Shelby

No. I just used 2 30 oz. bags of frozen shredded potatoes, thawed overnight in the fridge. The water that you add to the soup mixture is enough.

Cheesy Potatoes Super easy. I omitted the onions due to grandkids not liking them (I think lol). If they weren't coming I'd def. do the onions. My slow cooker takes longer than what the recipe says (it also gets hotter on the left side than the right but sigh it still works so I'll not buy another one yet). The day before I cooked it on low for 3 hours, stirred and then did 2 more hours and put it in the fridge. At 6 in the morning I started it on low again for 2 hours. Stirred. Added more cheese to the top. Let it go another hour then turned it on warm. Worked like a charm.

I'll do that! I just did a mix of 2 TB OJ and 1 TB honey.....I bet the sour cream would do the trick. Thank you! And yes, I use the reg. Ghirardelli mix always--I can't make them from scratch any better either! I was just so surprised that the GF was so good lol. You'll LOVE it. It ships with dry ice--mine was delayed by two days and it was still frozen solid. Mine always comes UPS which, for me this year, has been the more reliable method over FedEx.

No --it's a splurge I buy from Phil's Fish Market through Goldbelly. I think I've done this for at least three years now. Here in KS I'd be hard pressed to find decent seafood anywhere around here to make my own......and this is so good. And after a big day yesterday I was thrilled to have something already made that I could just heat up

WOW

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Hope to have a very calm and quiet day today. A small prime rib has been seasoned and in the fridge for a couple of days so that will be dinner along with whatever sides I feel up to making. Yesterday I had Ronnie's two kids, two grandkids and one daughter's boyfriend over for brunch. We had a really good time. It's been a tradition for years that Ronnie and I buy scratch off lottery tickets and we go in rounds --people can steal other people's tickets etc. Lots of fun. One of his daughters eats GF so I tried to be very mindful and have tons that she could eat. Purchased some new Christmas glasses--I loved my old ones but I hand washed them last year and all of the gold and the Christmas trees came off 😮. I forgot that happened until a couple of days ago. Thank you Amazon for delivering my new ones in time for yesterday. Hard to see but these have holly etched in them. Fruit salad--dunno why I make this. I think only two of us ate any lol Broccoli salad (GF daughter loves this and took a bunch home) The usual cheesy potatoes --I did those the day before in the slow cooker because they never seem to get done if I start them the day I'm having the brunch. GF daughter took a huge ziplock of these home too lol. Ronnie--bless him--cooked heaps of sausages and bacon in the garage which saved me from a huge mess in the kitchen. I used 20 eggs and made just cheesy scrambled eggs which everyone seemed to like a lot more than the breakfast casserole I usually do (grandkids don't like a lot of veggies). No pics of all that. Charc. board. Bottom bowl had GF rice crackers that are actually pretty good. Cookies I made along with two boughten cakes. The cakes have M&M's and sprinkles inside--just something fun. The surprise of the day was the GF brownies I made from a Ghirardelli mix. I made them the day before and had a little taste and I was like wow these are really good. One grandkid declared them the best brownies she'd ever eaten. I gotta get more of that mix. I also bought some delicious GF macarons. Everyone hung out for several hours and then had to leave to go to jobs or another Christmas. So, two dishwasher loads of dishes later (all while drinking wine lol) I heated up our usual Christmas Eve Cioppino--I love this stuff. So, I consider that kinda like the Feast of Seven Fishes Hopefully I don't screw the prime rib up tonight.........

That's so nice! You just can't beat a good pear and I bet they are delicious.

I know I am! Can't wait to see what you get up to with this!

Well this looks fun!!!

LOVED this. Helped me get a little more into the Christmas spirit. Safe travels home!

Made a couple different cookie doughs earlier this week and baked them yesterday. They are all in the downstairs freezer so that I don't eat them. Ronnie's kids and grandkids are coming on Christmas Eve for brunch so I'll get them out the day before. Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies and Christmas Cookie Sparkles (I love these they have a hint of cream cheese) Just got home from the big city grocery store. It was brutal in there. Packed. Going to put away groceries and then figure out what I'm going to make for brunch lol. Glad I have a few days to figure it out.

GORGEOUS! I LOVE frosted sugar cookies.

Loving this. I can feel how Christmas-y it must be. I'm not much of a shopper but I think you'd have to drag me out of some of those markets.

Super nice of you. Yeah that antler was what sold the harvesting deal. They couldn't let that one go. It's ok....we will grind it up and next time I get my way with an old dry doe that will be much more tender.

Aw thanks you guys. I didn't post a whole lot of pics because you've seen them for years....all the processes. Also I was under the weather until late in the evening on Friday so I just wasn't up to my usual self. He'll be back and I promise I'll post more I'm glad you guys read along.