Baking Cookies

We made two of our Christmas favorites today: snickerdoodles and molasses cookies. Here they are cooling on the paper, in all their crinkly, sprinkly glory!

These recipes come from a church cookbook of one of our previous ministries. If you ever have the chance to purchase church cookbooks, do! They are always full of time-tested, frugal, and delicious recipes. We've had visiting missionaries request church cookbooks, so with that recommendation you can't go wrong.

So here are these two wonderful church cookbook recipes for you to enjoy...

Snickerdoodles

1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened
1/2 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Cream together first 4 ingredients, then mix in next 4. Shape dough into walnut sized balls. Roll tops of balls in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place balls about 2 inces apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Soft Molasses Cookies

1/2 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vinegar
1/4 c. dark molasses
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ginger

Cream shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add vinegar and molasses. Mix in dry ingredients. Roll into walnut sized balls. Roll tops of balls in white sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Tomorrow I hope to make a couple more types of cookies and some Fruit Delight, all for Christmas Eve celebrations. I don't always enjoy cooking, but this time of year makes me want to warm up the oven and smell the spices. Mmmmmm....

Menu Plan Monday - Family Favorites Edition

Hello! This is my first Menu Plan Monday. Thanks for stopping by!

We're a family 7, striving to eat nutritionally, frugally, and at home! We're also a very busy ministry family plus I am a college student and work part time. Drive thrus have a certain appeal...

Today for Family Favorites Edition, I'm going to share one of our favorite Christmas traditions - Jesus' Birthday Cake. I'll also share our favorite chocolate cake and icing recipe.

Every Christmas morning, we enjoy a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, the favorite birthday choice in our household. With my younger children's help, we make the cake on Christmas Eve. The next morning we light candles and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, blow out the candles and enjoy chocolate cake for breakfast. This tradition helps our children focus on the true meaning of Christmas. And when else can we have chocolate cake for breakfast!?!

Our favorite chocolate cake recipe is from Beverly Nye's book, "A Family Raised on Rainbows". This book is long out of print but hopefully is available from your library. It was written in the 70s, but still is a great read for any homemaker. This cake is very moist and fairly light. Yum!!

Delicious Chocolate Cake

Beat together:
1 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk (you can substitute 1 tsp. vinegar in bottom of measuring cup and use sweet milk)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla

Add:
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1 tbsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Add:
1 c. boiling water

Bake in 9x12 inch pan or 3 round pans at 325 degrees for one hour.

The following icing recipe is from Beverly Nye's "Everyone's a Homemaker". It's a rich chocolate icing that makes the above cake down right dangerous!

Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp. butter or margarine
dash of salt
hot water to make frosting consistency

For chocolate, add 1/2 c. cocoa.
For lemon, 2 tbsp. lemon juice and 1 tsp. grated rind OR 1/2 tsp. extract
Experiment with any pureed fruit or extract.

I'm also sharing our weekly menu. I've tried to keep this week simple and cheap. We're hosting Christmas Eve lunch here, so I really want to concentrate on that meal! I've linked most recipes so you can give them a try.

Monday - Dirty Rice from Hillbilly Housewife

Tuesday - Bean & Bacon Bit Soup from Hillbilly Housewife

Christmas Eve Lunch - Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes, Green Beans, 7 layer salad, Overnight Rolls, Cherry Delight, Pumpkin Pie

Thursday - Jesus' Birthday cake for breakfast, lunch at my parents, left overs for supper

Friday - Skillet Beans & Cornbread

Saturday - Homemade Pizza

Sunday - Crockpot Chili & Cornbread

Merry Christmas everyone!

Aunt Chick's Santa Cookie Cutter

I have a special, childhood memory attached to a specific cookie cutter. I believe we only made these cookies a few times in my childhood. They were very labor intensive, but oh my I loved them. The little raisin eyes, the sparkly sugar, the coconut "fur"...

By the time I was out on my own my mom's cookie cutter was cracked and fragile. She had given up on making Santa cookies. I searched. I tried various cutters, but nothing gave the molded features, nothing satisfied.

Then three years ago I stumbled across these cookie cutters. They looked like the cutter from my childhood! I ordered one and Hallelujah! Yes, it was that chubby cheeked Santa that I remembered.

Now every Christmas, my children look forward to making Santas. Yes, they are labor intensive. I have to set aside a couple days for these cookies. The kitchen becomes a complete mess. The cookies fly in the face of my goal to keep the nativity our prime focus. But, oh to see the sparkle in my children's eyes! And to know I passed on a special tradition from my childhood. Life is good!

Here are this year's Santa cookies, made yesterday and this morning. We're taking these jolly elves to dance class and Brownies. These cookies are meant to be shared!

Check out the history of the nostalgic Aunt Chick's cutters, recipes, decorating instructions, and how to get your own at Gramma's Cutters.

Agape and Apologetix

Last night was our annual Agape Dinner. Our church family always has a lot of fun at this event.

We do an Agape Dinner in place of the traditional Valentine's Banquet, including the whole church family. It's a time celebrating God's love, especially the evidence of that love in the past year.

Everyone brings a pot of soup to share. Together we enjoy testimonies, music, games, and entertainment. This year we had Pastor Brain and the Elders, aka my husband and the elder board. They did a lip sync to Apologetix's Baa We're Lambs. It was a big hit!

Are you familiar with Apologetix? They are a Christian parody band. Baa We're Lambs is a parody of Beach Boy's Barbara Ann. Here's a cute You Tube of the song to get your Monday started off right. The lyrics are below.

Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa we're lambs
Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa
I'm a lamb -- in God's hand -- I'm a lamb
He's got a flock of lambs who know Him
Robbers cannot steal 'em from His hand
Baa Baa Baa Baa we're lambs
Went through the fence, lookin' for some friends
God saw me scram so He brought me back again
Cause I'm a lamb in God's hand
You got to follow where He's goin'
God'll take you in the Promised Land

CHORUS: Baa! We're lambs, Baa!
We're lambs, Baa! We're lambs ...

Tried many moves -- Tried getting loose
Tried petting zoos but I knew they wouldn't do
Cause I'm a lamb in God's hand
You got to follow where He's goin'
God'll take you in the Promised Land
Baa Baa Baa Baa we're lambs

CHORUS: Baa! We're lambs,
Baa! We're lambs, Baa! We're lambs ...

13 Things I Love About My Husband

He...

1. is a glass half-full kind of guy
2. drops anything to please me
3. has a beautiful singing voice
4. is a great preacher
5. rarely says an unkind, critcal or negative word
6. lets the two littles sit on his shoulder and comb his hair
7. always has a smile
8. he is an overcomer
9. keeps me supplied with diet coke
10. actually wants to go shopping with me
11. has a beard
12. wears a cool leather coat
13. chooses me as his favorite companion

Happy Valentines Day, Brian!

This post is listed on the Thursday Thirteen.

Valentine Crayons - WFMW

Yesterday, during our snow day, the two littles and I made valentine crayons. I found the idea over at Family Fun.

To do this frugal and fun project you need:

• two blonde willing helpers, hair color optional

• heart shaped muffin tins or silicon baking cups, we used the silicon baking cups from Wilson which cost just under $9 and made this project no longer frugal!! But hey, the $9 was worth it for the fun we've had...and we'll re-use them.


• old, broken, junky crayons, any church basement is a good source for these if you don't have your own...just ask first.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Peel the crayons. This step will help you experience, in a slight way, Chinese Bamboo torture.

Break crayons into 1" or so pieces and fill your muffin cups to slightly overflowing. If you used mini-cups bake for 10 to 15 minutes. We used full-sized cups and it took 30 minutes to melt the crayons. Let cool. Pop out.

While baking these I thought we'd done something wrong. Coming out of the oven my crayons looked like tie-dye gone wrong, not like the Family Fun pic. But this was because I was looking at the bottom of the crayon.

Thankfully when we popped out the cool crayon they looked wonderful!

The next step will be to package these cuties. We will put a card behind them in a treat bag. Optional sayings could be:

• You color my world!
• Valentine, you make my heart melt!
• Happy Valentine's Day, for "crayon" out loud!

We have another snow day today, so we may be trying this valentine idea too!

For more great tips for your life in general, go to Works For Me Wednesday, hosted this week by Don't Try This At Home!

My Favorite Christmas Present

My comfie slippers. My mother made these.

She's gotten so cool since all of us kids have grown up and gotten out of her hair. Now she spins her own wool. She knits her own wool. She felts what she knits. She sews a ton of clothes for grand kids and orphanages. She embroiders. She quilts. She crochets. She needle-tats. She leaps over buildings with a single bound...

Well, not really. But she does give me hope that some day I'll have time to do all these things too. When I have grands. But I'm in NO hurry!

Back to my comfie slippers. My mother knit and felted slippers for the whole extended clan this year. These were not made of her hand spun wool, but carefully chosen variegated wools. Each pair was different. And they all had these cool leather soles.

I love my pair. The sole of the slipper was double-knit so that when felted it feels exactly like walking on foam. Amazing!

And I love the suede soles that go up on the side. Very practical. Since I wear these while walking through crushed cheerios and such.

I have five kids. Give me a break.

I love these slippers! Thanks mom!

Blessings of 2007

This year I'm finding myself indifferent to the New Year's holiday. It just seems like shuffling numbers to me. Sorry, but I just can't muster up the expectancy. I don't like doing New Year's resolutions. I don't need the extra pressure and guilt.

So I pondered how to observe this New Year on my blog. Resolutions are out. I don't want to dwell on the negatives of 2007. And 2007 had some. But I am committed to making this blog a place for positive things, not negative. And that's when it struck me...or rather God finally got my attention.

"Write down ten blessings of 2007."

I'm ashamed to say my first reaction was not so positive. But I got to thinking on it. And within a half hour I had my list and more. And I had a change of attitude.

And God says, "Exactly!"

So here goes...Ten Blessings of 2007:

• The Pastor's & Wives Retreat at the Carlisle Inn, Sugarcreek, OH. Our church district holds an annual retreat for pastors and their wives each February at the Carlisle. We had never been. Our church picked up the tab and we spent two days in the lap of luxury. Oh, I get warm all over thinking about it. Note to self: find the reservation form for this year...
  

• Disney World Vacation in May. We got to tack this one with our denomination's National Council in Orlando. Our family of seven got two weeks in a condo and spent ten days at DW! Friends let us borrow their van and our church had a gift of money waiting for us at conference registration. There was no other way we could have taken a family of 7 on that vacation! My absolute favorite was watching it all unfold through my five and six year old's eyes.

• We were given a 2001 Toyota Sienna. It's tan, just like the picture above with leather seats. Given it! Free and clear, no debt, nothing. It was a gift, pure and simple. What can I say?

• I worked on a team for the Women's Walk to Emmaus in September. I gave a talk on the Body of Christ. Something clearly supernatural happened during my talk. God seemed to inhabit the conference room. People felt His presence actually leave with me at the close. Afterwards I collapsed in tears and exhaustion and marvelled at what He had done. In that talk I shared our story, my husband's and mine. I will share it here some time in the future. But somehow that day God chose to inhabited that place in a way I rarely experience. This...this was the absolute highlight of 2007.
  

• We started the GFCF diet with our ASD son in November. And since then we've seen improvement for which we're very thankful. His anger has decreased. He is making better eye contact. (We actually got some good Christmas pictures this year!) He has a sense of humor now. And he's conversing more with all of us. Thank you, Jesus!

• My little neice Sarah came through her third heart procedure this year. It all went very smoothly. Prior procedures had not! Her OT sats are still a bit low. She probably faces another surgery with the year. But, in 2007, she came through with flying colors. We are truly thankful!
  
  

• I'm thankful for my children in 2007 and how they grew: physically, emotionally, spiritually. I'm thankful for their unique personalities and how they each stretch me and help me grow.

• I'm thankful that our finances forced me to be creative this Christmas season. I got out my sewing machine and enjoyed making many presents for my extended family. It was a good feeling! Pictured is my daughter with an American Girl doll that I restored and made matching outfits for them both. Behind her is a teepee that I made for my son.
  
  

• Starting in September we worked with four other couples in our denomination to plan the district Christmas banquet. This might not seem like a big deal. But I was so blessed to get to know these fellow workers better. We continue to feel more and more a part of this adopted family: The Christian & Missionary Alliance.
  

• Celebrating Christmas with our church family was truly a blessing in 2007. Their generous giving helped us finish out this year in the black. We gained a new-to-us television which replaces one soon to give up the ghost. And we were able to worship our coming Savior together in two sacred services. God blessed us by showing up at our Christmas observances: even when many in our congregation were weary and distracted (including yours truly). Thank you, Father, for that gift.

Yes 2007 was a year of blessings. Because even during struggles, God is there; God is good. Always.