Wine and Cream Cheese

Cream Cheese is just amazing. Endless possibilities! This week for wine night, I made 2 different dips and both were equally amazing.

Bacon Ranch Beer Dip

1 block cream cheese
2 cups finely shredded cheese
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup of beer
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped bacon

1. Mix cream cheese and ranch together until smooth
2. Add beer and mix
3. Add cheese, onions, and bacon
4. Put in container and let cool for at least an hour before serving
5. Serve with Ritz Crackers

Jalapeño Popper Dip

1 block cream cheese
1 1/2 cup finely shredded cheese
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped bacon
1 jalapeño (chopped)
1/3 cup BBQ sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spray the bottom of an oven safe pan (I used about a 4x9 pan)
3. Mix cream cheese, onions, and cheese together
4. Spread in the bottom of the sprayed pan
5. Spread BBQ sauce on top of cheese mixture with back of spoon or brush
6. Sprinkle chopped jalapeño even over the BBQ sauce
7. Cook in oven until cream cheese is bubbling (about 15-20 min)
8. Take out and sprinkle bacon and cheese over jalapeño
9. Place back in the oven until cheese is just melted
10. Serve with Triscuit Crackers warm

Thank you to Tyler for hand modeling the dips for me!

These are a must for the holiday season and highly recommended! And as always, goes well with any wine night!

Family .:. Baking .:. Crafting Weekend

Friday I got a chance to go with my dad and his former company's (retired) Christmas Party. We went to Sioux Falls to a Cirque De Soleil show! I had saw one of their shows when I was out in Vegas last spring break and I loved it so I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to see them again. It was great! The one in Vegas was better I would say, but this one was still great to see!

This weekend we celebrated the Dudding Family Christmas and it was such a fun time getting to see everyone and play Christmas Minute to Win It games! Here are just a few snap shots and videos of some of the challenges from the day.

Sunday's are normally a day for cleaning, laundry, and cooking. Today I went crazy with the cooking and baking part! Also added a craft in there too so finally I'm getting time to write all about it!

I tried something new today: Stuffed peppers. I thought they were very good and by how much Tyler ate, I would say he also enjoyed them. I was chopping up peppers for chicken fajitas and thought of it before I chopped all of them up.

1 box yellow rice
1 lb browned hamburger
1/2 cup onion
1/4 cup green onion
1 can Rotel (drained)
1/2 cup of cheese
6 green or red peppers

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cook rice according to directions on box
3. Brown hamburger
4. Add hamburger, onions, and Rotel to rice and mix
5. Take tops and seeds out of peppers
6. Stuff peppers with mixture
7. Place in oven safe pan
8. Top with shredded cheese
9. Cook for 40 minutes
10. Serve with sour cream and guacamole

Next I made some chicken fajitas so that we have meals this week and I don't have to worry about cooking! I would rather cook a bunch on Sunday than have to cook every night during the week.  Instead of cooking in the oven, I cooked it on the stovetop. Same thing, just different way to cook it!

Next I made some very easy banana bread since I had so many old bananas that have been sitting in my freezer for so long. I love banana bread and so does Tyler so I thought it was time since we were going through the freezer. Tyler likes chocolate chips in his bread so added some for him in his batch.

3-4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mash bananas and butter together in a large mixing bowl
3. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla
4. Sprinkle the baking sofa over the mixture and mix in
5. Add the flour and mix together
5.5. Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)
6. Spread into a 4x8 pan
7. Cook for 1 hour
8. Cool on baking rack, slice and serve

This is probably one of the easiest banana bread recipes I've ever followed and I'm so thankful for Pinterest and other people that blog and share their recipes!

Crafting came next on my list of things to get done today in between all the cooking, baking, laundry, and dishes that I did today. Another Pinterest idea that I saw for gifts to neighbors I wanted to try. Thanks to Crazy Little Projects I found this cute M&M jar with a Christmas Story to go along with it. However, instead of filling the whole jar with M&Ms I stuck an empty toilet paper roll in the middle and filled the M&Ms around it. Made my M&MS go further and I could fill the middle with candies and goodies too.  So far I have made 6 and I've got a few more to go!



So that's what I did with my Sunday! I hope everyone else had a productive, relaxing, or fun filled day. I love this time of year and spending time and doing things for the people that I love. Happy Sunday! :)

Family | Vacation | Decorating

This last week was a crazy one and I'm so glad to finally get to share it all with you!

1. Last week I got to travel to Texas to see the rest of my family. On the way down I got the opportunity to stop at the store of one of my favorite shows: Magnolia. If you haven't seen fixer upper, you should probably start watching! Here are just a few of my purchases that I made.

My purchases from Magnolia!

2. This week was such a great way to spend with family and finally get to see those little nephews and my niece. They are just too cute and I can't wait until Christmas when I get to see them again! These are just some of the snaps from this last week with everyone.

 Hiking along trails and rivers.

 Climbing a 425 foot rock. Only 2% of the rock is visible.

 General all around cuteness!

3. Decorating my house when I got home was the highlight of the weekend. I love this time of year and our house is as decked out as we can get it. We might add a few outside lights, but for now we have enough inside. I love getting to decorate this house and make it a home. We also got an early start on holiday baking! Almond bark pretzels, Rolo/m&m pretzels, and Oreo balls. The easiest and yummiest recipes of the season!

4. On another note we are just 24 days away from Christmas and one month and 2 days away for leaving for Mexico! I still can't believe that I get to spend my winter there! 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with all of their family and friends!