Have A Chex Party Mix-Change!

During the holidays it's pretty common for people to throw a cookie exchange party. You know, where everyone brings a few dozen of their favorite cookies and then get together and chat and swap cookies. Then you can bring home your loot and share with neighbors, friends and family. Well, this year, instead of having a cookie exchange, why not have a Chex mix-change! MyBlogSpark contacted me about hosting my own Chex mix-change.

I'll be honest here, I'm not really into parties like this. So, instead what I'm doing is whipping up some of my favorite Chex mix recipes and share them with my neighbors this year instead of the normal cookies and candies that I bring for Christmas gifts. Something a little different never hurt anyone! I'm sure some yummy savory and sweet Chex mix recipes like Hot Buttered Yum Chex® Mix or Chex® Barbecue Snack Mix will be a welcome change from all of the fudge and candy that is so common to receive this time of year.

Would you like to host your own Chex Party Mix-Change? One reader will win this fun prize pack. It includes 2 boxes of Chex cereal, 5 Chex party mix recipes that come on nifty cards, 10 takeout containers to deliver or share your Chex mix in and a $20 gift card to purchase thS e ingredients to make all of that yummy Chex mix!!

You'll have until Friday December 9th to enter. I'll pick one winner and email you by Saturday the 10th. All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment on this post with a way for me to contact you. That's it! Good luck!

Disclosure: The Chex Party Mix-Change product, information, and giveaway have been provided by Chex through MyBlogSpark.

This giveaway is now closed, thank you to all that entered. The winner was Jambo!! Thanks everyone!

The World's Best Potato Salad

Since Spud (potato) Harvest is coming up soon around these parts, I figured it would be fitting to share a potato recipe with you all today.

Since I've been married, which will be eight years this November, I've yet to impress my husband with a good potato salad. He's not normally a picky eater, and will pretty much eat anything. But, potato salad is a different story. He doesn't like it too dry. He doesn't like it too sweet. He doesn't like it with dill.... Don't get me wrong, he will eat anything I make, but he rarely compliments on my potato salads. That is until he tried this one. I first made it a couple of weeks ago to go with some ribs I had made.

I found the recipe on AllRecipes.com but of course I changed things up a bit. If you're like me you know what I mean. You take a recipe as a base and then fix it up to your likings. I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I wrote down what I did!! He loved this one and even thought it worthy to bring along to a little catering job that we did just this last weekend. And everyone that ate at the dinner we provided said it was mighty delish!

Sorry I don't have a picture of this recipe right now, but I'm sure I'll be making it again soon and I'll post a picture of it then.

The World's Best Potato Salad

6 medium Idaho Russet potatoes
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
6 hard-boiled eggs, diced
5 slices bacon, cooked and chopped (optional)

dressing:

2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup vinegar
1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1/4 cup butter
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup relish
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp. pepper (or to taste)

paprika for garnish

Whisk together eggs, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Stir in vinegar, evaporated milk and mustard. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until thickened, this could take about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Refrigerate until completely cool. Then stir in mayonnaise, relish, celery seed, salt and pepper.

Wash the potatoes, but do not peel. Place whole potatoes into a large pot and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain and let cool. Once cool, peel and dice into a large bowl. Add onion, celery, eggs and bacon into bowl and mix.

Stir in cooled prepared dressing with the potato mixture. Make sure everything is evenly coated. Garnish with a shake or two of paprika for color. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, but overnight is best. Serve and enjoy!

We Have A Winner! & Some Candy Ideas

Thank you to all that entered the Hamburger Helper Giveaway!

The winner is mommysap, who said, "Love hamburger helper, Tim McGraw and a good cause. :)"

Now for some candy recipes. This is my first year making candies to give as gifts for Christmas, so I didn't make my own recipes, so I'm just going to link you to some good ones that I've made this year. Peanut butter balls have been a hit with my family and neighbors, and they are incredibly easy to make!! I also made homemade cordial cherries for the first time and will never buy them again!! Instead of the vanilla called for in the recipe I used some of the cherry juice that I reserved. And for some of them I chopped up some peanuts and mixed them in with my milk chocolate and dipped them in that to make them like a local candy company does! They were really yummy that way! I also made homemade turtles, which are caramel, pecans and chocolate. Yum! Make sure you have a good candy thermometer to make these! The caramel is also good by itself, or you can do what I did with some of it and wrapped it around some roasted and salted peanuts and then dipped them in white chocolate to make polar bear paws like See's candy! Yummy!! Then I also made some saltine toffee, which was surprisingly really good! I had never heard of anything like it before. I also made some buttercrunch, which was really yummy and rich! Make sure you use cane sugar when making that because the cheaper sugar doesn't melt right when making hard candies.

So, if you've been wanting to make some homemade candies, these are the ones that I've had luck with and I know they turn out yummy! Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Help Fight Hunger With Hamburger Helper

I've been awfully busy with getting ready for Christmas, but I thought I'd stop in and do a quick giveaway. Hamburger Helper and MyBlogSpark have put together a fun giveaway. Now, I don't normally buy or serve Hamburger Helper because my husband doesn't like it, but when I got contacted about holding a giveaway to help support the fight against hunger, I couldn't say no. Did you know that According to Feeding America, approximately 5.7 million different people receive emergency food assistance from the organization in any given week.

With this giveaway, MyBlogSpark and Hamburger Helper will be donating $10 in the winner's name to Feeding America. You'll also get a chance to win this nice little prize pack that includes a box of the classic cheeseburger macaroni Hamburger Helper, a Tim McGraw CD and a Hamburger Helper Hand!

Support the campaign by submitting codes from specially marked boxes of Hamburger Helper at www.showyourhelpinghand.com or by logging on to make a donation. Hamburger Helper has already donated more than half a million dollars and will contribute up to an additional $100,000 to Feeding America through this program. Don't think one code will make a difference? The 17 cents Hamburger Helper donates per code is enough for Feeding America to deliver one meal to a local food bank.

To enter to win, just leave me a comment with your email address. US only, you have until 12/17/10 to enter. One entry per person please! Good luck!

Menu For The Week of 11/21

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving this week! Here is my menu for this week.

Saturday (today): We don't have any leftovers like I was planning for, so I'll be making Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole, egg noodles, bread & salad

Sunday: Elk stew & homemade bread

Monday: Taco Salad

Tuesday: Chicken cacciatore, pasta, salad and french bread

Wednesday: Sandwiches and soup (I need easy since I'll be pretty busy!)

Thursday: Turkey Day! I'm bringing mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin cheesecake and a couple other desserts that I'm not really 100% decided on yet. And then I'll also bring a couple of appetizers, I'm thinking maybe some pepper jelly and cream cheese with crackers and maybe some chips and dip. My husband is also deep frying two turkeys! One for us to bring home and then one for eating on Thanksgiving along with the traditional turkey that my sister in law is making.

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: Turkey enchilada soup

Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year? Or are you just bringing things? What are you bringing?

Oatmeal Cookie Granola

This is by far my favorite granola recipe! The original recipe came from The Sisters Cafe but of course I can't just make a recipe like it's stated, so I altered it a little bit to my likings. This is a great breakfast granola with milk or yogurt or you can be like me and sit with the container of granola for a snack! I think it tastes like an oatmeal cookie, the cinnamon and vanilla really stand out! I love this granola and I always have it on hand.

Oatmeal Cookie Granola

4 cups Oats (I use old fashioned)
1 cup flour, all purpose or whole wheat, whatever you have
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
¼ cup flax seed (optional)
1 cup or more almond slivers and/or pecans pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/3 cup water
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 300. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, flax seed, coconut and nuts. Set aside. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar, butter, and water and heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbly. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture together until smooth, and then stir in the salt, vanilla and spices. Pour mixture over the oats mixture and stir will to coat. Let stand for about 10 minutes.
Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, separating it into irregular clumps with your fingers, and allowing space between clumps for the hot air to circulate. Bake in oven for 15 minutes at a time, stirring after each 15 minutes, baking for a total of one hour. Cool completely and add raisins and craisins and store in an air tight container.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

One of my favorite easy things to make to accompany a meal are these cheddar bay biscuits. They are so yummy and whenever I make them, my family gobbles them up. If you've ever been to Red Lobster, then you have had cheddar bay biscuits, but I honestly think that these are better! They aren't as greasy as Red Lobster's and they just plain taste better. When I make these I use Pioneer Brand baking mix, because I like it better then Bisquick, but you can use either or a store brand would even work. I hope you try these, let me know what you think!

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

2 cups baking mix (I like Pioneer Brand the best)

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons melted butter

2/3 milk

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Mix the baking mix and cheese together in a bowl, add melted butter and milk and mix until combined. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Top baked biscuits with garlic herb butter and enjoy!

Makes 9 biscuits.

Garlic Herb Butter

¼ cup salted butter, melted

¼ - ½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon dried parsley

Mix all ingredients together and top hot cheddar biscuits.