My Life, my photography, my passions
Cookie baking is over for the season. They are ready to ship and distribute. Tried a few new recipes, one I will definitely keep is the Molasses Spice Sugar Cookies. Wow! They are delicious, especially dunked in milk. Recipe will be following, so subscribe to the RSS feed at the top and it will be arriving shortly.
Couldn’t decide on one picture today, so here are two.
Choosing today’s picture was tough, I have so many memories of my Christmas tree. While many have a color theme and coordinating bulbs and garland, my tree tells a story. Every ornament has a special meaning.
So I’ll start the story with this vintage ornament.
When my parents first got married they bought a box of bulbs for their tree. Although their 40-year marriage had it’s ups and downs, this gold bulb is a reminder of my Mom and Dad who passed away in 1995. Both are gone now, but my Mom gave me their vintage Christmas Tree ornaments.
I have only two, just a few survived over 50 years. When I was a child there was a certain order to placing the ornaments and stories that went with each one. As children, my brother and I weren’t allowed to handle these vintage ornaments, for fear of breaking them.
Now I hang them, out of reverence, and tradition.
Kurt Adler Glass Reflector Ornament, 60mm, Multi-Colored, Set of 5
Festive Season Vintage Style Christmas Tree Ornament Balls (Set of 12, 60mm)Merck Family’s Old World Christmas Bride’s Tree Ornaments & Metal Display TreeKurt Adler Early Years Mini Glass Ornament, Set of 24
The time has come for the county fair, and in Cass County Nebraska it’s a really big deal. Some call it the social event of the year, especially the teenagers. The theme last year was “Meet You At The Fair” and it was very appropriate. Where else in the county do more than thousands of people congregate at the same time socially?
It’s fun to catch up with friends, people watch and admire the open class and 4-H entries. The open class building is probably the most popular place to visit and it’s not just for the air conditioning, although that helps. Fun lies in checking out all the entries in the photography, sewing, cooking, gardening, and crafts categories.
I have been entering photographs for over 15 years, and have won many purple ribbons, a few Reserves and one Champion. That was before the advent of digital and since then the entries have skyrocketed. Here are a few that I’m entering this year. I’ll update this after the judging and post my results.
Homemade Chex Mix RecipeThere is a reason why I only make the original Chex Mix
I’ve even been known to buy the pre-made bagged Chex Mix at the convenience store when I’m having a craving.
Yes, I know my kids could and would live on cereal alone if I let them. Chex Mix I guess gives them that excuse.
But, it’s more than that, maybe the tangy Worcestershire sauce? The Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
We eat bowls and bowls every year. That’s why I love this super cute snack bowl you can even buy homemade Chex Mix on Etsy.
Whatever the appeal we love homemade Chex Mix and I should know the recipe my heart. But I never want to get it wrong so I always go to my handy AllRecipes website and look it up. I don’t know why I even look at recipes anyways, I change them all the time.
Seriously, butter
That means I have to add more Worcestershire sauce, and that means more cereal and pretzels. Before I know it, my VERY large Turkey roasting pan is overflowing with my own custom make, scrumptious Chex Mix.
To lower the cost of this addiction and save some money I use the generic varieties of cereal. This time I used the Walmart toasted cereal. It’s half the price of the Crispix cereal or
There are a lot of original recipe Chex Mix sites out there, but I find mine published on the back of the box. This is truly the ORIGINAL Chex Mix Recipe. To make Chex Mix party mix you need cereal, nuts, pretzels and “goodies”. In my case that is the garlic bagel chips.
(we love the wheat, so extra goes in)
(these are a MUST!!)
Don’t forget to give Chex Mix for Christmas. Seriously the easiest gift ever. Package in a Mason jar and attach a cute label. You don’t even need to design it, just print it off here.
You can buy the pre-made Chex Mix seasoning packets
Honestly, I only did this myself because I ran out of the little freebie packets they give away near the cereal section during Christmas. But homemade Chex Mix seasoning is so much tastier and you can vary it any way you like. Me, I add more garlic powder.
“Special salt”)
The stirring is important, and I set a timer so I won’t forget. Every 15 minutes I stir. Within 30 minutes the aroma and smell make the kids hover in the kitchen. They don’t even wait for it to come out of the pan. They eat warm Chex Mix by the handful. During Christmas, I store Chex Mix in large Christmas tins
If you don’t have time to make homemade Chex Mix you can have a whole case shipped
There’s my foodie obsession of the day. Enjoy!
Bag up Chex Mix in sandwich bags and attach these labels to the top. Great for Sunday school gifts, teacher gifts, or give to neighbors and friends. I think I will even sell Chex Mix at the local Farmers Market and Holiday Extravaganza.
Food, or sometimes candy has the power to invoke memories and connect you to a person or an event.
I probably wouldn’t be a fan of Good & Plenty candy if it weren’t for my Dad. A month before he died I went to visit my Dad in the hospital. I wanted to give him something that would make him smile, and there wasn’t anything in the gift shop that met the criteria, except for a bag of Good & Plenty Candy.
Black licorice was his favorite candy, and I had this long ago memory that he liked the pink and white candies, that they were special to him.
As I laid the bag on his tray he looked at me and smiled. He poured them out and proceeded to separate the pink and white candies. Then he pushed the pink ones to me. I smiled as our eyes met. When I was a little girl he would share his Good & Plenty candies with me, the pink ones, because I was his little girl.
Now I eat them and remember my Dad, and smile.
