3.99 on Sale! 

Look for the Greek with Feta dressing (my favorite for this salad....)
Or if you have some good Italian like Kraft House Italian...that will do too in a pinch....

Boil the pasta ( I look for colorful pasta for holidays...sometimes in fun shapes too) but any kind will do, curly, shell, or ziti style or bowtie are all good. Then drain it. Add the sliced artichokes, chopped tomatoes, diced peppers and cucumber, celery, and olives. I cut my olives in half. Add a few cups of diced rotisserie chicken for a meal.

Then add the Feta Cheese to the Artichoke Pasta Salad...I pinch it all and crumble
it till it is as fine as cottage cheese...

Crumble the feta cheese over everything and then add the Greek dressing (it looks like an olive oil thick Italian with bits of cheese in it, kind of cloudy looking). A good brand of Greek dressing is hard to find.  Look for Girrards Greek and Feta Cheese or Trader Joe's Greek Dressing or make your own. A good recipe is HERE at All recipes.com. Taste and shake a little seasoning salt over it.  Let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

Use whatever color you want of the fresh peppers...I used red on this one..

Artichoke Pasta Salad...yummy! (Better with black olives...I didn't have any on hand)
But trust me...It's better WITH olives...and looks more Greek too....

Colorful and rich and Greek Artichoke & Feta Pasta Salad!  

It is delicious and you will get many compliments on it. It is just a little different from stuff everybody else brings to the New Year's Party. It is the bomb for a juicy good side dish! 

Christmas Chocolate Bundt Cake

We love to make traditions in my family.  One of them is making our holiday Chocolate Bundt Cake.....I made this
one for a family get together at Christmas time. 

Chocolate Bundt Cake

 This is my favorite Chocolate Cake recipe.  It is from All recipes.com. It is a rich and easy chocolate cake that you can use a boxed mix to start with and just doctor it up. It's full of delicious richness, from the sour cream, pudding mix and the chocolate chips. It has a delectable cream cheese icing. It's to die for good!

 I played around while it was baking and rearranged some of my Christmas stuff. I'm only enjoying it for another few days and then I'll have to do the dirty job of putting Christmas away.

 Which is depressing so I'm not going to think about it today.....I'm going to the movies instead......yippee!

 I'm really good at denial and not facing up to responsibilities....especially on my winter break from teaching school.  I just like sleeping in....eating lots of snacks and cold cereal....and NOT making dinner....

 But I still like dessert...(.nobody said anything about dessert...)......yeah it's still a staple around these parts..... The recipe for too much chocolate cake is HERE.

Can you believe one of my neighbor GUYS brought over this delectable pecan pie? Yeah....I know.....A GUY WHO MAKES PIE! !   wHaT the HeCk? How can that be?  My husband can barely make a pancake! 

Banana bread...cranberry bread....cinnamon rolls...English Toffee....Caramel Apples...we had
 lots of stuff from wonderful neighbors and friends! 

Here I am right before everybody came over Christmas morning...I'm busy making food....go figure! 

Too many treats....I'm getting chunkier by the minute! 

Here was my bundt cake all ready for the fam.........yummy! 

Cream Cheese icing on Bundt cakes is my favorite too!  Then I
decorated with red and green sugars and a holly and ivy candle ring and
some purchased glittery peppermint cake toppers.....super cute!  

Chocolate bundt cake....so rich and easy....

And even prettier with all the toppers and doo dads and sprinkles....

Here's to a happy holiday...a happy new year....and to losing a few pounds.....
but....just not this week.....(yeah I'm good at procrastinating too! are you surprised?)

AND let's make that a New Year's Resolution.....and THAT is not till NEXT year...and that's a whole 3 days away!   For today....let's dig in! All ya need is a cold glass of milk to go with it~  And then I'm going to see Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible) or Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes)  mmmhmmm....... Happy 2012  Ya'll!

Mango Green Apple Cole Slaw

I posted my first recipe on Allrecipes.com. It is a cole slaw recipe and it is really sweet and good. I love it for a side dish when I'm making any kind of fish. It's a little sweet and a little tart from the mango and green apple. So anyway, if you are sick of Christmas sweets like I am....(I'm lying....I'm eating a Chocolate covered cherry as I type this...) try a chopped salad. Yum.


Recipe for Mango Green Apple Cole Slaw

Ingredients

• 1 small head of cabbage chopped up in small chunks.
• 1 medium granny smith apple diced
• 1 small,ripe mango diced
• 1 chopped carrot (or 8 sliced mini carrots)not shredded
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds (long fat style)
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup wine or rice vinegar (both work well)
• 1 1/2 T of lime or orange juice
• dash of pepper
• dash of Lawrys or salad seasoning to your taste

Directions

1. Coursely chop up all the ingredients. Then in a small bowl whisk mayo, sugar, vinegar, lime or orange juice and seasonings to your taste. Pour over salad right before serving. For less calories use less of the dressing and it's still yummy.

 Here we are HAVING FUN WITH FOOD in the kitchen the other night. I had my family over for lasagna and salad, and then we decorated Christmas cookies with the little kiddos.

This is just a dollar store plastic...great way to separate the candy for decorating cookies

My granddaughters getting into frosting their sugar cookies

My son Devin made a gingerbread "lady with body parts" I'm so proud. 

Even my youngest grandbaby got into it...Josie is only a year old! 

Marisa, almost 5 loved it the best....she has baking in her genes....

Christmas Cookie Decorations 

Christmas Sugar Cookies....Megan's gettin into it! 

Josie's just happy to be here....

 This is a fun tradition we've had in our family for many years. I do this in my classroom for the kids, either decorating sugar cones to look like green iced Christmas trees, or gingerbread men, or sugar cookies. And I bring the extra candy home for the kids to do a few decorative cookies too.  It's been going on for probably 15 years.

I ate the whole cookie grandma! 

Even the guys got into it....

We made some awesome sugar cookies Dudes! 

Sugar cookies are a fun family tradition....

Our creations....mostly kid made.....

A few had a whole bottle of sugar dumped on them.....can I say....big mess?  Luckily our doggie
walked around licking up stray candy all night....He's probably nauseous today! :O

Kiddie sugar
cookies....it was a sweet night....

Merry Christmas!