Our Family Christmas 2016 "Buon Natale"!!!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours,

Our Christmas was wonderful and fun. Games, gifts and lots of food and laughter.  It also helped that our Steelers played and won a great game.  We were all glued to the TV.

How can it not be fun with 3 teenagers and 2 twenty year old?

I look forward to our Christmas family get together every year  because as the grandchildren get older they have many social and school options so Christmas is a time we can connect and find out a little more about what's going on in their lives.

Two are in college and one is busy with soccer and the other is busy with basketball. Practice practice practice. Our youngest granddaughter is a high school cheerleader which doesn't give her many free nights. 

They excel in their studies and are very conscientious of the importance of a good education.  Makes me very proud.

Here are a few photos of the day. 

I made homemade gnocchi

Gnocchi with meat sauce

Sweet Ricotta filled cannoli

Granddaughters!!

Saran Wrap Game..Poppy giving instructions...

Lots of laughs

As my Dad used to say "he's taking a fiver"...

How to set a table

Hi everyone:

If you have doubts on a correct table setting this one should help.

Our grandchildren laugh at how Poppy, that's what they call him, insisted they learn at a young age how to set a table for a meal. Good table manners and how to set a table was somehow important to him. I guess he had a point because truthfully I never new an exact way to set a table myself. We are never too old to learn.:)

Many laughs occurred doing those years. Lots of funny memories but they all have good table manners but I doubt they set a table quite like this.

Enjoy! Save this post.  It may come in handy when you entertain. lol

Christmas fun for everyone!

Hi everyone.  I'm going to be sitting back a bit starting the 22nd  doing very little posting unless I decide to make a few new cookie recipes I decided to make last minute. I'll be busy prepping and preparing for our Christmas dinner 2017.

Our family is 11 and our grandchildren are home from college(2) and the others(3) will be soon out for Christmas break. It's probably the only time of year we can manage to get them together at the same time which is not the way it used to be but I understand(scratching my  head) wishing it could be the way it used to be way back when.  Times have changed and maybe that's what my parents used to say. Just tells you how old in years I am. I'm still a kid at heart and intend to stay this way until forever.....

My menu is set and most of my main food items are made and all I have to do it put it all together.  It's all laid out in my mind lol.  I haven't decided on what antipasto design I will make.  It may just be something simple unless my ambition to create takes over.

My family will be surprised at the main entree. I won't bring attention to it because they may be checking out my page.

Hubby and I do manage to buy the extra gift we do every year where each family guesses what is in the box.

The largest wrapped gift on bottom is the family gift.

  If I haven't told you about it I will now.  We buy something we feel is family friendly in the $50.00 range.  I Wrap it and we give them clues.  The family closest to what the actual gift is by guessing wins it.  It's fun! They go crazy over our clues. haha

We also do the saran wrap fun game.

2019

2017

2016 

  Hubby helps me by Wrapping up small items(dollar store) and small amounts of $$ rolling and twisting piece by piece until you have a huge ball.  You can find the how to on the internet. I'll give you the link.

Saran Wrap ball game

Check back to see what's baking and cooking in my kitchen when you get a chance.  Have a safe and enjoyable holiday. 

P. S. This is also a nice tradition to start if you haven't already. Buy an inexpensive tablecloth and let the little ones start decorating the tablecloth with washable markers. I started this way back in 2007....

Hugs, love and Blessings to everyone!

Merry Christmas........

2/18/16 original

Roast pork with gravy!

Brrr....Winter's arrived in Pittsburgh with a blast of cold air and our first snow. I'm not complaining because after ten + years living here it's been the mildest winter so far.

I stayed in for the day and now I'm on my way to see our youngest grandson play varsity basketball. Bragging right's. lol   He is a freshman and he is an awesome player and that's how he managed to secure this position.

Today I spent about an hour putting together our Christmas fun game. It's called the Saran Wrap game and I'm sure you've heard it.  Inexpensive goodies and handy items are usually stacked and layered with saran to make a ball. It's all explained on google so if you haven't heard about it yet check it out. This is our second year doing it and the grandchildren love it. You can make it adult friendly too by adding various handy and fun items. I'll show a photo of my finished product further down in the post. Note: it's supposed to be in a ball shape so bear with me. I do my best but sometimes it looks like a football than a basketball.

While I was playing with the items I decided we did have to eat so I had a small pork loin about 1+ lbs. and decided today would be a nice day for some comfort food . Here's the recipe below. It's very easy and just adjust the seasonings to your liking. Enjoy!

1 1/2 lb pork loin
Salt
Pepper
Onion powder
Olive or vegetable oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Season roast , place oil in cast iron pot on medium heat. Place roast in pot and sear each side until nicely browned.

Once browned add 1 cup water and cover.  Place in heated oven and cook until tender. Approximately 11/2 hours. Slice thin. Thicken drippings by adding some more water, pinch, salt and pepper and flour.

Hint ***I use Wondra Gold Metal sifted flour and follow directions for gravy on back of container.

Note:  Here's the Saran Wrap Ball that I finished.

Peanut Butter Cup Fudge

Truth be told I saw this recipe on Facebook and it really had me craving chocolate and peanut butter so yep I made it.

I'm a little down but not out today so having a bit of chocolate to boost my moral is a good thing.  Maybe not for the calories but some good chocolate does make me happy.

This recipe was easy...simple and only 3 ingredients were the original recipe.  I decided to mix up the morsels and do half milk chocolate and half semi sweet.  Quite honestly I was concerned it may be too sweet!  LOL  so if you want to do it their way use all milk chocolate morsels.  Also I used smaller peanut butter cups so I had a thicker layer of peanut butter so it may not look as good as theirs but mine was fine for us.

Their peanut butter cups were larger in size and with the larger ones the peanut butter layer is much thinner. You decide.  

1& 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels
1 &1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 can sweetened condensed milk
40 + small peanut butter cups or 25 large peanut butter cups

Line a baking dish with aluminum foil( my pan was 8 1/2 x 11) Press down and push foil into sides.  Allow some foil to extend over ends.  Note  It will allow you to remove it easily.

In a microwave safe bowl place chocolate chips and can of condensed milk. Stir and then place in microwave. Cook on high in 30 second intervals carefully stirring as not to burn. If not completely melted microwave again for an additional 10 second or until all mixes together. Mine took 40 seconds and they blended perfectly while stirring briskly.

Place on top of foil,  peanut butter cups enough to fill the whole bottom of pan.  Top with melted chocolate and spread on top of peanut butter cups.  Allow to cool completely.  Then refrigerate at least 3 to 4 hours.  Remove from refrigerator and allow to set for 5 minutes.  Turn over, remove foil and cut into squares with large knife. Enjoy!  

4/23/16