More cold weather and two recipes

This weather is getting tiresome! Below zero temps, negative windchills--boy am I ready for spring to be here! The cowls I've been crocheted are really warm and am glad that I found the patterns and took the time to make them!
With the football playoffs and then the Super Bowl coming up, here's a couple of my favorite recipes to take to our "potlucks". I'll post a few more of my "party" recipes this week.


Crockpot Cheese Dip
2 pounds ground beef or ground venison
1 pound bacon, chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1/4 cup water
1 can black olives, chopped
1 box Velveeta cheese, cubed
2 pints salsa
1/2 cup milk
Brown the ground beef or venison with the bacon and onion. Drain grease and add taco seasoning and water. Put back on heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. While you're browning the meat, chop the black olives and Velveeta. Dump into a 5 quart crockpot that you've lined with a crockpot liner. Add the salsa and milk and turn on low. Give it a stir, and then add in the meat mixture. Stir occasionally until cheese is melted. Turn crockpot to keep warm setting. Serve with tortilla chips--scoops are the best!
NOTE: A crockpot liner is a must with this recipe--there's nothing worse than cleaning up cooked on cheese from a crockpot--plus if there's none left at the end of the party, you can throw the liner away and take home a clean crockpot!!


Barbecued Ham Sandwiches
1 Farmland ham, thinly sliced and then coarsely chopped
1 sweet onion, finely chopped--I use my mini food processor to finely chop it
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon)
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 heaping tablespoons sweet pickle relish
2 (12 ounce) bottles chili sauce--Heinz is best, but HyVee brand works well, also
1 cup water
Thinly slice the ham--I use my electric knife to thinly slice it--or have the store slice it for you. Chop ham coarsely into pieces.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients--I use some of the water to rinse the chili sauce out of the bottles. Put half of the ham pieces in a crockpot (use a liner); pour half of the sauce over the ham and stir. Put the rest of the ham pieces in and pour the rest of the sauce in. Stir to coat all pieces with the sauce. Cook on low until heated through--about 3-4 hours and then turn to keep warm setting. Stir occasionally. Makes about 25 sandwiches. 

Winter weather

Another day of school being two hours late tomorrow. I'm beginning to think that I'd rather put up with mosquitos and gnats instead of this ice, snow and wind! Hope everyone stays safe and warm!

Katy's Cowl

This is my other daughter Katy with the cowl I made for her using the pattern for the "Plenty of Puffs" cowl on the Jaida Louisa blog.

Icy Monday

The school called at 10:30 last night to let us know that they were starting 2 hours late today--good thing as it is icier than heck this morning! I had to run the defrost on high and chisel the ice off the windshield of the truck! It's now warmed up to 30 and the sun is shining--go figure!! Happy Monday to all--and especially those who have the day off for the holiday!

Dishcloths, dishcloths, and more dishcloths

These are some of what I have been working on this fall and winter.

Tawashi's--Japanese pattern--used "to washi" your dishes! Excellent scrubbers!

Some of the wagonwheel, rosette, chain stitch and single crochet v-stitch dishcloths

Tunisian crochet dishcloths--love this pattern! I learned Tunisian crochet this fall.

Back side of the Tunisian dishcloth--looks like the purl stitch in knitting!

Mitered dishcloth--love the ridges for scrubbing!

Close-up of the mitered dishcloth

Potato Buns

Snowy days like today are a good day to bake. I pulled out the bread machine and put together our favorite potato buns. I love my bread machine--since it does all the work--although I do miss kneading the dough! The nice thing about using the bread machine is that I don't have multiple bowls, etc., to wash and I don't have flour everywhere like I do when I make dough by hand!

Here's a photo of a batch of buns fresh out of the oven and the recipe:
1 2/3 c. hot (110-115 degrees) water
1 pkg. bread machine yeast (I use Hodgson Mill Fast Rise)
2 tbsp. sugar
Combine these three ingredients in pan of bread machine and let set for 10 minutes. Your yeast should be nice and bubbly. 
Then add:
4 c. bread flour
4 tbsp. instant potato flakes 
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
Close the lid on the bread machine--set for dough cycle and let the machine do the work. When the cycle has finished--approximately 90 minutes later on my machine--dump dough into greased bowl--spray your fingers with non-stick spray and shape into 18-24 buns. Place buns on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise 15-20 minutes. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Remove to waxed paper covered surface to cool and brush tops with butter. Enjoy!!
Note about the instant potatoes: I get the 4 serving size (96 cents at W-Mart) packages of potatoes to use for this recipe. The garlic and herb, and three-cheese flavors make excellent buns. This batch is made with the "buttery" flavor. You can get two batches of buns out of each package.

Snowy Saturday

So much for the nice weather we had the last couple of days! Woke up to about an inch of snow this morning and wind. Going to be a good day to stay indoors and work on some crocheting!