Checking In

I sure hope you all had a very good Christmas! We did and I am playing on mine right now. Santa gave me a laptop. :)
My daughter and I was sick but I think we may be getting a little bit better now. I am still drained but trying to do a few things that need doing so I wont be sooooo weak when I am able to do anything.
Started taking down the Christmas decorations today. Got them all down off the front porch now.
I just wanted to check in so you wouldn't think I fell off the face of the earth or something. lol
I also have something I can't wait to share with you that my sister scored for me.It's an old Victorian chair. When I saw it awhile back I had a fit over it and they had decided to throw it out. :( Thank goodness my sis remembered me or I would have just died! I've not been feeling well so I don't have all the programs I need downloaded on this computer to be able to show you the pic. But I will share it when I can. It's covered in that old gold fabric that used to be soooo popular years back. It seems to be a nice sound chair and I can't wait to find some fabric to recover it in.
Also wanted to wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Be sure to come back and see my chair when I get the pic uploaded on here. :)

Christmas Cooking

I don’t know about you but I sure enjoy cooking for Christmas when I have the energy. Today I have been working like Santa’s little elf making some Christmas goodies. I made 2 more batches of my peanut butter balls, and then I made hubby some Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Chewy’s and I am here to tell you those things are nothing but yummy and chocked full of chocolate chips! Here is that recipe if you’re interested and I have NO IDEA where I found this recipe so I hope no one will get upset with me for sharing it. I am not claiming it as my own.

 

Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Chewy 
Yields 5 dozen

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup shredded coconut

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F .
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended.
Stir in the oats, chocolate chips. walnuts and coconut until evenly distributed.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven for a chewy cookie or 14 minutes for a firmer cookie.
Cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet and then remove to wire rack.
Cool completely and then store in tightly sealed container.

Also made our dog, Buddy some treats and here See below) is that recipe if you’d like it.  I made a double batch of them and got 97 treats and I have no doubt in my mind the dog LOVES them! It was so funny because the first one I gave him to try he came back to me in the kitchen and stood there watching me waiting on another one! lol Also don’t know where online I found this recipe but just wanted to share it in case someone was interested in having it.

 

Dog Treats

Don’t forget to purchase a dog bone cookie cutter.

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tlb. baking powder

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1 cup milk

 

Directions

preheat oven to 375.

In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder.

In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk.

Then add dry ingredients and mix.

Place on a lightly floured surface and knead.

Roll dough into 1/4” thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut shapes.

Bake 20 minutes on greased pan until lightly brown.

Cool on rack.

These cookies will burn easily so keep an eye on them.

 

and now for proof they are yummy….

The cookie treats cut out with the bone cookie cutter. The cookie cutter is about 3” long.

Cooked on the cookie sheet.

Now for hubby’s cookies……

Then the peanut butter balls……

I’ve had this peanut butter ball recipe for many many years. A good friend of mine, Vera Anderson gave it to me wayyyy before I even had a computer so I know I didn’t get this one on the internet.

So I’ll share it with you as well. It’s very easy to make!!

 

Peanut Butter Balls I ALWAYS make a double batch!

 

1 package of graham crackers crushed

1 box confections sugar

2 sticks melted butter

1- 1 pound jar peanut butter (I always use creamy)

2/3 block gulf wax (paraffin wax)

6 oz. chocolate chips

 

Directions

Mix crackers, butter, sugar, and peanut butter together in large bowl.

Roll into balls and refrigerate 2-4 hours.

Melt chocolate and wax together in a double boiler so the chocolate wont burn.

Then dip balls in chocolate and place on wax paper. I dip mine with a toothpick and then just wiggle the toothpick a little so it will fall off onto the wax paper.

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Now tomorrow I will try to do some pecan sandies and some old fashioned molasses cookies. Also I’ve got to dip the peanut butter balls I have in the fridge chilling.

I hope you are getting your Christmas cooking done and all your shopping as well.

I wish each and every one of you a VERY VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pumpkin Spice Cookie Recipe

I wanted to share a recipe with you all. I don’t remember where I found the recipe but it could have been at THE TASTY KITCHEN BLOG. I made them a few minutes ago and they are really good AND easy which is a must these days for me! Plus I had all the ingredients on hand and that is also a plus for me.

                         Pumpkin Spice Cookies
                       (Makes about 50 soft cookies)

1-½ cups Butter (soft)
2-½ cups Packed Brown Sugar
4 whole Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 pint Pumpkin Puree
1 quart All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Cloves (was a little too much cloves for me, going to add ¾ tea. next time.)
1 teaspoon Allspice

Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients then stir into the creamed mixture.
Drop onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes.

I had a small sweet potato in the fridge that no one had eaten so I mashed it up and threw it in the batter to. I used a heaping teaspoon full of the batter for each cookie. These cookies are really good and soft but I was thinking of something I want to try with them.

I’d like to make some of the creamy white confectioners filling that is in the middle of some cookies for these. I think it would be sooooo good! Now if I can just find that recipe!

More pix of the cookies……

Whoops looks like I may have found a recipe for a white filling for these AND there is a cookie called, Pumpkin Whoopie Pie! so that might just be what these turn out to be.

 

Filling

3 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup margarine (softened )

8 ounces cream cheese (softened )

1 teaspoon  vanilla flavoring

 

NOTE: You may want to half this recipe because it seems like a lot for this small amount of cookies.

Cream all together until smooth. Put into a zip-lock bag and clip the bottom corner just a little bit so you can squeeze the filling out the hole onto the cookies. You  may want to put down some wax paper to do this on so you will have a place to fix the cookies.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We’re just about to get finished with our decorating.

I only lack the garland around the back door and I will be done. Oh except for the beads on the bottom of the tree. I lack one more row of those and didn’t want to have to go back in the attic again for them.

I figured I would share some of the decorations with you all.

A few of the ornaments on the tree.

Next pic is the mantel.

Above the windows with the Christmas cards on the shelf.

 

Little nativity scene lamp.

The nativity.

I hope you all are about done with your Christmas decorating to!

Blogger Named Mary

 

I have been looking at this blog for I know 45 minutes now and just had to share it with you all. I found the blog simply by doing a search on crazy patchwork quilts.

As you saw from my last post I want to do something with my old quilt. So I was looking trying to get some ideas. I don’t really quilt although I have wanted to. I do have a bed spread pinned together to do one day though. I bought it and it has that old stuffing junk in it and when I washed it, it knotted up inside it so I took it out and added me a blanket inside it. Now I have to sew it all together.

Anyway I have been enjoying her blog for the last few minutes and I see she has tea parties!

I LOVE having tea parties and love anything related to tea things. I have had to chill out on my collection of tea related things because I have NO MORE room for it! 

Anyway just had to share her blog with you. She is a VERY interesting lady indeed and living in a really neat place as well! Looks like she has some wonderful recipes to! Anyway do check out her blog! I know I will be visiting it again as well.

Devonhouse Recollections

Christmas Decorating

I am getting closer and closer to getting things decorated for Christmas.

I am going to use blue ornaments this year on my tree. I am tired of my ornaments that I have had many many years. So I bought me some blue ones this year. Will probably have to still use some of the old things to fill in with though.

I guess I will have to make us some stockings to match to. I was planning on using white, or silver with the blue ornaments and wanted to use gold but the DD says that wont look right. I think white, gold, and blue would be pretty with clear lights myself.

I have an old old quilt in my attic in a box to keep it safe that my Maw Maw made when we were little kids that I would dearly LOVE to make stockings out of. Just don’t know if I have the heart to cut it up. Although it’s all to pieces in spots already. It’s all hand sewn and it’s been falling apart for many years so I don’t use it anymore. It would be sooooo neat as stockings! She was always my favorite Grandma because she was so precious. I wish I’d had another little girl so I could have named her after my Maw Maw, Carrie. Anyway I’ll have to ponder on this for awhile to see IF I can cut it up for stockings or not. Don’t think it’s fixable so this would be a neat use for it. I’ve had it since I was a teen and I dearly love the old thing! I just can’t toss it!!!!

Anyway figured I could sew some lace trim that looks old and some old buttons in the seam areas where she’d sewn to help hold them together as well. This would be one of those projects that would tug on my heart strings if you know what I mean. She liked to make quilts and I know she’d be happy I couldn’t just toss it out and I think she’d be pleased that I made something from it. As you can see I’m trying to decide. lol The old quilt is nothing fancy by any means. My Uncle had an upholstery shop and he’d save her the ticking from making the mattresses so she could make the quilts with it. But that’s what makes it even more important to me. So you see WHY I couldn’t toss it and I keep hanging onto it.

I’ll have to get it out and take a pic of it so you can see it.

Edited to add the pix……..

 

This is the ticking they used to use to make mattresses with. She made two of these from the ticking, one for each side. Then she sandwiched old pieces of cloth inside it.

You can see both sides of the quilt on this next shot. She made them to keep us warm. I have another one but she made it with little squares of fabric and it’s not quilted like this one is. So tickled that I have TWO of her quilts!!!!