Oh Yes The Holidays Have Begun...

Yesterday afternoon into the evening I printed shipping labels, set up and packed the second half of my orders from last weekend. I was so happy my sale was such a success. Thank you everyone! So That was my task yesterday afternoon and evening.

Next for me it was making thank you notes for my orders. A long time ago I decided to start making my own instead of buying them. It's alot less expensive especially when you have a high order volume. I like to buy something called "luxury stack" which is a smaller size stack of pearlized gorgeous papers from my local craft store, ACMoore. These measure 6 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 if i remember correct. I use my cutter and scorer that I have purchased a long time ago for my personal use for making cards for friends and family as well as scrapbooking! I cut them in half lengthwise around 3 1/4 inches then score them across the middle at about 2 1/4 inches. I then take my nifty stamp, ink it up and stamp the entire stack with the word 'thank you'. After they all dry i go back and fold them in half and put and elastic around them.

The entire stack of 'luxury papers' costs me about $10. This last time i managed to be at my local store on a day they were having a sale, so this last time they were $6. Just a little time and effort on my part and voila! I have about 300 thank you cards. Lasts me awhile!

Last night was a busy night for me! For dinner I hadn't put out anything for the meat eaters earlier that day so it was going to be a meatless dinner (yay) I wanted a baked potato but that wouldn't have been enough of a full meal for the meateaters. I thought if i made it a soup that would count!
Baked Potato Soup!
5 large russet potatoes
1 rib celery diced
1 medium sweet onion diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed and diced
1 tsp kosher salt
3 dashes ceyenne pepper
half a brick of cheddar shredded
Boulion cube for 1 cup- chicken i guess for meat eaters? I use Vegetaable
a small bag of broccoli-cook in the micro till done
3 cups milk
3 Tbls flour
3-4Tbls oil (olive i love)
1 cup reserved potato cooking liquid
Cooked and crumbled fake or real bacon
I peeled, cut and cleaned all my potatoes and cut them into bite sized pieces, then put them in a pot barely covered with water. Boil till potatoes are tender to your liking. In another larger pot i heated my oil over MEd hi heat then put my diced onion, celery and garlic. Sautee for a couple minutes then add your kosher salt. If your using regular salt use less. When your onions are translucent add your flour and mix it all together, break up the lumps. You will start making a roux this way. Slowly add your milk. It will be really thick till you get nearly 2 cups in the pot, i would say. Adding it slowly will prevent lumps! Once you have it all incorporated and brought to a light bubble (keep stiring frequently!) then reduce your heat to med. Add your cheese. Stir it all in. Add your boullion cube to your 1 cup of potato cooking liquid from your potatoes. mix it up. add it to the pot! add in everything else including your cooked broccoli (cut in bite sized pieces) Mix it all up. bring back to med hi heat till its bubbly and then when all your cheese is melted your done! If you like a vitamin B boost add about 3/4 -1 cup of nutritional yeast flakes!
Hope you all enjoy my recipe, im not exactly a recipe writer but im good at coming up with them! Dont forget to sign up for my mailing list to the right>> to receive notifications of great sales and be entered for my giveaway!
xoxo
Julia Catherine