Easy Thanksgiving Appetizer

Easy Thanksgiving Appetizer:

Bacon Wrapped Dates:

• 24 large dates, pitted
• 12 slices bacon, halved crosswise
• 1/3 cup crumbled Stilton cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place 24 toothpicks in a small bowl filled with water; let soak 15 minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and fit with a wire rack; set aside.
2. Halve dates lengthwise being careful not to cut all the way through. Place a small amount of cheese in the center of each date. Wrap a piece of bacon around each date. Secure bacon with a toothpick.
3. Place dates on prepared baking sheet. Bake until bacon is cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes.

Tip Me Tuesday

Tips

Tips for life, home, and just in general.

1. Don't fry bacon in the nude.

(My all time favorite, my dad would always tell this to our waiter/waitress growing up. It never gets old.)

2. If you have a ring around your table left from a sweating glass. Dip your finger in mayonnaise and rub around the stain. Let sit, several minutes and remove with rag. Stain should disappear.

3. Don't have stain remover, use hairspray. It will remove makeup, ink stains, and everything else.

4. You can use your hair dryer to remover pesky stickers on bottles, glass and containers.

5. Gun safety: Always keep your gun away pointed in a safe direction, such as at a terrorist or communist.

5. Wear plenty of deodorant on moving day.

Hope this few tips help make your life better.

Following

Most people say that they follow my blog, but do you really know what following is?

I understand that you read it off of Facebook, but that really isn't following... All it takes is setting up a google account. You can use your current email address, whether it is aol, yahoo or whatever else is out there. Once you've done this you go to account settings.. It will have several things under "My Products" including blogger, iGoogle, YouTube, and maybe even your email if you are a gmail user. Click on "blogger," you don't have to become a blogger and publish blogs but you can follow my blog and many others this way and maybe eventually become a blogger yourself. After you've done this there is a spot that says blogs I'm following all you have to do is go to add/manage and add my blog or any others by putting in the http://starsstripesandamilitarylife.blogspot.com/ . Once you've done that you are successfully following my blog or whoever else's you enjoy reading. I wish that more people would set this up so I can see who's reading. Thanks! And I hope I see more followers following my page! It means a lot! :)

Doritos Casserole

You'll need:
1 block of velveta cheese
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can rotel
slash of milk
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder

Cut up the cheese into small cubes. Mix with remaining ingredients and heat in microwave, stirring occasionally until cheese is completely melted.

Then you'll need:
4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked (OR) one rotisserie chicken

Shred the chicken and mix in with the cheese sauce. Add one can of whole kernel corn and place in baking dish that is well coated with cooking spray or butter. Add chicken, cheese mixture and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until bubbly. Add crush doritos to the top and bake an additional five minutes or until brown. Let cool and enjoy!

Just an FYI, your kids, hubby and you will all be coming back for more. So make plenty!! Can be frozen and re-cooked later or made in advance without the chips and just finished off in oven.

It can be made with your favorite varitey but Nacho Cheese and Spicy Nacho Cheese are the best!

Pumpkin French Toast

Saw this on Pinterest the other day, however I did make a few minor adjustments.

You'll need:
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg
3 T. brown sugar
8 slices of baguette or french bread

1. Mix all the ingredients except bread together in bowl. Heat griddle or skillet with cooking spray or a little butter. Allow it to get hot. Place bread in batter, flip to coat both sides and lay in griddle or skillet. Cook until brown and firm on each side about 2-3 minutes per side. Enjoy with maple syrup or powdered sugar. They were good by themselves to for no added calories for the sweeteners. Hope you try this out. It is a very cheap and fast breakfast. As I keep all ingredients around the house normally except for the pumpkin! This would be a great breakfast for Thanksgiving morning!

Sorry the picture is fuzzy, I used my phone!

Care Packages

The holidays are among us, as everyone knows and I would like to give back a little this year. My husband is a soldier and has a lot of friends that are deployed, to help them make it through the holidays, I am suggesting that we help out. Here's what you can do:


Send me some goodies here's a list of what most of them need:

Linens & Things:

Handmade or Small Blanket
Sheets
Fluffy Towel
Socks
Underwear
Tshirts

Toiletries:
Toothbrush & paste
Dental Floss
Chap stick
Deodorant
Body wash
Soap
Loofah
Razors
Shampoo
Conditoner

Food:
Anything that won't melt.

Games/Entertainment:
DVDs
Magizines
Sudoku
Work Search/Puzzles
Dice
Playing Cards
Foam Footballs
Silly String
Glow Sticks

If you would like to help email me at daddysduckgirl@aol.com, be smart about the items you send some will not be allowed through customs. If you want some more ideas a really good website to check out is armywifenetwork.com. Thanks for all your help and I hope you will help out our soldiers! God Bless America!!

O Christmas Tree

Normally the tradition for my family is to put all the Christmas decorations up the day of Thanksgiving after we've eaten, the kitchen is clean, and everyone has had a nap! But this year my schedule has been so busy I've gone ahead and put up all the Christmas decorations except for the lights, wreath and flag outside. I'm really excited for Christmas this year! I have just a few more gifts to wrap and all of my Christmas cards are labeled in their envelopes and ready to go out! If only my school work was this much fun to do! Hope everyone is getting ready for the holiday season! I've already started to hear Christmas tunes on the radio.. If only it would get a little colder and Mr. Army Man would turn our gas logs on! Ahhh.. I hear my cup of cider in the microwave going off! Hope everyone has had a great weekend! Here is my tree, presents and our Christmas cards!!