Candi

I’ve tried so many chili recipes over the years it’s crazy. I finally found one that I really really liked! Even Ken said it was super spectacular and whatever he says is always right. LOL I especially love chili that can be made in a crock pot. Not sure why, I know it’s the same as throwing everything in a pot on the stove. Something about it just tastes better.

The recipe I used is from Favorite Family Recipes– but I tweaked it a bit so below is how I made it with the actual brand names of the products I bought as well. The original recipe I worked off of can be found here.

Crockpot Chili

2 lbs. ground beef
1 Tbsp. minced onion
1 15oz. can chili, no beans – Hormel
2 16oz. cans chili beans, Bush’s
1 can diced tomatoes, Kroger’s chili ready
3 5.5oz. cans of tomato juice, Campbells
1 Tbsp. chili powder
salt & pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain grease and add minced onion. Regular onions can be used, but my kids don’t like seeing the onions so I used these instead. Mix together the cooked meat and the rest of the above ingredients in a crock pot. Cook for about 3 hours on low. Add chili to spaghetti noodles and top with cheese and/or sour cream. So delicious!!

You have to try this recipe and let me know if your recipe for chili is better than this. If it is…send it to me!

PRINTABLE RECIPE JUST FOR YOU

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I made 17 dozen cookies on Saturday in about 3 hours. Karli helped me for a little while, but the boys wanted nothing to do with it.

This is the easiest recipe to make Christmas Cut-out cookies. There are just a few simple steps involved in making the best sugar cookies ever. Better than granny’s family recipe or the latest trend you find online I promise.

Christmas Cutout Cookies
Ingredients:
Car
Cash

Directions:
1. Drive to Gordon Food Service
2. Purchase a box of Precut Cookie Dough (72 cookies in a box)
3. Return Home
4. Cram as many cookies as you can on a baking sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.
6. Allow to cool
7. Decorate as desired.

I had Andrew run to the grocery store because I didn’t realize I was out of food coloring. Of course he came back with NEON colored food coloring. That’s okay…I actually ended up liking the colors. Who says you have to have red and green cookies at Christmas! I also had some sprinkles and peppermint pieces that I had also purchased from Gordon Foods to decorate the cookies with.

Peanut Butter Kiss cookies are my all time favorite. Some people call these cookies Peanut Butter Blossoms, which makes no sense to me- Kiss Cookies sound better. These cookies are just as easy to make if you choose to ignore the part of your brain that is telling you to make the peanut butter cookies from scratch. You can choose the easy route and purchase premade peanut butter cookie dough in a roll from Pillsbury. You simply form 1 inch balls of dough, roll the ball in sugar and bake. Then you immediately add the chocolate Hershey kiss when you pull the cookies from the oven. Viola! Another 6 dozen cookies completed.

I also made a couple dozen chocolate chip cookies. Yep, I bought the premade dough for these too. I don’t always take the easy way out. I do have a great sugar cookie recipe that my mom’s friend gave her several years ago. I just didn’t feel like getting flour all over the place and spending twice as much time for the same result. I spent all day Saturday cleaning and decluttering my kitchen so come Sunday I was ready to just get the cookies made and be done. Trust me, if my kids don’t care how I made the cookies, I certainly don’t care. I’ve never understood why people made their own frosting from scratch either. I love the Duncan Hines Whipped Vanilla Frosting! Tastes perfect to me – why mess with what works?

I wanted to share one of the yummiest pumpkin recipes ever. My mom has made this for years. It’s the one dessert that everyone always asks her to make for holiday parties. If you love pumpkin pie you will absolutely love this tasty pumpkin torte. It is made of 4 layers which we all know that layered recipes are a pain in the rear, but it’s worth it I promise! The first layer is crunchy graham crackers, the second a cream cheese mixture, the third is the yummy pumpkin layer, and the topping is a cool whip and nuts if you so desire.

Pumpkin Torte

LAYER ONE
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
Mix together and press into 9×13 pan.

LAYER TWO
3/4 cup sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
Mix together cream cheese and sugar. Add milk and beaten eggs. Pour over crust. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool completely.

LAYER THREE
2 cups pumpkin mix
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Mix and cook in pan until mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
Dissolve gelatin in water and add to hot pumpkin mixture. Cool.

3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
Beat egg whites and gradually add sugar. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour over cooled crust.

LAYER FOUR
Cool Whip, 2 bowls if you like it thick
Nuts, pecans or walnuts
Spread on top and refrigerate until serving.

PRINTABLE RECIPE JUST FOR YOU

My mom usually only covers half of the torte with nuts in case people don’t like them, so I did the same. My biggest tip is to absolutely make sure the layers are cooled completely before moving on. Put your pan in the freezer to cool faster. Especially when putting the last cool whip layer on. If the pumpkin is still warm it melts the cool whip. One time mine started melting and the cool whip started to mix with the pumpkin so I ended up mixing the two layers together. It still tasted fine, but just not the right way to do it. Also I have noticed that I have a hard time getting one bowl of cool whip to entirely cover the dessert completely. I suggest buying 2 bowls of cool whip to be safe. I am sure you can find something else to use the leftover cool whip for. Or if your kids are like mine they eat the stuff straight from the container! Ewww!

Enjoy!