Oh Where oh where have Sam and Marcie Gone?

You can always tell how busy things are for us judging by how clean our house is. And right now, our house looks like a tornado blew through it! Hahah! We've both had finals this past week. I've had report cards, Christmas programs at our school, and everything else in the world! It's been a VERY busy month! I've been waiting to do this post because I wanted my house to look clean so that I could take pictures of all our Christmas decorations. But, I don't know when our house will look clean again! So I'll just post about what pics I do have.

Well, the past few weeks have been very cold and stormy! This just puts me in the mood to cook! A few weeks ago I made Sam's favorite recipe, my Pumpkin Swirl Bread. Yummy! You can see a pic of it here!



It's SOOO yummy and it makes our house smell SOO good! It just puts me in the Christmas spirit. It's kinda a lot of work, but it's WELL worth it! Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Swirl Bread

1 (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 c. sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 3/4 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. nutmeg

1 t. cinnamon

1 egg, beaten

1/3 c. water

1 c. canned pumpkin

1/2 c. margarine melted

Combine cream cheese, sugar and egg, mixing until well blended. Set aside. In a second bowl, combine dry ingredients. In a third bowl, combined pumpkin, margarine, egg, and water, mixing just until moistened. Add this bowl to the dry ingredients. Reserve 2 cups pumpkin batter; pour remaining batter into greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Pour cream cheese mixture over pumpkin batter; top with reserved pumpkin batter. Cut through batter with knife several times for swirl effect. Bake 350 for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. Makes 1 loaf

A few Saturdays ago I not only made my Pumpkin Swirl bread, but I also made homemade potato soup. (You can see Sam, as he's modeling his soup. And you can see our Christmas tree in the background! So cute!) This is my sister-in-law, Valerie's recipe. HOLY COW IS IT GOOD! It makes A LOT, so I cut the recipe into 4ths, and it made about 4 servings. Here's the original recipe:

Cheese-N-Potato Soup

4 c. water 4 chicken boullion cubes

1 c. celery, finely chopped 1 c. carrots, finely chopped

3 large potatoes, cubed 1 small onion, diced

6-8 strips bacon, cooked

Cook all these ingredients (minus bacon) 20-30 minutes until vegetables are tender. While the veggies are cooking, cook bacon and set aside. Then add to the vegetables:

2 small cans cream of chicken soup

1 lb. Velveeta cheese (cubed) then stir until melted

Crumble the bacon and add to soup.

The finished product! SOO yummy! Especially when you dip bread into it! It's even good cold or reheated! Enjoy! Merry Christmas everyone and happy cooking! :)