Green Eggs and Ham

Last night in honor of Dr. Seuss we had some friends over (OK, the real reason we had our friends over was for him to help Travis fix the washing machine.) But, whatever the reason, we had a blast and made wonderful memories with our kids. They are such wonderful friends and got into the spirit of the night and came as Dr. Seuss books. We had, Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks, There's a Wocket in my Pocket, And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, Ten Apples Up On Top! and sweet little Cindy Lou Who tagged along with them.

We made Cat In The Hat hats while the guys were working on the washing machine. With five little "whos" running around, this was the best picture I could get.

The recipe to share is not much, all I did was add green food coloring to my scrambled eggs to give them their green color. Everyone ate their green eggs except for Hannah Grace, she did not like green eggs.

We are so blessed to have these "Whos" as friends...who will come help with a broken washing machine, who can come over on a week night and it doesn't stress me out how my house looks, who are intentional in the time they spend with their family and the memories they make with their kids, who are great friends!

Sugar Cookies

For Valentine's Day treats and gifts we got in the kitchen and made yummy sugar cookies. I got this recipe from a friend of a friend and it is the only sugar cookie I make anymore (unless it's cut and bake).

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 large egg

2 tsp. baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour

(I doubled the recipe for this batch of cookies).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar in mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix baking powder and flour, add one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.

DO NOT CHILL DOUGH.

Divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll dough into 12-inch circle 1/8th of a inch thick. Cut into desired shapes.

Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet on top rack of oven 6-7 minutes or until lightly browned.

Once cookies have cooled, ice the cookies with a cookie glaze.

Sugar Cookie Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon corn syrup

2 Tablespoons water

a splash (1/2 tsp.) of almond extract, or whatever flavoring you desire)

Divide the mixture into smaller containers and stir in 2-3 drops of desired food coloring per container. You may need to add more sugar or water to get it to the consistency to spread on the cookies without it being too runny. Use paintbrushes or spoon to apply icing to cookies (we used spoons). Add sprinkles if desired.

Operation Christmas Child Processing Center

Yummy!!!!

Thing 1

Today was Hannah Grace's day to be the line leader and to take snack to school. They are celebrating Dr. Sesus' birthday so we made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cookies for her class. Here she is ready to go share them.

We had a great week-end this past week-end. Aunt Kendra come up to visit and go to the kids Upward game and she and I went to paint pottery after the game. It was so much fun - although it took us longer to pick out what we were going to paint as it did for us to paint. I will share the finished project with you when I go pick them up.

I still have lots of Upward picture to share with you, hopefully this week...

Friday Family Funnies - Christmas Turkey

A couple of weeks ago I sat down with the girls and ask them to tell me how they would cook at Christmas Turkey:

How to Cook a Christmas Turkey

by

Hannah Grace and Faith Sparks

You will need:

Turkey

2 cups water

3 eggs

5 cups flour

4 apples, cut-up

7 carrots, cut-up

6 tomatoes, cut-up

First, put eggs, flour and water in bowl and stir. After you stir this up, put apples, carrots, and tomatoes in a pot with mixture. Pour over turkey and put turkey in over, that's not too hot, or the microwave. Cook for six minutes. Let cool. Then it's Yummy!

For a treat that is "yummy" head on over to Kristi's friend Emily's blog for a Pumpkin Cobbler recipe. I made it last night for Travis (I don't really like pumpkin) and he said it was great. All you Upward folks reading, he brought it to share today!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Please humor me with my recipes, since the blog is my way of scrapbooking and journaling, I have decided to post recipes when the girls and I are in the kitchen and then one day I can print them out and have a great "cookbook" to pass along...

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks of margarine, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix first six ingredients together using an electric mixer until well blended.

Add flour to mixture a little at a time until blended. Add bag and chips and mix using a spoon.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, bake 10 - 12 minutes. Do not bake too long, bake until they are slightly brown. After you take them out of the oven, gently drop the pan onto the counter top to "set" the cookies (this is a tip from Travis from his Arby's days). This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies.

You can see our cookies on the sheet behind the girls as they enjoy licking the beaters. This cookie sheet is very special to me; this was Aunt Brenda's cookie sheet. Aunt Brenda always made everyone a tin a Christmas goodies each year and she and Nannie had been baking some of those goodies before the power went out, two years ago. I will never forget, on the Thursday before they went Home we had dropped by to visit (Stephen and Kyle were there too). Nannie had hot chocolate heating on their kerosene heater and we were all just sitting in the living room talking and Nannie brought out a container of some of Aunt Brenda's goodies, we were all so excited to get a early taste. I can see Aunt Brenda smiling now as everyone enjoyed her wonderful cookies and I can hear Papa saying, "Hey, what about me?" as Nannie passed out the goodies and passed him by and Nannie answering, "You don't need any!" That was the last time I sat in their living room with them; Samuel spent that afternoon with them and helped them make crafts for the nursing home and was protected by God that day. On that same day when I went back to get Samuel, Nannie and I laughed as she was trying to open a can of soup with the electric can opener hanging under their cabinet (which I also tried to get, but Papa had screwed that thing into the cabinet so that it was not coming down!). Each time I use the cookie sheet God brings back that wonderful memory and this past week I was able to share my wonderful memory with my girls.

Thanks for letting me share it with you!

Easy Apple Cobbler

We were given apples this past Sunday at church, so the girls and I headed back into the kitchen to make Apple Cobbler.

1 stick butter, melted

1 cup self-rising flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

3-4 apples, peeled and sliced

4 tbsp butter, cut in small pieces

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix melted butter, flour, sugar and milk (I use an electric mixer to get our all the lumps) until blended. Pour mixture into baking dish and put sliced apples onto of the mixture.

Do not stir apples into mixture, it will bake around the apples and make the crust. Place the small pieces of butter on top of the apples and sprinkle with cinnamon (I also sprinkle a little sugar on top of the mixture).

Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

I also use this recipe for peach cobbler.

Big Daddy if you are reading this - yours is on the way...

Miss B.J.'s Homemade Chunky Applesauce

The girls have a new Science teacher at school this year, Miss B. J. She sent home this recipe for applesauce and the girls and I had a great time making it the other night.

2 Granny Smith apples

2 Red Delicious apples

2 Golden Delicious apples

2 Gala apples

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water

(I added about 1/4 cup brown sugar)

Directions: Wash the apples (child)

Peel, core and slice all apples (adult) I found this neat apple slicer at Target for $1.00.

Place apples in a pot, gently stir in cinnamon and pour water over all.

Cook on medium high heat for about 10 minutes; turn to low and cook until barely tender. At this point I wish that I could smell - I'm sure that the house smelled wonderful.

After cooking let cool and let you little one mash the apples with a "wavy" potato masher.

This should serve eight little ones! Yummy!