I wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Thank you for taking the time to come here everyday and follow my kitchen adventures. I hope you all have a great time with your family and friends. Please take time to slow down, relax, enjoy your family, and create memories.

I also want to let you know that I am taking the next few days off. I need to step back and spend some time with my family and friends. We have family gatherings, good food, and some fun planned over the next few days.

I also will not be around much next week, I have some fun posts planned that I did ahead of time, so I will not be totally gone, but if I do not answer your questions and emails right away, it is because I am hoping to unplug from the internet world for a few days and spend some time relaxing with my family. My husband has a few days off and we plan to take advantage of the time together as a family.

I think some sleeping in, relaxing, curling up with a good book, and maybe a few fun movies are in order. I hope you are able to do some of the same.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!!

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Merry Christmas 2011! is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

I love to make Christmas Breakfast special and I thought I would share a few of our favorites with you today.

Baked egg cups are always a favorite in our house and they are very easy to make.

Oven Omelet Roll is also a favorite and is a very impressive, but easy breakfast to make.

And we can not forget about the two recent recipes I shared.

Orange French Toast is a recipe that I have been making for years.

And Double Chocolate Baked Oatmeal is a new favorite in our house that is perfect for the holidays.

Do you do anything to make Christmas breakfast special?

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Christmas Breakfast Recipes is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

If you need a last minute gift, or an easy food gift to give, homemade seasonings are perfect.

What I love about giving homemade seasonings is that they are useful gifts. Everyone uses things like taco and fajita seasoning.

Not only that homemade seasoning mixes contain everyday pantry type ingredients, which means you can make them without having to spend a lot of money or time.

Some simple homemade seasonings to make are taco seasoning, fajita seasoning, Emeril’s Homemade Baby Bam, and Paula Deen’s Seasoning Salt. You can also do something fun like homemade hot chocolate mix.

You can put them in jars, label them, and place them in a nice basket or container. Or you could use nice decorative jars and make some pretty labels for them. I also like to include the recipe for the seasoning mix and maybe a few other recipes that go along with it. So simple and yet something so useful.

I love homemade gifts.

What homemade gifts are you giving this year?

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An Easy Food Gift: Homemade Seasoning Mixes is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

Gathering together as a family for at least one meal a day is very important in our house. We make it a priority to spend that time together. It brings us together as a family to share our day and I think overall it strengthens our family.

We live in a society that is so busy, going here there and everywhere and this pulls the family in so many different directions, but meal time can be a way to bring everyone together.

My friend Jen recently shared about how her family makes meal time memorable and fun by using conversation starters. And she not only shared what her family does, she shared a set of conversation starters that she uses with her family. And did I mention that she is offering these conversation starters for free!

Since family dinners are very important in our family, I love Jen’s idea of conversation starters to make meals fun and memorable. These conversation starters are a perfect way to prompt conversations you might not normally have.

I printed these out last week and my daughter helped me cut them out and put them into a jar. We have used these several nights now and my kids love them and I love the wide range of subjects that they cover.

So far we have talked about our favorite smell, which was a fun subject and led to talking about our least favorite smell. And then last night we talked about what we do when we are having a bad day, which was a perfect way to talk to our kids about how you react and deal with certain situations.

If you are looking for a last minute gift idea these conversation starters would be perfect. Simply print them out and buy a decorative jar or container to put them in, and you will have a unique and useful gift to give.

Thank you Jen!

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An Easy Homemade Gift Idea: Meal Time Conversation Starters is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

I love dessert. I mean really love it, especially if it involves chocolate. One of my favorite things about the holidays is all the baking and candy making that goes along with it.

Today I thought I would share a few of our favorite desserts that are perfect for the holidays.

One of my favorite holiday desserts is cheesecake. If you love cheesecake than you will love my Crustless White Chocolate Cheesecake. This is so good!

If you prefer chocolate than you need to try Crustless Chocolate Cheesecake. Again so good! And cheesecakes are really not hard to make. Last year I shared a few tips for making perfect cheesecakes. If you are new to making cheesecakes it is a great place to start.

Chocolate bread pudding anyone?!  This is one of my all time favorite comfort food desserts. So good and perfect for the holidays. (And it works with gluten free bread.)

If you love peanut butter and chocolate you will love these Frosted Peanut Butter Brownies. This is one of my husband’s all time favorite desserts. And one that he really misses since my daughter developed a peanut/tree nut allergy, so maybe you can enjoy a piece for him.

If you are looking for a really easy, but very rich and delicious dessert, this Coconut Cake may be just what you are looking for.

Another really easy, but delicious dessert is Easy Tres Leches Cake. My kids love this. It is similar to the coconut cake, but different.

And if you are looking for an easy dessert that is also inexpensive to make, you need to try my mom’s easy cheesecake. This cheesecake appeared at almost every holiday dinner when I was growing up. We always loved it and now my family enjoys it also. And this one is easy to make gluten free, but using a gluten free graham cracker or cookie crust.

What is your favorite Christmas dessert? And I would love to hear what you all are making this year.

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A Few Christmas Dessert Recipes is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we were hosting my husband’s staff and their families for our annual Christmas party. This is something that we do every year and I had planned on sharing a whole post about the party like I usually do. I love to share what I made and what everyone liked, but instead this is going to be a keeping it real type post.

Our office party went great. We had lots of great food and everyone seemed to have a great time. But here is where I admit that I took no pictures of the office party or the food I served. This means I have no pictures of the wonderful bacon cheese dip recipe that I had planned to share. The only picture I have is the one at the top of this post that my fourteen year old daughter took right before the party, at least one of us was thinking about pictures that night.

You see the night of our office Christmas party real life took priority. Blogging and my website were the last thing on my mind. Yes, I am a food blogger and yes I was mad at myself for not taking pictures, but on December 2nd, real life took over.

You see I had a crazy busy day on the day of our party. We usually plan the date of our office party six to eight weeks in advance and it is almost always the first Friday of December. We know this is a little early for a Christmas party, but it usually works out well for us and for all our staff. This year however it ended up being a bit of a crazy time.

The day before the office party my sister and her family came to visit. They had been visiting her husband’s family in Texas for Thanksgiving and wanted to come see us for a few days before they headed back to Washington state where they live. I don’t get to see my family often, so I was glad they could come. I warned her ahead of time that it was the weekend of our office party and that I might put her to work helping me. She was fine with that and decided to come.

The craziness of the day though was not my sister visiting, it started when my daughter ended up needing hand surgery and it was scheduled on the same day as the office party. My daughter broke her finger last spring and has had to have two minor surgeries since then. We knew she needed another surgery, we just had no idea it would fall on the same day as our office party.

The office party had been planned well in advance and I did not feel like I should change it. My daughter was in pain and was ready to get her surgery done, so I did not think I should pass up the surgery date of December 2nd, since that was the earliest that they had an opening.

So, we went with it figuring we would just make it work. And we did make it work.

My sister was here and she helped me prepare some of the food and helped with the set up and clean up. My fourteen year old helped me make most of the desserts ahead of time. And for the first time since we have had our office parties, I bought some premade meat and cheese trays from a local meat shop/restaurant.

My daughter’s surgery ended up being early in the day, so it actually worked out quite well, except for the fact that my mind was not fully on food, taking pictures, and sharing recipes. It was more on my daughter, giving her pain medicine at the right time, and focusing on hosting a party. Thus, the reason I totally forgot to take pictures, and did not even realize it until several hours after the party.

So, for those of you wanting a post full of party pictures and new holiday food recipes, I am sorry, I don’t have any for you.

I almost did not share about the party at all since I really do not have much to share, but I decided to turn it into a keeping it real type post.

You see behind every blogger is a real life. We are real people. We have busy, and sometimes crazy, schedules just like everyone else.

Behind all those beautiful pictures of perfectly decorated homes and delicious looking food is often chaos, sometimes a lot of chaos. And all too often real life and family collide with blog life and real life and family has to win out.

Sometimes perfectly plated food and picturing taking has to take a back seat and that is exactly what happened to me the day of our office party. Real life took priority and I hope you all understand.

I will try to make the delicious bacon and cheese dip again soon so that I can share the recipe, because really it was so good. And I need an excuse to make it again anyway, because really it was that good.

Thanks for letting me keep it real!

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Our Office Party 2011 is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

Today I thought I would share a few gift ideas perfect for Christmas, or really any time.

The first idea is the $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook. I have followed Erin’s site for several years now. In fact, I think I have been reading $5 Dinners almost since the beginning of the site. I have also gotten to meet Erin in person and spend some time with her. And she is just as great, and as much fun in person, as she is on her site.

What I love about Erin is that she has a passion for fixing delicious food at a great price. And her $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook is on sale right now on Amazon for only $6.00. That is about the cost of one dinner. This is a great price for a cookbook and would make a great gift. There are not many cookbooks that you can buy for under $6 and I am guessing this price will not last long.

It is no secret that I LOVE Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country. One of the newest cookbooks in my collection is the More Best Recipes cookbook and I love it. At almost 800 pages it is a large cookbook and well worth $15.98. If you know some one that loves to cook, I highly suggest any of the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbooks. Any of them would be a perfect gift.

Now for some gadgets.

I love my Cuisinart Immersion Blender. I love, love, love it. It makes pureeing foods and quick blending so easy. I got one of these a few years ago, and it was one of those things that once I started using, I wondered what I did without it. It has become one of my favorite small kitchen appliances. You can find these at many stores, especially this time of year, but right now Amazon has a newer version of the Cuisinart Immersion Blender that I own, for only $29.99, which is a great price. And they have it in all kinds of fun colors.

Another kitchen gadget that I love is my Silpat mat. I use it all the time, especially for candy making and for cooking delicate cookies. If you love to cook you need one of these. They make clean up so easy. Food cooks up great on these and comes off so easily. They also make a great gift, because even if someone has one Silpat mat they could probably use another one. I might just have four of them…..I told you I loved them.

I also have a fun non food gift idea especially for kids.

I was recently sent the The 2012 World Almanac and the The 2012 World Almanac For Kids to review and my kids loved them. In fact my daughter who recently had hand surgery spent several hours looking through these books and quizzing us on our knowledge of everything from odd facts about the United States and other countries of the world, to one of her favorite subjects, odd facts about the Presidents and their families.

It has been years since I looked through an Almanac and I was not sure what to expect when I received these, but I was really impressed by the amount of information in them. I think these would make a great gift for a teen or tween that loves to read and learn new things. They would also make a great gift for an adult that loves to learn or for one of those people that you need to get a gift for, but who doesn’t really need anything. Almanacs are one of those books that you can just leave lying around and pick up here and there and learn so much.

Note: Amazon prices may change at anytime, so these prices may not stay the same for long. If you notice a price change, please let me know and I will adjust the price in the post.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I was also sent a free copy of the 2012 World Almanac and the 2012 World Almanac for kids, but my thoughts and opinions are my own.

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A Few Gift Christmas Gift Ideas is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

I hope you all have enjoyed the Twelve Days of Christmas Series.  I have had so much fun sharing all kind of Christmas recipes with you. And I have really enjoyed working with a great group for this series.

If you need some decorating ideas you really need to check out Songbirds site. That picture at the top of this post is from her. Amazing! And if she lived closer I might just have her come decorate my house. Decorating is so not my talent. And what I love about the ideas that Songbird shared for the Twelve Days Of Christmas is that many of them are not just for the holidays, they would be perfect for all winter long. I know I will be visiting Songbirds site even after the holidays are over. I need all the help with decorating that I can get and her site is sure to be an inspiration.

If you are traveling for the holidays, or really anytime, you will find Amy’s Travel Tips helpful. Traveling is not my favorite thing to do, in fact I really do not like to travel at all. But Amy shared some great tips that I am going to definitely use next time I travel. With her tips, I might not mind traveling so much.

We are all trying to save money, especially this time of year. Surviving the Stores shared some great ideas for saving money during the holidays. She covered things like saving money on gift giving, travel, wrapping paper, teacher gifts, and more. And Rachel has great money saving ideas all year long, including a Resturaunt Coupon Database that is a great place to find coupons when eating out.

The Happy Housewife shared some really fun homemade christmas gift ideas and the Twelve Days of Christmas was just part of her Homemade Christmas Gift ideas series. She is doing 100 homemade gift ideas leading up to Christmas, so be sure to keep check out all of her homemade gift ideas.

This is the time of year where healthy eating is hard. Everywhere we turn there is food and often it is unhealthy food, but Crystal shared many ideas for healthy eating during the holidays. In fact, Crystal makes healthy eating look pretty easy.

If you are looking for some Christmas Printables and/or ideas for Christmas crafts be sure to visit 1+1+1=1. She shared some great ideas for making the holidays fun for kids.

And Jessica focused on Family Fun for the Twelve Days. She covered gift giving, holiday book ideas, stocking stuffers, and more.

I really had fun working on this series. I hope you enjoyed it also.

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Twelve Days Of Christmas In Review is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

Chex mix is a classic holiday snack that has been around for years. There are many different versions of it, but I prefer the sweet versions like muddy buddies, lemon buddies, snow buddies, and today’s cinnamon sugar chex mix.

What I love about chex mix is that it makes the perfect gift to give away. You can easily make up a few different kinds of chex mixes and place them in a nice gift bag or box to give away.

A simple and easy gift that anyone would enjoy!

For more great Christmas ideas please visit the other bloggers joining me on this series.
Christmas Homeschool Fun: 1+1+1=1
Christmas Decorations: Songbird
Tips for a Healthy Holiday: The Thrifty Mama
Saving Money: Surviving the Stores
Travel Tips: Mom’s Travel Tales
Christmas Family Fun: Life as Mom
Homemade Christmas Gifts: The Happy Housewife

Download your FREE Christmas Recipes Ebook From Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. This offer for subscribers only. Click Here

Cinnamon Sugar Chex Mix is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.

Today I have another baked oatmeal recipe for you. This one is a special treat type of baked oatmeal though. This is a baked oatmeal that is perfect for the holidays, because it contains chocolate.

And during the holidays you can get by with feeding your kids chocolate for breakfast, right?! Just look at it this way, it is a sure way to get your kids to eat oatmeal.

If you are new to my site and my baked oatmeal recipes, you can find some helpful hints and all my baked oatmeal recipes in this post that I did on bake oatmeal facts and tips.

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Double Chocolate Baked Oatmeal is a post from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures ©2011 LynnsKitchenAdventures - All rights reserved.