Gifts-in-a-jar M&M Bars...

These are super yummy also....

M&M Bars
 2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 C sugar
1 C M&Ms

Layer in jar starting with the flour. I added a few drops of food coloring to my sugar to make it look better in the jar. I think brown sugar would be great also.


On Tag:



1 Jar M&M mix
3/4 C softened butter or margarine
2 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. In large bowl cream butter, eggs, & vanilla. Add the M&M mix, stir until well blended .
spread batter into a sprayed 9x13 pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Gifts-in-a-jar White Christmas Bars

These are sooooo good!

White Christmas Bars

1 C bisquick
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C bisquick
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C sliced almonds, toasted (very important)
1/2 C vanilla chips (in the jar above I had to add more chips to fill it completely)

Layer in order given, remembering to press down well on your brown sugar layers.


On Tag:

Stir in 1/2 C butter or margarine melted (and cooled I melted my vanilla chips the first time), add 1 egg, and 1 tsp almond extract. Bake in a 9x13 pan @350 for 20 to 25 minutes.

My family loved these so much that Mike banned me from making any more!:-)

Our October Relief Society Meeting.....

We decided to have a helpful Christmas Relief Society Meeting. One that might help releave a little stress from the sisters lives. We wanted to do a Bottle theme, gifts in bottles (jars), canning food from the garden, and planning a great holiday season that won't break the bank. We figured out it was to late in the season to harvest and can from our gardens. I decided I would do a quick demo on making jelly out of juice. I went and bought a pretty red juice, cranberry pomegranate cherry. I made jelly out of it over conference weekend. But as it was getting to the ever so important stage, I had a girl friend call with a crises. So I tried to make the jelly while on the phone. I got a nice big batch of pretty red syrup! We will do canning at another meeting.:-)
We were left with our gifts in a jar theme. I started  searching, reading, checking out the book isles at DI. I actually found 2 books there. I ordered 4 off of Amazon. I went to a girlfriends house and looked through her books. I found there are several of the same recipes circulating around out there. I wanted to get some of the easier recipes. I thought it would be great to have them as food storage on your pantry shelf, to have them to take to somebody who might need a quick meal.  And of course to use for gifts.

 I found some great ones and some not so great ones.  Most of the good ones I posted on this blog. Plus a few I haven't tried yet.

 I loved this one. Fancy up your jar of black beans:-)

 Our ward was very recently divided. We lost so many great friends, and now our ward seems so small. I was worried we would only have 5 ladies show up. We had such a great turn out. You just can't beat a good Relief society Meeting. We get to visit with each other, with out husbands and kids begging us to leave. We see Sisters that have other callings, keeping them busy on Sundays. We just get to come together and enjoy our ward family!

 We ask our sweet sisters to sign up to bring food... soups, salads, and desserts. We didn't realize that they would ask everybody to bring food on Sat to our carnival also. But they came through and brought awesome food!

Erin did an awesome job on her first night as Relief society Meeting coordinator, and Mellisa made some awesome soup!!!

I have a few other pictures, but i can't get them to load. I will try to finish this later. Because we had a great class on planning for Christmas. Plus so many sisters shared all kinds of ideas and such that they do. It was a super great meeting.

 Sis. Weeks filling us in on service opportunities.

 Holly teaching us great holiday planning skills.

 We shared a lot of great ideas also.

 Filling our jars with Keturah, Denece, and Crystal helping out!

Gifts-in-a-bag Parmesan Herb Dip Mix

 Parmesan Herb Dip Mix

4 T parmesan cheese
2 T dried parsley
2 tsp minced onion
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp pepper

Mix together, and store in a small zip top bag.

On Tag:

 1 pkg Parmesan Herb Dip Mix
 1 C mayonnaise
 1 C sour cream

Stir together until well blended, cover and refrigerate. Dip is best if made 8 hours before serving. Serve with chips, crackers, or fresh vegetables.

Gifts-in-a-jar Fiesta Dip Mix

 FIESTA DIP MIX
Stir together the following ingredients, and store them in an airtight jar:
1/2 C parsley
1/3 C each onion flakes and chili powder
1/4 C chives
1/8 C ground cumin, and salt

 Add 2 tbs. Fiesta Dip Mix to 1 cup of sour cream. Stir it up until well blended. Serve with chips or veggie sticks.
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Peppermint Stick Sauce

 I saw this recipe and thought it had to be good. I made it tonight and it was awesome, if you are a peppermint lover. If not I wonder if you could do the same with butterscotch or cinnamon disk. We all loved this recipe and it was even tastier with our homemade chocolate sauce on top.

Peppermint Stick Sauce

This is perfect for the holidays and also makes a delicious hostess gift.

1 1/2 cups finely crushed peppermint candies

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 (7 ounce) jar Marshmallow Cr me

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until smooth and candy is melted, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat. Pour into an airtight container and refrigerate.

Serve chilled over ice cream or pound cake.

I walked away and didn't realize I had turn the burner on. I came back just in time to keep the candy from burning. But it clumped up. When I put in the marshmallow cream and cream in I couldn't stop stirring to take a picture, until it was finished.

This is the "burning/melting" crushed peppermint candy.

 This was warm so it slid off the ice cream.
It was yummy and thick like hot fudge sauce.

Ward Fall Carnival.....

We had a very fun ward carnival and I only took a few pictures, I wish I would have taken more.

 Relief Society was in charge of a cake walk, so we had lot's of sweet ladies kick in and make cakes and cupcakes.

 Loved the Ghost cake! the sweet thing is the sister that made that one, her daughter won the first cake and picked the one her mom brought. so they had fun and got to take their cake home. they were so happy!

 They played games through the building and got a ticket for each game. then they could go into this little store and buy something with it.

 There was way to much chili and soup! I got a yummy one, I knew when I saw it, that it would hit the spot. but as I walked down there were so many others that looked amazing. To many choices!!!

 I love that they put up a huge slide and bouncy castle, that was awesome!

 I only took 1 picture of the cake walk. I missed so much. But I was sort of busy and didn't think to take any! It was a great party!  I almost for got Julie Steuart with the help of LaDaune Vonk transformed the Relief Society Room into an Enchanted Forrest it was beautiful! then the Relief society President and Secretary were out of town, but Denece Stillings came and stayed in the cake walk room the entire time working hard! Thanks so much awesome ladies!!!

White Chocolate Christmas Popcorn .....

 This is a yummy popcorn recipe I got from a friend, with Christmas colored candies added. You could also make it and add dried cranberries and cashews instead of the candies.

 White Chocolate Christmas Popcorn

White Chocolate Popcorn
Krista Macarthur

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 cup melted white dipping chocolate

Pop the popcorn, then add melted chocolate and mix until all popcorn is covered. Spread popcorn out onto wax paper and let dry (about 10 minutes). Enjoy!

After I made the popcorn I added the Christmas M&M's. I could only find Christmas colors in the baking isle. Also I bought red and green gummy bears. In September that was all the Christmas candy I could fine. Then somebody in my house ate most of the green gummy bears and all of the red ones! The popcorn would have been prettier with more color to it!

 I loved the idea of gifts in a cone also.

Gifts-in-a-jar Chicken flavored rice

Chicken Flavored Rice Mix

2 C rice

1 T chicken bouillon granules

2 T dried minced onion

1 T dried parsley, crushed

1/2 tsp  ground thyme

1 T dried celery flakes (I couldn't find this

and used 1 tsp celery seeds)

1/4 tsp pepper

On tag:

1 jar Chicken rice mix

4 C water

1 to 2 T butter

Bring water and butter to a boil in a pot. Stir in rice mix, cover tightly, reduce

heat to low. Cook 20 to 25 minutes until water is absorbed and rice is tender.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

(I just put it in the rice cooker and it was great)

Chocolate Syrup...

 Chocolate Syrup

1 1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/4 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 C boiling water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a sauce pan combine cocoa, sugar, and salt.  Gradually stir in boiling water. Stir often over medium heat until smooth and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, pour into a container with tight fitting lid. Store in refrigerator, for 10 to 12 weeks.

                                                   
  It's the consistency of Hershey's syrup . It's good for ice cream and chocolate milk, but you can make hot fudge sauce with it also.

 2 tsp in a glass of milk makes pretty good chocolate milk.

                                         The syrup sticks to the spoon as your stir it into the cold milk.

Nate felt this was an artistic shot with the syrup dripping down :-)

                                                   Fudge Sauce

1 stick butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups chocolate sauce

Combine in a saucepan, cook for 10 minutes while

stirring. Until it thickens.