Perfect SnickerDoodles

14 Jan

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Any church potluck is practically guaranteed to have these delicious cookies.  Here’s a variation I created Sunday afternoon that turned out to be the perfect cookie ever.  They were just crispy on the outside, but soft and chewy in the center.

1/2 cup (1 stick)  butter, softened

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup whole wheat flour *

2 cups all purpose (white) flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 1/2  teaspoons apple pic spice (the hint of nutmeg makes all the difference! but you can use plain cinnamon if that is what you have.)

1.  Whip the butter and coconut oil in mixer until fluffy.  Add sugar and beat 10 minutes, until sugar crystals begin to dissolve into the butter.  (I learned this trick from my awesome cousin, whose name happens to be the same as mine.)

2.  Beat in eggs.

3.  Mix the flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tarter in a separate bowl.  Stir into butter mixture.

4.  Roll the dough into balls about the size of walnuts.

5.  Mix the 3 Tbs. of sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. apple pie spice in a bowl.  Roll the cookie balls in the sugar to coat, place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400*F for 8-10 minutes.  (10 minutes was perfect for my aluminum air-bake cookie sheet, 8 was perfect for my dark-coated cookie sheet.)

This batch makes 4 dozen cookies if you don’t snitch a single smidgen of the dough.  Since that will never happen in my house, I only plan on 3 1/2 dozen.

* I am so used to cooking with whole wheat flour that plain white flour baked goods taste like paper to me.  However, whole wheat flour really affects the texture of cookies, so I use about 1/2 of the quantity of flour or a little less as whole wheat flour.  You can make this recipe with all white flour.  It just won’t taste as good, though.

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Favorite Phrases I’ve heard at family gatherings in the last little while

14 Jan

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“He just thinks he’s THE-BOMB-DOT-COM.” (my teenage niece re: her ex)

“You can’t throw stones from a glass whore house.”  (why must it be a whore house?)

“I used to think bare-back riding meant that you didn’t wear pants while riding.” (Blueberry Pie–me:  I guess that would be called “bare-butt” riding.  Oh Dear.  Lets stop this conversation now. )

Sometimes Cinderella doesn’t get to go to the ball.

11 Jan

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Because even though she is invited, it still costs fourty-hundred dollars to get in.

Because even though she has a dress, and a coach, the food to feed the horsepower is a hundred-hundred dollars.

Cinderella does not have all these hundreds dollars

It will be okay though, because Cinderella is nothing if not resourceful.

Cinderella and her six mice will have their own ball.  Cinderella will even invite the pretty step-sisters.

The food will be good, and the dancing will be great and the clothing will be spectacular.

 

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The Lord Can’t Drive a Parked Car

10 Jan

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I’ve felt so uninspired the last 2 weeks.  So directionless.  Just going through the motions.

I made resolutions and I made a schedule.  I’ve known that my major goal for the year is to be more “on purpose” as a mom.  I want to have great Family Home Evenings and learning going on every day.  I even planned to have a little spiritual thought at breakfast every morning to start the day off right (since we do our scripture reading right after dinner.)

But I couldn’t decide what scriptures to read or what to focus on, so I haven’t done any of it.

This morning after the Kiddie pies got on the bus, and the babies were still asleep (for once), I decided to straighten up the living room and there on the couch was my January copy of the Ensign.  I haven’t read a single page out of it yet, so I thought, I’ll just sit down and read an article.

It was just what I needed!  A little later the baby woke up and I just kept on reading while I fed her oatmeal.  I feel like I’ve gotten this huge shot of energy injected right into my arm.

As I’ve continued cleaning the house this morning, my mind has been overflowing with ideas, and not just ideas for what to focus on teaching my kids.  I know what I want to personally study this year in the scriptures–at least where to start.  I’ve got ideas for a book I want to write, ideas for projects the house needs, and just

ENTHUSIASM  for life!

I’ve accomplished more in 2 hours this morning getting work done as I have in the last 2 days.

The Words of God are Powerful and as soon as I got them inside me, my life got injected with power!

Like my title says, the Lord can’t drive a parked car.  I had to get my engine going!

1 Nephi 17:30-31

And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving light unto them by night, and doing all things for them which were bexpedient for man to receive, they hardened their hearts and blinded their minds, and creviled against Moses and against the true and living God.

 31 And it came to pass that according to his word he did adestroy them; and according to his word he did blead them; and according to his word he did do all things for them; and there was not any thing done save it were by his word.

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Menu for Week of January 13

9 Jan

I’m a day behind on my menu for last week (having not taken into account that we would be skipping a couple meals on Sunday.)  So I’ve taken the taco soup out of this week and moved it to next week.

Menu for Week of January 13

Sunday

                  Breakfast: Muffins

Lunch:  Taco Soup

Dinner: Lazagne

Monday

                  Breakfast: CrockPot Eggnog Cranberry Cracked Wheat Mush

Lunch: Peanut Butter & Honey Sandwiches or Leftovers

Dinner: Bean Casserole

Tuesday

                  Breakfast: CrockPot Apple Cinnamon Cracked Wheat Mush

Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers

Dinner: Apricot Chipotle Chicken

Wednesday

                  Breakfast: Crock Pot Cracked Wheat Mush

Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers

Dinner: Vegetable barley soup

Thursday

                  Breakfast: Apricot Ginger Refrigerator Oatmeal

Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers

Dinner:  Shredded pork sandwiches

Friday

                  Breakfast: CrockPot Banana & Coconut Milk Cracked Wheat Mush

Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers

Dinner: Cabbage & summer sausage & onions over rice

Saturday

                  Breakfast: “German” Oven Pancake

Lunch: Pasta Salad

Dinner: Chiles Rellenos

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Scripture Cases

8 Jan

For their 8th birthday,  we give the kiddie pies their own set of scriptures.  I promised Pumpkin Pie a case to carry them in, and about 2 months after her birthday, I finally made it using this fun scripture case tutorial from PolkaDotChair.

I made one for Cherry Pie, too.

I was making cases for a Bible and Triple Combination, soft paper bound, which together are larger than a mini-quad (what Melissa at PolkaDotChair was making a case for).  I like my cases to fit pretty closely so the books aren’t wallowing around in there.  Also because my kids have a tendency to hoard bits of trash and I didn’t want much room left for bits of paper.  If you want to make your own case for scriptures like ours and don’t want to do the math, here are the dimensions I used.  (Also in case I decide to make more and want to remember the math.)

Denim:
1–  9 3/8 x 8 inch for the flap
2– 6 1/4 x 8 inch for the front & back
1– 4 3/8 x 20 inch strip for the gusset
2– 2 1/2 x 16 inch strips for the handle

It took a little bit more than a fat quarter for the lining:

2- 6 1/4 x 8 inch for front & back lining
2- 5 1/4 x 8 inch for front pocket
1- 9 3/8 x 8 inch for the flap lining
1- 4 3/8 x 20 inch strip for the gusset lining

Seam allowance 1/2″ everywhere except the handle- do 1/4″ seams on the handle.

The first case I made was too tight.  The gusset was 1/4 inch too narrow.  I ended up unpicking all the seams and resewing them smaller so that there would be more room in the case.

**This is one of the secrets I’ve learned that has made me happier with my sewing.  When it isn’t right, I take the time to fix it.  It’s totally worth it.  If you hate unpicking, check your seam ripper.  If it is so rusty, it looks like you stabbed someone with it and left the blood to dry, spend $4 on a new one.  Totally worth it.

**Secret #2 top stitch.  It makes everything look more professional.

I adjusted the measurements for the second case and it turned out perfectly.  (The measurements above are the adjusted ones.)

Check out my awesome new pages!

8 Jan

Something I’ve wanted to do for awhile is create a shortcut link list for all the recipes and tutorials I’ve posted.  Now if you are trying to find a recipe you saw before, you don’t have to scroll through all the posts labeled “food”  You can click on the Recipes page and see a nice index.

Or if you’d like to make mittons for your kids and want a free pattern, check out my Tutorials page.

Or if you are languishing in front of your computer with terrible morning sickness and wish somebody would give you some good tips that did not include the words “fruit juice sweetened bran muffins” (courtesy of the Pregnancy Nazis who wrote What to Expect when You’re Expecting) then click on my Surviving Pregnancy tab.

And all my Housecleaning secrets are found under Cleaning tips.  Mostly they consist of “Wait until your kids grow up.”

You’re Welcome.

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On the Menu this Week

5 Jan

I made a schedule.  It is the mother of all schedules.  It is a plan.

If I follow the plan, all my wildest dreams will come true.

My new year’s resolution is to follow the schecule, follow the plan.

Part of the plan is to have biweekly menu plans and only shop twice a month for groceries.  This will save me time for sure and probably money, as well.

Here is this coming week’s plan:

Menu for Week of January 6
Sunday
                  Breakfast: Oven Peaches and Cream French Toast
                  Lunch:  Tomato Soup & Melted Cheese Sandwiches
                  Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie
Monday
                  Breakfast: CrockPot Eggnog Cranberry Cracked Wheat Mush
                  Lunch: Peanut Butter & Honey Sandwiches or Leftovers
                  Dinner: Puerco Adobo, Brown Rice, & Cole Slaw
Tuesday
                  Breakfast: CrockPot Apple Cinnamon Cracked Wheat Mush
                  Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers
                  Dinner: Taco Soup, Bread & Butter
Wednesday
                  Breakfast: Crock Pot Cracked Wheat Mush
                  Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers
                  Dinner: Freezer Raviolli, Alfredo Sauce, Steamed Broccoli
Thursday
                  Breakfast: Apricot Ginger Refrigerator Oatmeal
                  Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers
                  Dinner:  Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Green Salad & Ranch Dressing
Friday
                  Breakfast: CrockPot Banana & Coconut Milk Cracked Wheat Mush
                  Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers
                  Dinner: Quinoa Broccoli Casserole, Garlic Bread
Saturday
                  Breakfast: Applesauce Muffins
                  Lunch: Pasta Salad
                  Dinner: Garlic-Lime Chicken & Baked Sweet Potatoes

 

You’ll notice that Sunday-Friday breakfasts are actually made the night before.  The crockpot mush recipes are actually steel-cut oat recipes from Monica at The Yummy Life.  I’m trying them with cracked wheat.  I think they’ll work just fine.  Lunches are simple.  So that the Man-of-the-House can take leftovers to work for his lunch, Sunday-Thursday dinners are ones that reheat well.   If for some reason there are no leftovers, He’ll get salad with cooked chicken added.

I do serve an afterschool snack to my kids each day, which will be
veggies & dip, strawberry yogurt, popcorn, oatmeal cookies & milk,  green smoothies, things like that.

At the beginning of every week I make a big green salad and a fruit salad and we eat those with dinner each night.

I subscribed to the Grocery Shrink’s Weekly Menu Mailer for about four months, and the biggest thing I learned was to plan food for every meal.  Previously, I have only planned dinners and bought the groceries for that plus eggs & milk.  I never had enough food in the house and my plans never worked.  I learned from Angela to plan lunches and snacks (especially on the weekend when everyone is home all day.)

 

Our New Family Mission Statement: Side by Side

5 Jan

We have our Family Mission Statement written!  Just in time for the New Year!

The Man of the House and I have been reading Steven R Covey‘s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families. 

We’ve had some family home evenings where we shared what we were learning with the kiddie pies.  They picked right up on the ideas.  They are better than I am about changing their behavior. 

Habit 2   [Begin with the end in mind] has you create a family mission statement.  We had a couple of brainstorming sessions as a family.  We let everybody say all their ideas and I wrote them all down.  No one was allowed to interrupt or criticize anybody’s idea.

We talked about:

What kind of family do we want to be?

What do we want to do together?

What kind of feeling do we want in our home?

What is important to us?

How can we contribute to society as a family?

What is our purpose as a family?  These were my favorite answers
Pumpkin- So we won’t be by ourselves
Blueberry- so we don’t live in boxes when we grow up
Cherry- learn to love each other
Cutie- be nice

We got ideas ranging from “no shouting” and “be nice” to “Dad should give mom chocolate” (thanks, Blueberry) and “pizza on Fridays.”  I had about 3 pages of notes of things we wanted to do and learn and be as a family.

So how did we take all those ideas and form them into a Family Mission Statement that we could all get behind and be inspired by?  For 2 or 3 months, we just let those ideas cook in our minds. 


Add in this: At my brother’s wedding, his bride’s family sang a song I had never heard before, but instantly loved.  The song is called Side by Side.
I thought, what a great thought to have as part of your family culture–that you’ll do things together and enjoy it.

That sounds really like,  duh, as I type it, but I’ve been going through this phase where I just want to be by myself and do my own thing and everybody just leave me alone and do their own thing.  It’s not a good attitude for a mom to have and I’ve been struggling against it, but I keep catching myself back in that attitude.  Clearly I need more than just to realize my thoughts aren’t right, I need a paradigm shift.

Add in this:  One evening, Ben and I had a real heart-to-heart discussion about a few things and I realized what he was asking for was for me to be his friend.  He doesn’t just want to do the things he likes (example: climb mountains).  He wants to do the things he likes WITH ME (climb mountains with me). 

Suddenly I knew how to put our family mission statement together in a way that would be inspiring to us (I felt inspired) and would help us keep focused on what is important. I ran the idea past Ben & he liked it.  So here it is Ta Da!  Our Family Mission Statement.  We might edit it a bit more before it goes up on our wall, but essentially we’ve got it.  It is a little bit long, perhaps, but I didn’t want to be too general with things like just say “Be Responsible”  I felt like it needed to be more concrete for me and for the kids.

Side By Side

Our family is committed to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will serve the Lord by being missionaries, by serving those around us, and by keeping our covenants. Being a Celestial Family is our goal.
Education is important to us, and we will never stop learning. We value the arts and other cultures. We will honor traditions we have received from our heritage and create new ones. We will discover and develop our talents to share and uplift others.
We love working and playing together, especially outside, keeping our bodies strong and healthy. Everyone will help with chores without complaint.  Being self-sufficient is important to us.
In our family we promise to be each other’s best friends.  We will do fun things together; we will help and encourage each other. We will always speak kindly and give each other hugs and kisses.  We will love each other.  We will stay together and encourage each other even if hard things happen. 
We will respect each other by being polite and never shouting.  We will appreciate each other’s efforts and remember that everyone is trying their best.
We will keep our house a clean and peaceful place so that we want to come home to it.  We will keep the Holy Ghost in our home.
We will be thankful in all things acknowledging the Lord’s Hand in our lives. We will show our gratitude by being generous with what we have.
We will walk through life together:  side by side.

Begin at the Beginning? Maybe not….

3 Jan
“Begin at the beginning.  And when you come to the end, stop.”

So I’ve figured out my problem.  My problem is I always want to talk to people the same way I blog.  I want to begin at the beginning of my story and tell how I progressed and how my thought process altered and then show where I am now.

The problem with that method is that my first sentence is often in direct contradiction to where I am now.  So then when I’m at a party and talking, people hear my first sentence and are like, “Whoa, that’s not right.”

Then they get this look on their face like, “I’m not happy with what you’re saying.” 

OR WORSE, they interrupt me and say, “You really think that?”

And I’m all, “No! Wait! let me finish!” and I get all flustered.

And sometiems they are all,”I’m done listening,” and I don’t ever get to explain my story. Or worse, in trying to defend my story, I make some gross generalization that I’m way too smart to actually believe myself and totally cut the ground right out from myself.

I need to start at the end and then go back to the beginning.  Important information first.

Maybe I should blog that way too.  Important information first and then fill in the back story.  Maybe you all read my first sentence and are like, “Leaving now.” and never finish it to find out how I learned something.

Come back, I promise I’m smarter now.

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