Holiday shopping? Hah! Nope!

Braving oodles of traffic, weaving around lines of cars waiting to turn into the nearest shopping mall?  Nope.  Driving around a huge concrete jungle looking for a parking space, for hours?  Nope.  Shouldering through large crowds to move through the mall to the next store?  Nope.  Waiting in long lines to purchase a few pairs of boxer shorts?  Nope.  Passing by the mall Santa and hearing children having melt downs?  Nope.  Getting bumped, seeing people grab, witnessing arguments over material possessions, feeling sorry for the cashier getting an ear full from an angry customer?  Nope.  Nope. Nope and nope.  Watching people drive badly, cut each other off, curse and shake fists?  Nope.  This year I took the road less traveled.

Pennsylvania Dutch Sand Tart cookie recipe

Thin, crispy, buttery, sugar covered cookies....I fondly remember my Grandma making these treats every Christmas!  I don't have her old recipe, but I do have a recipe from a family friend.  Let me tell you, I made this recipe and they look and taste like I remember - SCORE!

Best baked bone-in chicken EVERRR !

Note the perfect match up - wheat beer!

I received some chicken thighs with the skin on and bone-in, truthfully, I had no idea what to do with them.  I feel so stupid, all those years cooking bone-less skin-less chicken for $3.99 lb or more (unless on sale, then I am grabbing them up like chocolate on sale, which never is by the way) and not realizing there is a cheaper, juicy and delicious cut of chicken out there....(shakes my head)  Really though, its not MY fault!  I had no one to teach me to cook, I learned some things in Home Economics class, from friends and even my husband taught me a lot of stuff.  So here we are, I think I found the mother of all recipes for skin-on, bone-in chicken - breasts, thighs, whatever - been using this recipe faithfully.  In fact, as I write this, I have this recipe baking away in my oven.....YUM.  (oh and I am a skin eater, in which case this recipe is PERFECT for skin eaters)