3 Winks Design

Tips for Hosting a Fabulous Soup Buffet Party

11/21/2019

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. But, all opinions expressed are my own.

Have you been to many soup buffet parties? Perhaps you are hosting one yourself this year. I've been to quite a few soup buffets with delicious soups all staying warm in a crock pot, only to have the satisfaction level fall flat because all that is served with the soup are some crackers on the side. But, I'm here to tell you that a soup buffet is an opportunity to go crazy and shine! I've got you covered with lots of tips of what to serve with your soup to make your buffet go over the top!

Soups and What to Serve With Them

Choose just 2 or 3 favorite soups. More than that will make everyone unsure of what to choose and you will end up with way too many leftovers! If you round out the meal with lots of toppings, a few choices of soup will be plenty. Here are some suggestions of what to serve with various soups:

Clam Chowder-(here is my recipe) There are wonderful things to put on or with clam chowder that will turn it into a gourmet meal! Oyster crackers,bacon swapped scallops, bacon bits, chives, thyme, corn on the cob (those little ones would be perfect), cornbread, (with honey butter of course).
Butternut Squash Bisque- a fresh salad, bacon strips, bread or fresh rolls, crackers (duh).
Tomato Soup-Okay, everyone knows that the best thing is a grilled cheese sandwich, but how about making it more interesting? Cut the grilled cheese sandwich into crouton size and sprinkle them on the soup! The cheese gets so melty and delicious!

I used a Cheddar-Jack cheese. It was so good!

Or, you can cut the grilled cheese into points and balance on the mug. It aids in the dipping of the sandwich!

Taco Soup-(chicken or beef) Corn chips or tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, chopped green onions, fresh snipped cilantro.

Those are some of my favorites, but here are some other ideas for toppings that you might try for any kind of soup:

Rice or Mashed Potato Balls. These can be made before hand and chilled. Dropping cool rice ball or potato ball can help cool down hot soup! I formed mine with a cookie scoop. These are great on any kind of chicken soup or vegetable soup or vegetable beef!

Rice balls

Potato balls

Chopped green onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped peppers
Tiny finger sandwiches
popcorn
pickled red onions

This Ecuadorian Encebollado would be a wonderful soup to serve! Click the photo to learn more!

How to Serve the Soup

Of course,crock pots are a great idea to serve from, since they will keep the soup nice and hot. But, in some cases they may not look fancy enough and a lovely soup tureen may be in order.

I purchased this pumpkin tureen at Walmart a few years ago. If you click on the photo, it is still available online.

Here are some other ones, click the photo to see them or order them:

I like to use mugs quite often to serve soup in. You can hold onto the mug handle as you dip in a sandwich or dip a cracker or roll. These from pioneer woman are a favorite! She has a lot of choices.
Bread bowls are always delicious. The one shown above is from Panera. You can always bake your own.
You can use paper bowls, just be sure that they are sturdy and decorative if possible.
Arrange your toppings and sides on nice plates with tongs or spoons. Be sure to provide sturdy ladles for the soup.

There you have it! Tons of ways to bring your soup buffet to the next level! It is raining in Phoenix, so soup sounds like a really great idea. Especially the Tomato with grilled cheese! What kind of soup does a rainy day bring to your mind? For more soup recipe, check out our soup category! Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

11/19/2019

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This post contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you purchase from them.Thanks for your support!

Do you enjoying adding a new delicious dish or two to your Thanksgiving Dinner? The traditional food is so good and we look forward to it each year when Thanksgiving rolls around, but it's always fun to have a new dish to talk about when the meal is over and people will only have good things to say about this Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake!
This recipe for Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake is a twist on an old recipe that I have had hanging around in my recipe box for years. The old recipe had a cracker crust and walnuts. I decided that pecans are more of a favorite at our house and of course a gingersnap crust would go so well with pumpkin! So I decided to give it a try and guess what! I was right!
The ginger flavor and crunch of the gingersnaps make a crust that I may start using in loads of other applications! It is so easy to make in a food processor! It takes a little finesse to smooth it across the bottom and up the sides of the spring-form pan. (I used a fork and then my fingers.)

I mixed the filling in myKitchen Aid. I learned that it is very important to stop and scrap the bowl frequently or you may end up with some leftover lumps of cream cheese. (You may notice a couple in my slice of cheesecake, I'm glad this was my test cake. Although, they didn't detract from the deliciousness of the cake at all!)

Do you see that candied pecan topping? There is no need to cook on the stove top. You just mix the ingredients in a bowl and then spoon on top of the almost completely baked cheesecake and bake it for 10 minutes longer. The topping comes out perfectly crunchy and gives a beautiful texture that offsets the creaminess of the pumpkin cheesecake itself! Lindsey, my pumpkin loving daughter is going to love this dessert!

This Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake came together so much easier than I expected that it would for the impact I know it will make on Thanksgiving! I hope you enjoy it! Let me know!

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake

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Our Favorite Free Printable Advent Calendars of 2019!

11/15/2019

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This post contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you purchase from them.Thanks for your support!

Have you noticed that Thanksgiving is really late in November this year? That means you won't have a lot of extra days to get your advent plans ready after the feast is over. Now is the time to plan ahead to do those little extra things for your kids that make the season more magical.
When my kids were young, it seemed like we always did a couple of different ways to help us to count down the days until Christmas. We had the Christmas tree banner with pockets that held decorations to put on it each day until the 24th. We did chocolate calendars. The kids usually came home from school with some sort of advent, like the Santa that you put a beard on with cotton balls one day at a time. We often did the Christmas book each night idea that Alicia wrote about here, or read a Christmas chapter book. The anticipation was palpable and the advent calendars were a simple way to make everyday seem a little bit like Christmas.

In past years, we have shared some favorite printable advent calendars and we have created our own as well. In 2017, Alicia came up with this 12 days of Christmas punch card calendar that helps keep Christ as the center of your Christmas. Since it is only 12 days, you can start it later in the month, or even go beyond Christmas day. Also, it is a pocket sized card that everyone can keep with them. There are some other good ideas on that post as well.

Alicia also came up with this adorable DIY Chain Calendar. It isn't printable, but simple to make and look at my adorable grandson while you are at it.

Reading Calendars

Since Alicia shared her favorite Christmas books with you, I thought I would share some ways to make using them as a countdown even more enjoyable than just reading them, (which is pretty enjoyable anyway)!

All About Learning Press goes beyond just wrapping the books. They have downloadable numbered gift tags to put on each book! Super cute!
Everyday Reading has my favorite! It is a Rad Reading Calendar that you can print off in engineering print size and the kids can color it as they read each day!
If you don't have 24 Christmas books in your home library yet, Amazon has a number of Christmas Advent storybooks that you can read one story per night out of! Lindsey just told me that she has ordered one for my granddaughter!

A New Keeping Christ in Christmas Calendar

I have shared some great keeping Christ in Christmas ideas with you in past years. This year I have found one that is really awesome! For the past couple of years, we have taken part in the Light the World advent that has helped us remember Christ throughout the Christmas season. Your Everyday Family has also followed that program and has shared a simple way to add a scripture, hymn or thought each day as stickers that go on Hershey Kisses! A jar of these kisses would be perfect on someone's desk at work. Or, you could fill up the jar with enough kisses that every family member can pick one each day! (There may be duplicates, but that is okay!)
I printed some up on sticker paper, cut them out and then peeled and stuck them onto the Kisses. I used the red, green and silver kisses, but the candy cane ones would be super cute, too.

The scriptures on this free printable come from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. If you need copies of any of these, you can request them for FREE from this site!

A Free Printable From 3 Winks!

My idea for this printable advent calendar came as I was cutting out the circles from the Your Everyday Family printable. (If I had had a large enough hole punch, it would have been a big help!) I have some Avery round labels that fit on the back of small York Peppermint Patties! I thought, I could make an activity type advent with those and they wouldn't require cutting! If you have an advent calendar that has pockets or drawers, you can use these to fill it this year!

I purposely left the numbers off of these printable tags so that you can arrange them in your drawers or pockets in a way that will be convenient for your family. I also give you more than 24 ideas so that you can use some and not others that you may not want to do. There are also some blank tags so that if you have an idea that you want to add, you can just fill it in.

I used Avery labels #94507 to print these labels. Click the button below for the pdf file.

Christ "mint" Wishes Activity Advent Labels

If you do have some great ideas to use as an Advent Activity that I haven't included, please share them in the comments! We always love new ideas!
So, don't wait until after Thanksgiving! Plan ahead and make life easier and more magical for your kids at the same time.

Okay, I couldn't wait to share this one!

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