Weekend Things and Family Christmas #1

Saturday morning started out with a smoked salmon bagel and coffee.

In the evening we packed up some goodies to take over to my brother and Jessie's for Christmas with my side of the family.  We brought caramel corn, dinner buns, and a selection of baking (chocolate mountains and Nanimo bars too, but they were in the freezer):

Their place was beautifully decorated for the occasion, and they had some yummy things to snack on when we first arrived.

For dinner we had quite the spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, ham, pasta salad, green beans, buns, and gravy:

All the kids had fun opening presents, and getting to play with their cousins.  The little ones really keep things exciting.

We had a wonderful time with family.

On Sunday morning Christopher whipped up eggnog waffles, and then we spent the rest of the day watching shows and having one or two snacks.

We also had beef and noodles going in the slow cooker, and we gave that a taste later on in the evening.  It will be good for many meals this week.

I posted the recipe for this a while back, but I made some tweaks, so I'll repost it now for you:

Slow Cooker Beef and Noodles 

approx. 2 lb beef roast
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 pack of dried onion soup mix
3 cans of beef consomme
3 cans of mushroom soup
4-5 cups sliced mushrooms
4 cups egg noodles
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (or whole milk)

Heat a couple tablespoons of oil over medium.  Dry the beef with paper towel, then salt and pepper it well.  Sear for a few minutes on each side, and then transfer to the slow cooker.  Top with the onion soup mix, the 6 cans of soup, and finally the mushrooms.  Cook on high for 4-5 hours.  Add the egg noodles, and then cook on low for an additional hour.  Add the 1/2 and 1/2, season with pepper and salt if needed, and then serve over mashed potatoes.  Mmmm!

I'll be coming back attya later today with another post, so check back in!

How was your weekend? What did you do?

What are your Christmas Eve and Christmas day plans?

First Day of Winter

I woke up to rain, which is definitely not typical for the first day of winter.  The day started out great, and ended the same way.  I had a wonderful last day of work for 2018, got off early, ran a couple of quick errands, and then headed home to do the last of the gift wrapping.

This evening I baked buns for dinner at my brother's place tomorrow evening. 

Other than that, I'm just kicking back and relaxing with Christopher.  It was a really busy week for us, so we didn't do a whole lot of cooking over the past few days.

On Monday evening we took my dad out to Swiss Chalet for dinner.

And on Wednesday we went out to Bushwakker.

Last week's eats included a big chicken:

We used it for hot chicken sandwiches:

And cold chicken sandwiches:

Then we made stock with the bones for a soup:

Our AeroGarden is growing out of control!  We used some of the herbs to make a really green sauce for our pork chops recently.

I loved the baked potato on the side; we always forget about baked potatoes, but really enjoy them when we eat them.

Speaking of potatoes ...

Christopher made his amazing crispy oven-fries for poutine both last week, and again tonight.  Yum!

I think it's about time to gather a plate of goodies, and put on a Christmas movie.  We'll likely have a couple of these too:

Christopher's coworker sent him home with them.  They are spicy, but not too spicy, and absolutely delicious!  We're having only a few a day to make them last (and to avoid eating an entire bag of cheesy puffs in one evening, because we totally could do that).

G'night!

Are you all ready for Christmas?  What are your plans for the weekend?  Do you have any time off around Christmas?

Christmasy Weekend

I went a little overboard in the kitchen this past weekend.  This always seems to happen when I make the cooking or baking list unsupervised 🤣

But, to be fair, Christopher never stopped me when I put seven pounds of butter into the shopping cart.

We had been looking forward to this weekend for a while - our Christmasy weekend!  We decorated the house earlier in the month, but held off on watching any Christmas movies, or doing any baking.

 

 

 

On Friday evening we came straight home after work and got into the kitchen.  First up - Nanimo bars:

Then chocolate mountains:

We popped these into the freezer, then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

After a yummy breakfast on Saturday morning, I got busy baking.

My plan was to start with the treats that required the lowest temperature, and work my way up.  I started with snack mix and caramel corn (not pictured):

Then shortbread:

Candy cane, white chocolate cookies:

Oat bars:

 

Pretzel bites (some with a Rolo and pecan, and others with a Hershey's Hug and M&M):

Cinnamon twists:

Buns, and buttertarts:

And finally, peanut butter blossoms:

I bailed on the sugar cookies that I was going to make, and put the dough in the freezer.  I had been in the kitchen long enough for one day, and didn't feel like rolling out, baking, and decorating another 50 cookies or so ...

Those will have to wait for another day.

Christopher was the baking assistant, taste-taster, and drink pourer.  We finished around 6:00 p.m., and then retired to the living room with snacks and a couple of Christmas movies.

On Sunday we didn't have anything we had to do, so the whole day was full of festive fun.  We had eggnog French toast for breakfast:

And then we wrapped gifts, watched TV Christmas specials, and nibbled for the rest of the day.

All in all, it was a pretty sweet weekend. 

This is my last week of work before two weeks off 🎄🎅

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  

Did you do any Christmas baking this year?  

What is your favourite to make?  To eat?