Saturday, December 10, 2011

Life Sometimes Gets in the Way



It's been a while, and more than a just a week or two since I posted on my blog The Ranch Kitchen!  Life has been just a little hectic.  I have discovered a few new things this fall.  The first being that it's never easy to send even the second kid off to college.  You miss them greatly.  Second...you continue to miss the first one you sent off and realize they are starting to make a life of their own! Third, little sisters seem to be resilient in how they handle both big sisters being off at school, even if mom and dad are not!   Fourth, you will go to any extreme to spend time with your girls and find that quality time when you can.  And fifth with each change in life something new seems invariably around the corner and life adapts, moves on, and you continue to get caught in the whirlwind that is life.  

With that said, I am back to the land of blogging after taking a short hiatus to start a new job, getting used to kids being off at college, running the roads on weekends visiting Texas A&M and stock shows with our retiring American Hereford Queen, and all manners of just being overwhelmed just a tad.  I am now ready to post some new recipes with help of my older two daughters who are going to help me post and manage this site from here on out.  The Ranch Kitchen has always been about my family and now my older two daughters Ilissa and Bethany will help me with recipes for this site keeping our ideas fresh and current.   They are both becoming great cooks in their own right and majoring both in communications and journalism from a graduate program at Texas Tech for our Ilissa, and undergraduate for Bethany at Texas A&M.  They should be able to teach old mom a thing or two and rev up the Ranch Kitchen site.

So, today as the holiday season draws near I wanted to share with your recipe from one of my newest addictions Pinterest that may have hindered some post I could have gotten done!  It addicting to say the least and if you are not a member, just message me your email and I can send you an invitation.  It's like a designer's/favorites' board of sorts that you 'pin' all your the ideas found on the Pinterest site or pin from your favorites bar once you download the 'pin' off Pinterest to share pictures you have found.  One of my favorite things that both my daughter's have done for me this season is to post their Christmas Wish List on Pinterest so that I can get a few hints for presents under the tree.
 
On my board entitled 'Oh Christmas' I have the following recipe for a Christmas Morning Cheese Danish.  It looks absolutely wonderful and I am going to make it for our staff at my school for our Holiday breakfast this weekend and for my family for Christmas morning.  On Christmas we don't eat lunch, but have a huge brunch with our girls.  It's a family tradition I enjoy after opening presents.

And I have to give credit where credit is due, as this recipe is from kitchengirljo.blogspot.com.  You'll want to click on the website link in the previous sentence and check it out.
  • Pinned Image
Christmas Morning Cheese Danish 
 
Ingredients:
 
2 cans ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white
 
Glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
Method: Preheat oven to 350* degrees and grease a 13X9-inch baking pan. Lay a pack of crescent rolls in the pan and pinch the openings together. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crescent rolls evenly and then lay the second pack of crescent rolls on top of the cheese mixture and brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.

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The fun of Pinterest of reposting what others have found.  This was repinned from Food I know I am going to love a board of my friend Diane Johnson.  I am also enjoying all the wonderful ideas and recipes she post on Pinterest as well.