We have been keeping busy visiting with family and friends for the past week and have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves. I'll try to post a few details from this week after Christmas.

Maybe you are all ready for Christmas, but just in case you still need an idea for an easy treat this recipe might be a good one for you to try. These peanut clusters are delicious and are easy to prepare. I got this recipe from a student many years ago.

Crockpot Peanut Clusters

16 oz. dry roasted peanuts
1 lb. white almond bark
1 bar of German Sweet Chocolate
2 cups of chocolate chips

Coarsely chop the almond bark and German chocolate bar and place in a crockpot with the chocolate chips. Turn on low and heat for 50-60 mins. After this time elapses stir the chocolate to combine and be sure it is thoroughly melted. Stir in the peanuts. (I like to put them in a sieve and shake out all the nut dust before adding them.) Drop the candy by spoonfuls onto waxed paper or parchment paper lined cookie sheets or trays. Refrigerate each tray briefly until the candies harden.

These candies are delicious and are one of our favorite Christmas treats.

I hope you will all have a wonderfully blessed Christmas and look forward to the coming new year.

Becka

I'm always happy when I find a new recipe that utilizes things that we have on hand. A couple of weeks ago friends from church gave us a large bag of green peppers from their garden. That same week Christy Jordan, the author of the Southern Plate blog and cookbook, posted a recipe utilizing green peppers. I tried it right away and both Rob and I really thought it was good.

Whenever I try a new recipe, Rob always asks how I changed the recipe. I do often change things to utilize what we have on hand or to make it more to our liking. The only thing I changed from the original recipe this time was to use bread crumbs instead of crushed saltines since I didn't have any saltines on hand. So, if you need a new, tasty crockpot recipe I would encourage you to try this one.

Becka

Guess what? I asked for the book and DH bought it for me for a Christmas present. I know that I really don't need another cookbook, but I have enjoyed her blog so much that I wanted to support her endeavor.

I have tried a number of her recipes and will link to two of them here today. After you read them you might just want to sign up for her blog.

One of our new favorites is this Chicken and wild rice casserole that you cook in the crockpot. While it is not particularly interesting to look at, it is very easy and very tasty. I have made it at least three times. It works great for Sunday dinner.

Another one that I tried recently is this Frozen Cranberry Banana salad. I cut the recipe in half and found that it made twelve servings. It made a nice fruit salad to serve with Sunday dinner.

I hope you will visit the Southern Plate site and enjoy it as much as I have.

Becka

I made another batch of granola. This time I tried a tropical blend with chopped dried pineapple, coconut, banana chips, and chopped cashews. I didn't know if we would like this combination, but we've found it to be quite tasty.

I worked on quilting another baby quilt. This one is made from a remnant of Thomas the train fabric and an old curtain from DS Mark's bedroom. I just need to add the borders and it will be finished. I adapted an idea from this book:

I had read about the book on a sewing blog and checked it out of the library. It was still in print and DH got it for me for Valentine's Day. All the quilts are simple without a lot of fussy piecing and are planned to go together quickly and easily.

I made a Ham Loaf for our Sunday dinner using some of the leftover Easter ham that I had ground up and frozen. My Aunt Nana used to make Ham Loaf and it had been years since I had eaten any. I made the loaf on Saturday and cooked it in the Crock Pot on Sunday.

DH got up at 5:30 AM to turn it on. It was perfectly cooked by lunch time. I had read this tip about putting the strips of foil in the crock pot in one of those little Pillsbury cookbooklets.

This is all that was left when I remembered to take a picture!

Here's the Ham Loaf recipe:

Ham Loaf

1 1/2 lbs. ground ham (about 3 cups) (I chopped it in the food processor)
1 lb. ground fresh pork
1 cup dry bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (can use graham cracker crumbs)
1 cup milk
2 eggs
dash pepper
1 Tbsp. finely chopped onion

Topping Sauce
1/4 cup catsup
2 Tbsps. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. Cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. dry mustard

Mix all ingredients well and form into a loaf. Top with some of the sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours or in crock pot for about 7 hours on low. (I added another portion of the sauce about 1/2 hour before the cooking time was up.)

I served the Ham Loaf with these green beans, which are also very tasty:
(note, I hadn't added the bacon in at this point.)

Skillet Green Beans, Tomatoes, and Bacon

6 slices bacon
1 large onion, sliced or diced
1 bag frozen green beans or about 1 lb. fresh, cleaned and snipped
1/2 cup chicken broth
dash pepper
1 large tomato, chopped (in the winter I use about 3/4 cup drained, diced canned tomatoes)

Cook bacon until crisp. Drain and crumble. Set aside. Sauté onions until slightly browned. Add beans, broth, and pepper. Cook until beans are tender, about 10-15 mins. Add tomatoes and cook briefly. Add bacon and serve. These are very tasty and attractive.

I hope your weekend was equally full and blessed.

Becka

I don't know what is happening in your neck of the woods, but here in the Greenville, SC area turkey breasts have been on sale for 99 cents a pound for the last five weeks. This week the sale is at Publix. Now might be a good time to buy ahead for Thanksgiving or just to stock your freezer if you have room.

Ann's recipe was very tasty, so I thought I'd share it here on the blog:

Broccoli Casserole

18-20 oz. frozen broccoli, thawed (if using spears, cut into bite-sized pieces)
1 can cream of celery soup
1 1/4 grated cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup crushed crackers (I used Ritz type)

In a large bowl combine the celery soup, 1 cup of cheese, crackers, and broccoli. Pour into a lightly greased crockpot. Cover and slip a toothpick between the lid and the cover to vent. Cook on low for about 4 hours or high for about 2 hours. Just before serving sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese on top.

Enjoy!

Becka

Before we were married Rob got a crockpot and it was the mainstay of his bachelor cooking. He had an arsenal of recipes and he would throw something in the crockpot each morning before heading off to school and his dinner would be ready when he returned home in the late afternoon. That original red/orange crockpot made by Rival came with a small cookbook that contained a number of really good recipes. If you ever run across one at a yard sale or thrift store try to snatch it up.

During that same era I purchased the 1973 edition of Crockery Cookery by Mabel Hoffman. You can tell it is rather dated by the price on the cover--$1.95!

This book too has a number of good recipes. I looked on Amazon and she has published several later editions which I am not familiar with.

The recipe I made for lunch on Sunday was from Mabel's book. It is quite tasty and is one that works well even in a non-programmable slow cooker. My theory is that the older crockpots didn't cook as hot as the ones we can purchase today. This probably has to do with an increased emphasis on food safety. Many of the older slow cooker recipes that I made when we were first married become overcooked in my newer non-programmable crockpot. That's one reason I have been thrilled with the new programmable model that I can set to cook for X number of hours and then it will switch to warm. No more burnt offerings from the crockpot!

Anyway, after that diatribe here is a good recipe for in your crockpot:

Budget Beef Stroganoff

1 1/2 -2 lbs. round steak
dash pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
generous sprinkling of garlic powder
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp. beef soup base or granular beef bouillon powder
1 Tbsp. catsup
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup sour cream

Cut steak into 1/4 inch strips. Place in slow cooker. Sprinkle in pepper and garlic powder. Add Worcestershire sauce, catsup, water, and soup base. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. If you have been cooking on low turn the control up to high and add the mushrooms. Dissolve the flour in a small amount of water and stir into the meat mixture. Cook on high for 15 mins. or until slightly thickened. Stir in sour cream and then turn off the heat. Serve over noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice.
Makes 5-6 servings.

Becka

Crockpot Lasagna from Taste of Home magazine

1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4-5 cups spaghetti sauce
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 cup water
7-8 no cook lasagna noodles (oven ready)
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Brown ground beef, onion, and garlic. Drain off any accumulated grease. Combine with spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning, and water. In a greased crockpot (mine is 5 quart size) spoon 1/4 of sauce. Layer in 1/3 of the noodles, 1/3 of the cheeses. (I used two whole noodles and half a noodle for each layer. I broke the half noodle in half again and put a piece on each end.) Repeat the layers ending with sauce and cheeses. You can assemble this ahead and refrigerate overnight. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. My family really liked this.

Sorry there are no pictures, but you probably know what lasagna looks like. By the time I thought about taking a picture we had eaten about half of it and it didn't look very photogenic, as you can imagine. It does make a pretty good casserole and it's nice because you can assemble it ahead of time.

I bought this crockpot about a year ago and I really have enjoyed it.

You can program the time and after the cooking time it automatically switches to warm so your food does not get overdone. If you have an older crockpot without this feature I would highly recommend purchasing a new one. I still use my older one for soups, beans, etc., but this one works great on Sunday when I am often cooking meats or the occasional casserole.

I did try a new dessert from a recipe I found in the summer edition of Kraft Food and Family. It, too, was very tasty and is something that can be made ahead.
If you need a cool, refreshing dessert, keep this one in mind.

We have berries ripening in the backyard and we were discussing that this might be nice made with raspberry sherbet and fresh raspberries on top.

Becka