Winner of the Old El Passo "family taco night" Giveaway is.....

Drum roll please...the winner is "Liz" I will contact Liz and she has 24 hrs. to email me. I will pick another winner if I don't hear from Liz by the deadline. The winner is chosen by Random.org. thank you all for your participation.

Snow and Swing Sets

Okay, so it’s snowing in Rhode Island….that’s where I live. I’m sitting by the window and watching the snow falling and piling up on the “mountains” of snow that has already been dumped on us. Oh well, it is winter after all.

Now I am starting to think ahead to spring hoping this will make me feel better as the snow keeps coming. I enjoy Springtime so much. Hopefully the daffodils won’t have to struggle to come out of the soil. The deep freeze of winter should be over by then! I especially enjoy watching my Grandchildren playing outdoors. The boys have their baseball games and the girls love playing in the backyard on their swing set. I was looking at some swing sets for kids at one of the CSNstore.com in case theirs needs to be replaced. Sometimes the boys will visit their little cousins and they all enjoy the swing set together. It has a covered crawling area, slide, two swings, rock climbing board and a sand box. It is such a pleasure to watch them all play together. If I keep this picture in my mind, maybe I can forget about the falling snow.

Taffy Apple Tartlets

I recently became a Pampered Chef Consultant and this is one of my favorite recipes. Of course along with the recipe and directions, we point out the Pampered Chef products to use.

Bursting with caramel and apples, these miniature tarts bring out the best of the fall harvest.

¼ cup dry-roasted peanuts

2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled

¾ cup butterscotch caramel sauce (from a 17-oz jar), divided

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 pkg (15 oz) refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts), softened according to

package directions

12 caramels, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 400°F. Chop peanuts using Food Chopper; set aside for later use. Cut peeled apples lengthwise into

quarters using Utility Knife. Lay each quarter cut side down; angle knife, cut out and discard core. Coarsely chop apples

with Food Chopper. Combine apples, ½ cup of the caramel sauce and flour in Classic Batter Bowl; mix well using

Small Mix ‘N Scraper®. Microwave on HIGH 5-6 minutes or until bubbling and thickened; stir and set aside.

Meanwhile, unroll one pie crust onto lightly floured Cutting Board. Spacing closely together, cut 12 disks from crust

using outer tube of Measure-All® Cup (nine around outside edge and three in center). Press disks into wells of

Deluxe Mini-Muffin Pan using Mini-Tart Shaper, ruffling edges. Repeat with remaining crust.

Cut caramels in half using Utility Knife; place one piece into each tart shell. Spoon apple mixture evenly into tart shells;

sprinkle with peanuts. Bake 14-16 minutes or until edges of tartlets are golden brown. Remove tartlets from pan to

Stackable Cooling Rack. Drizzle with remaining ¼ cup caramel sauce. Serve warm.

Yield: 24 servings

Nutrients per serving: Calories 110, Total Fat 4 g, Saturated Fat 1.5 g, Cholesterol 5 mg, Carbohydrate 19 g, Protein 1 g,

Sodium 75 mg, Fiber 0 g

This recipe is brought to you by ©The Pampered Chef, Ltd., 2008

Old El Paso "family taco night" Review and Giveaway

I was so excited to receive a gift pack from Old El Paso through MyBlogSpark to do a review and giveaway. I had never had Tacos before and this was a great opportunity for me to try them.
Needless to say I loved them. It is so important to gather the Family together at dinner time. A family taco night can be a lot of fun for the whole family, try it, the kids might actually sit down for dinner!

This giveaway includes everything you see here plus a $10.00 gift card to buy the rest of the items you will need to make delicious Tacos.

To Enter: Do any of the following, you can enter as many times as you wish, just leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Leave a comment as why you would like this gift packet
2. Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gramscooking) and tweet about the giveaway: come back and leave a comment.
3. Follow me on Facebook, come back and leave a comment.
4. Tell your friends about the giveaway and send me a copy of your emails to your friends.

Be sure to include your e-mail address in your comment so that I may notify you if you are a winner. Good Luck!

Details: this giveaway is open to US residents only and will end January 25, 2011 at 11:59pm EST. The winner will randomly be picked and announced shortly after. You will have 24 hours to contact me after you receive the e-mail. If I don't hear from you within that time frame, I will choose another name.

Disclosure: I received this gift pack from Old El Paso through MyBlogSpark for my review. However my words and opinions are my own and were not influenced by this.

Hot Artichoke Dip

Here is a perfect Dip to bring to a party on New Years Eve or New Years Day....
I got this recipe from The Pampered Chef. I am now a Consultant so I have access to quite a few recipes. This particular one caught my eye and thought of sharing it with my readers.
Ingredients:
2 jars (6.5 ounces each) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained (here's a trick to draining spinach....place it in a cotton dish towel, roll it up and twist it. It will get all the excess fluids out of the spinach.)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan Cheese
1 garlic clove, pressed
Fresh vegetable dippers (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. combine artichokes, spinach, sour cream and mayonnaise in Classic Batter Bowl (a Pampered Chef item). Add Parmesan cheese and garlic: mix well and spoon into Mini-Baker (another Pampered Chef item).
2. Bake 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Serve with fresh vegetable dippers, if desired.
Yield: 3 cups (24 servings)
Nutrients per serving: (w tablespoons dip): Calories 70, total Fat 6 g, Saturated Fat 2 g, Cholesterol 5 mg, Carbohydrate 2 g, Protein 2 g, Sodium 140 mg, Fiber less than 1 g.
I hope you like this!!

Disclosure: This is not my recipe....it belongs to The Pampered Chef, Ltd.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!! Thank you to all my readers and sponsors. Stay safe through the Holidays and we will see you in "2011".

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