Silver Dollar City Here We Come

Can you believe we are only 45 days away from Christmas? Even better we are only 14 days from Thanksgiving!

I am so excited for my mom’s home cooking and visiting with family around the table with a wonderful glass of wine.

My husband and I are planning a trip down south to Branson in December for our yearly tradition to Silver Dollar City, or known to us native southern Missourians as "Steal Your Dollar City!"

Yes, it’s expensive to get into the park, almost $50 per adult, but we do it every year. I love to go through the park, see all the beautiful twinkling lights, hear the Christmas music played by some of the local artists, watch the Saloon Show and eat a deep fried Oreo and drink some hot wassail.

To me it’s all worth the money. All the shops are open (and there are some very unique shops at SDC), plus if you are looking for that certain special gift for someone, I’m sure you’ll find it there. Also, may of the non-water rides are still open to have some play time around the park.

The food is the best part of SDC. As I mentioned above they serve freshly made hot cocoa, wassail, deep fried Oreos, Twinkies, and everything else you could possibly fry. You wouldn’t think a deep fried Oreo would be very good would you, WRONG! It’s wonderful! You’ll just have to trust me on this one and try it.

If you have never been to SDC, I would take a family trip there either in the winter for the Christmas Time Celebration, in the fall (there are a ton a fall festivals that go on) or in the springtime. I wouldn’t however go in the summertime during any holiday. It’s during this time that the park is so packed, it’s just really not worth going. Unless you like to be herded around an amusement park like cattle.

Here are two recipes from some more of my co-workers and they are both wonderful desserts! The best part is that they are very easy to make.

Chocolate Chip Cookie – Cheesecake
by Clarice Brown

1 batch chocolate chip cookie dough,
Or 2 rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough
2 8-oz cream cheese (softened)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Mix cheese, sugar, vanilla & eggs until creamy.
Set Aside.

Press ¾ of cookie dough till flat in a 12 inch cake pan (spring loaded works well). Pour cream cheese over the top, then crumble the rest of the cookie dough on the top.

Bake uncovered 40 minutes or till just turning brown.Cook in pan one hour, then refrigerate 1 hour before serving.

Fruit Cobbler
by Pam Smith

Mix
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 ½ tsp of Baking Powder

Add
¾ cup of Milk

Melt 1 stick of butter in bottom of baking pan. Pour batter into pan over the butter. Add 1 ¾ cup of fruit – Peaches / Cherries / Blackberries / Blueberries, etc. Pour 1 cup of sugar over this. Bake 30 minutes at 350.

*Old family recipe