Singing Sunday--The Heart of Christmas

My pastor shared this song as part of his message today. I love the message of the song. No matter what problems or troubles we have with family or friends this Christmas lets remember the true meaning Christmas...that God sent His son, Jesus to come to earth as a baby and later take all of our sins to the cross and die for us. Without Him coming we would have had to die in our sins. We can truly be happy this Christmas because no matter what is happening in our lives we can know that we are His sons and daughters. 

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Goodie Plates

I love to bake!  I love to share my creations with others! What better time to share baked goods with friends and neighbors than at the holiday season. I am going to share with you how to make up holiday sample plates for gift giving to your friends and neighbors for the holidays.

After the Thanksgiving bustle is finished, I take the time to write down a list of goodies (around a dozen) and some are family favorites while a few others are new things to try.  I always look through my pantry stockpile to see what baked goods on the list I can do without having to purchase items to complete the goodies.  Once I have completed my list I look over it to see what goodies (like fudge, & bread) will freeze without problems and I mark those as the first to complete.  When I make my list I try to make things that share the same ingredients but are different, like my peanut butter & chocolate day, so that I do not have to get LOTS of different ingredients that I might not use again.

Now that we have the list of goodies figured out, it is time to get baking!  I try to make something every day during the first three weeks of December so that I do not feel overwhelmed, however, that doesn’t always happen!  Some years I have done one or two big baking days and called it good!  

One tip about baking cookies for the sample plates: if you have a small scoop or small cookie cutters or a cookie press use those instead of your larger scoops or cutters!  Using the smaller items means that you will get more cookies out of your dough and it will take less baking time, hence making things move a little faster and truly making the plates where you are able to get a sampling of everything that you have baked rather than just a few items.

The baking is done and it is a couple days before Christmas, now is the time to put your plates together! I purchased a couple of packages of Christmas styrofoam plates to use.  I got two different sizes, so that my neighbors who are widowed or just a couple get the smaller ones while the families with kids get the bigger plates.   I set out the plates and the goodies on my dining room table and the kids and I work at putting goodies on the plate.  There is a catch to putting the goodies on the plate…we put enough of each goodie for each person in the family. So if the plate is going to go to the family of five next door then we put only five snickerdoodles or five pieces of fudge and continue to fill the plate with five of the different goodies until the plate is full.  If the plate is going to the widow across the street then I will only fill the plate with one or two pieces of each of the goodies.  I also give a mini loaf of bread (yeast or quick) with the sample plate, I have those wrapped in foil and have labeled them as to what they are and give them right out of the freezer so that if the recipient wants they can place the bread back in the freezer to use at a different time.

Once the plate is full, I put a piece of saran wrap over each plate and fill out a gift tag and get a bow to stick on the top of the plate.  The plates are now ready to deliver. I put the plates together so it is hubby turn to do his part of the giving!  He and a couple of the older kids deliver the goodies to the neighbors either on December 23^rd or Christmas Eve before the different families leave for Christmas celebrations.

So even though the sample goodie plates take time and effort they are something that the whole family can help in preparing and the neighbors will appreciate the thoughtfulness.  

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

This post is linked to:

• Living Well Wednesday at Women Living Well Ministries!

Double Chocolate Pancakes

I am one that likes to follow recipes when I bake and not tweak recipes if I can help it.  I like to go for those tried and true or family recipes that have been passed down over the years.  Experimenting in the kitchen is just not something I like to do on a regular basis.

However, I decided to step out of my box and try something different for breakfast and tweak my Mom's buttermilk pancakes recipe to make them their double chocolate pancakes.  Those pancakes that IHOP has that my boys have been asking me for a while to make some for them.  I have been putting it off because I really had not found a recipe that seemed doable. Now I can say I have found a recipe and to think I had the recipe already on hand and was just too afraid to tweak it!

Double Chocolate Pancakes

1 ¼ cups flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. + 2 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. veggie oil
1 egg
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1/2 - 3/4 cups mini chocolate chips

Mix together the dry ingredients including the chocolate chips.  Add in the veggie oil, egg, and buttermilk to the dry mixture.  Once the mixture is moist and smooth, pour onto a hot griddle to cook.

Normally, I do a triple batch of pancakes so before I tweaked the recipe today I already had the recipe written down as a triple batch which actually made adding the cocoa powder and chocolate chips easier.

Double Chocolate Pancakes
(triple batch)

1 3/4 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. veggie oil
3 eggs
3 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 3/4 cups mini chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients together including chocolate chips. Add in veggie oil, eggs, and buttermilk to dry mixture.  Once the mixture is moist and smooth, pour onto a hot griddle to cook.

Review: My kids loved these pancakes with butter and maple syrup on them. One commented that they could eat them just plain.  Another commented that adding a dusting of powdered sugar would be good.  My hubby even enjoyed them and he said they tasted like he was eating a chocolate fudge poptart only with maple syrup on it.  Definitely a hit here!

This post is linked to: 

• Friday Food at Mom Trends!
• Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum!
• Food on Friday at Ann Kroeker!
• This Week's Craving at Mom's Crazy Cooking!
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace! 
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!
• Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff!

Veteran's Day Tribute

As a wife of a Persian Gulf War veteran and a relative of veterans of WWII, Korea and Vietnam, I want to say thank you to those men, and women that are serving our country. I also want to say thank you to the families of those who served our country and gave their lives.

Coupons to Support Veterans

There are some high value coupons that you can print at the Believe in Heroes website. Each of the companies(All, Sweet Baby Ray's, Heinz, Minute Maid, Ocean Spray, & Motts to name a few) represented in the coupons has donated to and supported the Wounded Warrior Project to help wounded veterans.