Angie Windheim

My grandma, Mavis Hamel, will turn 80 years-old on June 4th. What a great reason to celebrate!  My mom hosted a family brunch on Saturday and all of the local Hamel clan was able to attend.  I think everyone had a good time. My boys are always excited to see Noah, my cousin Danielle’s 3 year old.  All of their cousins are older and spread out across Oregon, so Noah is a real treat.

I tried out another excellent recipe from the What Can I Bring? cookbook by Anne Bryn. Tomato Pie was delicious and will be a great addition to my cooking arsenal when the tomatoes in my garden overwhelm me.  I’m thinking it could easily be a zucchini pie as well.

And, of course, I took photos. I’m really happy with the photos of Grandma and various members of the family. I even snuck into one for the group shot. Thank goodness for timers. We had a little technical difficulty with my new remote control so we had to use the 10 second timer. Next time we’ll have the remote ready to roll so I don’t have to run back and forth.  However, I do recommend going back to check the photo in the viewer at least once to make sure you can see everyone and that you like where you are in the photo. I’d love to be tucked away in the back next time 🙂

Yu-um. Ben and Brian love fish tacos, but I haven’t been satisfied with my sauce experiments until now. My new sauce recipe is so good and it has a nice kick. We used the left over sauce for veggie dip the next day. Best part? So easy and fast.  Go get the details on eHow.

Just finished up an article that lays out a St. Patrick’s Day menu for your feasting pleasure. I really do love all of dishes. Now that I’m thinking about them though, I don’t think I can wait for St. Patrick’s Day. Corned beef sandwiches may have to make an appearance on our table next week!

You can read all about it and get the recipes on eHow.

I’ve decided to share my awesome wing and bleu cheese dip recipe just in time for the Super Bowl. Sooo good!  How to Make Angie’s Amazing Wings | eHow.com.

I’ve made this yummy salad my own with a few improvements and tweaks. Go check it out at How to Make Angie’s Amazing Thai Noodle Salad | eHow.com.  Let me know if it’s a winner for your dinner 🙂

via How to Make Angie’s Amazing Thai Wraps | eHow.com. Hope you like ’em 🙂

I’ve finally ended my search for a great clam chowder recipe. This is seriously the best I’ve had.  I made a few tweaks to the original recipe to make it my own, and it was a hit with the family. Give it a try.

• 1/2 lb. bacon (I tore up one sheet of Costco’s pre-cooked bacon and sauted for a few minutes)
• ½ cup chopped onion
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 1 Yukon gold potato, diced w/ skin on
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 4 cans cream of potato soup
• 3 cans of Snow’s diced clams. Do not drain
• 1 sprig’s worth of fresh Rosemary leaves (I used the kitchen shears to chop it up a little)
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 1/2 pints 1% milk

Saute the bacon pieces until crisp. Remove the bacon from pan and put in crock pot. Saute onion, garlic, celery and potato in bacon grease until soft. Add to the crock pot. Add potato soup, milk, clams w/ juices and seasonings into crockpot and stir to combine. Set crock pot on low and cook at least 4 hours (I let mine go all day and the smell is soooo awesome). Spoon it into bowls and you are set.  A nice crusty bread or even some crackers are a nice touch, but not necessary. Brian, of course, had to add more black pepper 🙂

I just added my yummy pizza meatballs recipe to eHow. I also added a tip to convert the recipe to an even easier Italian meatloaf that is a huge hit at my house with some garlic mashed potatoes on the side.  I think I need to go to the grocery store 🙂

How to Make Amazing Pizza Meatballs | eHow.com.

Just added a few more tidbits of wisdom to eHow.  I share menu ideas for hosting a football game get-together and the breakdown of hosting a holiday brunch. I absolutely love the idea of brunches as a way to change up that Christmas Eve get-together. You can make everything the night before and you aren’t having to juggle those last  minute Christmas details with a bunch of big dinner clean up.  It’s also a nice way to keep family and friends off the road after dark on Christmas Eve.  I plan to blog some of my favorite breakfast/brunch recipes shortly so stay-tuned.

Thanksgiving started out with a very fun run/walk at the annual Give N’ Gobble. There were easily twice as many participants as last year which was great to see.  We all beat our times from last year and are already talking about goals for next year.  I’m definitely going to find myself a goofy turkey hat for the occasion.

I haven’t hosted the Thanksgiving meal in quite some time. I’ll have to say, now don’t groan, that I loved doing it. I actually had fun. The stuffing, the turkey, the pecan crusted sweet potatoes and the gravy all turned out super yummy. Oh, and I must not forget the fondue. Jennifer’s easy and so delicious cheese fondue was an amazing starter (2 bricks of cream cheese, 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan, 3/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp garlic, 3/4 cup milk). I’m still not a big fan of the green bean bake though, so I’m changing that up next year for sure.