Chocolate Peppermint Patty Bark & recipe link up

Tis the season to make goodies! This is another one of my bark recipes. Check here for the Hot Chocolate Bark. Next I will post the White Christmas Bark so check back.

Peppermint Chocolate Patty Bark

 Ingredients

 1 pkg chocolate almond bark
 1/4 cup crushed up candy canes
 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
 2 Tbsp crushed up candy canes for the topping
 Sprinkles, optional

Directions

 Melt bark in microwave according to package instructions.
 Add in candy canes and stir until all covered in chocolate.
 Quickly stir in white chocolate and pour out onto a 11 x 17 baking sheet.
 Top with crushed candy canes any if wanted, sprinkles of your choice.
 Once hard, break and eat!

Link up your Holiday Tips, Crafts & Recipes!

• For every 50 link ups I will have a giveaway for those that link up. I will pull a number and that will be the winner. So enter as many links as you want. Please let others know about this, too! What will you get? Various prizes include gift cards, codes, coupons, candy, holiday goodies and more!

• Several times a week I will draw numbers for ideas posted and feature that blog. So again, link up so you can be featured.

• In return, I just ask that if you link up please consider following my blog, leaving a comment and making an effort to visit friends who link up!  Check the tag for Holiday Tips, Crafts & Recipes to see more post. 
• The link is set up to post the newest link on the top. That way all the wonderful Thanksgiving ideas are on the bottom and the fresh Christmas & New Year ideas are on top!

Hot Chocolate Bark & Holiday Link up

Pumpkin turned Frosty the Snowman! by Eva over at Tales of the Scotts

Welcome to my on going link up with all things Holiday Tips, Crafts & Recipes! Today I'm featuring two of my favorite and giving you another recipe. Check them out and then go down and link up something from your blog or find something new.

125 + Cheap Stocking Stuffers by Ginny over at Organizing Homelife

Every year we make White Christmas Bark. This year I had 1 extra chocolate bark that needed to be melted so I created two new creations for my Christmas Open House.  Hot Chocolate  and a Peppermint Chocolate Patty Bark.

Hot Chocolate Bark

1 pkg chocolate almond bark

1 cup hot chocolate powder

8 broken up graham crackers

1 cup of white chocolate pieces or chips (or whatever you have on hand)

sprinkles, optional

Melt bark in microwave according to package instructions.  Then add in chocolate mix, & graham crackers. Stir.  Then quickly stir in white chocolate and pour out onto a 11 X 17 baking sheet.  Top with sprinkles of your choice. Once hard, break and eat! Use different flavors of hot cocoa mix to get different variations on this recipe!

Link up your Holiday Tips, Crafts & Recipes!

• For every 50 link ups I will have a giveaway for those that link up. I will pull a number and that will be the winner. So enter as many links as you want. Please let others know about this, too! What will you get? Various prizes include gift cards, codes, coupons, candy, holiday goodies and more!

• Several times a week I will draw numbers for ideas posted and feature that blog. So again, link up so you can be featured.

• In return, I just ask that if you link up please consider following my blog, leaving a comment and making an effort to visit friends who link up!  Check the tag for Holiday Tips, Crafts & Recipes to see more post. 
• The link is set up to post the newest link on the top. That way all the wonderful Thanksgiving ideas are on the bottom and the fresh Christmas & New Year ideas are on top!

Holidays with Hickory Farms

(I love this Perfect Picnic Gift Basket)

When ever I hear "Hickory Farms" I think of Christmas. How about you? As a kid, I recall seeing their kiosk every year, no matter what! We always stopped and got samples and planned out Christmas purchases. Growing OLDER, we've done the same with with our kids. It seems like everyone has a favorite. The summer sausage and gouda cheese are my personal favorites.


I just stopped over at the Hickory Farms website to see when they started their business. Do you have a guess? Well I guessed 1960s but I was wrong! Did you know that they have been around since 1951? That explains why I saw them as a kid and so did the adults while I was growing up.

My favorite gift box is their Party Planner Gift Box. Besides being my favorite they also offer a special with this gift box. With every one sold this year, they will donate $5 to Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry Campaign. Isn't that awesome?? 

Here is what is in it:


Party Planner Gift Box Includes:
-Our Signature Beef Summer Sausage 7 oz.
-Italian Style Beef Summer Sausage 5 oz.
-Turkey Summer Sausage 5 oz.
-Smoked Gouda 6 oz.
-Farmhouse Cheddar 4 oz.
-Smoked Cheddar Blend 4 oz.
-Mission Jack Blend 4 oz.
-Creamy Swiss Blend 4 oz. 
-Sesame, Caraway & Sea Salt Crackers 1.5 oz.
-Sweet Hot Mustard 2.25 oz.
-Cranberry Mustard 2.5 oz.


This is a favorite because of the summer sausages and yummy cheeses. It is a perfect amount for a family of 5 to enjoy or share with guest. Do you have a favorite? Do you go to the mall during the holidays to purchase Hickory Farms or do you order online? 


Honestly, I have no clue how long Hickory Farms have been online but this is the first year I have been to their website. They are committed to delivering the finest quality products with the freshest quality products so they guarantee your order to arrive in 3 business days or less at a flat rate of $3 all season long! That is an awesome deal on shipping.


Check out Hickory Farms for your Holiday Shopping! You still have time to order online for Christmas or stop over at your local mall and pick up your favorites!


 I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a product sample to facilitate my review.

Increase blog traffic with Pinterest

Are you addicted to Pinterest?? I know that I am. Here are my tips on how you can use this awesome service to actually bring traffic into your blog. IF you are here right now because of one of my pins, THANK YOU for stopping in.


When I first joined Pinterest, I would easily spend 1 hour on there a DAY for the first few months of signing on (that was 6 months or so ago). It was for my own pleasure and for posting my own pins from my blog.
Here are the things that I always did:

*I would follow those who followed me.
*Invite people though my Facebook page.
*Every pin that I made I would have it set to tweet out.
*Once I made a blog post that had a great picture and pin worthy, I would pin it myself.

That is what I did for the first 3 months or so in the group. Now for the past 2 months or so I only spend maybe 20-30 minutes a WEEK on there. Why so little time? I just haven't had the time to go on and just play around. The cool thing that I found happening was that people were coming over to my blog even though I cut back my time on there.

Here are my stats just from Pinterest referrals the past 3 months. These stats I know off the top of my head but with google analytics I can go way back and check each month:

*Nov. I had over 16,000 hits on my blog just because of Pinterest
*Oct - over 8,000
*Sept 5-6,000


Growing blog traffic tips:

*Follow those who follow you
*Follow those who repin your pins no matter if the pin is from your blog or just something you gave a repin
*Leave a comment on new followers or someone who repins or someone you are new to follow
*Put the Pinterest button on your blog so people can click to follow you and to pin your post
*Click the TWEET out button so that everything you pin gets a tweet
*Click the Facebook button to put your fav. pins there, too
*Pin your own blog post
*Invite people to Pinterest via Facebook, Twitter, your blog, email,etc
*Think of interesting topics and create new boards.
*Keep your pins organized.
*Make a weekly post on your favorite pins
*Some blog post can go into multiple pin boards. So put them there. (FOR example I have a pin board for cookbooks. So if I review a cookbook I pin it there. If the same post has a recipe then I pin that same pin to whichever category the recipe belongs.)
*Join a group of friends and pin their pins and have them pin yours. This helps get more variety for your readers.

Hope my tips help. With little effort people come into by blog via Pinterest. I went from 1 hr a day to just 10 min. a week on the site. I've just recently followed about 75 more people so I'm hoping that they follow me back so I can get up and over 500 actual followers.

Feel free to ask questions or if you need me to personally help your blog in this area with the tips listed, I can do that, too. Just send me an email or leave a comment below for me to email you.

Do you  have any pin tips? If so leave them below. I would love to hear yours! IF you are on Pinterest, please follow me and as you know, I will follow back. If you are not on it, just leave me your email addy and I will invite you to Pinterest as it is on invite only.

(Oh and pin this post, please :) You also have my permission to copy this post and  post it on your blog. I just ask that you include my Pinterest link: http://pinterest.com/susieqtpies/ and you link your blog post back to my post so that I'm given credit for the post. If you take it leave a comment so that I can come visit you.)

Egg Nog- egg free and tasty!

This is my best ever egg not (yes I said egg NOT) recipe. It is a huge hit at my Christmas Open House. It is an egg free egg nog! We love holiday drinks and truly this is one of our favorite. Do you have any favorite holiday drinks? If so please share!

Ok purist I know you might not want this because it is egg free BUT when I serve this NO ONE knows it is egg free until I tell them. Enjoy.

Egg Nog Goodness!

Ingredients

1 gallon milk*

2 small packages vanilla instant pudding mix

1/3 c. sugar

4 t. vanilla

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. allspice

Directions

Wisk together 2 cups of milk with pudding. Wisk in sugar, vanilla and spices until sugar is dissolved. Wish in rest of the milk. Pour it all back into the jug and shake. About 1/2 of cup of nog would not fit into the jug so we drank it!  Chill and serve.

*note on the  milk: The first batch I used 2% and the second I used whole milk.  It tasted great with the 2% but if you want it extra creamy use whole milk.

Click here to get more of the 30 Days of Christmas Goodies!

More Holiday Drinks and Christmas Goodies

• Day 1 Christmas Strawberry Pie
• Day 2 Christmas Star Cookies and White Christmas Cookie Frosting
• Day 3 Easy and Creamy Holiday Fudge
• Day 4 Peanut Butter Chocolate Kisses and FROZEN Printables
• Day 5 Peppermint Chocolate Patty Holiday Bark
• Day 6 Pinwheel Spice Cookies with Jam Filling Christmas Goodies
• Day 7 Baked Chocolate Covered Cherry Bites
• Day 8 Holiday Pretzel Dippers
• Day 9 Easiest White Cut Out Cookies for the Holidays
• Day 10 Melted Snowman Pops
• Day 11 Gingerbread Snack Mix
• Day 12 Holiday Toffee and a KitchenAid Giveaway!
• Day 13 Skinny Mini Peppermint Cupcakes
• Day 14 Christmas Snowballs
• Day 15 Holiday Reindeer Reinbeer
• Day 16 Holiday Peppermint Fudge
• Day 17 National Cookie Day Recipes
• Day 18 Spicy Gingerbread Cookies and Christmas Wassail
• Day 19 Jingle Bell Java and Hot Cocoa Bar
• Day 20 Egg Less Egg Nog - easiest & best ever

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Rush Hour Recipes for quick to fix dinners

Are you ready for another Gooseberry Patch cookbook giveaway? I have two early review cookbooks that I will be reviewing, sharing recipes and giving away copies!

Are you ready for another Gooseberry Patch cookbook giveaway? I have two early review cookbooks that I will be reviewing, sharing recipes and giving away copies! The two books are RUSH HOUR RECIPES and 101 Soups, Salads & Sandwiches (I have a recipe in this one!!). Today I'm going to post the RUSH HOUR recipes and in 2 weeks, the other.

Rush-Hour Recipes has more than 230 recipes that are all quick-to-fix dinner recipes that are true & tried family recipes. You will find stove top, oven, crock-pot and even potluck dishes. Below are the chapters and some of the recipes I plan on trying. This cookbook doesn't come out until January but you can preorder it on Amazon.

1) 5-Ingredient Favorites- Bacon & Cheddar Chicken, Chicken Caesar Pita Wraps, Busy Day Lasagna, Mini Onion Burgers, Mini Chicken Pot Pies

2) One-Dish Dinners-Adam's Vegetable Pasta, Tomato & Chicken Penne, Make-Ahead Pizza Burgers, Shrimp Scampi, Deep-Dish Skillet Pizza

3) Slow Cookers to the Rescue-Italian Beef Au Jus, "Hot Wing" Spicy Chicken, All-Day Ratatouille, Mama's Spicy Beans & Molasses Baked Beans

4) Soup's On!-Hearty Healthy Minestrone, Quick Corn Chowder, Hearty Shrimp Chowder, Sausage Soup Florentine, Julie's Hamburger Soup

5) Make-A-Meal Sides-Golden Parmesan Potatoes, Cheesy Mashed Potato Pancakes, Herb Biscuits Knots, Parmesan Supper Bread, Golden Roasted Cauliflower, Kickin' Coleslaw

6) Speedy Potluck & Party Foods-Freezer Meatballs, Quickie Cornbread, Luau Baked Beans, Cheesy Jalapeño Rice, Hamburger Soup, Frozen Fruit Cups, 22-Second Salad

Before I share a few recipes I do want to point out that this cookbook, just like all other Gooseberry Cookbooks, has wonderful kitchen & party tips on every page besides the mouth-watering recipes. A few of my favorites include: "Paper baking cups are perfect for serving up party-size scoops of nuts or snack mix. They come in lots of colors & patterns too...you're sure to find out to suit your occasion" and "If a pot of soup is too thin, thicken it with just a sprinkling of instant mashed potato flakes. Works every time!"

Herb Biscuit Knots
*My family went crazy for these. Unreal at how easy & tasty they were.

Ingredients
12-oz tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/4 c. canola oil
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
1/8 t. salt

Directions
Cut each biscuits in half. Roll each piece into a 6-inch rope and tie in a loose knot. Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 9-11 minutes, until golden. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Immediately brush oil mixture over warm biscuits; brush again. Serve warm. Makes 20.

Kitchen notes
*I didn't buy the 12 oz tube of biscuits. Instead I bought the 7 oz smaller tubes that come in a 4 pack. If you go that route you don't cut the dough in half, use the entire dough to roll out into the 6-inch rope. *We do not like Italian seasoning so I used a different seasoning. This makes the recipe very versatile because you can vary the seasoning with whatever you are serving them with. *I also used butter instead of canola oil.

Busy-Day Lasagna
*I served this for guest and they loved it. It really was quick and easy. I made it 6 hours ahead of time and baked it 1 hour before serving.

Ingredients
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1-1 1/2 c shredded Parmesan cheese
2- 26 oz jars favorite pasta sauce, divided
2- 25 oz pkgs frozen sausage & cheese ravioli, divided
12 oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed, drained & divided

Directions
Combine cheeses in a bowl; set aside. Spread a layer of sauce in a lightly greased 13x9 baking pan. Arrange a layer of ravioli on top of sauce. Spread a layer of spinach on top. Add a layer of cheese mixture, completely covering with spinach. Spoon some sauce over cheese. Repeat all the layers, ending with a layer of cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and sauce has reduced a little. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into squares. Makes 8-12 servings.

Kitchen Notes
I used only cheese ravioli and my own ground sausage, cooked and layered with the ravioli. The only problem I had with this recipe is that at 25 minutes the cheese was not melted and the sauce wasn't bubbly. So I kicked the stove up to 400 and it was done in 15 minutes. Next time I will just cook it at 400.

Cookbook of the Week 2/18/13

To enter the giveaway click below at READ MORE. (OVER)

Top 10 December Coupons

All of the holiday shopping hype seems to surround Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but a recent study from Consumer Reports indicates they're not necessarily the best days to find deals. As it turns out, many popular items are at their lowest prices in the first two weeks of December.

Even though we're heading into prime shopping times, you can still save even more money using the Holiday Coupons page on CouponSherpa.com. The following list details just a few of the top coupons for December.

1. Macy's
Receive free shipping plus 20% off on orders of $99 or more with coupon code PERFECT.

2. Coldwater Creek
Use Coldwater Creek coupon code AFLC439 to save $25 and receive free shipping on orders over $100.

3. Gamestop
$15 off in-stock orders of $100 or more using coupon code MERRY.

4. Footlocker
Use the Footlocker promo code LKS1VR37 to receive free shipping on orders over $75.

5. eBags
Free shipping plus a 20% discount using the coupon code LINKSPEC20.

6. Vans
Get free shipping on any order by using coupon code OKBYME.

7. Neiman Marcus
Use code DECFS to receive free shipping on orders of any amount.

8. Finish Line
Save $20 on an order of $100 or more using the Finish Line coupon code BFCM.

9. Bath & Body Works
Spend $50 or more and receive free shipping with the promo code FREEGIFT50.

10. Crocs
Save $15 on your order of $75 or more with promo code HOLIDAY15.

Guest article by:

CouponSherpa.com is one of four websites operating under the brand name The Frugals and is dedicated to helping consumers save money and live more frugally.