Two More Days!

Oops... I forgot yesterday was Tuesday! It was after lunch before anyone noticed that I had wrapped some presents & put them under the tree last night. Elizabeth suddenly gasped, then screamed, "PRESENTS!!!" David came running across the room to see and started yelling, "I see a present with my name on it!!!" Elizabeth, "Me, too!! Me, too!!!"

Tonight he picked up his present and shook it. Must be instinct. Then he said reflectively, "Huh... it doesn't make any noise. I hope it's Legos." I said, "You don't want Legos for your Christmas Eve present, you wouldn't have time to play with them before going to bed." (trying...) As he walked away he asked, "Is my present pajamas?" Little stinker.

His bedtime prayer? "Help me to have no bad dreams, only good dreams. Help me to get Legos for my Christmas Eve present. Amen."

There he is diligently working on one of his presents that he's giving. : )

Elizabeth had to work on something, too. She asks, "Mom, can I do my school work, too?"

I made these Peppermint Meltaway Cookies this weekend, except we went all natural and left out the red food coloring and red stripped candy topping. Still they are really, really yummy! I love them, but they are a little too "melty" (aka crumbly) for the little folk. They're all gone now.

I used the extra peppermint icing on the last of Aunt Wee's chocolate pound cake... oh. my. The combination of chocolate and peppermint is heavenly. It's all gone now, too.

I was on a peppermint kick that day, so I added peppermint to the hot chocolate at lunch time. Elizabeth enjoyed it with her peanut butter sandwich.

Day before yesterday, Dad asked me when I was going to make *his* cookies. Here ya go. Made them last night.

Earlier I also made a loaf of bread, a triple batch of hot chocolate mix, a batch of chocolate milk powder, and a batch of Swiss Mocha mix. Washed a load of clothes, set a load of diapers to soak overnight, ran a full dishwasher twice. AND I cooked lunch AND dinner AND went grocery shopping! Now that was productive day!

Dad brought me the little Christmas tree that I wanted when he came home from work today. Isn't it cute?!?!? Thank you, Babe!

'Tis the Season... for Cookies!

I just finished making cookies for David's Thursday School Christmas party. My sister is hosting her second annual virtual cookie exchange, so I thought I'd chip these in. (pun intended... chocolate chip... get it?) : )

"MY" cookie is chocolate chip. I've been perfecting my recipe for years. Dad loves them (cooked or uncooked). The kids love them. This is not them. If you want to see my version of the chocolate chip cookie, check out last year's cookie exchange.

This year, we are eliminating artificial things from David's diet. My butter flavored Crisco had to go. : ( Sometimes change is a good thing, though, because you find something new that's just as good or better.

This is my recipe made with real butter, added oatmeal and an extra egg. They've been eaten just fine and I have few left to take to the party tomorrow, so I had to wait for the beggars to go to bed & tried a couple of new recipes.

Healthy No Bake Cookies

These are actually pretty tasty. However, the recipe only made 15 small cookies, and as a new recipe, I had to test it out. Now I need David & Dad to test them, too, to see if it's a keeper recipe. That leaves me with only 11 cookies for the party, because Elizabeth will want one, too. Next...

Chocolate Cowboy Cookies

Mmmm... these are good! I did my usual substitutions of double vanilla and milk chocolate chips. Wow. I'm already thinking of ways to make them even better... like getting some mint in there somehow!

...for good food

I am thankful for
the perfect bread recipe!
(Apparently, I've never gotten a photo of a loaf.
This is the same recipe made into rolls for our
Thanksgiving feast at the homeschool co-op this week.)

David is now on a special diet. One of the items eliminated is store-bought bread because of the preservative that's used in the pan oil. How does a family that eats sandwiches every day for lunch cope with that? Homemade.

I'd already been experimenting with homemade bread recipes for over a year and had finally found one that was working pretty good, or at least the best so far. It wasn't good sandwich bread, though. Then it turns out one of the ingredients in my bread had the preservative BHT in it... back to the drawing board.

It was purely by accident that I found Tammy's Recipes. I followed a link from another blog to read another recipe & saw a photo of her bread in the sidebar or something. Recipe looked simple enough, so I tried it. It has been amazing ever since. The highest compliment came when Dad said, "Hmm... tastes like store-bought." You can even fold it!

Yes, it's the little things in life that make this Mama happy.

click here for the recipe

I've missed my coffee...

It's been over a month since I joined Company Girl Coffee and I've missed you girls! Not that I haven't attempted to post. I think there are at least 2 sitting in draft status. Last week, I actually had a good excuse - my BFF was visiting! The same one I submitted photos of for the Company Girl book! You may have seen this when I posted it last weekend, but if not, here's the whole group of us girls:

Maybe some future BFF's in there, too? David had wandered off before the photo.

We've also been busy with homeschool. This week completed week 7 of kindergarten. David and I are totally enjoying it! Someone asked me the other day if it was hard. So far, the hardest part is trying to find things to occupy Elizabeth while David does his worksheets (math & handwriting).

I've never had a fall garden before, so I wasn't sure what to do out there. I've cleaned out everything that was done and planted some more squash and am trying snow peas. More than half those, which I direct seeded, were eaten as soon as they sprouted. I assume it was rolly polly bugs. I think I may still have time to try lettuce again...

In my "spare time" (hahahahahah!!), I've been working on a Fall Recipes Cookbook to sell online. I had really hoped to have it completed by October 1, but... "spare time"... yeah.

This is the Amish Baked Oatmeal. It is really good! My sister blogged the Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake for me. And that reminds me... I'm off to make some Harvest Muffins for breakfast! They'll go good with coffee!!

Wanna try a new recipe?

I need some people who're willing to try a new recipe out for me! I'm working on a fall cookbook & need some good photos to include. I don't have time to make (and eat) everything this week! So, if you'd like to cook something new and can take some good photos of it, preferably this week, please let me know.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

... you make lemonaide, right? So what about when life gives you tomatoes?

OK, there's a few more things than tomatoes there, but you get the idea! I am still picking tomatoes. Who wants some???

This is what I did with the excess Yellow Pear Tomatoes:

Yellow Pear Preserves!

Recipe Swap

I'm a bit late getting in on the swap, but I discovered some new recipes this week that I wanted to share anyway.


It's not the greatest picture, but the other day I was hankering Sloppy Joes. I will admit, for most of my life my recipe for Sloppy Joes was this: Brown hamburger meat. Simmer with a can of Manwich. Not having a can of Manwich and not wanting to postpone the meal, I found this easy recipe on RecipeZaar:

Detweiler Sloppy Joe Mix

1 lb ground beef
onion, chopped
green pepper, chopped
1 c ketshup
2 T brown sugar
1 T mustard
1/2 c water

Brown hamburger, onion, pepper together. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 15 minutes.

That's it! And it was better than Manwich! For 2 of us, I used a 1/2 lb of meat, I think 4 slices of onions chopped, and the last of the red peppers I had in the freezer. Then I forgot to cut the sauce in half, so it was really saucy. Next time I'll get the meat to sauce ration right. Dad liked it anyway.

Next, I've been struggling with the bread all week. I've made 3 different recipes & keep having similar problems: very little rise and very dense texture. After doing some research last night, I have the idea that perhaps I have a bad batch of yeast.

To test this theory, I decided to try another recipe - a white bread, which I've read is easier to achieve and generally has a faster rise time than whole wheat. After 2 hours in a warm oven, my dough finally doubled. I shaped the loaf, then waited another hour on the second rise. Nada. So I sprayed some plastic wrap & left it sitting on the counter all night. By morning, it had risen, and I had delicious warm, buttered bread for breakfast! (I still think it didn't rise as much as it should have, though.)

I'm not particularly a fan of white bread, but this was really good, so I'll share this recipe, too. I can't remember where I found the recipe, so I've got no credits to pass along. I'm including my changes to the recipe.

Amish White Bread

3/4 c + 2 T warm water
1 t active dry yeast
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c canola oil
2 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
4 t vital wheat gluten

Put warm water, yeast and sugar in the mixer bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes. Add the oil, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix with the dough hook for a few minutes until smooth and firm. You want it to clean the sides of the bowl, but slightly stick to the bottom and hook. Turn into a greased bowl to rise until double. Shape, put in loaf pan and let rise again. Bake at 350* for about 25 minutes. Thump to check doneness.

Potatoes

I signed up with SheSpeaks and my first assignment was to review Ore-Ida's new Steam & Mash Potatoes. I got a free bag of the product, a free potato masher, and coupons to share.

I tried the Garlic Seasoned Potatoes. They were very easy to prepare - you just put the whole bag in the microwave for 10 minutes, let them stand for 2 minutes, dump them into a bowl and mash with some milk & butter. Super easy.

What I liked about them was not having to buy a 5lb bag of potatoes and not having to peel them. I found that a whole bag was a lot of potatoes.

The flavor was pretty good, but we thought the texture was a little dry & undercooked. Maybe it's my small microwave or maybe I didn't add enough milk. Dad said they had the texture of leftover potatoes. I reheated a bowl later & added more butter and some cheese and I thought they tasted better that time. The next day, I made potato patties from the leftovers & they were enjoyed by all. Here's my mom's potato patty recipe:

Grandma's Potato Patties

Leftover Mashed Potatoes
1 egg (or 2 if you have a lot of leftovers)
diced onion (amount based on your preference)
flour

Saute the onions. Mix together the leftover mashed potatoes, egg and sauteed onions. It will be kinda runny. Add flour, a little at a time, to thicken. Heat oil in a skillet. Drop spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot oil and gently flatten. When it's lightly brown on one side, flip them over. When done, drain on paper towels.

I like to dip mine in ketchup, but Dad used Cholula. I served them with pigs-in-a-blanket.

If anyone wants to give Ore-Ida's Steam & Mash Potatoes a try, let me know. They sent me plenty of coupons to share - $1 off!

Irish Brown Bread

2 1/4 c whole wheat flour
2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c rolled oats
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 T sugar (I used Splenda)
2 1/2 c buttermilk

Heat oven to 400*. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix with your hands. Dig a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk.

Continue mixing with your hands, adding the remaining cup of buttermilk as you combine the ingredients. The dough will be wet and very sticky!

Dust your hands with flour and shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough ball on a floured cookie sheet and score a deep X into the top using a knife.

Bake until it's golden grown, about 50 minutes, and cool on a wire rack. Let cool at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Makes a crusty, dense, and delicious loaf of Irish Brown Bread just in time for Saint Patrick's Day!

I got this recipe out of this month's Family Fun Magazine.

Cookie Exchange #3: Chocolate Chip

Dad's Favorite

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 stick of Butter Flavored Crisco
6 t water
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c packed dark brown sugar
1 T Mexican vanilla
2 large eggs
2 bags of Milk Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375*. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat Butter Flavored Crisco, water, both sugars and vanilla until creamy, but not too much. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Lick beaters well.

Stir in chocolate chips. Stick your fingers in it to make sure it still tastes right.

Scoop spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet or stone. Lick spoon.

Bake 9 minutes & take out just before they look done because they will continue to cook after removed from the oven.

The first batch may take a couple more minutes or you may have to adjust the baking time based on your oven.



Cool on paper towels. Test while still warm & gooey to make sure they turned out right.

Visit my sister's Virtual Cookie Exchange for more recipes!

Cookie Exchange #1: Ginger Molasses Cookies

This recipe was given to me in 2002 from a Creative Memories Consultant who lives in Minnesota. I made them for my Open Houses and now Dad requests them every year. After this year's cookiefest, looks like it may be one of David's favorites, too!

Ginger Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup Butter Flavored Criso
4 1/2 teaspoons water
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup mild molasses
2 1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a medium bowl, add Butter Flavored Criso, water, sugar, molasses and egg. Beat well. In a larger bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together. Add the first mixture to the second mixture and mix well. Chill for at least an hour.


Roll dough into one inch balls.
Roll balls in granulated sugar to coat.
Place balls on a greased cookie sheet. (I used cooking spray.)

Bake at 375* for 5-10 minutes, but no longer than 10 minutes.




To make them just a tad bit prettier, sprinkle a little granulated sugar on them as they're cooling.


I'll be doing another recipe later! Visit my sister's Virtual Cookie Exchange for more recipes!

Black Friday & Time to Start Baking!

Thanksgiving is officially over. Yes, I did get up at 4am and enjoyed an early morning shopping spree with my parents. On the way to town, we reminisced about our first After Thanksgiving Sale. Let's see if I can remember the details we discussed... It was Daddy & me. We went to what we think was the first ever 7am sale at our local Wal-Mart. This was back before 24-hour Supercenters, back before everybody opened early the day after, back before there were so many specialty superstores, back before there were Golden Arches in the store, back before the term, "Black Friday." We got to WM right around 7 & there were just a handful of other cars there. Shopping was easy, uncluttered, quick and quiet. I'm sure we went to McDonald's for a sausage biscuit afterwards.

Today, I enjoyed my annual trek out again. I usually stay clear of electronics & usually have a pretty good day. Today was no exception. We did see the masses around the electronic devices, cars everywhere, but I saw people helping each other & being friendly. It was good, bonding with strangers over Cars pajamas, and back home before lunch. I got the family stockings up & after the kids went to bed, wrapped all the gifts that were purchased today.

Today was Elizabeth's first Black Friday! She slept through most of it. And this is her first real stocking! We had a little pink one hanging with our stockings last year, but since our stockings are packed still, I'll get her "home" stocking next year. David enjoyed a morning home with Dad.

Now to start baking! My sister is hosting a cookie recipe exchange next Tuesday! Come on over & join us!

I'll be sharing my Ginger Molasses Cookies and maybe even my husband's favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I started with Texas Toddler Mix. This is unique because I used Texas shaped pretzels and Goldfish. While it was cooling, I kept hearing crunching some out of the kitchen, followed by a little voice, "I ate a hot Chex, Mama!"

Pumpkin Muffins

Remember the jar mix I made at my last MOPS meeting? Well, I mixed it up tonight since David had been asking for pumpkin bread. I used my Wilton Silicone Pumpkin Pan and truly had Pumpkin Muffins! Click on the image for a larger view...


Heather from Not a DIY Life asked for the recipe, so here ya go!


Pumpkin Jar Mix
Layer into quart jar in the following order:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup raisins

Decorate lid of jar with a square of fabric and ribbon, jute, or something like that. Tie on recipe card for the muffins (see below). This dry mix can be stored in your pantry for up to 6 months and makes a great gift.


Pumpkin Mini Muffins
(This is what should appear on the recipe card you tie on the jar.)

• 1 jar Pumpkin Mini Muffin Mix
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400*F. In large bowl, place Pumpkin Muffin Mix. Cut in shortening until crumbly. Add egg, pumpkin, and milk. Stir until well blended. Fill greased or paper lined mini muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until done.

The batter looks more like cookie dough than muffin mix and the muffins are pretty dense, but the tasted pretty yummy! Now I just need to figure out what to do with a can of pumpkin, less 1/2 cup. Any suggestions???

I wanted tortillas...

Perhaps I was feeling a little homesick this evening, but I wanted some fresh tortillas. I Googled flour tortilla recipe and found an awesome website called Texas Rolling Pins.

They have a good selection of Texan and Mexican recipes, and I found exactly what I was looking for! I used the recipe for Low Fat Flour Tortillas and they were delicious! One ended up looking like Africa, but that didn't matter when it was warm with butter on it! Start to finish, about 2 dozen tortillas took an hour to make, with a little child care stirred into the mix (and one chase of a three-year-old around the kitchen with dough fingers).

I don't think many people find my Meal Plan Monday to be very interesting, so I've decided not to post it unless I have a recipe to share. My previous links count as a recipe, so here ya go:

Monday: Chicken Fajita Quesedillas - Don't you think that would be good with fresh tortillas?

Tuesday: Grilled Club Sandwiches

Wednesday: Salmon Cakes

Thursday: Pesto Chicken Sun-dried Tomato Pizza

Friday: Tamales with Chili

Saturday: Out

Meal Plan Monday

We got way off last week's plan, so I repeat some items this week because we never got to them last week!

Monday: Pork Chops

Tuesday: BLT's

Wednesday: Homemade Pizza

Thursday: Meatball Stroganoff

Friday: Spinach Fettuccine Alfredo

.

Don't miss the giveaway this week for a gDiaper Prize Pack!

Meal Plan Monday

Hopefully no one will get sick this week & we can follow a plan this week!

Monday: Stuffed Peppers

Tuesday: Cheese Enchiladas

Wednesday: Wacky Mac with Homemade Sauce & Meatballs

Thursday: Swim Night - Eat Out

Friday: Grilled Sandwiches

Saturday: Stir Fry

Last time I posted my meal plans, I had scheduled grilled chicken-pineapple kabobs on Saturday. I forgot to get some more skewers, since mine are packed up somewhere, so we made them in a foil bag on the grill. It was amazing! The chicken was so tender & juicy! I may never kabob chicken again!!!

Meal Plan Monday & More Giveaways!

It's been a while since I posted a meal plan, and we've already eaten Monday's meal, but better late than never, right?

Monday - Garlic Shrimp, Penne & Cherry Tomatoes (I had a coupon & and it was good!)

Tuesday - Homemade Pizza on refrigerator crust

Wednesday - Chicken Quesadillas with Pico

Thursday - Sausage Links with Wild Rice, Green Beans

Friday - Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad

We may go out to eat one night, so this may all get shifted around.

Now, on with the (HUGE) Giveaways!

• 5 Minutes for Mom and Best Buy are sponsoring a drawing for a 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV!!!
• Love Shak, Baby and Gymboree are giving away 2 - $250 Gift Cards to be used at a Gymboree Store on Online!

Wow...

Grandpa - I've been feeding Dumplin', Bob, Chico, 3 cats, 2 babies, and 1 husband. I've also been changing diapers, scooping cat litter, and walking an old dog outside. I also cleaned your kitchen this weekend - and SEWING without having to clean off the table! : ) Went to Wal-Mart today & did some more sewing. Make sure Grandma takes a look at the blankets I listed in my Etsy Shop last night!