French Quarter Cheese

Wow is Christmas really in 3 days?  This month has been a whirlwind - I have a lot of great pics and shopping scores to share but since many of these are gifts and the recipients of these gifts check in here from time to time... it may be best to wait until the new year.   I think they'll be worth the wait :) 

I am oddly feeling calm as the holidays approach.  We are hosting again which I love.  House is decorated, cards are mailed, presents are wrapped, menu is planned, groceries and beverages are purchased.   It's a great feeling and if I'm being totally honest, very unlike me!!Maybe I am going to become a super organized Fly Lady now that I am officially 40!! We can only hope.

Today I am going to start cooking a few things ahead in the hopes of sparing my kitchen from being a complete overloaded mess for my company to feast their eyes on. 

On the to do list today are Crab Puffs and this French Quarter Cheese Ball (just the cheese part, the topping will have to wait until the day of b/c it's yummier if the topping is warm). I got the recipe from a friend I am in a fundraising group with and it is a crowd pleaser. So yummy! In addition to serving it with crackers, I also put some Anna's Ginger Thin cookies and it is really really good!

Here is the recipe - I highly recommend it :)  Picture and Recipe courtesy of Taste of Home

Ingredients


1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon grated onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

Assorted crackers

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, onion and garlic. Transfer to a serving plate; shape into a 6-in. disk. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Cook and stir over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat; stir in pecans.

Cool slightly. Spoon over cheese mixture. Serve with crackers. Yield: 8 servings.

 
They also include all the calorie info etc over there but I I'm not needing that right now.  Let's look at the bright side and know there are 4 g of protein per serving ;) 

Wishing you a glorious holiday!!!!!  Hope Santa is good to you!  xo, Brie

Hot Holiday Tip

Chances are, if you have a little girl between the ages of say 3-8 this little gem might be on their Christmas list

Apparently FurReal has about a 5 million dollar advertising budget because you really can't avoid the commercials if you tried.  They run approximately ever 4 seconds. 

Go Go here retails for $50.  She's marked down to $45 at Target and in their circular there is a $10 coupon that EXPIRES TODAY (Wed 11/24) so I got this bitch (get it?  female dog) for $35 dollars!!!!  SCORE!!  So run, don't walk, and don't trample anyone to Target and enjoy the savings.  xo, Brie

PS take an advil or 2 before you go because once you put Go Go in your cart it will bark throughout the entire store annoying both you and other nearby shoppers

A disjointed post about all the happenings

I want to wish all my faithful readers (mom and Keely) a very Merry Christmas (just kidding, I really do mean all 10 of you and you know who you are)! Company will begin arriving sometime this afternoon and I can hardly wait to see everyone.

I've got a lot done around here the last couple of days - just when I thought I was drowning in my to do list there it is, the light at the end of the tunnel! (Greatest site ever by the way - thank you to the blogger who showed me it, exactly which blog is escaping me, but please know you have made life easier for me and I thank you xo)

So here are some things I've crossed off the list:

I finished this book

I loved it! It's not exactly an easy read, you need concentration but I found it well worth it and would like to give a shout out to the librarian who took pity on me and allowed to renew for a 3rd time (you're only allowed 2 renewals). I love memoirs and this is a good one!

I cooked up all my shrimp for shrimp cocktail and have it chillin in the fridge. This is the best cocktail sauce ever by the way... available seasonally (as in now) at my home away from home, Costco!

I've made this, these and even this! Not too shabby, right?!

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart... so I'll leave you with this holiday favorite. I'm sorry, it's just not Christmas without New Kids on the Block :)



Who do you feel more embarrassed for in this video? Jordan when he tears off his leather jacket or Joey Joe when he does that booty dance? Discuss amongst yourselves :) xo, Brie

Signs of Christmas

My favorite Christmas cactus

Decorated sugar cookies

By the way, would anyone like to clean my kitchen table?

and you know dasher, dancer, prancer, and vixon... comet and cupid and donner and blitzen... but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all????

Rudolph the red nosed minivan!!! Love him, love him! xo, Brie

Preparing for the Big Snow Storm

The timing of the big blizzard of 09 is kind of sucky. I have packages to mail, food shopping to do, and a minivan to decorate like Rudolph (if the darn thing ever arrives!)

I did make it to Costco this morning and my advice to you is stay away.... stay far far away! It was a nuthouse and a lot of the crowd appeared to be very hungry and even willing to create complete Costco gridlock in the name of 1/6 of a hot dog wrapped in a Pillsbury crescent roll! It was a lot of fun, I could feel my blood pressure rising. My thoughts were unChristmaslike.

We're home now and just in time. Snow is starting....

At least I will be forced in tonight and might even start wrapping some gifts! Stay warm!! xo, Brie

The things I remember frighten me!

Nevermind that I almost forgot I had to read to Liam's class in libary yesterday, I still remember every word to this catchy jingle!!! Bring back the Big Fig!!!!! xo, Brie

"embedding disabled by request" boooooooo but here's the link

Oh Harry I love you....

One of my favorite Christmas songs - pure self idulgence here :) xo, Brie

Tiny Prints to the Rescue - with time sensitive code

an old favorite from Christmas 2006

This offers expires TONIGHT (12/2) so if you are unorganized (like myself) and haven't coordinated a group pic of the kids just yet for the holiday greetings.... don't fret! I got lots of beautiful cards from a company called Tiny Prints last year and received my first card today from a friend (which threw me into a complete panic) which also happened to be Tiny Prints and was way cute!

Cards are ordered and I love them! Use code JOLLY15 and get 15% off your order over 100 dollars. Code ENDS at 11:59 TONIGHT so get crackin....


A few points why I really enjoyed this working with this company

• tons of choices - I mean TONS and one is cuter than the next. I am sucker for the square shaped card but did resist the temptation b/c postal charges extra postage - one of life's great mysteries to me b/c it makes no sense!


• they had the perfect card for me with 4 separate panels for each of the kids' pictures! No fretting over who blinked in one, who wasn't looking, who has red eyes, who was crying b/c mommy was yelling to SMILE AND SIT STILL etc etc etc ;) Just pick a pleasing photo of each child and drop and drag into the handy template


• they also allowed me to adjust the pictures with zoom and left/right shifting in each picture and even let me change my color photo to black and white - I'm soooooo artsy!

They should be here between 12/12 and 12/16 - right on schedule!!! I have the whole address book on excel so I can print up my stickers, stamp and send!

One thing checked off my list.... only 546 to go :) xo, Brie

http://www.tinyprints.com/

Elf of the Shelf

My sister recommended this to me and now I am recommending this to you! It's a little a book called Elf of the Shelf. It retails for 29.95 (I got mine on ebay and it came with free shipping). The kit comes with the cutest rhyming Christmas story and a little elf doll.

The story is about this elf who watches you all day and flys home at night to report to Santa all your naughty and nice behavior. Each morning he is in a new place in your house and the kids find him in the morning. On Christmas Eve he flys home with Santa with promises to return next year around Thanksgiving.

Nothing like a mild case of paranoia to motivate good behavior! Whatever works :) xo, Brie

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-ELF-ON-THE-SHELF-A-CHRISTMAS-TRADITION-NEW-IN-BOX_W0QQitemZ260315783399QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item260315783399&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318#ebayphotohosting