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Potato Casserole

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted.  I know that I said I was going to post a new recipe every Tuesday and somehow last week it didn't get done.  So I apologize!  Anyway, many of you have been requesting the recipe for the potato casserole.  That meant that I got to make it for my family tonight.  My husband and myself loved it and my kids kinda just stared at it.  They are still in the stage where combining things in a casserole do not look appealing to them.  If everything was seperate and not touching anything else, I know they would eat it! 

I tried to upload the picture that I took of the potato casserole, but my connection at home is slow so it wasn't working.  I am sure all that you really want is the recipe anyway -

Potato Casserole

2 lb. bag frozen hashbrowns
2 c grated cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
12 oz. ctn. sour cream
1/2 c. melted butter

Mix wet ingredients with slightly thawed spuds.  Place in baking dish.  Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour, uncovered.  Top with crushed cornflakes or chips.

Broccoli Cole Slaw

So, my mom found this recipe this past Spring and we have been making it a gazillion times.  She likes to watch Paula Deen and found this recipe on her show.  My two kids like watching Paula Deen with her  and my son always likes to imitate her by saying -  Hey Y'all!

With this salad we have been serving a baked potato bar and a nice warm brownie - just the perfect size lunch!

Broccoli Cole Slaw
2 bags Ramen Noodle Soup in Oriental
3/4 stick Butter
1/4 cup Slivered Almonds
2 bags (12-ounce) bags broccoli cole slaw (in the bagged salad section of the grocery store)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Chopped green onions, for garnish

Dressing Mix:
3/4 c canola oil
1/4 c brown or white sugar
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
1 ramen noodle seasoning packet

Put the ramen noodles in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin while melting butter in a large skillet over low/medium heat.  Add the crushed noodles and slivered almonds to the skillet and saute, stirring occasionally (keep temperature at low/medium heat).  Meanwhile, whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.  Place the shredded broccoli into bowl and toss with the noodles, almonds, and sunflower seeds.  Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat.  Garnish with chopped green onions.

Jingle Jammin Bars

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way - I know it's not Christmas but today's recipe does have the word Jingle in it so it made me want to sing the song.  These bars are so good and can be varied by just adding different preserves or jam. 

                                                                 

Don't they look delicious!  Heres the recipe so you can whip some up for supper tonight!

Jingle Jammin' Bars
1 cup flour
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup favorite preserves or jam

1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease bottom and sides of square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2.  Mix all
ingredients except preserves until crumbly.  Press 2/3 of crumbly mixture in pan.  Spread with
preserves.  Sprinkle with remaining crumbly mixture; press lightly.

2.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool Completely, about 1 hour.  Cut and serve!            

Cooking Day!!!!

Many of you who have stayed at Sweetwater House have been asking for the recipes that we use during your stay.  We have decided to feature a new recipe every Tuesday.  Many of the recipes have been used in our family for years.  One thing is for sure, if the recipe is on here we absolutely love it!!  Let it be known that my mom (Karla) is the one that is doing the cooking.  I don't mind cooking but she is much better at it so she got nominated as the official Tuesday cook.  The best thing for us on Tuesday is that she has to make the recipe that we are featuring so that we can take a picture of it.  Therefore- we get to eat it!!! 

Today we are featuring my all time favorite cake - Oatmeal Spice Cake.  This cake would be completely gone within an hour when I was growing up.  I make this cake for my kids and they love it too!  Many of you who have stayed at Sweetwater House replied, "I have never had Oatmeal Cake!"  So since it has oatmeal in it, it has to be healthy - right?  The cake comes from a cookbook called Country Fair Cookbook.  It assures you that every recipe in it is a blue ribbon winner.  My dad actually won this cookbook back in 1975 at a Pioneer Seed meeting/dinner.  Good thing he was lucky that night because we have used the cookbook over and over and over again.

                                             

Here it is the oatmeal spice cake and -

                                             

Here is what your plate will look like 1 minute later - empty!

Oatmeal Spice Cake

1 c. quick-cooking oats                    1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter                                   1/2 tsp. allspice
1 1/2 c. boiling water                      1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 c. flour                                  1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar                                        2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda                           1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed

Combine oats, butter and boiling water in bowl.  Cool.  Combine together flour,
sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt.  Add eggs to oat mixture;
beat well.  Add dry ingredients and brown sugar to oat mixture; beat at medium speed
2 minutes.  Pour batter into greased 13x9x2 baking pan.  Bake in 350 degrees oven 30
to 35 minutes or until cake tests done. 

Topping - Serve with a spoonful of cool-whip on top. 
Note:  It even tastes good without the cool-whip!

                                             

Had to show what the recipe book looks like - take note of the nice splotches on the page!

                                                                                  

Winner #5

Kristie Matthews you are our lucky winner today!!! You will receive a bag and pillow with your chosen logo.  She was the 80th person to respond and I took all of the ages of the people in my family added them up and got 80 (in case you were wondering why 80 was chosen!).

Thank you to everyone for entering in our contest.  It was so much fun to read everyone's responses.  Be looking at www.sweetwaterstreet.com next week for our new Halloween designs.

Happy Labor Day to everyone! I am off to labor -  my lawn needs mowed, house needs cleaned, laundry needs done, etc., etc., etc.

Giveaway Day #5

Time for our last daily giveaway! This business started (not sweetwater street but the parent company of Sweetwater Street) 22 years ago so it is fitting that the 22nd person to respond to yesterdays blog be the winner.  Therefore Beth you are the proud winner of a new bath towel.  Beth's response from yesterday was:  honestly am not sure what I would change about our house. When we built it, I took lots into consideration so we built the house of our dreams. What needs done now is lots of redecorating because we were on a very limited budget when we built.  However, our next major project is finishing the basement so our kids have somewhere to hang out with friends that is fun and safe. I would love to put new towels in redecorated bathrooms, so we will see what happens!!!!

Labor day always signals that summer is coming to an end and that makes me sad!  I like the nice hot days and long evenings when it doesn't get dark until 9:00.  Oh well, I am thankful for our 4 different seasons that we have here.  That way you never get too bored with one thing.  Although, relaxing by the beach 24 - 7 sounds great!!!! Feeling the warm sun beating on my face (I know too much is not good for me!) is one of the things that makes me happy although being with my family makes me the happiest!  So go ahead and tell us what makes you happy - Respond by 12:00 Saturday and you will be entered into our contest to win a tote bag and a pillow.  We thought for sure that a tote bag+ a pillow would = happiness!!!! 

Giveaway Day #4 - Towels

Today, I asked my mom to pick a number for our lucky winner and she said 100 because she likes nice round number so the 100th person to post a response was Juls.  Juls wrote in with this: I don't like the word "smell" for some reason. And I don't like it when people say "supposably" or "irregardless. These are not words in the dictionary. Congrats Juls you will receive a tote bag with the logo of your choice!!

The big giveaway today - a bath towel.  Not just a plain old ordinary bath towel but one with your logo on it.

As I was getting ready this morning to take the kids to school, I had a good laugh!  I took a picture of it so all of you could see it to!  It is a picture of my towels hanging in my bathroom.  As you can see they are very flattering.  I have some towels since I got married and I didn't get married very recently!  The reason it makes me laugh is that we are selling such cute towels and I go home to my old shabby ones.  Since it is labor day weekend maybe I will have time to get with the program and get my self new towels with logos on them.  The one good thing about this picture is that they are hung up at least!!  Since I took a picture of this we also took a picture of some towels that we have made for one of our friends who has 5 boys.  We couldn't resist taking a picture of them all lined up in the bathroom - just how I want my bathroom to look!

or even all rolled up nice would be great too!

So this helps pose the question of the day?  Is there something that you would like to change about your house?  Remember respond by 12:00 noon Friday to be entered into the drawing for a towel.

Giveaway Day #3 and Words

Well another giveaway day and another winner.  Today I asked my little boy to pick a number from 1to 92 and he splurted out 18. I knew it would be low since he is just starting to learn his numbers. So the lucky winner is the 18th person to respond which was Janel and she wrote:    I too would choose the one with the arrows pointing inward, and the word would need to be family on it....since to me there isn't anything more precious than one's family. Thanks for the opportunity.And if we don't win, the quick link to buy a cool shirt for a reasonable price.

Janel will receive a free t-shirt with her chosen logo.  And since we have so many nice people who entered we wanted to give everybody something.  We can't give everyone a free t-shirt so we have decided to offer 15% off anything you order from Sweetwater Street through this Friday.  Please use the word street when asked for the coupon code to receive 15% off your order.

I have been thinking what the question of the day should be and all that has been on the news is the DNC (Democratic National Convention) which is being held in Denver.  We are about 1 hour from Denver
so we have been hearing a lot about it.  I am not much into debating politics so I am not going to ask a question about the Presidental election.  On our way to go get some supplies for work, my mom sister and I were riding in the car (we have to travel some distance to get things because we really don't live in a shopping meca!) talking about words that we don't like and this is what we came up with - blouse, sofa, and underpants.  There is just something about these words that we don't like.  Don't ask me why because I don't know.  So go ahead and respond with words that you don't like - keep em clean :).  Respond by Thursday at noon MST and you could receive your own personalized tote bag.

Giveaway Day #2 - First Day of School

Drumroll Please---------------------- The winner from yesterdays pillow giveaway contest was Jennifer A who wrote:

The teachable moments were the most exciting part for our family. We love competition around here and watched as much as we could before crashing out every night. LOL! Congrats on the new venture!!!

Congrats to you Jennifer! We will be contacting Jennifer A for information on what she wants on her pillow.  If you are wondering about the exact science used to pick the winner it went something like this.  As I was sitting at the computer, I turned around to my sister who was sitting by the other computer and asked her to pick a number from 1 to 137 (because we had 137 entries).  She picks 88 and I say "Why 88?".  She replies, because that is the year I graduated. Therefore, the 88th person to respond was the winner. So there you have it our very technical technique to picking the winner. 

All across the nation, school is starting and it is no different here.   My little boy just had his first day of preschool ever.  He has been so excited to go to school.  For a few years he has seen his sister go and leave him behind.  This is his year, he finally gets to go!!! So, I was thinking that he should wear the cutest shirt that he has in his closet for the first day of school.  It happens to be a button down shirt with cute red lobsters on it - kind of a Hawaiian type of shirt.  I pull it out of the closet thinking he will be excited to put it on.  He looks and me and says, "I don't like shirts with buttons on them!".  I gave in and he wore just a plain ol t-shirt.  After many years of trying to get my daughter to wear certain clothes and failing, I have decided to buy them both only t-shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes and I think we would all be happy!!!So speaking of shirts, here is the question of the day:

If you were to win a t-shirt from sweetwater street  (which by the way is the prize), which logo would you put on it? Follow this link to pick your logo http://www.lemontwiststudio.snapmonkey.net/catalog/item/6392098/6215511.htm

Respond to this post by 12:00 pm MST Wednesdy to be entered into the drawing.  The winner will be announced tomorrow.

The Olympics

Here it is our first day of giveaways at Sweetwater Street - Respond to the question below about the Olympics by 12:00 p.m. Tuesday MST and you will be automatically entered in to win a personalized Pillow.   We will announce the winner on the next days blog.  So keep watching!

As all of you know, the Olympics are over and we are so sad here -  no more watching Michael Phelps in his blaze of glory.  It was so exciting watching him race - I would start jumping up and down and my 8 year old daughter would look at me and say "Don't ever do that in public!".  Swimming and gymnastics have to be the favorite event at our house.  I remember as a young girl, watching Mary Lou Renton scoring a perfect 10 on the vault and thinking to myself, "I want to do that!!!"  Well that didn't happen - my sister informs me that I can't even do a cartwheel very well.  Anyway for the question of the day?

What has been the most memorable Olympics event for you?