CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
I always enjoy being a part of the Christmas shopping hustle and bustle but things seemed to have changed over the years.
I can remember going Christmas shopping with my mother and grandmother from the time I was a small girl. We always shopped in our downtown. There seemed to be so many stores to me. I can still feel the chill of the cold air as we darted in and out of each store. The snow was blowing in our face, Christmas music was playing over loud speakers on the street corners, and there were happy people every place.
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MASCARPONE FILLED BREAKFAST ROLLS FOR 2
In 2008 I was chosen as a finalist for the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-off Contest. I cannot even express how exciting this was and what an unforgettable experience.
My recipe was Mascarpone-Filled Cranberry Walnut Rolls.
THANKSGIVING FUN WITH THE FAMILY 2015
This year my North Carolina family was able to come to our house for a few days over Thanksgiving. My husband came home from his deer camp for the day. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner followed by a lot of activities.
The weather was very nice so I took the opportunity to do some outside Christmas decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The boys (age 3 and 6) wanted to help me. We needed to take down the fall decorations first so that kept them busy for a while. The 3 year old wanted to get it done quickly, so he decided that he could do it by himself.
Whoops!!! They were a little heavy.
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THANKSGIVING LEFTOVER IDEAS FOR 2
Thanksgiving dinner is over and the food was delicious. If you fixed a downsized meal you may not have a lot leftover, but why not enjoy the food that you do have. 
The Caribbean-Turkey Cobb salad is a refreshing, light salad that is a total escape from the heavy Thanksgiving foods. This recipe makes 1 salad so you can adjust to make the number you want by how much turkey is leftover.
GRANDPARENTS SHARE THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS
Thanksgiving traditions are created from memories.
Traditions are defined as the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. I was thinking of my Thanksgiving traditions and asked a few of my friends to tell me about theirs.
When I was growing up I remember that my mother cooked and baked for days preparing foods for Thanksgiving. I believe that I can still feel the warmth in our home and experience the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. Everyone came to our house to eat including grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. My father and the men in our family always liked to deer hunt so they were out in the morning doing that. After dinner we drew names for our Christmas gift exchange.
When I was in high school we moved to the country and for several years the same tradition continued. My mother decided to try hunting and enjoyed it so she started going out herself. Over the years as my brother, sister and I grew up and had our own families we were not always able to be together.
1 ROTISSERE CHICKEN- 4 DOWNSIZED MEALS
I love all of the recipes that can be created from using 1 rotisserie chicken. For this post on my downsized cooking feature, I want to share a few of those ideas using a chicken.
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These rotissere chickens are not only convenient, they are inexpensive. I buy mine at Sam’s and they cost $4.99. I only use the breast meat and this usually nets about 4 cups of meat. My husband likes to eat the legs. I bought this last weekend and made 4 different meals that were enough to feed 2 people. If you prefer more meat in any of the dishes, you can still make 3 of the 4 dishes.
I serve these meals with a salad or vegetable.
When I go to Sam’s, I usually buy 2 of these chickens. We eat part of it for supper that night and then I make another dish from the remaining meat. I cut the meat off of the second one and put it in smaller freezer bags for future use. I like to make chicken salad from the rotisserie chicken but when I do this, I make it while the meat is still warm so that the flavors blend better. The possibilities of recipes are endless but I want to share some of the comfort foods that I made last weekend.
CREAMED CHICKEN AND BISCUITS
CREAMY CHICKEN SPAGHETTI 
A BREAKFAST PANINI FOR NATIONAL SANDWICH DAY
The perfect way to start National Sandwich Day is with my yummy breakfast panini.
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MEMORIES OF THE PILLSBURY BAKE-OFF CONTEST 2014
Sharing memories of the Pillsbury Bake-off Contest 2014
This time last year, my husband and I were in Nashville Tn for the 47th Pillsbury Bake-off Contest. I had been chosen as a finalist with my entry: Strawberry-Mascarpone-Hazelnut-Choc. -Tart. So many wonderful memories. I am so honored to have been chosen. To see my blog post on this trip, see HERE.
My 11 year old granddaughter called me one day and said that she was required to do a “How To” demonstration speech in one of her classes. She asked to do my Pillsbury entry! She came to my house one evening and made the tart and I took pictures. This was an easy recipe to do and I am so proud of the great job she did.
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EARLY HALLOWEEN FUN WITH THE GRANDKIDS
There was a lot of fun and activities at our house last week. My 3 year old grand-daughter got to spend the day with me on Friday. I had baked some Halloween cookies, so she helped me make cookie trays and candy bags to give to people.
She carefully arranged them and re-arranged them many times. She also named each person that was suppose to eat that particular cookie. It seemed that her personal cookie tray was getting larger than the others, so I moved some cookies around when she was not watching.