Introducing..drumroll please!.........My beautiful family!!

These are my three precious ladies.

This is my wonderful husband and me!

I just wanted you all to finally see them after me talking about them. My husband is 42 this month and he is a sales manager for the east coast. He works for Abraham of North America and

his company imports dry cured ham. What most of you call Prociutto. Its quite delicious. But most of all he is the best father any kids would be lucky to have. They just dont come any better.

My girls are all special in their own way. They keep us beaming with pride. My oldest has a job at an office for Tax Appraisers. She works full time downtown, Lauren is very proud of what she does and she does do it well. My next child Sara is a full time student at Incarnate Word College also downtown. She is taking some great classes she loves that challenge her. She lives in a dorm

up there and she is enjoying her alone time. She does like me to load her up with leftovers whens he goes. She said its better than the cafeteria! Now my youngest is our firecracker and she proves it with her flaming hair. Her hair is just the most beautiful shade of red. We cant even go

to the grocery store and someone will say something about her beautiful hair. Shes strongly opinionated but we have learned she loves to get her opinion out there and then thats it. They are just smart girls I just cant wait to see where this adventure takes us and I get to see who they will become. I am extremely blessed to be their mother and my husbands wife!!

Have a wonderful evening!!

Joan

Olive Cheese Bread~

Hello Everyone!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We have not done much today. My husband is still recovering from having surgery on his knee, so I have been trying some new recipes out. I made Southern Plates Apple Dapple Cake and I really cannot even say how good that cake was. Notice I said was. Ha! I made it last night and my parents came over today and we all ate a piece and then another piece.....with coffee it is awesome! This evening my daughter Sara had some friends over so I got to try this new recipe out. They all gave it thumbs up. You will be addicted to this. This was recommended to me by a friend who said her family has it on holidays. The girls eat it in the kitchen while the men are outside bar-b-queing. Isnt that great? I love this and I hope you do too!!



Olive Cheese Bread



1/2 cup butter melted

1/2 cup mayonaise

1 small can ripe olives, chopped

3 green onions with tops, chopped

4 oz. medium cheddar cheese

4 oz. parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic minced

1 loaf unsliced french bread



In a large bowl, combine first seven ingredients. Slice bread in half lengthwise.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet ( I always cover it in foil...easy cleanup!).

Spread mixture over the bread. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes

Delicious!

Slice french bread lengthwise

Mix up the ingredients

Spread it over the bread





All done. Notice there is only one.
I almost forgot the picture!



I hope you all have a super weekend!!

Pecan Pie Muffins

I have been over to Southern Plate and she had thebest looking muffins ever. It was a great fall morning so I thought I would try to make these. They were so simpleand so tasty. Shes got the recipe up so go over tohttp://www.southernplate.blogspot.com/ and check it out.

Heres a couple of pics from me.

This whole recipe took 30 minutes from preparation to the buzzer going off.

Happy Birthday Pris!

My friend Priscilla had a birthday back in September and I just had to show ya'll the cheesecake I made her. It is the best cheesecake recipe that I have ever come across. Its come out great everytime. Although I have tried cherry everytime, my favorite is blueberry so I will do that next time.

Cherry Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350, rack in middle position.

Crust:
2 cups vanilla wafers (measure after crushing)
3/4 stick melted butter (6 tbsp.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour melted butter and extract over cookie crumbs. Mix with a fork until evenly moistened.

Cut a circle of parchment paper (or wax) to fit inside the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.Spray pan with non stick spray, set circle in place, spray again.Dump moistened crumbs in the pan and press down over paper circle and up the sides about 1 inch thick. Stick this in the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes while you prepare rest of cheesecake.

For the topping:
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
21 oz. can of cherry pie filling-I used comstock

Mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla together. Cover and refrigerate. Set unopened can of filling in fridge for later.

Cheesecake batter:
1 cup white granulated sugar
3 eight oz packages of cream cheese at room temp.
1 cup mayonaisse
4 eggs
2 cups white chocolate chips-11 or 12 oz bag, I used Ghirdellis
2 teasp. vanilla

Place sugar in the bowl of electric mixer. Add blocks of cream cheese and the mayo, and whip it up at medium speed til its smooth. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition.Melt white chips in microwave safe bowl stirring at 15 second intervals until smooth.Cool for minute or two and then mix in gradually at slow speed. Scrape down bowl and add vanilla mixing it thoroughly.Pour batter on chilled crust, set the pan on a cookie sheet to catch drips and bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Remove from oven but DONT TURN OFF THE OVEN.

Starting in center spread sour cream mixture over cheesecake, spread till you are within a half inch from sides. Return pan to oven and bake 5 more minutes.Cool on counter and then when it is cool enough refrigerate at least 8 hrs. uncovered.To serve, run a knife along the sides of pan then release spring form. Spread cherries over the top and you have the prettiest best tasting cheesecake ever!

Happy Tuesday!

Hello everyone, I hope everyone had a great weekend. My oldest daughter and I, and two of our dear friends, Tisha and Kirsten took a road trip this weekend. We went to Canton Texas for their monthly trade days. It is 100 acres of shopping fun. We stayed in a cute little bed an breakfast on a mountain. Although the booths at trade days closed about 6 pm, our mountain we stayed on came alive at night. We shopped until after 10 pm, went to a quilt auction, found a restaurant with comfort food and had massages. Although it was alot of walking we had a great time. Tisha even purchased her new daughter, Kallie Nicole, a schnorkie. She is half schnauzer and half yorkie. She is the most precious girl! She is 11 weeks and the cutest pup you have ever seen. She was such a good girl in the car on the way home. We found this wonderful pie shop and stopped in there not once, not twice but about 4 times to try different pies. They were homemade and we devoured them. We got alot of great finds and bargains and Kallie got some great toys and a new bed and blanket. Lauren found some really pretty things for her room. If there is anything, and I mean anything, you are looking for this is the place to find it. Here is a few pics from the weekend!
Have a wonderful day!

Tisha And I with our empty carts.

Lauren and Kirsten with all of the yummy pies.

Lauren and I at the pie shop.

Tisha, Lauren, and Kirsten at our favorite spot on The Mountain.

Kirsten and the new baby Kallie Nicole

Kirsten and Lauren ready to shop!

New Snacks!!

Hi everyone, hope all of you out there are doing well. I had my monthly meeting
with our local garden club today. I am serving as vice-president this year and this
was the second meeting. So far, I have learned zip about gardening but I keep
following everyone asking for the recipe for the covered dish or snack they brought!
One precious lady brought this and I had to share. We have the holidays sneaking up
on us and that means company. These are perfect to keep in a tupperware and eat
by themselves or any topping would work.

*****FIRE CRACKERS*****

4 sleeves premium saltines (unsalted works best)
1 1/4 cup canola oil
2 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes (Pizza peppers)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 pkg. dry ranch salad dressing mix

Stand all crackers on their edges (like papers in a file) in a large bowl or dutch oven. Have a second bowl of similar size ready. Mix all remaining ingredients in a small bowl to become dressing. Pour this mixture over the cracker. Let the dressing drain down and let set for 15 minutes. Transfer the crackers into the second bowl by hand. Reuse the same "dressing" over the crackers again. Let sit for 15 more minutes. Repeat this cycle 2 more times.
Remove crackers from any remaining liquid and store in an air tight container.

I hope you guys enjoy these as much as I did. Very savory on their own too!

I am leaving town tomorrow on a girls weekend! We are going to a flea market in Canton, TX.
We are staying in a really nice bed and breakfast and we hope to relax. I will take lots of pics
and show you my loot when I get back!

Have a very happy and safe weekend!!

My Fur Children

Although I love good southern recipes for my family and it gives me great pleasure to feed them well, I also get great pleasure from seeing my pups happy too! We have three dogs that entertain us greatly. We are definately a pet friendly family! This morning as I was digging in their treat jar I thought we were running low. I thought why not make them something homemade too! I found this recipe for homemade dog treats and they absolutely love them!!

Here goes:

Snickerpoodles (Dont ya just love that?)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup honey

2 eggs.

3 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix vegetable oil, shortening and honey with eggs. Beat well. Add flour, soda, cream of tartar. Knead dough until mixed well. Shape dough by rounded teaspoons into balls. Mix the cornmeal and cinnamon in a bowl and roll balls in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Press the balls down with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

I mixed the whole thing up with my upright kitchen-aid mixer. Easy, easy, easy!

The dough was pretty soft. In hind sight I should have made them smaller, but they are little piggies. Here are some pictures of Pinky (the poodle), Bella Grace (terrier/dachsund mix) and Tucker (Fox terrier).

Pinky waiting patiently while I mix them up.

Rolling them up and putting them on a the sheet.

All done.

Pinky and Bella Grace

This is Tucker. He knows they are for him.

Everyone have a wonderful day!!