That’s Some Pig!

September 8, 2010

You will never guess what I found at our local thrift store.

I turned around and there he was – just looking up at me and smiling.

Thats Some PigIsn’t he cute!

As soon as I saw him I instantly knew what his destiny would be. It was such an amazing idea that even my kids knew my plans for this little porker as soon as they laid eyes on him.

This guy was becoming a practical joke.

You may remember that my crazy and amazing family loves a good joke and we have a few floating around the family.

You may also remember that my family gets together over Labor Day to celebrate Christmas as a family. (This works well for our busy schedules and nobody has to drive in bad weather.)

One of our traditions is to hold a Christmas gift exchange.

My brother-in-law loves to kid around and he can really dish it out – so when we drew his name for our Christmas gift exchange – I knew I wanted to do something crazy.

Are you following me here?

Yep. That 18 inch wooden swine became his Christmas gift! We wrapped it all up really nice and presented it to him at our gift exchange.

You should have seen his face when he opened it! Priceless!

He was a good sport and named the piglet and even carried him around for a while just like a part of the family!

But don’t worry – it wasn’t the only gift we gave him.

Gift cardIt turns out that this wooden piggy makes an awesome and rather unique gift card holder!

And knowing my brother-in-law as I do – this may become a gift that keeps on giving.

I have a feeling we will see this pig again!

By Country Gal | Posted in Family Traditions, Holidays | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Peanut Butter Ball Bars

January 4, 2010

Peanut Butter Cup BarsAs I’ve confessed before, peanut butter balls are almost a staple at our house during the Christmas season.

They are one of the first things I make after Thanksgiving and we enjoy them through-out the holidays.

Imagine my shock when I discovered <gasp> that we had run out before Christmas.

Time was slipping by and I didn’t see how I could possibly make another batch. But a quick flip through my recipe file yielded this yummy substitute. The peanut butter base is very similar to the innards of a peanut butter ball and it was super quick to whip together!

Peanut Butter Bars
(recipe from my sweet and wonderful niece Sarah!)

1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup crushed graham crackers
4 cups powdered sugar
2 cups chocolate chips

Melt the butter. Add the peanut butter, graham crackers and powdered sugar.

Spread out on an ungreased jelly roll pan. (Your hands work best for this part!)

Melt the 2 cups of chocolate chips and spread over the peanut butter base.

Cool in refrigerator for about an hour or until the chocolate is set. Cut into small squares.

Enjoy!

By Country Gal | Posted in Candy, Chocolate, Cookies and Bars, Cooking and Food | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Cookie Dough Truffles

December 21, 2009

Cookie Dough TrufflesDecember is a chocolate lover’s dream come true! The kids and I start making candy and treats just as soon as the Thanksgiving left-overs are put away.

Every year I try at least one new recipe -and believe me, the search for that recipe is a lot of fun!

This year’s recipe is a truffle with a yummy cookie dough inside covered with a rich chocolate coating. Honestly now – who doesn’t love cookie dough?!

Although they didn’t turn out as pretty and nice as I would have liked – they taste heavenly! I’ll just have to keep making them until I get them just right. :)

Cookie Dough Truffles

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 pounds semi sweet chocolate candy coating, chopped

Cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour, milk and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Shape into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. (This was a very hard step! The dough is very soft and hard to form. I ended up using the smallest cookie scoop I had, but they still seemed too big. Maybe I should have refrigerated the dough before making into balls and again after?)

Melt the candy coating in the microwave and dip the balls in the coating. Place on waxed paper lined sheets and refrigerate until firm.

Store in the refrigerator – although I kept mine in the freezer (they’re harder for the children to find!)

Absolutely delicious!

Enjoy!

By Country Gal | Posted in Candy, Chocolate, Cooking and Food | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Set

October 18, 2009

SET

I have a new addiction.

It’s a card game that should be in every home across the nation.

SET.

It’s even made by the amazing company that invented my other addiction – Quiddler.

I will admit that the first time I played SET I didn’t get it. I was playing with my college age nieces and nephews, and they were blowing me away.

But it didn’t take long for me to figure it out and fall in love with the challenge.

The object of the game is to find sets in the cards that are dealt. Sound easy? It isn’t. Each set of three must be alike in some way, but different in others.

You look at shape, color, design and number to find the sets – forcing you to see the cards in a different way – to be creative.

If they are all diamonds, they need to be a different color, a different design, or a different number.

It’s fast-action fun!

And with Christmas coming up it would make a perfect stocking stuffer.

Trust me on this one – you’re gonna love it!

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Home School | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The Remix: A Family Tradition

April 27, 2009

I love my family.

I love getting together with my family.

With 2 amazing parents, three sisters, one brother, 4 in-laws and a large collection of assorted nieces and nephews, aged 3 to 24 , any gathering is an undertaking best described as “organized chaos.”

Our official spring gathering is called the Remix and is entirely grandchildren driven. Since we celebrate Christmas together over Labor Day they thought we should remix Christmas in the spring.

Now every year the grandkids (with Grandma’s guidance) plan a fun- filled week-end at Mom and Dad’s on the prairie.

Some of the traditions include:

White Elephant Bingo: Everyone brings a wrapped white elephant gift and one evening we play bingo. Every time you get a Bingo you get to chose a present – either from the table full of presents, or you can take a gift away from someone who has already chosen one.  Things can get pretty wild as presents start flying from one person to another!

When someone gets a black-out, the game is over and everybody opens their gifts. (Anybody need a talking Bob the Builder and Wendy who can no longer talk?!)

Dress-Up Night : No, we don’t do a white tie meal with tuxes and formal attire, instead, we dress-up as any assortment of strange characters. We had pirates, ninja’s, and some Lord of the Ring characters (swords were definitely a favorite accessory this year!)

But we also had a sweet old granny, door-to-door salesmen, a camel herder, and even Shaun Cassidy (complete with entourage).  The creativity among those young’uns was amazing!

Family Worship Service: On Sunday morning we gather together to sing, pray and share. This year was especially sweet as both of my parents shared their testimonies.

For my siblings and I,  it was a precious review of events we experienced together as our entire family of seven came to know the Lord in just a few years. But for our spouses and children,  it was a look at events that changed the course of our family for generations.

Tears were flowing freely by the time we sang our traditional closing hymn – “Blest be the Tie That Binds.”

There were huge meals, too  many desserts,  games galore,  a family sock hop, and lots of laughter.

What precious memories we made this week-end.

Yep…I really love my family.

By Country Gal | Posted in Family Traditions | Tagged , , | Comments (5)