Operation Baking Gals

Hey all!!

I'm requesting your help in helping one of our own. My "boss" lady at OBG is in the process of setting up our teams for Round 15. I am sponsoring Mark Ferber, who is the hubby of my homegirl Tracy. I will submit my article Sunday night when I get back and the teams will be open on Monday!! The last day to sign up for a team is November 29th. Shipping dates are December 1-16.

Its relatively simple. You bake goodies (or buy them if you'd prefer) to send to an overseas soldier. You pack those goodies up in the flat rate boxes provided by USPS with the required customs form and mail them off by December 16. Mark will receive (hopefully) 20 boxes packed full of goodies to share with the 211th and help make their holiday season a little bit more cheerier.

it doesn't have to be a lot. You don't have to bake. If you'd rather go out and purchase some cookies or crackers, or jerky or whatever, every little thing makes that soldier's day. Skip your daily coffee for 3 days and put that money towards a care package for Ferber. I know people don't have a lot of extra money to throw around but PLEASE help me make this holiday season easier for the 211th.

We all know someone who is or has served with the armed forces. Help me say thank you.

I will post a link for the sign ups on Monday when Lyndsay opens them. If you don't want to register at OBG, please send me an email or leave a comment so I can let Tracy know how many boxes Mark can be expecting.

I have a soldier picked out for Round 16 but for those of you in the Madison area, I plan to do this while the 211th is overseas so send nominations of soldiers my way and help me continue on.

Thank you all for your consideration!!

Today is my mom's birthday. Not going to tell you how old she is, but I sure hope she had a great day!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!!!!!

Guess what? Sirius channel 3 flipped over to its holiday format today!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! I love it!!

I ordered my first Christmas gift on Saturday and ordered 3 more tonight. Just over a month to go people. Can you believe it?

I hit up a deal at the local grocery store on Friday and got a ton of baking stuff for the upcoming holiday season and for my next 12 rounds of Baking Gals. I love 10 for 10 sales!!

I've got 8 more days of vacation to use before the end of the year so I'll be taking many a day off when the boss is gone. I plan to get most of my holiday baking done the first week in December. Boss man is gone a couple days that week so it shouldn't be too hard to divide up my tasks. I've got my list started already of what I want to make. the new and exciting project for this year will be Bakerellas cake balls and cheesecake pops. HOLLA! I found the neatest cookie boxes at Kmart here in the holiday designs for shipping. I do wish they weren't so spendy. 3 boxes for $5 seems like a lot to me. But I guess the Martha Stewart ones were $12 so maybe that's not so bad. I dunno. Anyway.

What's your favorite holiday goodies? I want to know!

Crockpot BBQ Ribs

I had Wednesday off for Veterans Day. I had come across a recipe for bbq ribs in the crockpot and figured Wednesday was going to be the perfect day to make them. I found this recipe on Google and of course, didn't save the link. Tried to find it again, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

Anyway.

Crockpot BBQ Ribs

1 rack of pork backribs
1 can Coke
1 bottle bbq sauce
salt/pepper or rib rub

Rub the ribs with salt and pepper or your rib rub. Add to the crockpot, pour can of coke over ribs. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Drain juice, add 1 bottle of bbq sauce, cover and cook for 2 hours.

Note: a co-worker told me to take the membrane off the back of the ribs before I started. I youtubed a tutorial (yes I am a dork) and after mine were fully cooked, they fell off the bone while trying to get them out of the crockpot. They were just perfect.

I also made a batch of cheesy corn to go with it. The boys gave it 4 very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Weekend

Ma, Pa, and I headed out early Saturday for Sioux Falls. Monkey 1 had the day off so we met for some serious shopping. Monkey 1 hung in there most of the day. Looking for freebies -- possibly -- but he made a good run of it.

Hold on just a sec. You know what makes me mad? PW's cookbook came out and I was all geared up to buy some while at Barnes & Noble in Sioux Falls. Between mom and I we were going to pick up 4 total. Amazon had them listed for $14 online, B&N online was $16. I thought, great! We'll save on shipping!! We get to the store and it was freaking $30 per book in the store. I don't think so.

Anyways, so we did lots of shopping and Monkey 1 held in there until the last span at Macy's. Mom was buying her latest batch of Fiestaware and Monkey 1 followed me to the kitchen utensil section. He took his temp with a meat thermometer, he played dress up with the chef hats, he was mesmerized by Martha Stewart's pizza cutters, and then beat on stuff with spatulas. Time to go.

He took us out to the Sioux Falls Humane Society and we did a walk through with the animals. That's really a great facility out there. It's difficult to visit and not come home with someone.

Then it was time to check in to the hotel and get ready for the game. Cousin and Boytoy had made it and were shopping at the mall. We all met up at the hotel and headed off to the Stampede game.

It was the first Stampede game for Cousin and Boytoy and the Stampede sure put on a heck of a game. 2 goals were scored in the first 7 minutes and there were a couple of punches thrown. Sioux Falls pulled out a win and then we were on to dinner at Bracco.

All in all, an excellent weekend. Its fun to catch up with everyone. Looking forward to our trip in 2 weeks!

This weekend I'm headed to Sioux Falls to see the Monkeys and the Cousin and her Boytoy.

Cousin got a great deal through her work place for cheap tickets to the Stampede game Saturday night. We haven't been to a game in a couple of years so with Cousin hooking us up, we're going to take it!

Monkey 1 has Saturday off and Monkey 2 has no more volleyball so they are joining us. Looking forward to lots of good eating, maybe a little shopping and some hockey.

Hub is headed to the great NE for Saturday's game and a little hunting action. Next weekend is the big deer opener so he will be returning.

The following weekend we are all headed to the cities. Monkey 1 scored awesome tickets to the Wild Friday night so we are going to make a weekend of it. Pioneer Woman is also going to be at MOA on Saturday signing her cookbooks so double score! The hub has never been to MOA so I'm looking forward to riding the rides with him in Spongebob land. I"m really looking forward to the good shopping and awesome food.

Tuesday the 24th is the lighting ceremony for the trees at the Capitol. My work place decided to sponsor a tree this year so us staff members have been busy making balls for the tree. If you've never been to the display at the Capitol, you should take the time to drive and come check it out. It really is beautiful.

Then wouldn't you know it, 2 days later it's Thanksgiving!!!

Almost Christmas time!

Dad's Honey BBQ Chicken Poppers

For the breading:

1 cup flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1 egg
1 cup milk

2 chicken breasts, cut into small chunks. (think mcnugget size)

For the sauce:

1 cup bbq sauce
2 good shakes of a chilli sauce bottle
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp chili powder

What you do:

Preheat a fryer. Preheat oven to 300.

Combine the flour, salt, pepper, and paprika. In another bowl whisk milk and egg.

Slice chicken in bit size pieces. Again, think mcnugget size.

One or two at a time, drop each piece into the egg mixture, then the coating, then the egg mixture and coating. (Twice).

When the chicken is coated, place on a plate and regrigerate for 15 minutes.

Drop each piece into a fryer for 5-6 minutes until each piece is browned.

While chicken is in the fryer, prepare your sauce in a pan and heat on medium heat.

When chicken is done, put on a plate with paper towel to drain and then transfer to a foil lined baking sheet. Pop in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Transfer sauce to a bowl with a lid. Put chicken bites into bbq sauce, cover bowl and shake to coat. Remove with tongs and enjoy.

Serve ranch and carrot sticks on side for dipping