Yummy Potato Bacon casserole...

Today I wanted to share with you this YUMMY casserole that I made, for my dayhome kids for lunch! It was pretty easy to make, had it prepped and in the oven during nap time and by noon it was ready to be devoured!

Here is what you will need to whip this up:

4 Cups of frozen hashbrowns
1/2 cup of finely chopped onion
8 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup of shredded cheese (use your fave! I used marble in mine!)
1 370ml can of evaporated milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons of seasoning salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Start by cooking up your bacon and while it is frying (or baking, as I did mine!) grease your pan. I used a metal baking pan that measures aprox. 6 x 8 so this recipe makes a fairly large casserole!

Line the bottom of the pan with 1/2 the hashbrowns, 1/2 the onion, 1/2 the bacon & half the cheese. Repeat layers. Combine evaporated milk, egg and seasoning salt and dump over top. Cover with tin foil. Bake at 325 for 55 - 60 mins and uncover, baking for 5 more mins to crisp up the top. Let stand for 10 minutes and DIVE IN!!

This is a very yummy "comfort food" kind of dish. The kids loved it. I loved it. Mister D said it made him giddy. Definately a hit that I will make again!

An introduction........and SCRUNCHIES!!

Hello everyone! My name is Tess and I am honored to have been made an honorary cousin by Melanie and am excited to blog here with you all!! I have been reading your blog from the start and have tried several of your recipes out...not to mention drooled over everything else that has been posted!

I have known Melanie for about 5 years now, and she is one of my favorite peeps on the planet! I don't get to see her nearly as much as I would like, but I sure do love our crafty time together when we do connect.........AND I love eating popcorn with her on our movie dates too :)

Today I have decided to share with you a recipe that is simple, easy and deeeeeeeeeelish!! In our house, they are known as SCRUNCHIES. Perhaps you will know them by another name, but they are a wonderfully sweet, salty & crunchy treat that I only ever remember to make during the holidays!

I will have you know that it is 6:49AM and I just whipped a batch of these bad boys up.....just to testify to their simplicity :)

Start by combining equal amounts of chocolate chips and butterscotch chips into a microwave safe dish of some sort, and heat until melted. Or, if you prefer, melt them over low heat in a pot on your stove as I do!

In this case, I have used one package of each type of "chips" which is a perfect sized batch for our small family of three.

Once you have your chips melted, mix in your peanuts and crunchy chow mein noodles and stir until well blended.....and coated in the gooey melted mess!

In this case, I have used aprox. 1 1/2 cups of peanuts.......and 2 1/2 cups of noodles. Some of the peanuts may or may not have been eaten during this process. Er.....I mean, they may have fallen on the floor. Yes. That's it...

Once you are satisfied that your nuts & noodles are covered tastefully, the fun part starts! I always use 2 tablespoons so that I can shape the mounds as I slide them onto the pan. But whatever method you prefer to use, to get the gooey sticky bowl full of crunch into bite sized mounds of heaven on your cookie sheet, will be just fine.

I set mine into the fridge to set, for about 20 minutes before placing them into freezer safe containers where I will hope that I can hide them from my two men until Christmas.

In this case, however, a few samples fell right off the pan and onto a plate for a great photo opp of completed mounds.......and some enjoyable sampling. Later. When it is NOT 7:00AM. This batch made about 30 cookies, which is too many for us really, but I will include some of them into the tins of treats I am making for a select few special people this year.

Hope you will give these cookies a chance, and let me know what you think of them if you do!!

Signing off for now..... Tess :)