Deck The Halls Contest

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the coming days find us all focusing on decorating the house for Christmas and buying gifts for the special people in our lives.  Needless to say, the month of December is always a busy one!  Not a lot of time for sewing, but good things are happening none the less!

Traditionally, the week following Thanksgiving is when my family begins decorating our house.  This year, because of the mess we're still living with in various areas of our house due to painting and what not, we're not going to do Christmas as usual.  We're just going to deck the halls of the kitchen and family room, the rooms we live in the most, and see how it goes from there.  No doubt, you're doing the same!

When Lynne Hagmeier and I were at the Country Living Fair a few months ago, I picked up another little goodie too cute to pass up.  I bought an extra one!  So....let's have a contest! 





Please leave a comment by midnight, Wednesday, December the 1st, about anything Christmas, to enter the drawing.  That way, you'll have a little something more to deck your hall with!









Now, knowing how busy we all are, we still have to eat!  Time for another easy meal idea!  Here are two very easy recipes for one of my family's favorite meals.  One is for a Crock Pot and the other is made in the oven.  (Just wanted you to know I do cook other things besides slow cooker dishes!)

  

Good Enough For Company

Beef & Mushrooms

3 lbs stew meat, cubed

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 large can mushrooms, drained

1 small can mushrooms, drained

½ cup red wine

1 envelope Good Seasons salad dressing mix

1 8 oz tub onion & chives cream cheese

Directions:

Soften cream cheese in the microwave (1 minute increments on half power) until smooth and creamy.  Combine all other ingredients in slow cooker.  Cover.  Cook 10 hours on low OR 5-6 hours on high.

Serve over noodles, rice, or pasta – optional.

Serve with Beefy Rice!  Yum

 What's Beefy Rice you say?

Well, it's about the easiest side dish in the world to make!  It tastes oh so good and needs only 4 ingredients.

Serve this with any beef dish.  It's a real crowd pleaser!  Whenever I take this anywhere, folks always ask for the recipe.

Beefy Rice

1 stick of butter

1 can Beefy Mushroom soup

1 can French Onion soup

1 cup Uncle Ben’s Converted rice, uncooked

Pre-heat the oven to 350°.

Put the butter in a 2 qt shallow Pyrex dish and melt in the oven.

Once melted, remove from the oven and add the soup; mix well.  Then, add the rice; mix well.  Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

Let me know what you think!  Enjoy decorating.....Pam