Avalanche Bars

SUPER YUMMY!

12 oz bag of White Chocolate Chips

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups Rice Krispies, or “Puffed Rice” if you’re buying generic

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips + 2 Tbsp for garnish.

Lightly grease a 9×9 pan (or 8×8 if you prefer thicker bars)

1. In microwave-safe bowl dump in white chips and heat on med power for 1 minute. Stir and continue in 30 second increments until chips are melted.

2. Combine the peanut butter with the melted chips

3. Add the krispies.

4. Let cool approx 15 – 20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes or so to help cool.

5. Add the marshmallows and the mini chocolate chips and stir to combine.

6. Dump mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly, pressing lightly with the back of your spoon, but do not compact too much, otherwise they will get hard.

7. Press the remaining chocolate chips into the top for garnish.

Original Juan & 25% off

Again, this Saturday I am focusing on another Kansas company that donated to the American Agri-Women convention. Original Juan. These people are great. I was in Kansas City a couple weeks ago driving along and saw the sign for Original Juan OUTLET STORE! I mean come on, how could I not stop?! They donated to AAW & it was an Outlet Store. My mom and I swung in and right away I would tell it was going to be great-you could smell the spices. They have a quality store with not only food products but adorable home decor. I finally got to meet Marissa that I had talked to about donations-she super sweet.

History- "Original Juan has been creating specialty sauces, salsas, snacks and dips for wholesale, retail and co-pack/private label customers since 1998.
About-"Original Juan Specialty Foods is housed in a 60,000 square foot facility on the historic Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City, Kansas. The building is a delight to the senses with tantalizing aromas and festive colors. When visiting the Southwest-themed facility, you will find Original Juan’s Factory Outlet Store within the entrance of the building. Customers are encouraged to step up to the tasting table to try one of the company’s 150 products manufactured under 13 different brands. Some of the company’s most recognizable brands are Pain is Good, Da’Bomb, Fiesta Juan’s, Bilardo Brothers and Mama Capri. Original Juan also manufactures custom food products under co-packaging and private label arrangements for over 100 companies throughout the world."

I can't say enough good things about them. They are willing to work with me and Kansas Agri-Women in the future, so I'm pumped. Now....onto the products.Three of my favorites that I have tried.

Spicy Vodka Pasta Sauce-  I got this one at the outlet for 99cents-on special :)
It wasn't spicy to me, very cheesy with a typical marinara dipping sauce taste.  It says on the back, " Sweet tomatoes and aged Romano cheese simmer until infused with vodka to intensify the sharp flavor of the cheese. Each bite of this smooth velvety sauce leaves your mouth begging for more" This sums it up!

Chipolte Raspberry Sauce- Wonderful. Sweet with a little kick. Perfect topping to cream cheese for a quick and tasty appetizer.







Harvest Apple BBQ- Great addition to pork. The apple isn't over powering but adds something different to the BBQ flavor.



They have recipes for their items as well-how handy!

Next I want to try CHEESECAKE IN A JAR!

For the month of December everything on their website is 25% off!

Please go to their website for a complete listing of items. If you are in KC make sure and stop, they will treat you great and the prices are hard to beat.

Gratitude

Use the "correct" stamp for mailing.....

I want to thank my friend over at Ag On The Forefront for this post. Please go check out her blog about the new postage stamps coming out.

As Kelsey mentioned, the new stamps will have famous vegetarians faces on them. Why did PETA beat us Ag Advocates to the punch. I think it is important that we in the Ag Industry are willing to stand up and stand out to promote agriculture. Other organizations and people are doing the same against us.

Think about what stamp you are using next time you go to the post office.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

This recipe is a great Holiday snack. I found this at www.jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com  and then made some changes due to items on hand and to speed up the process.
Enjoy!

1 can whole cranberries
1/4 C green onion, chopped
1/4 C cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper
1/4 t cumin
dash salt
2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened

 
1. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper into small pieces. Throw on a pair of rubber gloves or something, please. The seeds are the hot part of the pepper. If you don't like a lot of heat on the old pallet, just leave the jalapeno out.
2.Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese and the wheat thins) into a bowl. Mix them all together, cover and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
3. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz Crackers or Tortilla Chips.

Sampling Saturday-Monty's Jerky

I'm starting a new "series" on my blog. Each Saturday I will be featuring a Kansas Made Product! I'm hoping to get the word out about these products, since I think it is important to buy AMERICAN and especially support locals. I will give you my honest opinion, I won't just say its great because it's from KANSAS.

MONTY'S JERKY

I was contacted by Robyn at Monty's in October. She was gracious enough to donate jerky sticks for the American Agri-Women convention. They were a HIT!  I was impressed by how wonderful they were to work with. I think that Robyn and I ended up talking for about 30min on a variety of topics other than jerky. The second thing that really got me was the packaging. This is when it hit me, " I need to so a series on my blog about Kansas Made Products!" So here it goes.

 Check out how nice it looks and how well its packed.

About Monty's:
"The quest to fill a niche for exceptional jerky began in the mid 90's when Monty was smoking jerky in the garage for family and friends. Reception was amazing, and those lucky enough to taste the incredible creations persuaded Monty to craft the jerky so there would be a constant supply. Monty's Smoked Jerky was born and is now being crafted in Bird City, Kansas. Wade, Tim, and Robyn carry on the tradition of smoking tender, melt in your mouth delicious jerky."

What I think is great:
1. Most of their beef is raised locally
2. They are ag producers themselves.
3. It is produced in a small town (Bird City) = economic development!

Flavor:
They have a variety of flavors. I think the the Red Hot Sweetie is the way to go, sweet & spicy!

They will ship their jerky & apparel (yep that's right they have cute shirt too) right to your house. OR they can be found in a variety of stores in Colorado, Kansas and Texas.

For more info visit: http://www.montysjerky.com/

If you try their items please let me know!

Thrifty Shopping-Online

Ok, I'm not sure I can totally justify this as Thrifty, but it's my blog and I can do what I want....right?

I ran onto a blog called Pretty Things. Lori over there is hosting a Virtual Craft Fair.....GENIUS! Not only is she promoting artists, but they are having give-aways. So hop on over there and do a little browsing or even shopping.