My sweet Mother developed this recipe after tasting some at a restaurant. After a few experiments, she came up with this Italian Cream Cheese Ball that’s super good on crackers. If you want, you can also roll the ball in toasted pecans.

ITALIAN CREAM CHEESE BALL

Ingredients

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 chopped fresh green onion
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Method

Allow cream cheese to soften to room temperature, then mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use. The cheese ball improves with age.

This is a big hit at all kinds of get-togethers, and certainly isn’t limited to holiday gatherings. It would be delicious at a tailgate party as well!

As long as you’re in the mood for new recipes, why not head over to My Wooden Spoon and check out some of the great recipes there. You might even want to submit one of your own there!

Technorati Tags: recipe, Italian Cream Cheese Ball, holiday, tailgate party

I got my Pampered Chef gadgets last weekend. I bought two sizes of wire whips, a large rubber spatula, and a set of three paring knives. They are all so solidly made and my younger daughter can’t say enough good things about the Pampered Chef items she’s gotten so far. Also, she was able to sell a little over $300 worth of kitchen utensils so she earned some very nice hostess gifts as well.

I think she gets her love of kitchen gadgets from me, since I have shelves full of them! If I ever get to buy the red Mustang I dream about, it will really be difficult for me to decide if I want to spend money on billet grilles for it or more kitchen gadgets!

Technorati Tags: Pampered Chef, kitchen utensils, kitchen gadgets

We named these tasty treats “crack-ers” because they are extremely habit forming. Yes, they’re that good! My older daughter made them for Christmas and gave some to us in a gift bowl. She just emailed me the recipe, so I’m going to be making them in the next few days, and I hope I don’t overdose on them!

Crack-ers

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups canola
• 1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix
• 2 or 3 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1 box saltines

Method

Place crackers in dish that will seal shut. Do not lay the crackers flat, they should be like they are in the tube..slightly slanted maybe. Mix the other stuff and pour over the crackers. Flip the container every 15 minutes or so for 2 hours to evenly distribute the seasonings.

Inexpensive and super tasty!

Technorati Tags: recipe, crackers

I’m sure everyone has made mistakes when they are cooking. I know I have! It happens usually when we aren’t paying close attention to what we’re doing or we haven’t properly gathered all ingredients before we start putting a recipe together.

A few years ago, when I was visiting my Mother, I was getting ready to bake a batch of buttery sugar cookies using her delicious recipe. I properly got out all the ingredients first, then began to measure them according to her recipe. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, lemon zest - just the regular ingredients. When I mixed them, the dough didn’t seem quite right, but I proceeded nonetheless. I hadn’t made the recipe before, so I assumed it was right.

After baking the first batch, I decided to try one. It was awful! It was hard and coarse and SALTY! The problem? I had gotten out a canister of what I thought was sugar, but it was canning salt! You couldn’t cut those cookies with a plasma cutter by the time they were finished baking. They were like stones!

Needless to say, I asked Mother where she actually kept her sugar and she pointed the appropriate canister out to me. Yes, I did make another batch and yes, they were tender and tasty.

Technorati Tags: recipe, canister, canning salt

I received the beautiful cookbook from the Cookie Contest, and I’m getting ready to get it wrapped up now. It’s gorgeous! It’s the Best of the Best from the Mid-Atlantic Cookbook and I know my daughter will really enjoy the recipes in it.

I browsed through it myself and found some tasty looking dishes. What I love best about this kind of cookbook is that the recipes are contributed by people who really use them. This means they are kitchen-tested in homes, and proven to be delicious. The recipes come from other cookbooks from the states of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.

The publisher is Quail Ridge Press, Inc. in Brandon, MS. I found this fascinating since my late husband and both my younger children were born and raised in Mississippi, and my youngest son’s name is Brandon!

Thank you, Charlotte!

Technorati Tags: cookbook, Best of the Best from the Mid-Atlantic Cookbook, recipes, Quail Ridge Press, Inc.

This name just really made me smile. After all, how could real estate at the beach be any kind of folly? It also got me to thinking about how folly beach sc real estate could put a person in the right position to get some really great, fresh seafood to add to their menu.

I love most all kinds of fish and seafood, and the recipes using them are widely varied. I tend to repeat the same dishes over and over, so I want to branch out into more “exotic” seafood recipes. Well, as long as it’s all fully cooked. “Raw fish” just isn’t in my cooking vocabulary.

I write a lot of things down, especially while I’m at work. However, I seem to be just about the only person who actually carries a pen or pencil with me. This means, someone is always asking to borrow something to write with when they’re putting dates and times on the food labels. Naturally, it also means I often don’t get my pen or pencil back.

I recently bought a dozen pens and a dozen mechanical pencils, and now only have one or two left of each. I’ve already threatened to get personalized pens. and have them inscribed with “This pen stolen from Ann.” What do you think? Will it work?

I plan to go to visit my Mother sometime tomorrow - Christmas Eve. Because my work schedule wasn’t set up for an extended visit, sadly, I’ll only be there for a few hours then I’ll come back home. However, after New Year’s, I’ll be going for several days.

So, for this trip, I won’t be needing any luggage. Still, I look forward to snacking on the delicacies that will be at Mom’s and at my sister’s house. Things like Fruited Popcorn, Snickerdoodles, and Rum Cake. Sis will have teas and hot chocolate to serve with those little tasties, too.

I haven’t had enough time lately to properly shop for gifts, so this year they will mostly be gift cards. The fact is, even if I had shopped for gifts, I’m not even sure what to get some on my list, such as my grandkids. It was easy when they were littler. But now, gifts from me might be as well received as life insurance quotes.

Just kidding, of course, because they aren’t ungrateful kinds of kids. But I don’t want to give them something that they view as “lame”, and I think the gift cards are the best way to go for that. Those, and cookies!

With my job schedule being what it has been, I haven’t had much time to do any kind of Christmas baking. That really disappoints me since I’ve always baked tons of stuff for Christmas. However, I did get enough ingredients while shopping last night to at least make Magic Cookie Bars and some other cookies.

This year, all my cookies will have to be easy to make and fast to fix, or I can just forget about them completely. Nothing complicated.

I hope you will be able to get your baking done in better order than I will!

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Magic Cookie Bars