If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Staycation in Oklahoma and Christmas baking


We are still on our stay around home vacation and it has been fun.
We were in Texas and Arkansas last weekend visiting our parents. 

Monday, we took a leisurely drive home and stopped at this Amish store in Atoka.
We had lunch in Coalgate at this small, old fashioned diner. 
Tuesday, we took a day trip to Chouteau to a much bigger Amish store.
It is a cheese store, lunch diner, country store and bakery all in one building.  We did some souvenir shopping there including some canned goods, bread and cinnamon rolls from the bakery, a few spices and an assortment of kitchen tools that are all made in the USA, except for the plastic knife.
that pretty doily was made by my mom
Some of the canned goods from the Amish store. These will be on the relish plates next week.
We had a delicious supper in Sand Springs at this small Italian place called Napolis.
Another trip on Wednesday- we had lunch at The Cattlemans.  We also wandered around the shopping part of the stockyards, then drove to a new outlet mall in Oklahoma City and finished up Christmas shopping.

One more trip on Thursday, it was my birthday and I was treated to a manicure, pedicure and also had my hair done at my daughter in law's salon.  Then we had lunch with our son and grand daughter. 

I really did have my hair done and it looked great at the shop but it was just windy that day so you can't really tell I this photo. 
That night, more of our children came to our home for supper.  I made a salad and cooked frozen pizzas.  It was a happy birthday for me all day long. 


When we woke up Friday morning, we talked about going somewhere, but we decided to just stay in our town. We did a few errands and my husband did a couple little fix it jobs around our house. 

Traveling is fun and I am glad we went, but I am truly a homebody- happy to be home now. My husband doesn't have to go back to work until after Christmas. 

Besides home repairs, he is staying busy picking out pecans. 


All week long we had pleasant warm weather, except for the wind. 
But it turned very cold yesterday with freezing rain last night and today. 

So today was a perfect day to stay in the kitchen and work on Christmas food. 

Salad dressing- just Good Seasons made with balsamic vinegar but it is family favorite
Salad crackers- oyster crackers seasoned with dry ranch dressing mix, dill, onion and garlic.
A double batch of Mexican wedding cookies
Oatmeal coconut cookies
In the top left are Shaker Spice cookies 
Peanut chocolate clusters- I used a jar of salted peanuts, about 16 ounces,  1 bag milk chocolate chips, 1.2 bag semi sweet chips and 1/2 bag white chocolate chips.  I melted the chocolate over low in double boiler made of a small stock pot with water in it and a Pyrex bowl with little handles for the top.

I also mixed up a double batch of sugar cookie dough to chill to make rolled cookies- but I goofed up and did not realized it until they were already mixed up.  The recipe called for 3 cups of powdered sugar but I used 2 cups of regular table sugar mistake.  Sweetness wise,  I think it will be about the same but I am not sure of the texture.  So,  next week,  I will bake a few samples and see if they taste and bake right.  If not,  I will start over.  Frosted sugar cookies with coconut are a family tradition.  

Below is part of the big batch of cracker toffee candy- so easy and delicious, just be sure to spread out the cooked butter- brown sugar mixture as thin as possible so you have thin crispy toffee, and not thick hard toffee that could break a tooth.  I use the recipe in the link but I use enough cracker to cover a 10 by 15 pan that is lined with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Except for a few left out for snacks, all the treats are now packed in pretty tins and in the fridge or freezer to stay fresh for next week. 



so what's cooking in your kitchen?  

16 comments:

  1. HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND!!!
    Just got the last 2 trays delivered out today. We just made the meatballs for Christmas Eve. The recipe I do you freeze them and then make a sauce and bake them. Will do the punch here shortly. It also gets frozen and easier to pour into bags so will wait for Allen.
    Your day trips looked so nice Rhonda. Glad Jeff and you got away some.

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  2. Well, happy birthday to you! You look gorgeous in that photo! What a fun time you've had stay-cationing! :) I'm a home body, too. It's just more relaxing to stay home! ha.

    I made sugar cookies, sweet and sour meatballs and spicy pecans today.
    You like spicy stuff, right? You would love the pecans, then. Just look for Susan Branch Spicy Pecans online and you'll find the recipe.

    It's always fun to prepare for Christmas and all the goodies our families love, isn't it?

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  3. sounds like a fantastic birthday!!!!! I have never had a pedi! I will tho.....planning on it for my birthday in Feb.
    Not much cooking right now- which is fine. I have such a sweet tooth right now that its best I aint making candy!!!

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  4. What a busy, fun week! No holiday baking here, yet. Just a quick apple-crisp last night to use up some bruised apples.

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  5. Oh yummy!! Your baking looks fabulous! :) Love Amish goods... soo many wonderful items! :) Your son looks like my hubby with that beard.. straight from Duck Dynasty! lol!!

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  6. Belated Happy Birthday wishes to you! Sounds like you had a wonderful day to celebrate. I haven't really made much for Christmas treats at all, except for some chocolate mice and some chocolate pretzel bites that B and I did together. I'm heading to the kitchen in a minute to whip up a few things before my family is here tomorrow...

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  7. Happy Birthday to you!! What a fun trip, I would love to go in every shop and resturant!! You are making me hungry with all those goodies. I had my freezer full until tonight when the kids wiped us out. Back to the kitchen for me tomorrow! Hope the ice storm is not too bad in your area

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  8. Hi Rhonda,

    I will bet your house smelled nice when you were cooking and baking all of that. I make those crackers too. They are so good. Happy Birthday wishes sent your way!

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  9. A day out in Amish country is always a great time! They have pig roasts at the end of the month... that's when I head out to PA... ;-) LOVE the doily your Mom made! That's a lot of skill and talent! Cookies here today too... the Mexican Wedding cakes are my favorite... then I'll try some chocolate crackle cookies... Merry Christmas!

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  10. Just a whole lot of nothing going on in our kitchen...at least cooking wise, just reheating lots of soup we found after inventorying the freezers. Lots of stuff bought so hopefully very little shopping the next several months. The Dude did cut up a whole ham we bought..not on sale, but we will get a good 20 meals out of it, which should last well into the fall. Going to try and to another post before the new year....lots going on right now.
    Cheese, Italian food and steak...it was a good week. I pray you all have a wonderful week and Christmas.
    blessings, jill

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  11. You have had a very fun week, haven't you! Happy Birthday to you, and you do still look very pretty despite the wind, in the photo.
    Your baking looks really delicious. I have had to quit eating all white flour and sugar, arthritis was beginning to give me problems, so finding recipes that are yummy and without those ingredients has been interesting to say the least.
    Merry Christmas!!!

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  12. You certainly have been busy! Glad to hear you got some pampering for your birthday - the picture of you is great! Also glad to hear I'm not the only one that has goofed up their Christmas goodies. I've had THREE batches of cookies that have not turned out. I told Brian that I am giving up on baking for Christmas now. I've had it! lol

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  13. It looks like you had a nice time and had a nice birthday. I love your doily that your mom made, beautiful! Your baked goods look yummy, I am jealous. I haven't started baking my cookies yet. The only things that I have made are peanut brittle and fudge. Have a nice holiday!

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  14. Hi Rhonda,

    Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving such a lovely comment. I am looking forward to visiting your blog again.
    Merry Christmas to you and yours,
    Mrs.B

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  15. I am sitting here eating lunch ( so obviously I am not starving ) and reading a few blogs and not-starving or not you made me quite hungry for all of your goodies :)
    I use my cousin's sugar cookie recipe..the best I've ever come across, and it just uses regular sugar so yours should be fine! :)

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