The Daily Dish Recipes

Here is the third installment of The Daily Dish Monday Madness Recipe Roundup. I find so many awesome recipes as I am blog hopping, and often I wish to return to try them out. The recipe roundup seemed like a useful way for me to record the yummy recipes I find for myself, and at the same time, give a little linky love for these blogs and share them with all of you. For last week’s post, click here.

I don’t know too much about this blog or what it’s main purpose is, but did find an awesome Raspberry Frozen Yogurt recipe that I’d like to try. I think I will wait until it’s just a little warmer though.

Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice posted the most amazing Chocolate Ganache Truffles recipe I think I’ve ever seen. As a self professed chocolate addict, I am SO trying these!!

Honestly, we did not exactly have a “normal” Christmas this year. Sure, the majority of the day was normal. But my daughter was sick, and we suspected it was a UTI turned bladder infection turned…worse. We weren’t sure exactly, but all signs and symptoms seemed to point to Kidney’s which you just know is never good. Throw in the fact that she is a 56lb ten year old and it was her favorite day of the year, and it just plain wasn’t good.

The morning seemed normal, though she kept complaining about her side hurting her. At first we thought she had a Wii injury (insert laugh) but after a bit, we could tell something else was up. Her fever was 101 and while she had a blast opening up her gifts and watching her siblings open theirs, that spark that is normally there with her was missing. As is typical for Christmas day, we usually go to my mom’s which we still decide to do. She spiked another fever after a few hours there - 103 and this one wasn’t budging. We took her home, gave her more Tylenol and planned to call the doctor in the morning.

At 2am she climbed into bed with me, crying pretty hard, clutching her side and basically balling herself up. So we spent about 2 hours total at the Emergency Room and were home by 4:45am.  Yes, it was as we had suspected - Kidney’s were infected - mostly the bladder - 2 anti-biotics and some medicine for pain - today - we’re almost all better. YAY!

The nurse told her she had “sick eyes” when she saw her. “Oh baby, look at your sick eyes. I can see it. I hate to see children with sick eyes.” That’s what she said. But look - Brie really did have sick eyes.

Poor thing!

It seems as if every holiday that comes and goes, encourages me more and more to eat, eat, eat. Do you feel the same? There are always amazing dishes and treats to try, and by no means is it easy to pass them up. I was extremely frustrated yesterday when I stood on the scale and saw about 5lbs added to the already 20lbs I’m trying to cut back. LOL
Especially because this year I worked hard to check my eating habits. Smaller portions, no eating until I was full, etc. We also got a Wii recently, so I’ve been playing like crazy and two days before Christmas Eve, I stood on the scale and was absolutely THRILLED to see I had lost 4lbs just since we had started playing it, and that was without Wii Fit, which I hope to buy soon.

So what did I learn? Nothing. LOL I will always continue to eat on holiday’s because so many delicious foods are prepared, and well, I love food. So, today (well actually yesterday) began the long journey to first, losing the five lbs I decided to put on because of the two days of eating, and then I’ll work in the rest.

It isn’t exactly a resolution to lose weight, it is a resolution to watch my eating habits, and to work on my fitness level. What is yours?

A couple of days ago, my other half and I were trying to decide what to make for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. The thing is, we are staying home - and nobody is coming over. We actually love it that way. We always do a small ham and a small turkey. We actually make little sandwiches with the meat, out of dollar rolls. We make things like devil eggs, hash brown casserole and other traditional side dishes. We can’t agree on what to make for dessert and now we are two days away. Ugh! Once we finally eat, the children will be allowed to open two presents - a pair of pajamas and an ornament. They will get changed, hang their ornament and we will sit and watch a family movie together. Though we just bought a Wii so I bet that plays a part too.

But while getting irritated at the whole dessert menu thing, it got me thinking. What do others do? Here are a few questions for you. Hope you’ll take the time to respond. You can either respond right there in the comment field below, or you can actually put a post up on your blog and leave a link.

What is a traditional Christmas Eve for you?
What does your family have for dinner? Dessert?
Do you open any presents?
What does Christmas morning look like for you?
Do you wake up early?
Any special Christmas morning traditions?
Do you eat a special breakfast? Brunch?
What does your day of food look like?
What do you guys do all day?

Anyway, I’m anxious to hear what everyone else does.

Here is the second installment of my Monday Madness Recipe Roundup. I find so many awesome recipes as I am blog hopping, and often I wish to return to try them out. The recipe roundup seemed like a useful way for me to record the yummy recipes I find, and at the same time, give a little linky love for these blogs and share them with all of you. For last week’s post, click here .

Jenn Cooks doesn’t post regularly on this blog, but when she does, she gives detailed directions WITH photos which is so wonderful. Her latest Chocolate Mint Pudding Pie Recipe  , seriously looks like something I might try for Christmas Eve dinner or to bring to my mom’s on Christmas Day.

Seeking His Face…In Everything had an awesome series of posts this week on Christmas Cookies (a gal after my own heart). My favorite was the Chocolate Scotcheroos .  If I hadn’t already finished all my Christmas Cookie baking, I would so be adding these. Don’t worry, we’ll be trying them out just on our family in a couple of days.

The Homesteading Housewife had a most amazing recipe for scrumptious sounding cookies - Maple Cinnamon Snickerdoodles . Snickerdoodles are my SO’s favorite cookie, so we are definitely going to be trying them!

I thoroughly enjoy the Southern Plate blog, and as is pretty standard for the blog, many new, delicious recipes appear often. This week my favorite was the Double Layer Peppermint Bark , which she apparently put up for her son’s third grade class. It looks fabulous!

Creating with Shelly is an awesome scrapbooking blog, but she posts recipes often. This week’s favorite was the the Hot Caramel Chocolate that you so have got to try!

Last night the kids made dinner. I allowed them free reign over the kitchen, and I was in the next room to help. They asked me to stay in there and they would surprise me with dinner. I have five kids ranging in age from 9-14. It was one heck of an interesting dinner:

We had scrambled eggs, sausage patties and chicken patties. This has to be the most unique dinner I have ever had with my family and we have had some strange dinners. They actually did a great job with each individual item, including shaping the sausage patties from the ground sausage and the scrambled eggs were a little juicier than I liked but they were really good. I am overall impressed with my kids ability to cook in the kitchen, but I think I need to broaden the dishes they can prepare so we don’t end up with this again. Have you ever let your kids make a meal? If so what was made?

These cookies were a great addition to our Christmas cookie baking. We used small cookie cutters to stretch the dough and were able to give everyone a nice big amount of them. This recipe makes about 13 dozen mini cookies.

Lemon Butter Cookies Recipe

1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. milk
2 tsp. lemon extract
1/2 tsp. salt
4 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
yellow sugar

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together. Add the eggs, the milk, and the lemon extract. In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Cover and chill for 2 hours. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness or so. Dip your cookie cutter in some flour and cut the shapes out. Place the cut shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with yellow sugar if desired (we desired). Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

I want to post the different cookie recipes we used for our holiday cookie baking that we have done. We made six different recipes so far, and it has taken us two days to make over 20 dozen cookies. Yeah. So here is one recipe we used. This particular recipe makes 14 1/2 dozen, so if you aren’t making them as “gifts”, I would consider halfing or quartering the recipe for your family.

Dipped Gingersnaps Recipes

2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. molasses
4 c. flour
4 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 pkgs. vanilla chips (or choc. chips)
1/4 c. shortening
additional sugar for rolling

In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil, mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the molasses. In another large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well. Shape dough into 1″ balls and roll in sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2″ apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a saucepan, melt the vanilla chips with the shortening over low heat. Dip the cookies in about halfway and shake off any excess. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets to harden.

Last night we had leftovers soup. I’m sure you’re wondering what in the world that is? Interestingly, it is exactly what it sounds like. A vast concoction of leftovers.

We had leftover noodles, leftover hamburger meat, leftover carrots and celery and I added beef stock, beef gravy and some cubes of velveeta cheese. A few weeks ago we had leftover spaghetti and I made a noodle tomato soup with the leftovers.

When I first heard of making leftover soup, I thought it would be gross, but the way you make it not gross, is thinking about what would taste good together. Use seasonings like garlic, onion or green pepper to flavor it and add some veggies.

Our leftovers soup was delicious and the kids didn’t even realize it WAS leftovers. That’s the beauty of making it - taking old and making it new again.

Have you ever made leftovers soup?

So here’s the deal with Entrecard. First, I absolutely love it, because I have found some awesome blogs that way, as well as creating many great friendships. Second, I actually enjoy doing drops because I am able to find out what is new on my favorite blogs each day.

With those two things being said, I just did a massive “clean house” on my entrecard account and I feel really good about it. The first thing I did was go through my entire favorite list, and see how many times people had dropped on my blog in the past month. If it was a blog I know has been around awhile, and has dropped on me less than 10 times in 30 days (giving them lots of “no drop” days) I removed them. Yes, I enjoyed visiting them, but since I like to find new blogs and create new friendships, I don’t need the non-reciprocal blogs as favorites. So they are all gone. If they’ve never dropped on me they also left.

If you dropped on me more than 10 times, I dropped on you and left you as a favorite.

After that, I went to my INBOX and dropped on every single person that dropped on me in the last 24 hours. I favorited them, and will continue to drop on them for the next two weeks. At that time I’m going to go back and go through this all again.

I figure this way I am always getting new traffic, dropping on those that drop on me, and still keeping up with those I love to visit everyday also.

How do you do your drops?