Christmas Cookies Round I

Well, the time has come to start my annual Christmas baking! I'm going to attempt to add a variety of cookies this year, and not just my norm! I started tonight with my granny's Peanut Butter Blossoms! For the longest time I thought my granny had made up this recipe! Little did I know! :) This year I added a new twist to it -- I decided to use colored sugars instead of the plain ol white ones and I'm quite pleased with them! Here is the recipe and a picture if I can figure out how to post a picture in this silly wacky thing! So far so good!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

1/2 c butter or margarine, softened (I just use the stick margarine)

1 egg

1 1/2 c flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

Granduated sugar (can use colored sugars too)

About 36 Hershey Kisses (or stars), unwrapped

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, beat 1/2 c sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg until well blended. Stir in flour, baking soda, and baking powder (I use electric mixer) until dough forms.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in sugar. On ungreased cookie sheets, place about 2 inches apart.

Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until edges are light golded brown. Immediately press 1 kiss into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen. . . however, I always get more than this -- maybe I roll the balls smaller than 1 inch? They are always good! When storing them I place a piece of bread in the bottom of the container to keep them moist. :)

Enjoy

Give me a reason!

I know I had stated I was going to quit using this site and use another, but I decided I'd just keep with it. . . and then I had not posted forever and a day! Maybe it's because I took a break from life, got caught up with facebook, whatever! Life has been handing me lemons, and damn it I've been trying to make lemonade out of them. . . but I fear I need a buttload of daggone Splenda right now! Here, let me catch ya up on my life :)

I'm still working as a para-professional on a temp status. This means that ol Stacey-poo does not get any PTO, benefits, funeral pay, etc. I'm doing OK with this, even though it is not what I had expected to be doing at the good ol ripe age of 34! Student loans are on a deferrement status (can't squeeze blood from a turnip can ya?), and we are getting by -- by the hair on the chinny, chin, chin though! Most days I enjoy the job, but there are days that I just come home and want to cry! But, God is providing!

My ol Trusty Rusty scares me to death every day! I mean, it's like a walking heart attack for me to get in the darn thing on a daily basis! But, like I said, God provides! That thing is still running! OK, so I do get odd ball looks when I start 'er up and it squeeks and rumbles for the first 45 seconds. . . and the driver side window can no longer roll down (poor LJ about had a cow when the window came falling in at me one day in the ATM line. . . ), I have to use a straw or something to put in the heater thingie to make it go (and only on high), and that I have to pound on the dash board to get my lights inside to show up. . . . but it runs and THERE ARE NO BANK NOTES on it! I do pray that I make it to and from work w/o having to use my hazard lights and pull over on 73rd Avenue! (my husband just laughed when he read over my shoulder! That was so not funny Pagan!)

This year, due to lack of funds, my family is making a lot of Christmas gifts for adults! Of course, I have all these ideas and now I must find the time to actually implement the projects! But, since we have been eating at home more often, we are home more in the PM's and I've already started! Yeah, I know you are all wanting to know what we are doing, but I cannot say until after the holidays because I'd give out secrets! I'm only hoping they all turn out OK! Only time will tell!

We have not put up our tree yet, nor any other holiday decor. . . which is kind of depressing, because it should be up by now, but I just have not had time! As many of you know, my Granny had been battling end stage lung cancer. . . we were home the weekend before Thanksgiving, as she was admitted to the hospital and not doing well. TomTom and I were home Thanksgiving weekend and returned home on Sunday. On Sunday night Granny took her last breath and is now in the hands of the Lord. So, we've been home since Monday night for the funeral. . . and of course things are tense all around. . . although it's a sad time, it's also a happy time! No longer is she in pain and with her maker! How can one not be happy about this?

Of course, as with any funeral, you start talking to people you've not seen in forever. It's like they come out of the woodworks. . . And tonight my lil sister and I spent a few hours with our cousin JohnBoy. He is now living in Mississippi (all his life he lived in Lousiana until recently) and I'm pretty sure it has been over 10 years since I've met him, as tonight was the first night he ever met Eluides! We had a nice time sitting around the kitchen table talking, chatting, and of course, gossiping! You cannot live in the Thomas family without the gossip for cryin' out loud! So, it was a nice evening. I'm sure I'll catch up with some other folks this week, but only time will tell!

So, yes, I've been busy, but not THAT busy! Just rather lazy! Shhhh, don't tell my secrets!

I'm still looking for my career job! I still need to finish cleaning my house up from the daycare (yes, there are still daycare items in the 'play room' but what the heck, I don't have the $ to furnish it, so why rush right?), I have a ton of baking that I'll be doing starting next week, and lots of homemade gifts to start on! So, the holiday season is going to keep me hopping, counting my blessings, and taking trips down memory lane. . . .

So, if you have a memory of me/us you want to share, please, feel free to post it here! Give me a reason to blog more often wontcha?

I'm moving! Check out the new blog at : http://spaceystaceys.wordpress.com/

Favorite Christmas Traditions

Ever since I was a little girl with blonde pigtails there has been a Thomas tradition at Christmas time! From the time I was big enough to lick the beaters I've been involved in this tradition -- cookie making

When I was younger my mom and I would go down to Granny's on a Friday about two weeks before Christmas to start the yearly task. Generally it was Granny, Mom, (ex-Aunt) Kiki and I! We'd all bustle around the mid-size kitchen beating batter, rolling buckeyes, measuring ingredients, tasting cookies, boiling the mix-in's for fudge and removing cookies from the oven. . . it was like an assembly line! I was usually stuck smooshing the ingredients for buckeyes and then rolling them out. Yeah, it was a great job for a little kid; however, I've passed this task along to the boys, because my carpal tunnel just cannot handle it!

I have always enjoyed this tradition. I was with ones I loved and making cookies! C'mon, how could you NOT enjoy this task? Unless you make chocolate chip cookies on a regular basis, the smell of sugar, cocoa, butter, flour and vanilla all mixed together is heavenly mouth watering!

For the past 15 or so years, this tradition has not happened; however, the goodies are always still made, just sans Granny. We've all done it our own may, with me doing a majority of the baking (unless you count the totally awesome Chex mix my Daddy makes). I think Granny has enjoyed all the goodies without having to do the work (who wouldn't right). I've made more than the Thomas Tradition of chocolate chip cookies, fudge, potato candy, buckeyes and peanut butter blossoms! I've branched out into things like chocolate covered pretzels, sugar cookies, haystacks, Reindeer poop, Cheerio crunchies, etc. Ya know what? I LOVE it!

My boys have helped make cookies too! It's a great time for family! Yes, I have to be more cautious around them, but Granny and Mom did with me. Yes, there have been flops. . .but then, there have been things that haven't lasted long too!

I think my favorite memory thus far of any sort of kitchen makings was the first (and only time thus far) that we made a ginger bread house. It was a great family time, minus the baking! Thomas was 2.5 and LJ was 5.5. . . Every time I turned around Thomas was stealing a gum drop from the house and LJ was squirting icing all over the place, and there was laughter all around! We labeled the house "The Ghetto House". Sure, it was not a pretty house, but it was FUN!So, although I will continue the cookie tradition, with help, I think we'll start a new one for ginger bread houses. . .who knows, maybe we'll get really good and do a princess castle?

Leaf Blowing

It's finally fall time, as you couldn't tell with the drop in the temperatures, the leaves falling, the pumpkins and gourds out, and the wonderful colds being passed around! Yes, I'm suffering from a fall cold and it sucks! I ran a day care for 6 years and rarely had a cold, I go into the middle school and I'm sick the first week! Is this karma for making fun of my hubby each fall? Probably!

Anyhow, fall is one of my favorite seasons! In Indiana you go from 90 degrees of heat with humidity to 65 degrees! I LOVE it! I'm not sweating buckets and I can still (most of the time) wear shorts! You can sleep with the windows open and give the 'ol NIPSCO bill a well deserved break before you are sucker punched with a heating bill! The house airs out of the summer stink (and lets in the ol cooty bugs) and the outside world starts to change!

I absolutely LOVE the environmental changes! Your summer flowers start wilting and you replace them with fall mums in yellow, mauves and oranges! The maple trees turn from green to a pink, orange, red and yellow - some of these trees are powerful in colors! You witness the beauty God has blessed us with! I love planning our trips home in the fall because the foliage that you get to take in! The drive through the Peru Salomonie area is just breathtaking (and especially so when you avoid that ginormous doe that just moseyed out of the yellow, dried up corn field)! The forest area is an array of colors that mix together is my all time favorite!

As I rattle on and on I cannot help but explain my all time favorite place to drive by in the fall! As you pull off the highway to go to my Granny's house you will come to the corner of Cherry street and there are two or three massive maple trees on the corner, and they are such a glorious sight! The trees produce such a beautiful rainbow of colors, and if you are lucky enough to catch it at sunset -- WOW!

Of course, fall isn't always great. There is a lot of death in the air. The tree leaves are dying, the flowers and gone and the corn and beans are dried up and waiting for their takers to plow them over. When driving, you must worry about the deer running into the roads, and lastly, you know that the white stuff is going to fall sooner or later. . .

This year I'm still enjoying the colors, but there is a sadness to it. This year it's unlikely that my Ma'amaw will get to see another fall. . . and it makes me very sad to think about. Yet, I realize she's taken in 80 falls! She has been lucky enough to take in a lot of Tennessee falls to boot! I'm pretty sure TN falls have some amazing colors, so she's been very fortunate. I can only hope that I'll get to see 80 falls and take delight in seeing all the little ghouls and goblins at the end of October, running through the rustling leaves as they wait their treats from each house! Yes, fall is sad this year, but I can only imagine what it'll be like for Ma'amaw in heaven! Fall all the time, minus the leaf blowing!

My Hometown

This weekend we headed back home -- and get this, I even have the boys calling it 'back home' :) It was nice being home again! Yeah, it's a lil tiny po-dunk town with a population of 7,000, but it's MY hometown! I lived there until I was 22 (Ok, I was like 6 days shy of my 22nd birthday), so when people make fun of being from a small country town I do take offense. How often are you lucky enough to live within a five minute drive of all three uncles and grandma? And 10 minutes from your aunt? Not a lot of people can say that, can they? Yeah, so what that there isn't a movie theater or a mall in the town? And honestly, it's not a town where everyone can smell each others farts either (naw, you smell pig poo instead!), but a small enough town that you feel 'homey' (which I love).

There are a few things that I don't like though - like the amount of racism that roars its ugly head every now and then, or the fact that a lot of the houses are run down and need some mega repairs. . . or that you have to drive 30 minutes to a Wally World. . . It's home! My brother now lives three blocks from my parents, my uncle lives the same amount of blocks. My other uncles lives within a 10 to 15 minute walk! Yeah, there is not a bus line, nor a taxi line but there isn't one right here in NWI either! At least you can feel a little more comfortable to let your kids play in the yard without having to be out watching them the entire time. I duno. . .it's just HOME!

What else can I say, home is home :)

Homemade Pizza

Well, as you can see, I have not stuck to my challenge! But, I do have a good reason as to why :) Last week was a crazy week! Returning to work after 7 years of being a SAHM. . . having an exchange student trying to adjust and then having to get her packed up again (her grandfather had a massive stroke and they did not think he was going to live, so she was back on a plane, not even 5 days after being in the states!). . . . So I had vowed to start THIS week! And I had all intentions of starting Monday -- however, I must have jinxed myself!

Monday AM as I'm preparing to put the crock pot on for veggie soup that night I realized that the items in the pot were probably no longer any good, so I unplugged the pot, and when I did we had a massive white flash come from the plug! Seriously, I'm just glad I have eyebrows still! Yes, it scared the holy tar out of me! In the process of this mega flash, I melted the plug to the crock pot (*sniff*sniff* Crockpot, you served your time well, enjoy your new vacation), the pan that was on top of the toaster oven has a scar now from the plug landing no it (freaky), and the darn stove and entire wall of items were kicked off! UGH! I was not a happy camper!

So, I called NIPSCO since we have a wire plan with them (note to self: thanks for being so smart to purchase that plan -- we've used it twice now this summer alone). They sent someone out yesterday who replaced the GFS (it was toasted), and reset everything. He was a nice guy who even fixed the light switch to our porch light :) Well, after he replaced the GFS, the stove started working again (THANK GOODNESS). So, yesterday *I* made my first challenge.

Although this did not come from a cookbook, it was a nice challenge! I had purchased a pizza dough ball at Meijers a few weeks ago (frozen, of course). So I defrosted it out and used the rolling pin on it! It was much easier than using a couple boxes of Jiffy Pizza mixes! Just roll, smoosh and PRESTO :) So, Thomas and I rolled out the pizza dough (OK, so *I* rolled out the dough while Thomas played in a flour pile), slopped on some generic pizza sauce, mini pepperonis (I think TomTom ate more than we put on the pizza - ha), and then we sprinkled the cheese on the pizza.

Not only was it a cooking challenge, it was a patience challenge as Thomas was helping me. Now, had we had guests and I was cooking this pizza for them I would not have let him munch on the peperoni's while we were compiling our pizza, but it was just the four of us, so I was not too concerned (OK, for you germ-o-phobs, just disregard that). . . and we had a nice time bonding during the process! So, it was cook-a-peutic (therapeutic) :)

So, there we have it, my first challenge! I do wonder what tomorrow will bring. . . since Eluides has meetings tonight and tomorrow, WHO KNOWS! :) Stayed tuned :)