Happy New Year with GLuten Free Caramel Chip Bars

New Years blessings just for you!

I don't remember where I got the original recipe of this, if it was you Mary I'm sorry! :( If it was you and you would like to be connected to it as posting the original PLEASE contact me through twitter or my e-mail and I would love to connect you to it.

I have taken it and transposed it to be gluten free and it looks GREAT and better yet it taste GREAT! Sorry friends Honey and I had to try just one piece we wouldn't want it to make you sick or anything.

Caramel Chip Bars

1/2 c. butter
1 pkg. caramel bits (11-oz) or 32 caramels
1 can (14-oz) sweetened cond. milk
1 pkg. (15-oz.) gluten free yellow cake mix
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 pkg. (12-oz) miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. vanilla or white chips
1 Heath candy bar (1.4-oz.) chopped

In a lg. saucepan, combine the butter, caramels and milk; cook and stir over medium-low heat until smooth. Cool, in a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, oil and eggs; mix well. Stir in chips and chopped candy bar (dough will be stiff).

Press three-fourths into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Place on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Pour caramel mixture over the crust. Drop remaining dough by spoonfuls onto caramel layer.

 
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Cool for 10 minutes; run a knife around edges of pan. Cool 40 minutes longer; cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until served.

It's not too late bake you up some for that New Years party and again Happy New Years ya'll.

See ya next year!

My Christmas

This has been a fun Christmas holiday, living in a new neighborhood there has been so many new things to do. We were able to do a lot of them but we only scratched the surface. I'm already looking forward to doing even more next year.

Here are a few photos to show what all has been happening this last month.

We attending two different concerts "A Visit with the Chapman's" and "Chris Tomlin's Christmas Tour" they were great. We also attend a few MSU basketball games and a "New Orleans Saints" football game.

We took Punkin to breakfast with Santa. She enjoyed the pancakes but she didn't care much for Santa maybe because it was past her nap time.

We attended several parties and a cantata which were all lots of fun also.

For Christmas Honey and I went to the farm to be with our younger children. We missed our older children sooo much but hope to spend next Christmas with them!  We left the hills on Thursday so that we could get the camp house cleaned up some before my Dad arrived to stay with us and also so that Ash and I could do some cooking.

So here is our Christmas on the farm!

Punkin just wanted to eat on Thursday night, well eat and open presents. We had to watch her really close so that we had some presents to open on Christmas morning. Ash received a package in the mail so they opened it and Punkin carried it all to PePaw, never mind that it was "Mother Love" products that PePaw could never use, it's the thought that counts right?

Papaw Thacker joined us on Friday morning and  Punkin entertained him. She read to him and talked his ears off. Papaw says she's speaking Chinese, we'll sure be glad when she converts it to English so we can understand her.

Then Christmas morning finally appeared and you can tell we had one happy little girl.

 

Sydney even got a present and Punkin couldn't understand why she wouldn't take it.

I was awful with my photo taking this year. When writing this blog I realized that I didn't take any of food or our fun activities. Ben and Ash both got new Wii games. I enjoyed playing Monopoly but when it came to war and dancing I just set on the sofa and observed. We had a fun lazy day and spent most of it eating and sleeping.

Friend I hope you have a fun, lazy Christmas too!!!

To see more photos click HERE!

Enter to win gluten free merchandise and have a look at my chocolate while you are doing it!

Since our trip to New Orleans I have gained two pounds needless to say when thinking about baking for Christmas I decided that nothing would be gluten-free. If I don't make it gluten free then I won't eat it, right?

Today I started making a few treats for the family. First I made chocolate covered pretzels and they are gluten free I felt this would be ok because how many chocolate covered pretzels would one eat at a time? I'll have to tell you later!

Then I had some chocolate left over and a friend called and said that one of his favorite things this year has been the chocolate covered Ritz with peanut butter. So I used my left over chocolate and made a few. These are not gluten free so no temptations there.

 My ultimate treat, but I didn't make these, I bought them in New Orleans to share and they are WONDERFUL!!!!

I hope the family enjoys them!

Ok, you must read below, this is from my friend Karen Broussard over at the Gluten Free Travel site.

If you haven't already, please sign up to receive our free monthly e-letter, "Like" us on Facebook, and "Follow" us on Twitter. Besides being great ways of keeping on top of the latest gluten-free dining and travel updates, joining our online community in any of these three ways will automatically enter you in our end-of-the-month drawing to win a T-shirt, shorts, or sweatpants with the slogan, "These Buns Are Gluten Free!" We'll give three items away -- one to a new Twitter follower, one to a new fan on Facebook, and one to a new subscriber to our free monthly e-letter. Wear them with pride or give them to a gluten-free friend with a sense of humor!

On a separate note, be sure to also cast your vote in our annual "World's Most Celiac-Friendly Destination" contest by submitting a review for your favorite "gluten-free friendly" restaurant in your area -- or your favorite restaurant, hotel, or resort you've discovered while on vacation. The geographic location with the most review submissions by the end of the year will be our winner. Last year it was Orlando, Florida, due to the large number of review submissions we received for the Disney parks and resorts, as well as the surrounding area which is home to many family-friendly chain restaurants offering gluten-free menus. In 2008, New York City won, in large part because of the many independent restaurants throughout Manhattan that have eagerly embraced the gluten-free community.

Thanks for stopping by ya'll!!!

Awfully Good Chocolate Chip Cheese Bars

Honey and I had our "Strawberry Hill" Christmas party last night. We had never met most of our neighbors and this party is a huge deal for the neighborhood.

Honey had been gone all day and came in right at time to go, he had told me that he had some cheese spread given as a gift and so I went and bought special crackers so that we could carry it to share. I knew that it would take the two of us forever to eat it alone. I also made a double batch of my famous Chocolate Chip Cheese Bars because one batch is NEVER enough.

Honey finally made it home in time for us to shower and dress while my bars cooled so that I could cut them and place them on my Christmas platter. Before jumping in the shower I took the cheese spread and put it in a dip bowl to serve on a platter along side assorted crackers. After getting the dip bowl ready I licked the spoon I was using to discover that the cheese spread tasted like an expensive form of Velveeta cheese. I was soooo disappointed but decided to take it anyway after all I had all those crackers and what would I do with them?

I got dressed for the big event, at least I felt I was having a good hair day! I headed to the kitchen to get the bars ready to discover in horror that my bars had flopped! I have made these bars for years ya'll and I've never had them flop one time until last night, the middle never completely set up. It was getting late and we needed to get next door so I cut the bars and saved the outer edges, thank God I had made a large batch.

I cooked them longer than normal but next time I make a large batch I'll know that you have to cook them a lot longer.

They turned out awful but were sooo good.

This recipe is too good not to share, if you don't have to eat gluten free just use your normal cookie recipe for the crust and topping.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Bars

Ingredients:
1 Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
1 pkg cream cheese; 8 oz.
½ cup sugar
1 egg

Instructions:
Mix cookie mix according to pkg directions. I add sour cream to make it moister.
For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 8-in. square-baking pan.
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Spread over crust.
Crumble remaining dough over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

I had most of the cheese spread left so I plan to make dips and use it in my southern grits!! Yum it will be sooo good.

I met a lot of new people and had a great time, I just hope that I wasn't literally the talk of the party.