Little Bits of This & That

Crock Pot Potato Soup~YUM!

Weather in Minnesota is very fickle this year. Some day's it HOT and some day's it is down right cold, rainy and dreary. On the dreary day's, I love to pull out my crock and throw some food in it to cook all day....making the house small warm and cozy.

One of the newest favorites in our house is Crock Pot Potato Soup. Super easy and totally yummy....you have to try it! So here is the recipe~

Crock-Pot Potato Soup (Yum!!)

What you need~

1 bag (32 oz) frozen diced hash brown potatoes, thawed

1/2 cup onions, chopped

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup carrots, chopped

1/2 cup red peppers, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste. (I used 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper)

2 tbsp butter

1 carton (32 oz) chicken broth

1 cup water

3 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

2 cups shredded cheese. (I like mexican blend)

1/4 cup real bacon, cooked crispy

4 medium green onions chopped 

More shredded cheese for topping if you wish. (Can never have too much cheese right?)                                                                                           

What you do~

In 3- or 4-quart slow cooker, mix potatoes, onion, carrots, red pepper, celery, butter, salt, pepper, broth and water.


Cover; cook on Low heat setting 6 to 8 hours.

In small bowl, mix flour into milk; stir into potato mixture.

Increase heat setting to High.

Cover; cook 20 to 30 minutes or until mixture thickens.

Stir in cheese until melted.

Garnish individual servings with bacon and green onions (and extra cheese if you like.)

Eat with happiness!

Gotta love stuffing.......

I love Thanksgiving! One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is making and of course eating my sister-in-laws stuffing. My sister-in-law is an amazing cook. I have to say that it's the BEST stuffing I have ever had. Another thing I love about it is that it's easy to prepare with very little mess. So I figured I should share it with you just in case you are looking for some super yummy stuffing to go with your turkey meal this year.....here it is~

What you need~

2 well beaten eggs

1 cup butter

2 cups finely chopped onions

2 cups finely chopped celery

1 tube of Jimmy Dean sauage (sage flavor or regular works great)

1/4 cup parley

16 oz of fresh chopped mushrooms

12-13 cups of dry bread crumb cubes

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp sage

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp marjorn

3 1/2-4 1/2 cups of chicken broth

What to do~

Saute onion and celery in butter...yes use 1 cup of butter!

Brown Jimmy Dean sauage, drain and crumble.

Mix all the ingredients together in a HUGE bowl.

Now here is the super easy part......Spray your LARGE (I use a 7 quart) crock pot with cooking spray (I like olive oil) and throw all the ingredients in the crock pot. Cook on high for 45 minutes. Turn crock pot down to medium and cook on low for 4 to 6 more hours.....Enjoy!!!

P.S. Be sure to hop on over to the NEW Holly Taylor Designs blog and sign up for the contest/giveaway they have going on...Gotta love that Holly Taylor fabric!

 

Yummy Apple Goo.......

Yes, yummy apple goo....at least that is what my husband called it. We love apples that are fresh picked from the orchard in the fall. So we picked some up from the farmers market the other day and when we got home, my daughter whipped us up a wonderful and easy salad that is actually called Snicker Apple salad.

Here is what you need~

1 tub of cool whip.

12, fun size snicker bars.

5 or 6 tart and tangy apples of your choice. (We used Braeburn apples.)

Here is what you do~

Cut up the Snicker bars into pieces. (We cut ours into 6 pieces each.)

Peal and chop up apples into bite size pieces. I love to use our apple, peeler, slicer, corer gadget thing.

Throw your apples, Snicker and Cool Whip in a bowl and mix.

Put the salad in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

 Eat and enjoy! (I guess we should have wiped up the bowl a bit to make it pretty but it's a yummy salad no matter how messy the bowl.)

This isn't a new recipe but we hadn't made it in a few years so I figure I should share it with you, so you can enjoy it too!

 

Poppyseed Dressing....

The other day I posted one of my favorite salad recipes here on my blog called Chicken and Craisin Salad. I love, love, love this salad and I think what makes it so good is the poppyseed dressing.

After reading my blog, I had a very sweet lady share her recipe for poppyseed dressing with me and she said that I can share it with you...so here it is~

Suz's Sweet Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
5 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/8 cup sweet white onion
2 tsp. white vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
3/4 tsp. poppy seeds
1/4 cup canola oil

Put everything in your blender, except the poppy seeds and the canola oil. Process until the onion has been liquified. On the lowest speed of the blender, pour in the canola oil and the poppy seeds. Refrigerate and enjoy!

I will definately be trying this the next time I make my favorite Chicken and Craisin Salad. Hope you give it a try too!

 

 

A little chicken and craisins

I got this recipe from a good friend and I have to share it. It's one of those salads that I just can't get enough of.

~Chicken & Craisin Salad~

What you need~

2 to 3 cups chicken, cut up (I like to use a rotisserie chicken cuz they have great flavor.)

6 oz craisins.

1 cup chopped celery. (More if you like.)

1 1/2 cup of small shell pasta. (Uncooked)

1 bottle (12 oz) Brianna's Poppyseed Dressing. (You can use other poppyseed dressing but Brianna's is the best!)

Cook pasta as directed on the box, rinse with cold water. Mix first 4 ingredients together. Mix in the dressing, adding enough to coat the salad. (I use about 3/4 of the bottle.)

Chill in re-fridge for a few hours. Re-coat with dressing as needed.

Hope you enjoy this salad as much as we do~yummmmm!

Until next time~ Sherri

 

It's time for a blog hop!

Monique from Open Gate Quilts has organized a fun blog hop for you this week! I hope you checked out her cute project yesterday...if you didn't, be sure to stop by her blog and check it out...and don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in her drawing!

Here is the line up for the blog hop~

July 4th - Open Gate - Monique, http://opengatequilts.blogspot.com/
July 5th - Stashmaster -  Lisa - http://stashmaster.typepad.com/
               This & That - Sherri, http://thisandthatpatterns.typepad.com/
July 6th - Sweetwater - Lisa, http://www.sweetwater.typepad.com/
July 7th - Quilter's Window - Denise, http://www.quilterswindow.com/blog/
               A Quilting Life - Sherri, http://www.aquiltinglife.com/
July 8th - Cupcakes 'n Daisies - Thelma - http://www.cupcakesndaisies.blogspot.com/

And it's July 5th, so it's my day to share with you!

The project I have for you is an easy and fun table topper called Firecracker. Yes, I know that the 4th was yesterday but I really this table topper and you can make it for next year or you can make it out of Halloween or Christmas fabric and it would be super cute out of one of those too.

   

Click here to download your copy of the Firecracker pattern.

Now for a big-time family favorite recipe for summer time grilling~

~BBQ RIBS~

What you need~

2 racks of pork ribs. (Cut in half, so you have 4 smaller racks.)

1 onion cut into big chunks.

2 tablespoons butter.

5-7 beers.

28 ozs of Sweet Baby's Ray's BBQ sauce.

(You can use your favorite kind instead if you want)

2-3 tbsp. Franks Hot sauce.

Let's begin~

In large pot, put beer, butter and onion. Add rib racks. Bring to simmer and simmer ribs for 45 minutes to and hour.  (Beer should cover the ribs and you may need to skim off the foam...that's what I do....don't like the brown foam that come to the top...you will see what I mean.)

Mix BBQ sauce and hot sauce together in bowl. Remove ribs from beer pot and baste with BBQ/hot sauce.

Heat grill to med-high. (Depending on the grill.) Place ribs on grill, brown both sides as desired, basting often with sauce.

The ribs are done cooking when you take them out of the beer pot...you are grilling them to give the grill flavor and to caramelize the BBQ sauce. Be careful not to over grill, as you will dry them out!

(We brown each side for approx 5 mins...it really has alot to do with the look or how brown you want your ribs. We like them medium brown. We baste each side a few times....I like them full of sauce!)

Hope you enjoyed the 4th...we spend the day boating, grilling and hanging out with family...ending the day with fireworks.  Great way to celebrate America!

Now be sure to leave me a comment on your favorite holiday tradition or anything you feel like saying and you will be entered in the drawing for my new book "Cardinal Christmas" and some fat 1/4's of the Cardinal Christmas fabric...I will even throw in the panel fabric... they are so pretty! So please leave a comment here and I will let you know on friday who the lucky winner is!

Until friday~Sherri

 

 

 

 

So Sweet......

 There is nothing better than a sweet dessert after a wonderful home cooked meal that I didn't have to make! Why does food taste better when made by a friend? I have a good friend who is an awesome cook and when she came for a visit she wanted to make dinner for me....anything I wanted! So, thinking I would challenge her a bit, I asked for Creme Brulee. It's one of my all time favorite desserts. Of course she is always up for the challenge and start to try to figure out the best recipe for it.

She found this video~

 

And she then made the Creme Brulee just like the chef did. It is much better when you cook with an accent!

 
My husband was excited to hear that we needed a blow torch to burn the sugar and ran right out to Home Depot to get us one. Of course, he was looking forward to the dessert but also needed a good excuse to buy one to burn off the threads on his snowmobile track....must be a guy thing.

 

  
 

 
 
How pretty is that! And which size spoon do you use? I can tell you it was sssoooo delicious! Nothing better than Creme Brulee shared with a good friend.

What is your favorite desert?

Until next time~

Sherri

 

 

Spiced Pecans.....

I just couldn't keep this good-find to myself! I am always in search of the next big family favorite/gotta have it cookie or candy recipe. This year while going through the Old-Fashioned Candy cook book that I picked up at the Biltmore Estate a few years ago,

 
I found the recipe for Spiced Pecans. I figured I should try this recipe because it sounded alot like the pecans that my friend and I had when we went to Savannah, Ga this past summer and I loved the spiced pecans they made down there. 

Well, the house smelled fantasitc while the pecans were baking and they are a new big-time favorite! I packaged them up in cute holiday treat baggies that I picked up at Target and have been sharing them with everyone.

Here is the recipe so that you can enjoy them too~

 
Click here to download a printable copy~ 

Spiced Pecans

 Hope you and yours enjoy this yummy recipe as much as we have!

Merry Christmas to you~Sherri

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

Another sweet day for Making & Baking....

We are already on day #4 of our hop.....I sure hope you are enjoying this week as much as we are!

Today we going to share with you our favorite books to have on hand during the holidays. Now I must confess that I have a serious love/obsession for books. I love to read just about anything, so it is very hard to narrow the list down. But one of the books my family and I love to read during the holidays is "The Legend of the Candy Cane". It's a wonderful story for any age that tells of the real meaning of Christmas using the simple candy cane.

 

Another book I must use during the holidays is "The Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook".

 
I think Martha is one creative lady and her cookbook has the best recipes in it. Since it seems like I can only be creative in one area of my life at a time....I use her cookbook faithfully so that I have a great line up of food to cook without all the stress of having to think anything up!

Now for another sweet addition to your cookie collection~

 
Today we have "Snicker Surprise" cookies!

I found this recipe on the back of the bag for bite size snickers a few years ago. We have been making them ever since. Another must-make for my family!

 
Click here to download your copy of the Snicker Surprise Cookies.

Please stop by tomorrow for another favorite recipe!

Don't forget to leave a comment on each blog so that you will be entered in the drawing for our grand prize.

I have to tell you that the grand prize is just that..... GRAND! We have patterns, books, templates, fabric, notions and more. I sure wish I could win!

If you didn't leave a comment on monday...please be sure to hop back over to "Little Bits of This & That" and leave a comment today so you don't miss out on your chance to win the grand prize.

Now go and enjoy the holiday projects that have been created just for you at Moda Lissa and Quilts 4 Julie.

 

 

 

More Making & Baking.....

Welcome to our third day of Mistletoe Make & Bake!

Today we will be giving you some creative suggestions on how to break the ice with people at a holiday party.

Now I am not much of a party person but I when I meet people, I like to break the ice by asking them about their family. Most people have kids and LOVE to talk about them. I know I love, love, love to talk about mine! There are many other topics that are easy to bring up and start a conversation about....pets (I love my bulldogs too!) or travel. I know I want to travel more and enjoy hear about where people have gone and learn from their expericences.

And now I do have another yummy recipe just for you! 

Today is the day for "Nut Goodie Bars".

I got this recipe from my neighbor Kathy and my family loves it. It has now become a must~make holiday tradition. They are super yummy good! Hope you like them as much as we do!

Click here to download a copy of the  Nut Goodie Bar.

Hope you enjoy today's cookies and please stop back tomorrow for another family favorite recipe.

Don't forget to leave a comment on each blog so that you will be entered in the drawing for our grand prize! If you didn't leave a comment on monday...please be sure to hop back over to "Little Bits of This & That" and leave a comment today so you don't miss out on your chance to win the grand prize and my prizes too.

Now be sure to check out the holiday projects that have been whipped up for you at Perkin's Dry Goods , Patrick Lose and Kelly Ann's Quilting. 

See you tomorrow~Sherri