Tyson Hugh Hooper

Tyson Hugh Hooper
Our son, Tyson Hugh Hooper, was born with coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic arch, and a transitional avsd. His first open heart surgery reconstructed his aorta and was on day 9 of life. His second open heart repair was not anticipated to be needed until two or three years of age. Ty had other plans. We spent the vast majority of his first 3 months of life at Vanderbilt as he went into heart failure and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. As a result, the medical team concluded that he needed the repair much sooner than usually recommended, and at just shy of 3 months old Ty underwent his second life saving open heart surgery. God has already worked so many miracles in Ty's life and the life of our family and we know he is using our story. Because of this, we are grateful for Ty's special heart and feel beyond blessed that God chose us to travel this road. We ask for prayers as Ty continues to heal. We are praying for a full recovery and life without restrictions for Ty. We are praying for God to use our family and Ty for His glory.

Thank you to each and every person who supports us through prayer, giving, or just by loving on our family! We are humbled and blessed by all of the ways the Lord is providing for us and know that he is using Ty and his story to do great things!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Are you a pampered chef?

I recently held a "Holly Jolly Shopping Party" with my friends who are both named Beth!  Basically it was a Christmas Open House for us to show off Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, and Willow House products!  :-) 

For the occasion I made Caramel-Filled Cashew Cups.  Oh my goodness!  This recipe was really easy and absolutely delicious!  It's a great one for Thanksgiving gatherings and holiday parties, so I wanted to share the recipe:
CARAMEL-FILLED CASHEW CUPS


INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 C. Salted Cashews

2 Tbsp. Butter; melted

1/4 C. Light Corn Syrup

28 Caramels; unwrapped

2 Tbsp. Milk

1/3. C. Bittersweet Chocolate Morsels

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray cups of Deluxe Mini-Muffin Pan with nonstick cooking spray. Finely chop Cashews using Food Chopper or Manual Food Processor. Combine Cashews, Butter and Corn Syrup in Classic Batter Bowl; mix well. Using Adjustable Measuring Spoon (about 1 Tbsp.) divide Cashew Mixture evenly among cups of pan. Gently press tops of cashew mixture with lightly floured Mini-Tart Shaper to flatten tops; bake 6-8 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Meanwhile, combine Caramels and Milk in clean Batter Bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 2-3 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Remove pan from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Gently press hot cashew mixture again with tart shaper to form cups (I ended up using the end of a spatula or wooden spoon... the tart shaper was a little to large to effectively make a cup). Let stand 5 minutes. Grasp edges of each cup and twist gently to loosen; remove cups from pan. Divide melted caramel among cups using measuring spoon. Place chocolate morsels in 1 Cup Prep Bowl; microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 1 minute or until mostly melted, stirring every 20 seconds. Spoon melted chocolate in resealable plastic bag. Trim corner of bag with Utility Knife; drizzle chocolate over caramel. Serve warm or at room temperature.
The open house was a success and I got to share a lot of fun products that are especially good for the holidays!  In fact, the Holly Jolly Shopping party is still open for business until Saturday, so if you need anything from Pampered Chef you can click here to shop!  If you need anything from Thirty-One or from Willow House, just leave a comment or shoot me and email and I can get you in touch with the Beth that you need!  :-)

Pampered Chef has a lot of sauces that are great for an EASY party appetizer! Pour over cream cheese and serve with crackers... doesn't get easier than that!  For this show I put out the Apricot Honey Sauce (right) and the Blackberry Balsamic Sauce (left).  They were both good, but that Blackberry Balsamic... oh. my.  It was so good and a little addictive!  It would be good on a turkey sandwich too!  :-)

I also mixed up two salsas using my Manual Food Processor.  One was a Cranberry Salsa Recipe that I got from my friend Anne.  It's not a Pampered Chef recipe, but it was wonderful and a GREAT holiday recipe!  I'll share the recipe in another post.  :-)  The other was an olive salsa... it was simply garlic, olive oil, pimiento stuffed green olives, and ripe black olives... quick and easy olive lovers dream!

One of my goals was to share fun and simple holiday gift ideas!  One idea is this Celebration Cookie Mix - it makes a great and really cute gift in the batter bowl!  There are SO MANY gift ideas in the holiday section of my website!

There are recipes, centerpiece ideas, gift ideas... even printable gift tags to match your Pampered Chef gifts complete with recipes printed on them!  Click Here to see the holiday section for some great ideas!

 
There are also a lot of gift sets to give!  From snowman dishes to dipping sets, there is a gift for everyone on your list!

If you'd like to earn some gifts for yourself or for friends FOR FREE, this is a great month to host a catalog or cooking show!  For hosting you get your pick of ANY product in the catalog for 60% off (and if you submit your show before the 15th you get a free Butterball turkey too!).  In addition to that, you get all the usual host benefits like free and half-off items!  :-)  It's a GREAT way to get your holiday shopping done for less time and money than you usually spend!

Also, if you are interested in a debt free holiday, I'd love to talk to you about the extra money you can earn through Pampered Chef!  Think... you could fund all your holiday fun and come January be ahead instead of behind!  Let me know if you are interested!

1 comments:

Sarah said...

your table was beautiful! I loved it! And I didn't know you had the snowman dishes. They are so cute. I'd seen pictures of the batter bowl gift in the catalog along with their other holiday ideas in an insert that came with my order. What great and adorable ideas they have! The olive salsa sounds like a recipe I need. I'll be looking forward to that one. And you KNOW you have to make those cashew caremel things for Dad, right? He'll be an adict, I just have a feeling. You know him and cashews!