Buffalo Chicken Dip, Color Palette Inspiration, Cleaning Challenge!

It's New Year's Eve morning, and I'm looking forward to spending time with friends and family today.  I'm meeting my pal, Leah, for a late lunch halfway between her new home and mine--about a 75 mile drive to get to our meeting spot.  Our boys enjoyed a sleepover last night, and I am looking forward to hearing all about their adventures on the ride home.  Tonight, we will be spending New Year's Eve with some old friends, so this morning, I am tackling the several loads of laundry that have piled up.  Not much time for blogging today!
The recipe below is what I am taking to April's house for New Year's Eve.  I got the recipe out of my sister's husband's family reunion cookbook.  She gave me a copy, becasuse she knows how much I love these church/family/fundraiser/private press type cookbooks.  You know the ones I mean; they're not available in a bookstore.  You have to know somebody to get one!  They are filled with delicious recipes from ordinary cooks like me and they use ingredients you already have in your pantry.  They have names like "The Brent Family Cookbook", "Tasty Adventures from Indian Creek Elementary PTA" and "The Blackjack Baptist Women's Cookbook".  Two of my favorite "bookstore" cookbooks are "The Pioneer Woman" and "Southern Plate".  They feel like these fundraiser cookbooks, but have beautiful full color photographs of every recipe.
Recipe:  Buffalo Chicken Dip (from Ryan and Emilie) Preheat oven to 325.  In a large bowl, mix together 2  8 oz packages of softened cream cheese, 1 large can of shredded, cooked chicken, and 1 package of ranch dressing mix (I only put in about 1/2 - 2/3 of the package).  Add several shakes of Frank's hot sauce and put mixture in a 9 x 12 baking dish.  Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top to cover.  Drizzle more hot sauce on top.  Heat dip in oven until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly.  Of course, if you use low-fat cheese like I did, it doesn't melt as pretty! :0(   Serve with tortilla chips.

Housekeeping Challenge:  Clean out your refrigerator and freezer.  Get rid of all the holiday leftovers, limp salad fixings and almost empty jars of jelly.  Take everything out and give the shelves and bins a good scrubbing with warm soapy water or all purpose cleaner and rinse well.  Now, you have room to put in healthy, fresh food for your New Year's eat-healthy/lose-weight resolution (or is that just me?)

Scrapbooking Tip:  Color palette inspiration  I like to use an overall color palette of three or four colors to give each album a cohesive flow.  I picked up this idea from my friend, Karina, who scrapbooked her trip to Paris in black, white and red.  C'est Manifique!  Sometimes, I find one patterned paper that I love, and pull the colors from that.  But if you have a fabric in your wardrobe or on a favorite piece of furniture or drapes, take a photo with your phone or camera and take it with you to the scrapbook/hobby store.  You already like that palette, or you wouldn't have bought that outfit, chair or curtains, right?

Happy New Year!  Lisa