Chicken Wing Dip... and groceries at my door

Chicken wing dip has become a New Year's Eve tradition for our family. 

This year I was bound and determined to NOT to go to the store on New Year's Eve.

Enter InstaCart.  I received a 2 week free trial period and after a few orders I was won over.

In my location I can buy groceries from Aldi, Tops and Price Chopper.  

You receive the price from the sales ad for Aldi, but not for the other two. 

For this reason, all my orders have been from Aldi. 

I have liked this service so much, I have paid the yearly fee and am enjoying my groceries showing up at my door. I do tip my shopper--they generally get here within 2 hours and all my orders have been correct. 

You can get a $10 credit on your first order using this code over on Facebook.

On to the chicken wing dip.

I cooked up about two pounds of skinless chicken breasts

I then cut these up in bite sized chunks. 

 As the chicken cooks (I boiled it with  chicken bullion , onion, garlic powder and pepper)  spread 2 packages of cream cheese on the bottom of an 9x11 cake pan. 

 Everything was from Aldi... the buffalo sauce said "mild" but it was hotter than we expected.

Mix the buffalo wing sauce with the chicken and 1/2 the bottle of the blue cheese dressing. Simmer on the stove for about a 1/2 hour 

 Pour the chicken mixture over the cream cheese

 Top with the colby jack cheese.

 Put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes

 Serve with tortilla chips.. or Fritos scoops... my husband's favorite

 Enjoy...

and remember, you can get $10 off your first time using Instacart .  The code is over on my page on Facebook.

I love opening up the front door and having my groceries delivered....whoooo hooooo!

Kids in the Kitchen--Painted Bread Art

Amy found this activity for Luke and Kim.  Painted toast.

All you need is:

milk

food coloring

small jars or cups

bread

a toaster

 new, cheap paintbrushes

 We put about one inch of milk into each jar and then added 4 or 5 drops of food coloring.

 Mix up your milk and food coloring...I love the pastel color of the milk.

 Start painting a design or picture on a piece of bread...being careful not to "soak" the bread in any one spot.

Luke chose to write his name.

 Put in the toaster on a medium setting.

 Kimmy's masterpiece before toasting.

 Kimmy's masterpiece after toasting....I love how the colors stand out on the toast.

 The toast was still tasty slathered in butter!

 Amy wanted to join the fun and since it was her idea, taadaa,

Amy's finished flower.

Kids in the Kitchen--Cinnamon Sugarplums

 It's that time of the week.  The time to enjoy a good book and then make a yummy treat.

This week's book is The Cookie-Store Cat. It's the story of a cat that lives in a bakery and enjoys the easy lifestyle that comes from being loved by the bakers and neighborhood children.

There are quite a few recipes in the back of the book.

We made Cinnamon Sugarplums, and they were absolutely delicious...light and fluffy and gobbled up quickly in this house.  This recipe is going into our regular rotation of cookie recipes. 

 2/3 cup butter, soft

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

4 tsp. milk

1 and 1/2 cup flour

1 and 1/2 tsp. baking POWDER

1/4 tsp. salt

cinnamon sugar

 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla

 Add the egg and beat until fluffy.

Luke cracked his first egg and he did a perfect job.

 He wasn't so happy about the egg on his fingers after his great success.

Stir is milk.

 Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Kim is using a whisk to sift our ingredients. (That's how we sift around here)

Drop by a teaspoon scoop onto your cookie sheet.

 Sprinkle the cookie dough with cinnamon and sugar.

 Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

These cookies are delicious...light and fluffy and with the cinnamon and sugar they remind me of snickerdoodles but are  much more soft.

This recipe will need to be doubled the next time we make them, because everyone was home and they were all gone within an hour of baking!

Cay is hosting a Picture Perfect Potluck...sharing picture books and cooking in the kitchen.

Head on over and join the fun.

Jiggling

Jell-o was giving away Jell-o jiggler egg molds yesterday at the grocery store. They caught Gracie's eye right away, so I decided to give it a try.

The kids all picked out different flavors of jello...it will be a very colorful display of eggs.
Just dissolve 2 small boxes of jello into 1 1/2 cups of boiling water.

Have a handsome fellow stir until completely dissolved.


We all ready had this handy dandy small funnel.


We had ZERO mess, even with a lot of helpers.

It took about three hours to completely harden.

There was a little jello left after filling the eggs. We poured this into a flat bottomed dish. This hardened in about an hour and was super fun to peel off the bowl and wiggle and jiggle it, before it was gobbled up.

One batch complete, one more to go.

These literally took 5 minutes to make.

Removing them from the mold was a breeze.

I think Luke is a little excited about finding the bowl unattended.

I sliced the eggs like I would hard boiled eggs, and then we had a taste test.

Everyone agreed they are very yummy!

Perfect for an Easter treat. (These were our test eggs--more will be coming next week to Grandma's house)

There were many techniques in eating our jigglers.

Luke's method was the slurp.

Kimblerly wasn't too sure about Amy's jiggler monocle.

But what the heck...it's all fun.

Kids in the Kitchen---The Creamiest Hot Cocoa

Perfect for our northern snowy days, this hot cocoa is so creamy and chocolately, it is just as easy and so much more yummy than those little packets---it a family favorite.
For about 12 servings---which we need around here---start with 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Dump both cans of condensed milk into a big pan.

Turn the stove onto medium heat.

Add one cup of baking cocoa to the milk.

Stir this together completely over medium heat.

Stir in 3 teaspoons of vanilla

Add 1/4 tsp. of salt

Slowly add 8 cups of water

Stir until siblings from outside smell the hot cocoa and come inside.

Do not bring to a boil!

Prepare the proper mugs.

I also found this marshmallow bits at our Amish store. They are just like the "Swiss Miss" marshmallows!! Very yummy all on their own!!

My kids enjoy the marshmallow "on the side".

Be careful if your hands are a little wet, it will be hard to get them off your fingers. The more you lick the more they stick!!

ENJOY!!