My New Blog

How's this service:

Not only will we find a house for you... we will give you a great and easy recipe to serve for your first get-together!

Thought all Banana Pudding was made the same?  This recipe is totally different and ALWAYS gets rave reviews!  (A big thanks to my forest girlfriends for sharing!)

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

Ingredients
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
6 to 8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped
cream

Directions
Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and
layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer.

Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth.

Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.

Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.

Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the
remaining cookies.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.  (and even better the next day)

Valentine Get-Away Weekend
“Follow your Heart to the Mountains”
Friday, February 15 - Monday, February 18, 2008

For detailed information Visit the Heart of Brevard web-site at http://www.brevardnc.org/ValentineGet-AwayWeekend.php 
or call (828) 884-8330

But here are a few things happening that weekend:

-  Sweetheart of a Sale:  Enjoy the winter sales.  Too many specials to list... check out the web-site for sure!!

-  Ice Carving Competition:  Sunday 12pm  Watch the Valentine Chain Saw Masters create Ice Sculptures.

-  Dupont Lovers Walk & Hot Chocolate:  Sunday 11am - 2pm  See why this area is called 'Land of Waterfalls'

and SO MUCH MORE... Champagne & Chocolate Tasting, Frog Love in the Pink Beds, Sweetheart Dancing, Gallery Walk, "Peru Negro" at the Porter Center
                You won't want to miss this amazing weekend event!!!

The Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachians, the oldest mountains in North America. “They were old before the Rockies even began to be formed, as witnessed by their rocks which belong to the Archeozoic or very oldest era of geologic life, going back a thousand million years.” (The French Broad, by Wilma Dykman). The forests here are allegedly richer in tree variety than all of Europe. About 25,000 yrs ago, a great glacier from the north pushed down over the North American continent. The glacier came close to but did not reach the southern Appalachians. 

According to a Buncombe County, NC website,  the Appalachians were formed millions of years ago when a huge landmass crashed into the eastern part of the main body of land that is now North America. Over thousands of years, the land buckled and thus began the formation of the Appalachian chain.

The French Broad River predates the mountains in which it finds itself. The French Broad River is purported to be the 2^nd or 3rd oldest river in the World.  It is essentially devoid of fossils. Only the Nile River in Egypt, and the New River (also in NC) are older! 

It flows from near the S.C. border northward through Transylvania County, to Asheville then north through gorges and mountains on its way to Knoxville, Tennessee. It was named by hunters around 1770 as The French Broad because it flowed westward toward the lands that were owned by the French at the time. The Cherokee Indians originally roamed these mountains. In the late 1770’s settlers and the US government began fighting the Indians for land. At the treaty of 1763, France gave to England the whole western territory that had given The French Broad its name. Then the English initiated a push for land for settlers. And the settlers came, including Scotch-Irish, English, German, Dutch and French Huguenot. This was the beginning of many wars with the Cherokees, who ultimately were herded off their land in the government’s shameful Trail of Tears relocation drive in 1836 that pushed them to Oklahoma. Today the town of Cherokee still remains in western N.C. and celebrates its Indian heritage. Many Indian names remain. Kanuga, for example, was once a Cherokee settlement in the French Broad valley.

Coming soon – posting on history of the area in The Civil War

,the building of Railroads, and the Biltmore Estate.