I am still here!

It has been a few weeks since I have posted a recipe....I haven't quit!

My family has been busy with a move!

Hopefully we can get settled in the next week and then I will share some recipes!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Guest Post...Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I am so excited to share with you a post from one of my friends. She is very talented and has so many creative ideas. After you read her post, go check out her blog at Green Eyed Girl Crafts and then you will be able to see for yourself how talented she is! Thanks Vicki for sharing your talents with us!

**********

Hello Kristi's Kitchen Kreations friends... my name is Vicki ~ aka The Green Eyed Girl ~ and I am NOT a cook in any way ~ shape or form...I can't make delicious meals and have them turn out beautiful like Kristi... but I dabble a little in treats and traditions. Pretzels because a tradition when Kendra became part of our little family it's not official yet... but maybe she will want to serve them at their wedding reception...lol). We've made them for Valentines, Clover Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween and now Christmas. We are still learning... but we are getting better each and every time we make them.  Thank you Kristi for asking me to guest post... it's a first for me... and it's been fun!

Bagged and ready for delivery...

Warming the chocolate...

Note the jar Josh is pulling the pretzels from

Getting their chocolate coating...

Some had sprinkles...

Some had more chocolate...

The production line...

They were stacked everywhere...

In keeping with the Johnson family tradition of chocolate covered pretzels... we bought 2 of the big containers from Sams Club that had cute stars, trees and bell shapes (see top picture) for about $8.00 each plus about 8 pounds of white chocolate and in a matter of about 90 minutes we had over 1,200 of those bad boys completed and ready for delivery!

We are getting better with the "production" each and every time we make them. This time we decided to melt the chocolate (we bought 2 pound blocks instead of the chips) in the microwave first and then put the melted chocolate into the frying pan (it was on low) we found that this makes the chocolate stay warmer and the pretzel don't end up "swimming" in the chocolate because most of it will drip off and back into the pan... and we didn't have to keep re-heating the chocolate on the stove in the double boiler.  After they were dipped we put them on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet and moved over to the "decorating" section of the kitchen.

Our next big ah-ha moment was with the decorating bags. I had previously bought bottles (they looked like smaller ketchup bottles you use at a ballgame). Kendra would put several Wilton Candy Melts into the bottle and would microwave them until melted... stirring them constantly and sometimes they would burn a little because it was taking forever to get them to melt completely. This time I bought the Wilton Decorating Bags (I think there were 10 of them for $4.00)... these worked like a charm.  Kendra put several Candy Melts in the bag... zapped them for the time called for and then would "massage" the bag until all of the Melts were melted completely... then she snipped a very small piece off of the bottom and voila... the perfect decorating tool! (it's better to take just a little snip off ~ you can always snip off more if you want later).

Josh thought it was taking to long to just decorate each individual pretzel and decided they should just sweep across the whole tray with several passes back and forth with each of the colors. With this new idea they were much faster decorating than we were dipping and honestly... they looked just as good as when each one was done on its own!  Some of the pans Josh and Kendra used just the sugar sprinkles and others they did just the Candy Melts and on some they did both... they all looked so festive and tasted so good!

The pretzels would have set up a lot faster had my mom not cranked up the temperature to 86* in my house. Apparently when my mom and dad first arrived (Kendra and I were both running late at work and Josh was in the shower) my mom decided that it was a little "chilly" so she proceeded to crank up the heat to 86*... She claims she didn't hear the furnace kick on... so she just keep pressing the "up" button.  Josh was the one who noticed how hot it was getting and discovered that it was 86*. He first accused me of cranking it up and then my mom started laughing... she knew she was busted! Needless to say it gave us all a great laugh for the evening!

I hope that you and your family have at least one "fun" thing to do in the kitchen that everyone can do together... oh and don't forget to have your favorite Christmas carols playing in the background... you will be making memories for years to come!

Merry Christmas!

 

Swiss Chicken Casserole



6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

6 slices Swiss cheese

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup milk

1 (8 ounce) package dry bread stuffing mix

1/2 cup melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Arrange chicken breasts in the baking dish. Place one slice of Swiss cheese on top of each chicken breast. Combine cream of chicken soup and milk in a medium bowl, and pour over chicken breasts. Sprinkle with stuffing mix. Pour melted butter over top, and cover with foil.
3. Bake 50 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

*Jim's Mom has fixed this several times for us and I Love it, but I had never made it for my family. I love the combination of the swiss cheese with the stuffing mix.

FEATURED ON....

I have been traveling this last week and haven't had alot of time to do any blogging. So tonight I sat down, checked my new comments and guess what, I was FEATURED on another Food Blog!
Thank You to NAPTIME CREATIONS for the Link Up!

Helpful tip...Softening Butter

 I don't know about you, but I ALWAYS forget to pull my butter out of the fridge a few hours before I make cookies. If your butter is room temperature it makes a difference in the appearance of your cookies....for example, I have pulled butter out of the fridge to make cookies, needed it "room temp" right then, stuck it in the microwave for about 12 secs.  The melting process has already started with the butter once I do that and it causes a FLAT cookie!

Notice the difference between these two pictures of cookies.

The cookie with the microwave softened butter flattens out, and the edges turn brown and crispy.

Room temp butter cookies hold their form a little better and cook more uniform.

This has just been my own observation when I have made cookies. So, I thought I would share a helpful tip that I found for helping you soften your butter to room temp quicker!

This idea was found HERE!

Grate the amount you need! It will soften alot quicker! You will be making those COOKIES SOONER!