White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Good morning!

Today's the day! We've got snow, my husband is snowed in from work, the kitchen is full of ingredients for making Christmas goodies, and I'm ready to decorate! What a great day! 

Before I get started, I want to share with you one of our favorite Christmas cookie recipes. A friend of mine gave me this recipe years ago. I used to call them "Dawn's Good Cookies". Hope you enjoy!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

1 pkg. Buttery Round Crackers (like Ritz®)
1-1/2 c. Peanut Butter
1 pkg. White Almond Bark
1/4 c. shortening
sprinkles

Spread peanut butter between two crackers and put together sandwich style. Do all crackers before dipping. Then, melt almond bark and shortening, stirring well. Dip cracker sandwiches to coat and decorate with sprinkles. Let cool on wax paper or foil.

Thanks so much to One More Time for the feature!

Check out our Christmas Cookie Round Up for more great Cookie Recipes!


Linking with:
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Craft-o-Maniac Monday  
Motivate Me Monday 
Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom 
Living Proverbs 31
Make the Scene Monday @ Alderberry Hill 
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage 
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success 
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T. 
Marriage Monday
Making Your Home Sing Monday
A Return to Loveliness @ A Delightsome Life
Cottage Style Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage 
Teach Me Tuesday @ Growing Home
Tutorial Tuesdays with Hope Studios
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good 
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
The Scoop @Stone Gable

Perfect Pairings with STAR Gluten Free Olive Oil #STAROliveOil #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client. All opinions are honest and are my own.

About a year ago, I started using butter and olive oil in all my cooking and baking. Not only does my family prefer the taste, I feel these are healthier than the margarine and vegetable oils I used to use. STAR brand has several great options for cooking and baking with olive oil, including the line of Usage Pairings oils. They come in three varieties for enhancing the flavors of vegetables, poultry and fish, and beef and lamb.

Using olive oil always makes me feel like I'm making something gourmet and healthy for my family. Even if it's just simple chicken or steaks. My boys have decided they want to become excellent chefs and open up their own restaurant someday because they have fun playing around in the kitchen with different condiments and seasonings. I know how they feel---it's fun to cook when you've got quality ingredients to work with.

A few days ago I was checking these out at Walmart and decided to pick up the Picual variety for beef and lamb. The robust flavor of this extra virgin olive oil comes from the Picual olives it's made with. Just like red wine compliments red meat, this version will also go well with red meat. I plan to use it when I make my Apple Cider Beef Stew.

I think I'd like to try the Hojiblanca poultry version when I make my Chicken, Bacon, Mushroom & Snap Pea Skillet. This is a medium-intensity oil that's made from hojiblanca olives. It gives a bit of a fruity flavor to the dish.

The Arbequina vegetable version would pair excellently with my Easy Saucy Pasta. Instead of the chicken broth and cornstarch sauce, I could drizzle a bit of this oil in and mix it up for a lighter Veggie Skillet. The variety for vegetables is made with arbequina olives and gives a slightly nutty, slightly fruity, flavor to the entreé.

Right now you can win a set of three Usage Pairings Olive Oils on STAR's Facebook page! Make sure and "like" them to enter the giveaway. You can find all three STAR Usage Pairings Olive Oil varieties at Walmart. Let me know which one you use to enhance the flavor of your favorite dish.

For more information on STAR products visit:
STAR's website
STAR on Twitter
STAR on Pinterest

The Homemaking Party: The Impending Ice Storm!

Welcome to the Homemaking Party!  

I'm headed out tonight to stock up on essentials because, apparently, we're in for an ice storm! The locals are all recommending we have our houses stocked and we stay home. Sounds to me like a great weekend for baking and decorating!

Peppermint Mocha Brownie for One with Nestle Coffee-mate #shop #cbias #loveyourcup

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. All opinions are honest and are my own. 

Holiday Traditions. We've all got that handful of things that just have to happen to make our holidays perfect. Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, Peppermint candy canes at Christmas---we expect that these things will be a part of our celebrations and we look forward to them all year long. 

Have you ever been the one to suggest a deviation from a tradition your family celebrates? I have and, let me tell you, those ideas are not met with much enthusiasm around my house! I think traditions unite our family and give us opportunities to connect with one another. 

Often times, it's as easy as a nightly cup of coffee with the one you love. It's important to have these solid routines to show others you're willing to set aside time for them.

I was thinking of all this while I was mixing up a sweet treat to share with my husband. I wanted something that would go well with the Peppermint Mocha creamer and coffee I bought. Check out my Google+ album for more on my shopping trip. 

Sometimes it can be good to change up our normal routine and do something different and special. For instance, think of all the reasons you would buy a coffee creamer like Nestle Coffee-mate Peppermint Mocha. There's probably not a lot, right? You'd pretty much use it for coffee.

I like to make special treats for my husband and I--just enough for the two of us to share while we're watching a movie or chatting at night when the kids go to bed. It's these moments of connection that we have to look forward to after a busy day for him at work and for me at home. Thinking creatively, I used this delicious creamer to make an excellent peppermint dessert glaze. It will be a hit on so many of our favorite chocolate desserts!

Peppermint Mocha Brownie for One

4 Tb. flour

4 Tb. sugar

2 Tb. unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

2 Tb. oil

2 Tb. water

1/4 c. powdered sugar

2 Tb. Peppermint Mocha liquid creamer

whipped cream & toppings, optional

Stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a ramekin or mug. Add oil and water and stir until completely combined. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. The center of the brownie should be a bit gooey. Use a spoon to pull the brownie away from the sides and sort of chop it up a bit. Mix the powdered sugar and creamer until smooth and pour over the brownie. Top with whipped cream and chocolate chips or candy cane bits, if desired.

Nestle Coffee-mate is featured in our Live SoFab Holiday Digital Magazine! Check it out for some great holiday ideas.

Linking with:
Make Bake Create @ Hope In Every Season
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
Home @ Rose Chintz Cottage  
Inspire Me Wednesday @ MamaBuzz
What's Working Wednesday @ NextGen Homeschool 
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above
Home Link Up at Raising Arrows
Homemaking Party @ Hope In Every Season
Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner
Pearls and Lace Thursday @ Faith, Grace and Crafts
Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Thriving Thursday @ Serving Joyfully
Homeacre Hop 
Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits @ Stone Gable  
Think Tank Thursday @ Saving4Six 
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home 
Create It Thursday
Open House @ Bernideen's Tea Time Blog 
Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Make Bake Create #36

Welcome to the Make Bake Create Party! 5 Blogs-1 party-lots of fun and creative ideas for you!

Please follow your hosts:

Hope In Every Season | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 
Bubbly Nature Creations | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Mommy Hates Cooking | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

The Creative Princess | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Nessa Makes | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Follow the MBC Pinboard!

Heading In The Right Direction

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm on Raising Homemakers today talking about Heading In The Right Direction. Hope you're blessed!

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Fudge

Happy Thanksgiving! I know I've got readers all over the world, but every day is a good day to be thankful, right?

I made us some lovely Chocolate Peppermint Bark Fudge to share for the Homemaking Party this week! I do think I'm getting the better deal here though, since I get to actually eat it and you only get to look at it! So, make yourself some this week and let me know how it turned out!

Peppermint Bark is one of my favorite Christmas treats. So I thought, why not make it into fudge? Now I've got two favorite treats in one easy recipe!

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Fudge

12 oz. milk chocolate chips
12 oz. white chocolate chips
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1 Tb. peppermint extract
red food coloring
mini chocolate chips or crushed peppermint for topping

Line an 8" square pan with foil. Melt milk chocolate chips until smooth and stir in 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk. Pour into pan. Repeat steps with white chips and remaining milk. Stir in peppermint extract and pour 1/2 of white mixture on top of chocolate mixture. Stir food coloring in to remaining white mixture and pour into pan, swirling with the white. Sprinkle with mini chips or crushed peppermint and cool completely before cutting. *I put my pan into the fridge after sprinkling with the mini chips so they wouldn't melt from the heat of the cooling fudge.

This fudge was featured at Boogieboard Cottage and at One More Time. Thank you!

Make Bake Create #35

Welcome to the Make Bake Create Party! 5 Blogs-1 party-lots of fun and creative ideas for you!

Please follow your hosts:

Hope In Every Season | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 
Bubbly Nature Creations | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Mommy Hates Cooking | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

The Creative Princess | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Nessa Makes | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Follow the MBC Pinboard!

10 Festive Christmas Party Finger Food Recipes

Ready for some easy and festive Christmas finger food ideas? Even though I just got my fall decorations up two days ago, I figured I'd better start in on our Christmas planning. I'm determined to have a fun, festive, and relaxing holiday season this year! I've found a handful of yummy finger food ideas to try. Let me know if you try any of these as well!

Gingerbread M&Ms Coupon for Holiday Decorating, Fun Crafts & Snacks #HolidayMM #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. All opinions are honest and are my own.

I'm really excited to be sharing this M&Ms coupon with you all! (Just click the image to get your $1.00 off coupon) 

M&Ms are definitely a holiday tradition around here. We like to use them to decorate gingerbread houses at Christmas time. We also love to have some around when we do our daily advent calendar leading up to Christmas. After the Bible study and turning of the calendar day, Daddy hands out two green and two red M&Ms to each of us. They're fun snacks we always look forward to!

Brighten your home for the holidays with red and green Gingerbread M&M's® to decorate and bring good cheer! Get your coupon today so you can deck the halls with Gingerbread-inspired holiday ideas and fill your home with joy this season.  #HolidayMM

If you need some festive holiday decorating ideas check out these fun Gingerbread M&M's crafts.  If you have some creative ideas of your own, participate in the Gingerbread M&M Instagram contest to win a great prize!


HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Upload an original image to Instagram with inspirational ideas and creations using Gingerbread M&M's to decorate and craft during the holidays, caption that image with the hashtag #HolidayMM, and share on Twitter (an “Entry”). 

The Homemaking Party: Simple Fall Centerpiece

Today I'm finally decorating for Fall...again. We're all moved in to our new house in Arkansas and I've been unpacking and organizing. I'm determined to have Fall decorations up until Christmas decorating day, though, so they're going up again. God knows I like Fall so much that he gave me the opportunity to decorate for it twice this year!

The kids are loving our beautiful yard in our Ozarks town of Bella Vista. There are all kinds of things here that we've never seen before, including thousands of acorns and walnuts all over the yard!

Yesterday Lynzie gathered some and made a pretty Fall centerpiece. She's my super creative girl! You can check out her blog at Thoughts From a Young Writer.

A few years ago, in my very early Pinterest days, I made a fall centerpiece using a Christmas tray, some leaves from the Dollar Store, a glass dish, and a candle. I bought nuts from the grocery store to fill in around the candle.

Lynzie used the tray and put a pumpkin dish in the middle instead. She gathered nuts, acorns, and berries from our yard and filled in around the candle. Isn't it pretty?

Now for the linkup.  Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season! Have a great weekend! 

Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Linking with:

The Homemaking Party: Moving Day!

Woo Hoo! Looks like my couch moving days are over!

It's moving week at the Coller house so I'm putting our party up a little early. We're headed to Arkansas bright and early Thursday morning!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing week. I'm excited to see what you've all got to share!

Make Bake Create #33

Welcome to the Make Bake Create Party! 5 Blogs-1 party-lots of fun and creative ideas for you!

Please follow your hosts:

Hope In Every Season | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 
Bubbly Nature Creations | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Mommy Hates Cooking | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

The Creative Princess | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Nessa Makes | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Follow the MBC Pinboard!

I can't wait to show Lynzie this cute Ruffled Doll Bag from Gina's Craft Corner. What an easy and fun idea!

This All-American Apple Pie from The Wednesday Baker looks excellent. Look at that crust! Awesome!

Have you been featured? Check out my buttons tab for a button for your blog! 

The Homemaking Party: Arkansas Update

This is my first photo from Arkansas. Ha! As some of you know, we are moving from Oregon to Arkansas this coming week. Jamie and I went to AR this past weekend to find a house and see the area. I've never seen a tornado shelter sign so I thought it would be a classic "first Arkansas photo". God has blessed every stage of this journey---please pray with us that the rest would go as smoothly! 

Also, make sure you enter to win a $400 gift card from Amazon! I've teamed up with some of my favorite bloggers and am so excited to offer this chance to my readers!

Now for the linkup.  Please remember to return the favor by adding my button or a text link to your post.  Have a great weekend!




<a href="http://www.bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnl3MBC08OHdVfVNA2p4AbXHr0RahzOHBRCnosiG00ylKdhunwQJxc6PdOC0n5x99dzbkOheOOhZHAiKstxXgMRdgmbBh-NrDdCn2QxdvHbGldwZ7vlnZcu5_lwiBita04s5UmA5IexKfn/s240/bluebirdbutton1.png " border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a> Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Linking with:

Make Bake Create #32

Welcome to the Make Bake Create Party! 5 Blogs-1 party-lots of fun and creative ideas for you!

Please follow your hosts:

Hope In Every Season | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 
Bubbly Nature Creations | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Mommy Hates Cooking | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

The Creative Princess | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Nessa Makes | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Hi Everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by today for Make Bake Create! Jamie and I are in Arkansas today looking for a house! By the time you read this, we'll hopefully have secured one and will have 1 week to pack up and make our trip from Oregon to Arkansas. Really praying for good roads!!

Family Size Meals for Easy Holiday Entertaining #PlanAhead #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. All opinions are honest and are my own.

With the sudden news of my husband's new job and our lightning fast move to Arkansas this month, I think it's safe to say this is going to be a holiday season like no other! However, I am hoping to have the kitchen unpacked for Thanksgiving, and Lynzie and I are looking forward to checking out NW Arkansas' Black Friday deals! 

Every holiday season, I'm reminded of the story of Mary and Martha---well, my 21st century version, anyway. While Mary's hanging out with the guests, Martha's slaving it away in the kitchen. While it's nice to cook a great meal and make lots of fun holiday treats, I also really enjoy having something to pop in the oven quick while I spend time with the important people in my life. Nestle frozen foods help make this possible with some delicious family size selections that we all enjoy.

This past week, as we've been frantically tying up loose ends and organizing the house, I've taken advantage of some of these party-sized entrees to get a hot meal on the table without having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I bought Stouffer's Party Size Lasagna with Meat & Sauce and Stouffer's Party Size Macaroni & Cheese. We'd never tried either of these varieties before and were super impressed. Paired with a couple of sides, the lasagna was hearty and filling, and the macaroni & cheese was an excellent base for a newly-developed recipe.

I featured this Mac & Cheese Breakfast Casserole earlier this week---check it out. My kids really enjoyed it and the recipe made a lot. I'm planning on making it again for a holiday morning breakfast. It's an excellent choice for feeding a large crowd and much of it can be prepared the night before.

As for the lasagna, I served that with veggies and my garlic cheese bread. It was one of those meals that warms you up from the inside. The sauce was flavorful---and there was lots of it! 

My cheese bread is super simple to make. Just roll your bread dough into a rectangle (if you're using refrigerated dough, slice the roll down the middle but not clear through, spread it open, and roll out a bit). Then spread fresh garlic, cheese, and herbs (basil, oregano, whatever) all over it. Roll it back up and bake according to directions with the seam side down. When it's done, slice it up and enjoy!

One of the most wonderful gifts to man, in our opinion, is pizza! There are times when nothing will do but a hot, cheesy, saucy, yummy pizza. We usually buy three Digiorno Rising Crust pizzas and serve them with salad. 

I think I probably serve pizza to guests more than any other meal. It's almost expected that when there are extra family members or friends in the house, pizza is on the menu! Of course, my husband often ends up taking any leftovers to work the next day---sometimes as his breakfast!

Is there a treat more wonderful than ice cream? It's debatable. I remember having ice cream together as a family when I was growing up. My parents would wait for it to go on sale and then they'd go buy several flavors. My Dad always wanted Maple Walnut, my Mom liked Butter Pecan, and my favorite was Mint Chocolate Chip. 

Did you know that Dreyer's has a couple of new flavors out for the holidays? I absolutely love the Peppermint Wonderland, and Jamie is looking forward to trying A Very Merry Eggnog when it hits Walmart this week. Just typing out their names makes me feel festive! I like to make my own hard shell topping to drizzle on top. Just melt down some chocolate or butterscotch chips and stir in some shortening. Once it's all melted, pour on top of your ice cream and it will instantly begin hardening!

Planning ahead for the holidays can make a huge difference in how much you and your family enjoy this short and special time. I hope each one of you has a relaxing and joy-filled holiday season!

Visit Nestle for meal ideas, product information, and special offers:

Nestle website
Nestle on Twitter
Nestle on Facebook

#PlanAhead