Had fun the other day when our niece was in from North Carolina - the kids all decorated cookies.  I bought two "value size" rolls of cookie dough - one gingerbread and one sugar cookie. I needed to bring cookies to work and we needed to bring some to our family Chanukah party.  You can see the designs they made for both occasions on the picture below.

I made all the cookies earlier in the day so they would be ready to go.  I also bought 5 containers of whipped white frosting - thanks Doreen for that idea!!  I had gel food coloring from when I used to decorate cakes.  Those have very intense colors, so they are great to mix with white vs. the grocery store food coloring that is in the drop shaped little squeeze bottles and only make pastel colors when mixed with white.  I made 4 color plus white - mixing them right in a sandwich size ziplock bag.  When the kids were ready I just snipped off a tiny corner and they used them like piping bags.  I also had small m&m's and sprinkles - the jimmie style ones.  I purposely did not buy the little round types of sprinkles for fear they would be all over my house for years to come.  And one more thing....I bought white paper table clothes from Sams - the kind with plastic on the back so nothing can leak through.  A brilliant move I must say - so clean up was a breeze.

The kids had a blast and it kept them busy for about 1 hour.  You can see all the fun designs they came up with.  By the end - they were putting the frosting on each other, but that was fine - kids clean up easily too!!

OK...no chicken marsala. We got a call from a friend who invited us to their house for homemade gumbo.  And let me tell you....it was DELICIOUS!!!! I asked for the recipe to put here on the blog....he said no way. I asked some questions to get the key points to how he made it and this is what I learned....

He made a roux with flour and oil and his son stirred it for a long time.  He put the trinity (onion, green pepper and celery) in the pan.  He put in chicken thighs - cut into larger pieces - small pieces just fall apart, and the dark meat is much moister than the white meat.  He also adds shrimp and andouille sausage.  Also some bay leaves, kosher salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and file seasoning.  It is served with white rice.  It was SOOOOO good!! It sat for hours on the stove just simmering away. Worth every second of it! And I loved that he cooked it with his son.  All kids need to cook with their parents....very important.

Look at all the ingredients that went into this dish.  It all came together so well and so yummy!

Look at all this goodness in this bowl! Even when it is almost all finished it still looks incredibly delicious.

A rare thing today - I am blogging in the morning.  I have been working 9-5:30 everyday this week.  Today is a short day for me - 10-3:30.  Working until 5:30 has made dinners tough to make.  I come home from work exhausted - physically hurting.  I have a new appreciation for those that work a full day at a physical job then come home to make a full dinner.

Tonight I am making chicken marsala - per the request of our middle daughter. But getting off work at 3:30 will allow for me to get the chicken and mushrooms I need.

I'll write more later tonight - until then - enjoy your food and family -

Happy Chanukah!  It started tonight with the lighting of the candles on the menorah and for me....the making of potato latkes (potato pancakes).  The significance to this food is the reference to the oil used in making the latkes.  The story of Chanukah has to do with the small amount of oil for the eternal light that was left in a temple that had been destroyed - enough oil for only 1 day, but by a miracle the oil lasted for 8 days.  The 8 days was long enough to bring more oil to keep the eternal light burning.  Hence the oil for the latkes.

I bought Simply Potatoes - already shredded potatoes that I bought in the refrigerated section.  And they were on sale.  I had 2 bags of shredded potatoes, 1/2 a large sweet onion (that I grated), 2 eggs, and 1/4 cup flour.  I mixed it up using my hands.  I then made it into pancakes and fried them.  I didn't use much oil - and they were delicious.  As you can see, we like it with sour cream.  Some people like it with apple sauce.

Happy Chanukah and to those that don't celebrate it - still enjoy the goodness of the latkes!!!

Worked a long shift today.  I will be working long days this whole week for the holidays.  It was nice and constant - SO much better than when it is quiet there.  A lot of the kids that work there are back from college and working again.  It is good to see them.  Makes me wonder what my kid's college experiences will be like. I really like the people I work with and I love my customers.  They are generally good people.  I was talking with one customer.  He was talking about his wife who was in the store shopping.  He was sitting on the bench waiting for her.  He said after 47 years he is used to it.  SO amazing!!!

Tonight I went easy....just salad.  I picked up a jar of Wildfire's Citrus Lime Salad Dressing at work - the same dressing that was on the salad we had at Wildfire a couple of weeks ago.  That is delicious dressing.  Nice and strong so you don't need much on your salad.  As you can tell by a lot of my posts - I like to make dinners that has a lot of choices to everyone can have what they want.  I had salami, crumbled gorganzola cheese, hearts of palm.  A few tricks - just go to the deli section and have them cut them meats (or cheese) thicker than for sandwiches.  And you can also go to the salad bar and get small amounts of stuff.  It is cheaper than buying a whole can of something that you will only use half of.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with another couple to a restaurant we have never been to - Sun Shui in Arlington Heights.  Scott had Crispy Beef.  It was good...the beef was nice and crispy.  I only wonder how it is crispy.  It had to be fried - fried beef.....not too healthy I fear.

I had Happy Family - "Shrimp, beef, chicken and BBQ pork sauteed with vegetables in a classic brown sauce". It was good - not too much flavor, but I like all those meats and ate all those.

My husband had Mongolian Three Delight.  I almost got that, but the description says "served over rice noodles".  I love those but know I shouldn't eat them - and I didn't have the heart to say I wanted that dish without the noodles.  The dish was good - but too many onions for my taste.  But he love onions, so he enjoyed it.

The service at this restaurant was great - very attentive and nice.  I would definitely go back.

After we ate out, we went to Caribou Coffee.  I love that place!  Their coffee is SO much better than Starbucks.  And I had SUCH a treat....Spicy Hot Chocolate Mocha.  It was delicious!!!  I had it made with decaf, skim milk, and dark chocolate.  To me, the chocolate was too much, but the spice was prefect.  I just added more skim milk to weaken the chocolate.  I will definitely have this again - just made with less chocolate.  SOOOOO good!!!!