Christmas Baking - Just Can't Help Myself

When I was kid, my Mom always made Christmas cutout cookies. She used my Grandma Slife's recipe I think, the same one use still. Each of us 7 kids would get a ball of dough to roll out and use whatever cookie cutter we wanted. I remember it being quite a mess but lots of fun too. I don't remember the decorating part but I do remember how good they tasted.  When I had my own kids, I continued this tradition. Here's a picture of the boys from about 1985 - they were such cuties! And so much help with the cookies. I think Nick has a bit of frosting on his cheeks. We always made sure there were some set aside for Santa.



Yesterday I made my cookies - alone this time - so I could give them away to friends and family - and have a few for me!  My life has been  mess lately (more on that in a later post) but if I can be busy with baking or gardening, I'm still happy.

Cutting out the cookies.

Ready to decorate - this was a mess. I cleaned my kitchen twice yesterday but today I found all kinds of sprinkles on the floor and had to clean it again. 

They do look nice though. I hope someday to be  able to make these cookies with my grandkids.

Cookies and PB candy ready to deliver.

This is the PB candy - so easy to make and so Yummy!

And just in time for Christmas these pretty flowers are blooming in my back yard - gotta love AZ weather!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Photo Friday - Plant Kingdom

 The water drops on this rose were so amazing that I had to get a photo.

My Sketch Journal

For those of you who are friends of FB, you have seen some of my sketches.  What most people don't know is that they are actually part of a journal.  I've never been very good at journaling. I had a diary when I was in Jr. High I think, and I mainly kept track of what I wore to school so I didn't wear the same outfit again before the required length of time had passed - I don't remember what that time frame was, but I do know it seemed really important.  Now I don't care so much and I realized that other people don't either. I asked a friend a few weeks ago if I had worn a certain blouse the week before and her response was, "I don't know, I don't even remember what I wore 3 days ago." She is the one we all call the Fashion Police so that put some things in perspective for me.

But I am off the subject... oh yes, my journal.  About 2 years ago I decided that I wanted to start doing more of the artwork that I used to do before kids and life got in the way.  I did some pencil drawing but was pulled back to watercolors which I had loved doing when I was in college. Last Christmas my Mom gave me back a watercolor that I had done for her when I was at MT State and I realized how much I enjoyed that medium. I had also found a blog on line which I liked to read - for the artwork. The artist/journal blog is written by Jenny Frith and you can see it here Jenny's Sketchbook

I went to Michaels and found this nifty sketchbook that you can do watercolors in. It even comes with a paintbrush strapped inside - very handy!

 

Bill had given me a box of watercolors for my birthday, and I had a ton of brushes left from other projects over the years, and some I inherited from Bill's great aunt. I love this set.

 

 

I also found some watercolor pencils that are fun for doing small projects.

Now I try to journal every day. It can be anything, but I'm trying to keep track of important things like when I order something online, what flowers/plants I planted and when, if I'm sick, took a day off, went to the doctor, got my haircut, etc. With our hectic lives it is hard to keep track of everything if I don't write it down.

 

Yes, I have days where all I write is that I'm sad... and when I see this I know that I still have work to do on me and my relationships.

 

 I keep track of where I've gone and what I've done - like our trip to NYC in March.

 

And my grandson's birthday party in April - and what my garden is doing.

I try to keep track of gratitudes too - I'm not as good at that as I should be. I should write down at least 3 a day, but I do forget how blessed I am - don't we all?

And sometimes I just doodle - I found an art book and a calendar that had the top pictures in it - I'm pretty good at copying other's work.  Now I'm trying to branch out more and do my own work - like the picture at the top of this blog.  I'm hoping to get better at all this, both the art and the journaling - check back in a year and see how I'm doing :0)  I just bought a new journal for 2014.

 

 



Photo Friday - In the Wild

Walking in the Woods

Photo Friday - High Tech

Those of you who know me know that I am about the least "high tech" person around so I had to dig deep to find something to photograph. This was one of the engines on display at the NASCAR track on Sunday.

Birthday Pie

In my family birthdays are always special. I guess my Mom started that when we were little by letting us pick what meal we wanted for our special day, but more importantly what dessert would be the best thing ever.  For me the meal was popcorn shrimp and the cake was angelfood with sprinkles inside and a light frosting on top. My Mom still makes that cake for me when she can.

I started this tradition for my kids as well. When they were little I made the fancy character cakes that took hours and hours.

Alf

He Man

Dinosaur lover here!

As they got older my boys decided that cake wasn't really what they wanted for birthdays. Christopher loves chocolate cheesecake so when he's here I make that. I have the most wonderful recipe for this and not one crumb goes to waste.  Nick likes cherry pie.  Nick's birthday is Oct. 28 so we celebrated this week with his favorite meal - steak and spinach pinwheels and cherry pie with vanilla ice cream.  I think it was a hit. 



 One year a friend invited us to a 4th of July party and I made this pie and used little cookie cutters for the top crust. I think I just used the stars all over the top. That idea kind of stuck so now I always make this pie with the cookie cutter shapes on it. I think it makes it a little more special.

Doesn't that look yummy?  It was!

The twins weren't too crazy about the pie but they did get their first taste of ice cream - it is appropriate that this was at Grammy's house!  Reagan got his first ice cream at my house too - as it should be...


On the flower side of life - this week I found a cluster of grapes that for some reason the birds and lizards didn't get. They were well on their way to being raisins so I didn't get to eat them, but they did make for a great photograph.

Photo Friday - Autumn 2013

Photo Friday - Heavenly

This pie was truly Heavenly!  One of my best baking efforts ever!

Pretzels!

A few weeks ago I spent the day with my grandson because he was sick and couldn't go to school, and his Mom and Dad really couldn't miss work that day. It was a good time to be with him alone and have some Grammy time, and a good time to be away from the stress of work. We spent the day reading, watching TV and napping - just what I (and he) needed. 

During my reading that day I ran across a recipe for soft pretzels in my favorite magazine, Better Homes and Gardens.  I do a lot of baking and this seemed to be pretty easy so I wanted to try them. I told one of my choir friends about the recipe and she thought it would be fun to do also. So today she and I tackled this new recipe, and let me tell you, these are outstanding! 

It was nice to have another woman in the house to talk with and cook with. We were quite pleased with the afternoon. I wish my sisters lived closer, maybe I'd convince them to cook with me. With 2 of them it would be just watching while I bake, but I could live with that too.

Rolling out the dough and making them into pretzel shapes - we were not too great at this part.
 

The finished product - YUM!

Photo Friday - HUGE

This photo was takenat a place near Sedona called the Devil's Kitchen. It is a huge sinkhole. This large piece of rock is called "the Piano". It's the biggest grand piano I've ever seen! I think it is about 100 feet across.  I have attached a link about this sink hole below. It is quite interesting reading.
Devil's Kitchen

Clouds

I'll admit it, I'm obsessed with clouds.  I think I always have been to a degree, but when my kids were little my Mom sent them an article out of Reader's Digest or some such magazine that explained all the different types of clouds and what they meant. I don't remember the details of that but I do remember feeling that God created all these different kinds of clouds so people would stop and take notice. I know I sure do. Yes, I'm that crazy lady that pulls her car (or bike) over and snaps pictures of cloud banks with her cell phone. I just can't help myself. 

For those of you who don't know, in AZ we have a rainy season, usually through the months of July and August. We will get big clouds that build up and look like the ones in that movie "Independence Day" where the alien ship suddenly emerges. Sometimes we will get big rain storms from these clouds, but a lot of times they never make it this far and leave us wondering why we are so unlucky to not get rained on when it is so obvious that we should.

Here are a few of the pictures I snapped this summer during our monsoon season.

A little out of focus, but this was a weird sight I saw one morning when I was cycling. The sky was 2 different shades of blue, in a straight line. This is facing west, and there were clouds to the east.

The colors were truly amazing on this morning.

This was the view from my office at the hospital one afternoon.

That alien ship should be coming out of these clouds any time right?

Flowers: it is finally cooling off here, so I'm hoping that next week I'll be able to plant my fall flowers. I have a few varieties that survived the summer and they are starting to perk up so I think it may be time for planting. We are supposed to have temps below 100 this week so that's a good sign.

Flour: today I am trying a new cinnamon bread experiment. Wish me luck!

Photo Friday - Nature Walk

Red Rock State Park - Sedona 2013

Photo Friday - Spacious

Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies...

Photo Friday - Delicious

Artichoke... that is all

Organized or OCD?

I'll admit it - I like organization.  I think things are just easier if they are symmetrical, organized, color coordinated, right with the world.  I never knew this was an obsession with me until a few years ago at work. I was part of a group working on getting ready for a review of our practices by a national organization. If we "passed" their scrutiny it would mean big dollars for the company. We would have team meetings that lasted for hours. One of the doctors started bringing big bags of peanut M&M's for us to eat while we worked. One day everyone started commenting at how I ate my M&M's.  I would separate them by color and only eat them in groups. If I just had one of a certain color I would eat it with a complementary color - green with blue, yellow with orange, orange with red. Brown had to be eaten alone (do they even make brown any more? but I digress).  I didn't even realize I did that until the others pointed it out. Since then I have noticed other things that I do that just have to be that way or it kind of messes with my head.  My shirts and blouses are separated in my closet by color.  I can't even think about stitching a needlework project that isn't symmetrical, probably why I won't do a historic sampler - those women were all over the place with their stitches - YIKES! Freaks me out!

For years my stitching supplies have been a mess - yes, it bothered me but I no matter how hard I tried, the floss ended up being a mess.  A few weeks ago I was in northern AZ and I went to an antique shop just browsing while I was waiting for my husband. I found this cool 6 drawer chest that was the perfect thing for all my stitching stuff. I snapped it up!  Now I have sorted my piles of floss into these drawers and things seem so much more peaceful in my stitching world.

Before - notice the cabinet in the background...

After...

more after...

Getting that done made me feel so much better. Maybe I'll be better about getting projects done now.  I have lots to do so maybe this is a very good thing.

I have carried some of this into my job as well. At the law firm I had every case color coordinated. For example - baby cases were in pink, a death case was in black, sometimes the binder color was based on the name - green binders for Mr. Green, etc. It kept things organized in my mind, and it was easy to tell the attorney where to look for something if I wasn't there.

My binders at work- color coordinated labels of course!

Now to my other passions.
Flowers:  
 I planted some sunflower seeds late in July and today a sunflower opened - yeah! I didn't have any last year and I missed their smiling faces.

I also planted some pumpkin seeds that are coming up now. I am bound and determined to give my grandbabies home grown pumpkins for Halloween one of these years. Maybe before I die I'll figure out the perfect time to plant them in AZ. I haven't had much luck the last 3 tries.

 Last but not least Flour:  I am going to Sedona to visit my son this weekend so I had to be the good Mom and bake him some cookies. These are chocolate brownie cookies with chocolate chips and dark chocolate M&M's. He loves dark chocolate so I think these will be a hit with him.  We are going to celebrate his promotion to Managing Editor of the Red Rock News - so proud of his accomplishments!  Now I'm off to get things "organized" for my road trip. 

I will admit that I do have my messes, but they are "organized messes" at least in my mind.  So, no I'm not OCD, I'm just quirky.