Holiday yummies

I've been collecting holiday recipes for a project I'm putting together this holiday season. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you here. These come from a variety of sources -- the Hershey's and Nestle Web sites, a cookbook my church put together several years ago, a crockpot cookbook and the Kraft Food Web site.

Happy holiday eating!

Savory Parmesan Bites
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
2 cans (8 oz. each) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 cup chopped red peppers
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
HEAT oven to 350°F. Beat cream cheese and 3/4 cup Parmesan with mixer until well blended.
SEPARATE crescent rolls into 8 rectangles; press perforations together to seal. Spread each with 3 Tbsp. cream cheese mixture. Top with peppers and parsley. Fold 1 long side of each dough rectangle over filling to center; fold again to enclose filling. Cut each into 4 squares. Place, seam-sides down, on baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.
BAKE 13 to 15 min. or until golden brown.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
A great casual holiday meal.

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 can (4 ounces) chopped mild green chiles, drained
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cans (15 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
½ to 1 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh, chopped cilantro
4 corn tortillas, sliced into ¼ inch strips
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese to top soup
Put chicken thighs in bottom of crockpot
Combine chiles, garlic, onion, tomatoes,
½ cup broth and cumin in small bowl. Pour mixture over chicken.
Cover, cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours until chicken is tender. Remove chicken; use two forks to shred the meat and return to crockpot. Adjust seasonings and add more broth if necessary.
Just before serving, add tortillas and cilantro to crockpot. Stir to blend.

Overnight Egg Bake
Mike's and my favorite brunch main dish -- perfect for Christmas morning.

3 (12 oz.) cups shredded cheddar
2 (12 oz.) cups shredded mozzarella
6 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz. cooked turkey sausage, cooked
½ cup flour
1 ¾ cup milk
2 tablespoons snipped parsley
8 eggs, beaten

In large bowl, lightly toss cheeses together. Sprinkle half of cheese mixture in ungreased 13-by-9 baking dish. In medium skillet, cook mushrooms, bell peppers and onion in olive oil until vegetables are tender. Arrange vegetables over cheese. Arrange sausage over vegetables. Sprinkle remaining cheese over sausage. (Tip: To make ahead, prepare to this point; cover and refrigerate overnight.)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl using wire wisk, blend flour, milk, parsley and eggs. Pour over layers in baking dish. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until mixture is set and top is lightly browned. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.


Candy Cane Blossoms
These are the cookies pictured above.

• 48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Candy Cane Mint Candies
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Red or green sugar crystals, granulated sugar or powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Remove wrappers from candies.

2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in red sugar, granulated sugar, powdered sugar or a combination of any of the sugars. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookie is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press a candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Rich Raspberry Swirl Brownies
I started making these several years ago. Very rich, so cut them into small pieces. They are soooo good!

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, divided
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup seedless red raspberry jam
• 1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SWIRLED™ Semi-Sweet & Premier White Morsels, divided
Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 9-inch-square baking pan.

COMBINE cocoa, flour and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread 1 cup batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle pecans over batter. Stir jam until smooth. Drizzle over pecans. Beat remaining batter and egg in same large bowl until light in color. Stir in 1 cup Swirled Morsels. Spread evenly over raspberry jam. Top with remaining Swirled Morsels.

BAKE for 30 to 33 minutes or until center is set.

Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars
Another holiday favorite. Can you tell I like rich desserts? Another treat to cut into small pieces.

2 1/3 cups flour
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup butter or margarine
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 cups (12 oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup chopped nuts
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1¾ cup (10 oz package) English toffee bits, divided

Heat oven to 350. Grease 9x13-inch baking pan. Stir together flour and brown sugar in large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles course crumbs. Add egg; mix well. Stir in half of chocolate chips and all of nuts. Reserve 1½ cups of mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of pan.
Bake 10 minutes. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over hot crust. Top with half of toffee bits. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture and remaining chocolate chips over top.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with remaining toffee bits. Cool completely. Cut into bars.

A sign that you're under stress

Want a good chuckle? A family member sent this to me by e-mail. I had to share it here since we're about to enter a season typically characterized by stress.

The picture here has two identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Mary's Hospital.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences, you may want to take a vacation.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Road tripping

I never blogged about our weekend/day trips to see the fall colors in the high country, so here's the tale of our adventures and a few pictures for you to enjoy.

A few months back, we planned a two-day trip to the Aspen area in late September, around the time we thought the colors would be at their peak. Well, we were a few days too early. The warm fall days slowed down the changing of the leaves this year. We enjoyed those two days but decided the following Saturday (Sept. 27) to do a power road trip in a day.

We left at 3:30 a.m., drove four hours to the Maroon Bells -- probably THE most photographed site in Colorado -- and spent the morning there taking pictures and hiking. Then we headed south on Highway 133 over McClure Pass, then over Kebler Pass to Crested Butte. It sprinkled/drizzled much of the way over Kebler, but we still had a great time. The colors were amazing -- we highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great place to see fall in Colorado. It's a dirt road but totally accessible by a passenger car.

We pulled into Crested Butte around 5 p.m., grabbed some coffee for the road and then headed home through Gunnison on Highway 50 and Fairplay & Bailey by way of U.S. 285. What a day! In all we were gone 19 hours. But seeing the fall colors at their peak in some of Colorado's most spectacular places was worth it.

The following weekend (Oct. 3 & 4), we decided to do another road trip of all road trips -- hey, you have to do these kinds of things while you have the time and opportunity, right? We drove Friday afternoon five hours to Montrose in western Colorado. The next morning we went to the Dallas Divide, another well-known place to take photos in Colorado. We had never been there before, but we know now where we're going back next fall. We drove into Telluride, probably the most out-of-the-way of Colorado's ski resorts. We went back to Montrose via Last Dollar Road, which is really a four-wheel drive road but we did it in our Nissan Sentra -- yes, it can be done if you drive slowly. This road has some beautiful aspen forests and spectacular vistas of the San Juans. We headed back home via Olathe, Delta, then again over Highway 133 and McClure Pass. The pass was ablaze with color that day, but we couldn't see much out the car windows because it was a downpour.

Needless to say, last weekend we did absolutely nothing. After so much road tripping, it was nice to sit around.

The fall colors in the mountains are done now. It has since snowed, and now it's that quiet, kind of lifeless season between the glory of fall and the activity of the winter ski season. The first of the ski areas opened today, believe it or not, but the season won't be in full swing until late November. It's fall in Denver now, and we're scouting out places this weekend to take more pictures.

Then we're off on another crazy road trip - a trek across Kansas to our final destination of Columbia, Missouri. The Colorado Buffaloes are playing the Mizzou Tigers at Missouri's homecoming on Oct. 25. We're going to the game and will spend the weekend in my old stomping grounds -- Mizzou is my alma mater. (With the Missouri football team at No. 11 in the polls, this is payback for my college years, when Colorado had the good football team and Missouri was terrible.)

And undoubtedly we'll see another part of the country ablaze with fall colors along the way.

At the Maroon Bells near Aspen

The Dallas Divide -- the gateway to the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado
The town of Telluride
One of my favorite shots of the Maroon Bells
Maroon Creek

Talking politics

I thought this article in today's Rocky Mountain News was great.

For the newspaper feature writing class I'm teaching this semester, it's an excellent example of how to take a topic that real people can relate to -- talking politics with others in a heated political campaign -- and turn it into a story.

I'm not sure I'll even try the tips the story suggests, and there are several reasons for that. Mostly I'm just tired of the political campaign season and its emotionalism. The mute button on the remote control has become my saving grace -- I just can't take another political ad. I skip most of the political stories online and in the newspaper. I already know who I'm voting for and what I'm voting for/against in terms of ballot issues, and nothing anyone says -- even a discussion, heated or not, with friends or colleagues -- is going to change my mind.

In the classroom, I keep my mouth shut (for the most part) regarding politics. I feel like I'm outnumbered about 25,000 to one on campus -- you can guess my political affiliation from that statement. My family is definitely divided on politics. The good news is my husband and I see the same way on most everything, so at least there's peace at home. The bad thing is we have such similar temperaments, and this political season has just made us mad. We've both had to avoid all things politics lately.

There's a group of senior citizens at a local Starbucks I frequent who show up about the same time every day and talk -- you guessed it -- politics. They've been doing this for several years, and I find it entertaining to listen to them. The Republicans seem outnumbered by the Democrats in the group, but it's rather heartening to me that they're all still friends. I never hear any shouting come from their corner of the coffee shop. Perhaps we all have something to learn from them.

Media overload

I'm not sure about you, but I've been overwhelmed with the last few weeks of media coverage of the country's financial woes.

Between the recent events in Congress and the upcoming presidential election, I've hit what I call "media overload" -- and I keep telling myself I ought to go on a media fast. Yes, fast from all the "talking heads" for a period of time, clear my head of the preponderance of opinions. My husband and I have done this sort of fasting before -- once on accident while we were on vacation at a hotel where there were no TVs in the rooms, and once on purpose because we needed to clear some space in our heads. It's amazing how worry, anger and strife dissipated during those fasts.

I'm not sure I'll actually follow through on this desire to give up the media for a while. It is, after all, election season, and even if I tried to fast from it all, I still can't get away from the advertising on fliers and bumper stickers, can't escape the discussions and opinions I hear walking the halls where I teach, etc. Even trying to mind my own business and drink a cup of coffee at Starbucks, I inevitably overhear someone pontificating about these issues. It's also awfully hard to fast from the media when you're in it and teaching it to other people -- particularly in the middle of a presidential campaign like this one.

This evening I read a story about the financial situation that was a bit of a breath of fresh air, which is the next best thing to the fast I probably won't do. I wanted to pass along the link. It's the only thing I've read in the past two weeks that looks at the issue from a spiritual perspective. I don't know about you, but I need that perspective today.

Click here to read the story

Who's responsible for the mess?

Here's an interesting editorial from Investor's Business Daily about the source of our country's financial crisis. A lot of words have been exchanged this week in the political realm about who's responsible.

The Real Culprits In This Meltdown
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 15, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Big Government: Barack Obama and Democrats blame the historic financial turmoil on the market. But if it's dysfunctional, Democrats during the Clinton years are a prime reason for it.

Obama in a statement yesterday blamed the shocking new round of subprime-related bankruptcies on the free-market system, and specifically the "trickle-down" economics of the Bush administration, which he tried to gig opponent John McCain for wanting to extend.

But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but "predatory."

Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the '90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck.

And it was the Clinton administration that mismanaged the quasi-governmental agencies that over the decades have come to manage the real estate market in America.

As soon as Clinton crony Franklin Delano Raines took the helm in 1999 at Fannie Mae, for example, he used it as his personal piggy bank, looting it for a total of almost $100 million in compensation by the time he left in early 2005 under an ethical cloud.

Other Clinton cronies, including Janet Reno aide Jamie Gorelick, padded their pockets to the tune of another $75 million.

Raines was accused of overstating earnings and shifting losses so he and other senior executives could earn big bonuses.

In the end, Fannie had to pay a record $400 million civil fine for SEC and other violations, while also agreeing as part of a settlement to make changes in its accounting procedures and ways of managing risk.

But it was too little, too late. Raines had reportedly steered Fannie Mae business to subprime giant Countrywide Financial, which was saved from bankruptcy by Bank of America.

At the same time, the Clinton administration was pushing Fannie and her brother Freddie Mac to buy more mortgages from low-income households.

The Clinton-era corruption, combined with unprecedented catering to affordable-housing lobbyists, resulted in today's nationalization of both Fannie and Freddie, a move that is expected to cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.

And the worst is far from over. By the time it is, we'll all be paying for Clinton's social experiment, one that Obama hopes to trump with a whole new round of meddling in the housing and jobs markets. In fact, the social experiment Obama has planned could dwarf both the Great Society and New Deal in size and scope.

There's a political root cause to this mess that we ignore at our peril. If we blame the wrong culprits, we'll learn the wrong lessons. And taxpayers will be on the hook for even larger bailouts down the road.

But the government-can-do-no-wrong crowd just doesn't get it. They won't acknowledge the law of unintended consequences from well-meaning, if misguided, acts.

Obama and Democrats on the Hill think even more regulation and more interference in the market will solve the problem their policies helped cause. For now, unarmed by the historic record, conventional wisdom is buying into their blame-business-first rhetoric and bigger-government solutions.

While government arguably has a role in helping low-income folks buy a home, Clinton went overboard by strong-arming lenders with tougher and tougher regulations, which only led to lenders taking on hundreds of billions in subprime bilge.

Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government's fingerprints all over it.

How much do you know about your country?

A friend recently sent me the following from msnbc.com:

Could you pass the latest citizenship test?

In October 2008 a new version of the U.S. citizenship test will be taken by all applicants. Could you pass it? The questions are usually selected from a list of 100 samples that prospective citizens can look at ahead of the interview. Some are easy, some are not. We have picked some of the more difficult ones.

NOTES: Candidates are not given multiple choices in the naturalization interview. The following questions have been adapted from the immigration service’s sample questions.


1. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

John Hancock


2. When was the Constitution written?

1774

1776

1787

1865


3. What are the first words of the Constitution?

When, in the course of human events

In order to form a more perfect Union

To whom it may concern

We the People


4. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

The Preamble

The Bill of Rights

The Statute of Liberty

Declaration of Independence


5. Which of the following is NOT a right outlined in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence?

Life

Liberty

Right to bear arms

Pursuit of Happiness


6. Which one of these is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment? Freedom of the press

Right to trial by jury

Right to bear arms

Right to happiness


7. How many amendments does the Constitution have?

10

17

23

27


8. Why does the United States flag have 13 stripes?

One for each state in the Union

The number of seats in the Cabinet

They represent the 13 original colonies

One for each article of the Constitution


9. Which of these was NOT among the original states?

New Hampshire

New York

Delaware

Maine


10. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?

Louisiana

Vermont

Alaska

Maine


11. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. Which of the following is NOT a federal power?

To declare war

To print money

To declare treaties

To provide education


12. Which of the following is NOT one of the three branches of the government?

Federal

Judicial

Executive

Legislative


13. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?

100

365

435

646


14. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?

2

4

6

8


15. In what month do we vote for President?

January

February

September

November


16. If both the President and Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?

Secretary of State

Secretary of Defense

The Speaker of the House

President Pro Tempore of the Senate


17. Who was president during World War I?

Theodore Roosevelt

Warren G. Harding

Franklin Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson


18. How many justices are there on the U.S. Supreme Court?

3

5

7

9


19. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States?


John Paul Stevens

John G. Roberts, Jr

Antonin Scalia

Samuel Alito


20. What did Susan B. Anthony do?


Hid John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln

Designed and made the original U.S. flag

Designed the original U.S. currency

Fought for women’s rights


Click here to actually take the quiz and see how you score. (By the way, I took it and got one wrong.)