Cookie of the Week

It's a little late but this week's cookie of the week still got made. This week's cookie was requested by Edmund. He wanted chocolate chip cookies with other flavor chips, too. So it is Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. I used my favorite basic cookie recipe - my grandmother's recipe - and added a mixture of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. You really can't go wrong with that combination!

Last week's cookies were also made and enjoyed but never photographed. We were too busy eating them to stop and take pictures. My parents were here and my Mom suggested my Ginger Cookies. It's been such along time since I've made those, I'd forgotten how good they are! My Mom made them with Edmund while Topher and I were at an appointment. It was so exciting to come home to warm cookies!

Ginger Cookies

3/4 c shortening *
1 c sugar
1 egg
1/4 c molasses
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbls ground ginger
1 Tbls cinnamon
additional sugar for rolling

Cream shortening. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and molasses. Beat well. Add remaining ingredients and beat well. Shape dough in to 1 inch balls and roll in additional sugar. Place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350º for 8-10 minutes.

* shortening is key in this one. It makes for a nice chewy cookie with a little bit of a crisp edge. Butter will give you a hard crispy cookie - like a Ginger Snap

Rambling Along

January has been a quiet month here. We've just sort of been plodding along. It's been a month of gearing up and getting ready. Getting ready for what? I'm not sure, perhaps just the new year. Maybe we are regrouping. I don't know but it has been a good month.

The boys had a 4 day weekend for MLK day and my parents flew in for the long weekend. It was so nice to have them here. My dad got Chaz to get his room clean and organized - with out a fight! He also helped me organize my pantry. I was stuck and my dad is an organizing mastermind! We had a really nice visit and we were all sad them go.

Chris is in Las Vegas this week for a conference. He'll be home Friday night. I'll admit, we have fun when he's not here but it's always so nice to have him come home, again.

I put my sewing machine away right after Christmas. I felt like a little break. I pulled it out again yesterday to make this top for myself. I used the ever popular Built by Wendy pattern - Simplicity 3835. I made view C with the sleeves from view A. The pattern was so simple and I really love the way the top turned out. I can see myself making quite a few of these. However, I need to make a couple of adjustments. This one is a little too tight across the bust. Too bad, too! I was really looking forward to wearing this.

Well there you have it. A few bits of randomness from the last few weeks.

Scherenschnitte

December was crazy busy with lots of secret crafting (I'll have to share some of that soon) so there hasn't been a whole lot of crafting going on here lately. I just needed a little time out from it all. I didn't put everything away, though. Amidst all the new books there were several on paper cutting or scherenschnitte and a new set of x-acto knives.

These are my first two attempts. My knife skills need a little work but that comes with practice. The black one was cut from origami paper and the other was cut from parchment paper. I think I prefer working with the parchment but I do like the look of the black paper.



I know I should have scanned these but the scanner is not hooked up right now so you'll have to settle for photos. You get the idea though.

Cookie of the Week

This week's cookie of the week is Coconut Crunch Drops. This recipe comes from my Mother-in-Law. Chris says he doesn't remember eating these growing up, though. Too bad! They're so good! Real crispy and buttery and ever so slightly chewing right in the center. It's going to be tough to make these last the week!

Mimi's Crunch Drops

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups oatmeal
3 1/2 oz coconut

Preheat oven to 375º. Sift flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat in the flour until well combined. Stir in oats and coconut until blended to make a stiff dough. Drop by spoonfuls on to a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10-14 min.

The Cookie Project

I've been thinking about this for quite sometime but never really did anything with it. Which is really very silly since as far as projects go, this one is so simple. I want to do a "Cookie of the Week". See, how simple is that! I'd like to try new to us recipes but I know that there will be a lot of family favorites too. The kids love cookies and I hate buying them. I like making them but I just don't very often. I'm not sure why I don't make them more often but that will change.

This week I made snickerdoodles. This week was an easy one, too. I had frozen cookie dough that I bought from the middle school band's fundraiser so I just needed to place the dough balls on a sheet and bake. Easy peasy!

2008

Last month at book club we discussed words. The impact they have. How they affect us. How they can represent different things to different people. We were asked to go around the room and choose just one word to make our own and explain why. The only time we had to think on it was the amount of time it took to get to get around to us. I was third.

The word I chose was calm. With three boys, our house is anything but calm. I tend to get caught up in the whirlwind and chaos which just leads to stress. I need to create calm. My boys being the boys that they are can sometimes be a challenge. I need to remember to remain calm.

There will be a few changes here at home. There will be small and simple changes but I think the results will be big - and so good for our family. Our first step is that we will not be playing Spring Baseball this year. The Fall season was very intense and eventually overwhelming to us all. The boys started to get a little burnt out and Edmund struggled with school. This Spring, we will be able to focus on being a family and we'll have time to explore our new area. It's a start.

My word for 2008 is calm, what's yours?