Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas and I hope you are all warm, cozy, planning a wonderful meal, and spending time with loved ones. One of the hardest things about living 1700 miles away, is not being able to spend time with my Mother, children, and grandkids.

Today we are fortunate to be able to spend some time with Rex's Mom. She is here for about 12 weeks avoiding the Wisconsin winter weather. We made and are taking dinner to her and eating with her...then of course, we will have to go to work!!

Yesterday I was busy making the food.....God I love to putter around in the kitchen!!! It was really fun having an actual complete meal to prepare. Of course I made the dessert first!! Sour cream apple pie....Rex's favorite!!

A few days ago I ran into a recipe called "green bean blue cheese gratin" and since the one and only vegetable Rex likes is green beans I decided to make that.

I was looking through my many cookbooks for a salad recipe and asking Rex's opinion of this one and that one, when he finally said....I will be concentrating on the ham, green bean, and pie....make whatever salad you want. Oh, right! So I am making one that my daughter Heather likes...oriental cabbage salad with ramen noodles......sure hope Grandma Jean likes it!!

Now the spiral cut ham......so good made with the flavoring packet that comes with it...and I can't make it to save my soul....but my neighbor Steve can!!

How did I get Steve to make it for me??? I bribed him with maple glazed walnuts and home made honey oatmeal bread!!!