C is for (even more) Cookies

We made cookies today. During B we found a delicious recipe for Butterscotch Drop Cookies so we used C as an excuse to make a second batch.

This recipe is from Sweet Maria's Cookie Jar

Butterscotch Drops

1 stick butter
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir in chips.

Drop teaspoons of dough onto parchment lined baking sheet. Space 2 inches apart.

Bake 10-12 min.

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Physically I am much stronger today and I am trying to spread out my meds to six hours from four. By six I'm suffering horribly but I can do it.

Emotionally, the day has been taxing. I realized I was 31 when this all began. My boys were 6, 5 and 4 and we were still considering adopting a sibling group to add to our family. My diagnosis put everything on hold. Now I have a teenager, we are too far along the family path to want to add more and I'm closer to 40 than 20. I'm sad for barely making it through these last few years, for the kids we didn't bring home and the years we missed big pieces of.

But, I'm not one to cry over spilled milk. We have the family I believe God intended for us and a close-knit strong one at that. It's just weird to pop out the other side of this trial so much older and having missed so much.

Looking forward to making up for lost time :-)

P.S. It's not too late to join A-Z, we still have new members jumping in every day!

Deer and Cookies

One of the things I love about living up here is that we regularly see deer in our yard. We have tall decorative grasses and they must be very tasty.

This year I managed to catch Deer on Film and I made this simple LO to remember them.


The boys and I have been searching for the perfect pumpkin cookie. We adore pumpkin. It's so delicious and pretty healthy if you don't match it ounce for ounce with sugar. We decided to try the two most promising vegan recipes we found and the winner was Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. WOW. Delicious, chewy, sweet, filling - JOY!

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

prep time: 15 minutes | cooking time: 32 minutes | makes 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 2/3 cups sugar (I use 1 ¼ C and it is very sweet)
2/3 cup canola oil (I use 1/3 C oil and 1/3 C apple sauce)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin, or cooked pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla

optional: 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (these add nutrition and chewiness)

1 cup chocolate chips, walnuts or raisins

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Have ready 2 greased baking sheets.

Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices.

In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla (and flax seeds if using) until very well combined. Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in chocolate, walnuts and raisins.

Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. They don't spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers, to press into cookie shape. Bake for 16 minutes at 350. If you are using two sheets of cookies on 2 levels of your oven, rotate the sheets halfway through for even baking. You'll have enough batter for 4 trays.

Remove from oven and place onto a wire rack to cool.

Making Moments Special

My dear friend Sarah once told me that I have a knack for making everyday moments special for my family and those around me. It is a compliment I've held close to my heart and one I use as a check to see if I am still worthy of such generous praise.

With that in mind, I've been trying to think up ways to make doing the books special. To be honest, sometimes when Chris and I sit down to sort through the bills and receipts we can get a little snippy with each other. I'm really logical - to a fault. And Chris is fun and flighty and likes to bop from one thing to another as they pop into his mind. Can you see the possibility for tension?

I thought of mixing drinks (can't because of my meds) going somewhere special ( won't work as we do the books once the kids are in bed), nothing seemed just right. I put a lot of thought into it - we do the books about three times a week - and realized that if I follow my belief that the only person you can change is yourself, then I need to work on my own attitude.

To be honest (again), with all this pain and stress I haven't been feeling much like adding to my plate and going the extra mile. But if our family is going to continue to be really special then I need to continue making things extra-nice.

I found an awesome website called Cookie Madness which has among other things, lots of small batch cookies. Many of the recipes make eight to fourteen cookies. This seemed perfect to me as making three dozen cookies is way beyond my energy level and that volume implies they are for the family as opposed to made especially for my sweetie.

The last two book-keeping nights I've made cookies while Chris tucks in the boys and prays with them. Usually it takes as long to mix them up as it does to boil water and steep a cup of tea. When he gets our files out I can set down a plate of warm made-just-for-him treats and even better, approach the table with a loving attitude cultivated from the last fifteen minutes of focusing on making him feel spoiled.

It's working like a dream. No fights. And as an added bonus, I can tuck the remaining few in his lunch to keep the happy feelings flowing.

I highly recommend you try the molasses cookies. I made them with only 4 TBL of oil and they were pure heaven.