Live Sigma Kappa -- A Thankful Reflection on Things Taken for Granted

Every Thanksgiving, from the time I could remember until 2010, I’ve spent Thanksgiving at my grandparents house with the same spread of food. Delicious as it was, you knew what was to be expected and it was never anything I got overly excited about.

It wasn’t until traditions changed, as family members passed and grandchildren were born, that those little things that came to me every year were no longer a norm. My parents are now the grandparents and we celebrate holidays at their house the same way we did at my own grandparents.

This year, however, has thrown me for a large loop in my holiday plans. My husband’s job requires him to work Thanksgiving and the days following so a trip home is not in our cards. I’ve decided to go on with the most traditional Thanksgiving that the two of us will share together.

I’m very thankful for all of the Thanksgivings I was able to spend with loved ones who have passed and those who are still with me, but this year has me even more thankful and reflective on those past years. I wish I would have spent 10 more minutes at the table instead of napping. I wish I would have paid more attention to exactly how a dish was prepared. Although we’d love to go back, we can’t, so we must learn from the past.

I’d like to share a piece of my family traditions with you in case you too are having to switch up your normal holiday traditions. This recipe is the salad dressing that was used at my grandparents. My own parents haven’t adopted it into their Thanksgiving meal; perhaps it’s what I’ll bring to the table next year.

Things You’ll Need:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 c vinegar
1 tbsp. celery seed
1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 small onion
2 c very chilled vegetable or canola oil

Mix all ingredients in a blender, place in dressing container, serve chilled.

Enjoy!

Reese Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a benefit dinner and I didn't get to sample one.  They look delicious so I'm going to go ahead and say they are!

I started with a yellow cake mix, follow the directions on the box.  Fill your cupcake papers half way full, add a Reese cup and top with more batter, the paper should be 3/4 full now.

Bake at 350* for 20 min.  Let your cupcakes cool completely and ice.

I used a can of chocolate frosting for 12 of them and made peanut butter frosting for the other 12.  I put the remaining frosting in the microwave for 30 seconds and drizzled chocolate on the cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and drizzled peanut butter over the cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Poppers

Today is my family reunion, each year we get together the Sunday before Labor Day and everyone brings a dish to share.  There are always plenty of delicious items and this is what I am taking today.

The recipe is easy, which is always a plus!

You'll need:  15 jalapeno peppers (cut in half and seeds removed)
                    2 cans of chunk chicken breast
                    1/2 stick butter
                    1/2 cup hot sauce
                    1 TBS garlic powder
                    1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 

1.  Melt butter, add in garlic powder (to taste), add hot sauce and chicken (mix well so chicken becomes shredded)
2.  Remove from heat allow to cool 10-15 min.
3.  Mix in cheese
4.  Stuff peppers as seen above
5.  Bake at 350* for 15 min.
6.  Enjoy!

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend!

More Drop Cookies

Remember these?  Well I told you there would be more experimenting to come!  Here are chocolate cherry cookies!  Mmmm, they were good.  I followed the recipe from before, this time I used a chocolate cake mix and maraschino cherries  They were fantastic!

Two for One Desserts!

Saturday evening my husband wasn't feeling well, so since I was pretty bored I did some baking.  I had a dozen left-over frozen cookie dough balls so I made a dozen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.  I just got my Pampered Chef Medium Scoop and it was the perfect size for the cupcakes!

Note:  The above photo is from Pampered Chef

I still had some batter left over so I drained a can of pineapple (saving the juice) and added it to the mixture.  I beat it with my standing mixer to puree the pineapple.  Then I placed the batter into tiny loaf pans.

I baked them at 350* for 20 minutes and got four of these...

I used the pineapple juice I saved to make a glaze...1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 2 TBS of juice.

They were really moist and yummy...It's been requested by my sampling committee to make full size loafs.

Enjoy!

Banana Cheesecake

We had some very ripe bananas at home and knowing what a huge fan of cheesecake my husband is I decided to make cheesecake instead of banana bread.

This recipe was really easy.

For the crust I used 1 1/2 cups of crushed vanilla wafers combined with 1/2 cup of melted butter. I pressed the mixture into a greased 9 inch pie pan

For the filling I used 2 (8 oz.) blocks of cream cheese softened and beaten, I added one cup of sugar, 2 eggs and my two very ripe and mashed bananas.

I poured the mixture into the pie plate and baked it at 300 degrees for one hour. Then I shut the oven off leaving the cheesecake in the oven for another hour and then kept it in the fridge until it was ready to serve.

The cheesecake served as double duty as one of my brother's birthday treats and satisfying my husbands sweet tooth!