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Mummy Hot Dogs • How To Video

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There’s nothing better than a simple, scrumptious and slightly spooky treat for Halloween! Come learn how easy it is to make these frightfully delicious Mummy Hot Dogs for your little {and BIG} Trick-or-Treaters.

• Disclaimer – This post brought to you by Pillsbury™ & Walmart. All thoughts, ideas & opinions are my own •

There’s nothing better than a simple, scrumptious and slightly spooky treat for Halloween! Come learn how easy it is to make these frightfully delicious Mummy Hot Dogs for your little {and BIG} Trick-or-Treaters • WhipperBerry

You guys… Halloween is almost upon us and it’s time to start preparing for the fun night. My little guy is super excited and the funny thing is my older kiddos are just as excited. Part of the fun for us adults is in creating the magic for our kiddos. It’s so fun to create creepy treats that have that weird quality of visually grossing you out, and then actually tasty quite good. Have you seen the brain cake that’s going around these day… eeeew! I’m not sure I could do that one.

Pillsbury™ has a classic addition to the Halloween meal menu, the Mummy Hot Dog. This one is almost a little too cute to be creepy… My kiddos love them! We headed to Walmart today and grabbed some Mummy Hot Dog supplies. You’ll need…

Mummy Hot Dog Ingredients

There’s nothing better than a simple, scrumptious and slightly spooky treat for Halloween! Come learn how easy it is to make these frightfully delicious Mummy Hot Dogs for your little {and BIG} Trick-or-Treaters • WhipperBerry

•Hot dogs

•Pillsbury™ Crescent Rolls

•Sliced cheese

•Whole cloves

They are super easy to make. Here is a little video that I put together to show how fun they can be…

How cool is that? It’s one of those fun meals that the whole family can make together. You can change up the hot dog option for Dad and use a cooked brat instead or, how good would they be with pepper jack cheese… Really, the sky’s the limit. You can have all kinds of fun with this meal.

Tailgate in Style with Beefy Jalapeño Bites

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Kick up your game for GAME DAY! These Beefy Jalapeño Bites will win over even the most picky tailgater. Filled with Gouda cheese, Old El Paso seasoned beef and topped with scrumptious homemade pickled jalapeños… What’s not to LOVE! Come learn how to make these tasty treats.

Disclaimer • This post is brought to you by Old El Paso & Walmart. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own.

Kick up your game for GAME DAY! These Beefy Jalapeño Bites will win over even the most picky tailgater. Filled with Gouda cheese, Old El Paso seasoned beef and topped with scrumptious homemade pickled jalapeños… What’s not to LOVE! Created by WhipperBerry

Tailgating season is upon us and the age old question remains… What to make to share with our football loving friends? You know you want it to be fabulous, full of flavor but, easy to make. We live in Lincoln, Nebraska where football is the state religion (yea, not kidding.) People take football & Tailgating VERY SERIOUSLY here! I have no room for error when it comes to game day treats.

The problem is, you don’t want to spend all of your time in the kitchen or stuck at the grill when you have tailgating to do & games to watch. One of my secrets is to create elements that you can make ahead that really take your tasty bites up a level. Another secret, find elements that make serving and eating the food easy. No one wants to be weighed down with messing plates and hands. They want to grab and go without any fuss.

With that challenge in mind, I headed to Walmart to grab some of my favorites to create a new tasty treat for game day. First stop, the Old El Paso Section where I grabbed some of their Mini Taco Boats along with an Soft Taco Kit. These gems are perfect for creating easy and tasty treats that anyone can eat in 2-3 bites. The Taco Boats are flat on the bottom.  That means they are easy to fill, serve and eat all in one. Touchdown!

Kick up your game for GAME DAY! These Beefy Jalapeño Bites will win over even the most picky tailgater. Filled with Gouda cheese, Old El Paso seasoned beef and topped with scrumptious homemade pickled jalapeños… What’s not to LOVE! Created by WhipperBerry

Next, I grabbed some thin sliced beef. The kind you would use for fajitas. Some sliced Gouda cheese, Jalapeños, red onion and a few more ingredients that I’ll share in my recipe. Now, the secret to this recipe is the homemade pickled jalapeños and onions. This is what takes a normal tailgate small bite dish and kicks it up several notches and turns it into MAGIC!

Kick up your game for GAME DAY! These Beefy Jalapeño Bites will win over even the most picky tailgater. Filled with Gouda cheese, Old El Paso seasoned beef and topped with scrumptious homemade pickled jalapeños… What’s not to LOVE! Created by WhipperBerry

Here’s a quick video to show you how to make these Beefy Jalapeño Bites…

Kick up your game for GAME DAY! These Beefy Jalapeño Bites will win over even the most picky tailgater. Filled with Gouda cheese, Old El Paso seasoned beef and topped with scrumptious homemade pickled jalapeños… What’s not to LOVE! Created by WhipperBerry
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Beefy Jalapeno Bites

Prep

Cook

Inactive

Total

Yield 12 taco boats

Kick up your game for GAME DAY! These Beefy Jalapeño Bites will win over even the most picky tailgater. Filled with Gouda cheese, Old El Paso seasoned beef and topped with scrumptious homemade pickled jalapeños… What’s not to LOVE! Created by WhipperBerry 

Ingredients

Pickled Jalapeños and Onions

  • 5-6 medium to large jalapeños
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • juice from 2 large limes

Pickled Jalapeño Dip

Beefy Jalapeño Bites

Instructions

Pickled Jalapeños & Onions

  1. Sterilize your jar in the dishwasher and hand wash the lid and ring.
  2. Wash and slice the jalapeños into rings. Don't make them too thin.
  3. Thinly slice the red onion.
  4. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, add water, vinegar, sugar, oregano, salt, lime juice and garlic. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Make sure the salt and sugar fully dissolve.
  5. Layer the jalapeños and onion in the sterilized jar.
  6. Pour pickling brine over the jalapeños and onions.
  7. Place lid on jar and put into refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Preferably, overnight or longer.
  8. These pickled jalapeños and onions will last in the refrigerator for 2 months.

Pickled Jalapeño Dip

  1. Place room temperature cream cheese into the mixing bowl.
  2. Dice the pickled jalapeños and onions and add to the cream cheese along with the sour cream, Old El Paso Taco Seasoning and Taco Sauce.
  3. Whip mixture until nice and light for about 1-2 minutes.
  4. Place in an air tight container and store for up to a week.

Beefy Jalapeno Bites

  1. Slice your thinly sliced beef into strips.
  2. Place beef strips into a non-stick skillet on Medium heat.
  3. Add the remaining Old El Paso Taco Seasoning and brown the meat.
  4. Once meat is browned remove from the heat and start to build your beefy jalapeño bites.
  5. Fold one slice of gouda in half and place the entire slice into the Old El Paso Mini Taco Boat.
  6. Fill the mini taco boat with beef mixture and top with a couple of the pickled jalapeños and onion strips.
  7. Place in a toaster oven or under the broiler in your oven and toast for 2 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Be careful not to burn the edges of your mini taco boat.
  8. Remove from the oven and place on a serving tray.
  9. Serve with the Pickled Jalapeño Dip

Notes

Make your pickled jalapeños and onion along with the dip a few days before hand, then all you have to do on game day is brown your meat and build your tasty bites. Super easy and oh, so good!

Notes

Th

Courses appetizer

Let’s Say Oui to ME Time • Oui by Yoplait

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As much as I adore my kiddos, there are times when I need a special ME treat! Do you ever feel that way? This post is brought to you by the amazing folks at Yoplait, because they know that sometimes, we need to say Oui (French for YES) to ME time!

Disclaimer + This post is sponsored by Yoplait. However, all thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own.

Silly Guy WhipperBerry-100 My kiddos are cute, they’re crazy, goofy and silly. Sometimes they’re grumpy and quite frankly they turn into pills at times. This little guy is a ball of energy, when that energy is directed towards good, he brings such light into our home. BUT… If that energy is a negative energy man-oh-man, his energy can turn negative rather quickly. It’s like it’s his super power. Jekyll & Hyde ring any bells? Toss him into a home with three teenage sister and it can turn into a powder keg for sure.

Thoming-Family-190

crazy-girls

It’s true magic when we are all together and having fun just being together, but… When the wind is blowing from the east or someone’s foot touches someone else’s personal space, WATCH OUT! Think super collider!

We had one of those super collider days a few weeks ago, right before school started again. Actually, I believe it was the last Friday before school started the following Monday. We were all on each other’s last nerve. We had just returned home from a two week long road trip and we decided at the last minute to paint a couple of the girl’s rooms in our new house. Brilliant! Not our best move…

That afternoon, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I needed a break. I needed some ME time. I needed a treat. I didn’t know what. I didn’t want something full of sugar, but I still wanted it to feel decadent. I wanted it to be special.

The closest store to our home is Walmart and I decided to head there. I really don’t know why I chose Walmart, other than it was the closest place that was easy to escape to and I could wander the aisles aimlessly until I found that special something that could get me out of this bad attitude. Mom needed a timeout!

I wandered to the bakery, nothing looked tempting. I hit the candy aisle, again nothing hit the mark. Freezer section, nothing. I wanted something cool & creamy, not too sweet, something that tasted real.

I rounded the corner into the dairy section at Walmart and it hit me… I knew exactly what I wanted to help wash away the frustrations of the day, Oui by Yoplait.

Take a little bit of ME time with Yoplait Oui yogurt and WhipperBerry

I saw this new yogurt and before I even registered what it was, I knew that was what was going to hit the spot. It was so cute and you know how much I LOVE great branding. It was creamy French style yogurt in a little glass jar. I had found my ME moment with Oui by Yoplait without even trying!  It was like this beautiful yogurt was created just for ME!

Take a little bit of ME time with Yoplait Oui yogurt and WhipperBerry

Of course, I immediately grabbed some of my favorite flavors; lemon, black cherry, vanilla & strawberry and headed home to enjoy my new found treat.

Take a little bit of ME time with Yoplait Oui yogurt

You may find it a little weird but, my children have been trained after 7 years of blogging, if Mom comes in the house with something and she says that, “it’s for the blog,” they WILL NOT touch it. In 7 years of blogging, I have never taken advantage of that… Until now!  You guys, this yogurt is so good! Yoplait has hit it out of the park with this one. It’s thick, creamy and not too sweet and boy, I’m not going to share!

Take a little bit of ME time with Yoplait Oui yogurt and WhipperBerry

It’s made the traditional French way with simple, straight forward ingredients. The vanilla flavored Oui by Yoplait is made with; milk, cane sugar, yogurt cultures (L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus) and vanilla extract. That’s it!

Their cows that produce the whole milk are feed a Non-GMO diet. The fruit is REAL, nothing is artificial. The French believe the measure of good food is the pleasure and joy it brings to life. That is exactly what I needed at that moment. Something cool, creamy & subtly sweet to bring back the joy that I needed to go back home to be with my family, with the right attitude in tow.

Take a little bit of ME time with Yoplait Oui yogurt and WhipperBerry

Will I start to share? Nope, as far as I’m concerned… These little pots belong to me. They are extra special and for those times when I need something extra special to bring that joy back into my day. Yoplait knew exactly what you and I needed to make our days extra special!

Preserving Inspiration in Indiana with Newell Brands Makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products

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With a rich history of canning in my family, preserving the history of canning has become a new passion of mine. Come learn about what I learned on a quick visit Indiana with Newell Brands, makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products, a few weeks ago…

This post brought to you by the folks at Newell Brands, makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

 

I grew-up watching my Mom and Dad in the kitchen during the late summer, toiling over the stove and sink where they were preserving our family’s favorite peaches. It was always an all-day affair with the kitchen loaded with boxes of fresh Colorado peaches straight from the orchards on the western slope of Colorado. My Dad spent some of his youth in Palisade, Colorado, a small town on the western slope that is famous for its peaches. He had family members that owned orchards and he spent many summers working the trees and hauling in the fuzzy fruit. He would talk about that peach fuzz and how awful it was to get all that fuzz stuck up your nose as you worked in the orchard all day. That just makes me squirm even thinking about it.

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

Every year, the first item on our canning list was to can peaches. Peaches, peaches and more peaches. Our family could never have enough. My parents would also preserve pears, and make jelly and jam from the elderberry bush in our yard and from the crabapple tree in the front. My Dad put in a huge garden and they would pickle cucumbers and beets. All such amazing memories. We had a small storage room in our basement where my Dad built rough shelves out of wood planks and cinderblocks. That is where the summer’s harvest would live until my Mom would send one of us girls down to the basement to grab a bottle of peaches, pickles or whatever her fancy was for our meal.

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

 

As a child, I never knew how special it was to have such traditions in our home. As we got older and busier, my Mom went back to work and sadly some of those traditions took a back seat and the skills didn’t quite make the jump to my kitchen. What a sad state really, for years, I have let the bounty of Summer be just that, the bounty of SUMMER. I haven’t had those days of canning in my kitchen with my kiddos, teaching them how to preserve the flavors of Summer for another most likely cooler day.

Well, all of that is about to change! The passion is back in a big way and I can’t wait to share. I was approached by the lovely folks at Newell Brands, makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products to come to Indiana, the home of the brand, and learn from their experts how to can for this year’s #CanItForward day. Of course, I was thrilled to learn more and couldn’t wait to travel to Indiana to learn more about their passion for preserving.

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

 

We learned about the history of the brand and we had the opportunity to tour their warehouse and packing facility.

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

Later, we met with Jessica Piper, the canning expert in the beautiful brand test kitchen to learn how to safely preserve some of our favorite fruits and vegetables.

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

With a rich history of canning in our country come learn how Ball Canning is preserving the art of preserving for years to come!

Jessica and I actually filmed a great segment for Can-It Forward Day on the basics of canning. We made some simple Mixed Berry Jam. I learned sooooo much, you should check it out on their Facebook page.

whipperberry-filming-at-ball-canning

A couple of things that I took away from that experience…

•Canning is so much easier than I thought

•You don’t have to can super large amounts of fruits and vegetables, you can preserve small batches

•Preserving needs to be precise

I’ll share more about those along with other gems I learned in the coming months. I’ve loaded up my pantry with all kinds of fun Ball® jars and I’ve purchased the official Newell Brands, makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products, cookbooks and I’m ready to start to #CanItForward!

For more great videos to learn canning basics OR to brush up on your canning knowledge visit their Facebook page for more videos from other bloggers that are a part of the Fresh Preservers program like Garden Betty, COOKIE + Kate and Food in Jars.

Disclosure +  I am a paid partner for Newell Brands, makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.