Favorite Holiday Recipes for Family

The staff cooks up our favorite holiday recipes -- Walworth County Today

Leftover Turkey Recipe

After my mom had one of her heart surgeries, a good family friend brought this delightful casserole over for our family. We have gotten so many wonderful family recipes over the years that have since become our family favorites.

Since we're all stuffed to the gills today after our wonderful Thanksgiving feast yesterday, I thought this would be an appropriate time to share the recipe with you. This is one of the to-die-for casseroles that is a staple for the leftover bird! A special thank you to Sue, Paul & Karen K.for being so helpful when we needed a hand. You'll always be dear to our family!

Turkey Wild Rice Casserole
1 - 6 oz. tube Jimmy Deans Spicy Breakfast Sausage
1 minced shallot
2 cups cooked turkey
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 box Uncle Ben's long grain wild rice mix
1/3 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
2 cups water

Preheat oven to 375. In large skillet brown sausage over medium heat - 10 minutes or until it crumbles. Add shallot and cook 2 more minutes. Stir in all else including water. Reduce heat and cook about 20 minutes - until rice is tender. Season with Salt & Pepper and spoon into a 9x13" casserole dish. Bake about 30 minutes.

The sweet mixed with the savory really make a delicious taste! Hope you enjoy!

Delicious Rhubarb Coconut Cookie Recipe

With Spring in Wisconsin, we have a plethora of beautiful things, tulips, daffodils, RHUBARB! With limited fresh produce coming out of winter the first batch of rhubarb is a special treat.

I love trying new recipes... rhubarb bars, rhubarb crunch, rhubarb sauce for pork chops or chicken... but this year I found a new recipe that is now deemed my FAVORITE rhubarb recipe. This recipe came from the Taste of Home, a wonderful cooking magazine published right here in Wisconsin.

So here's the recipe, I'm happy to share. And if you have a HUGE crop of rhubarb, it's great to freeze and re-create this special spring treat later in the summer! These cookies are a great, not to sweet, perfect refreshing treat!

Frosted Rhubarb Cookies
1 C. Shortening
1 - 1/2 C. Dark Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
3 C. All-Purpose Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 - 1/2 C. Rhubarb (fresh or frozen)
3/4 Shredded Coconut

Frosting
1 pkg (3 oz.) Cream Cheese
1 TBSP. Butter Softened
1 - 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
3 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

In a large bowl, cream shortening and brown sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to cream mixture and mix well. Fold in coconut and rhubarb. (I mixed the rhubarb in by hand and it worked great!)

Preheat oven to 350. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake for 10-14 minutes until golden brown. Cool a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet to wire rack. Let cool completely before frosting.

For frosting, beat butter & cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread over cookies & enjoy. **

**This is absolutely my favorite frosting recipe. I could spread this on toast in the morning it's so good!**

Hope you enjoy!

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How to Stop Hiccups

As I'm sitting here going about my work, my TV is on in the background. I'm not watching anything in particular, it's on more for background noise. But I happened to hear a tip that intrigued me that I wanted to share with you.

Tip of the Day: To get rid of hiccups (which are sooooo annoying), bite into a lemon. While there's worse things to eat, the tartness & abruptness of this action will stop your hiccups instantly!

I don't have hiccups right now, but I'll give this a try when I do.

Have a terrific first day of spring! :)

For more GREAT ideas around the house... check out this great resource!

You know you're from Wisconsin when...

That's right, you know you're from Wisconsin when...

You have a real hankering for brats in February!

Lucky for us, Johnsonville keeps our stores stocked year round! So a short jaunt down the block and SCORE... we have a cookout in February!

Cook out complete with baked beans, pasta salad, brats... of course and coleslaw (homemade I might add!)

Hope all your Bar-b-Ques are scrumptious! ☺

Dining In... or Dining Out?

For Valentine's day, we were going to Dinner & then to see Celtic Woman. Dinner & a show is a common occurrence for lots of couples on "Love Day." The reason I think this is blog worthy is because of a conversation Chris & I had in deciding where to go to dinner.

Because the economy is weighing on so many minds (not to mention how it's affecting people's budgets) many people scaled back for Valentine's dinner this year. No $180 steak & lobster dinners, but rather just a nice quiet evening out at a more reasonable establishment.

We were bouncing around options between our home and the Theater we were going to... Chili's, Applebee's, Texas Roadhouse and our local family owned restaurant. The timing was critical as our show started at 8:00 and we wanted to be able to park and get our seats without breaking the sound barrier. ☺

The more we got to talking, the more our conversation sparked commercialism vs. community loyalty. In this difficult time, the big chain restaurants have advertising dollars from deep down in corporate pockets. They have the branding because of their huge advertising budgets to draw a crowd any day of the week. While the server's tips are important to that individual person, much of your dining experience is impersonal and cold.

The small mom & pop diner on the other hand, they really feel the pinch in tough times. They don't have the funding to do huge television advertising campaigns - and in some cases, even the newspaper advertising is ridiculously expensive and cost-prohibitive. Regardless of cost however, they always provide service with a smile and often they recognize their customers by face. We are all part of the same community, so much of the time, they have supported the local school programs and athletic teams. Yet these are the shops, stores & restaurants that people tend to overlook because of America's commercialism and advertising.

Let the purpose of this post remind you to be loyal to local business owners. In many cases, it's Mom, Dad and all the kids that have built the business from the ground up. They've put in their blood, sweat & tears to create business and jobs in the community. In some cases it's been handed down from previous generations. But in any case, when people tighten their purse strings, their businesses tend to be forgotten.

We had a wonderful dinner at our local restaurant and they were really grateful we came. We had no problem getting a seat (but when we drove past Chili's on the way, the parking lot was overflowing and the wait was at least 30 minutes). We had way more than we could eat and we know our two meals really made a difference to the family that owns that restaurant!

I wish you many happy meals and prosperous times ahead!