~ Birthday Snow ~

Yesterday was the Beekeeper’s birthday. I had been planning a surprise two day trip, with an overnight stay at a lovey B&B. There is a little restaurant that we like in Saratoga Springs NY, called Hattie’s, that is one of Bobby Flay’s Throwdown restaurants. So a fun road trip, good food, antiquing, and checking out a new B&B (I have a Bed and Breakfast fetish…I not so secretly want to have my own). But, alas, the weather did not cooperate with my plan at all! This is what the Hubs spent the entire morning doing….

snow plowing

And although everything looks beautiful with this fresh covering of snow, it continued all day and messed up my plans.

Brians birthday snow day 7

 

Brians birthday snow day 6

 

golden retriever

 

Brians birthday snow day 2

 

Spiced Crackle Cookies

 

So when life gives you lemons….well, I wouldn’t exactly call this pretty new snow lemons and I didn’t try to make lemonade, but I did make the Beekeeper’s favorite cookies (he prefers these to birthday cake) and I did take him out for dinner (which in thinking about it was a gift to myself since it meant I didn’t have to cook).  Although, I did pay so, maybe that wasn’t the best plan!

    Anyway, I thought I would share the cookie recipe with you.

Spiced Crackle Cookies

Spiced Crackle Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and molasses on medium speed until blended. Beat in egg until blended, scraping down side of bowl.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon and white pepper into clean bowl. Add to butter mixture; beat on low speed until blended. Stir in crystallized ginger. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Heat oven to 350. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

4. Roll dough into 1 inch ball, then roll in confectioners’ sugar to coat completely. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

5. Bake for 12 minutes or until they have expanded and flattened; the tops will be covered with cracks. Let cool on baking sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.

(This recipe was found in Family Circle Magazine years ago)

Enjoy!

spice crackle cookies

~ Up To Speed ~

It seems I took an unplanned break from blogging.  It’s really been on my mind and I’ve been taking pictures.  I guess the holiday busyness just got in the way.  But I’m back and ready to share a little of what happened over the last month. So here we go…

image

Christmas 2013

 Not too many inside pictures I realized after, the lighting in our house is a challenge.  We live in what was my grandparents 1930ish  Sears, Craftsman style house (with an addition to fit a family with 5 kids), which I love, but it is a little on the dark side for picture taking. We still have all the original unpainted woodwork, which I also love, but it is dark.  Here, by the way is a link to a book I found on Sears houses, in case anyone is interested.  Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company.  Back in the day they had a catalog of house kits you could order from.  The train use to run down the center of our little village and that is how our house came to be.  I like that, it’s fun.  While hunting this link I found a children’s book on Sears houses also The House in the Mail.

Sears and Roebuck house

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

So we’ve had a lot of cold weather.  It snows, then turns a little warmer and rains… melts the snow…turns cold again and leaves us with ice!  Life in the great northeast!

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

We went to a couple of Christmas parties.  One hosted by my very talented sister and niece.  Above is just a sampling of the deliciousness that was there to tempt us.

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

We also attended a Christmas wedding for the son of some very dear friends, a beautiful evening.

visual journal

Visual journal

A couple of Christmas pages from my journal.  The Beekeeper wrapped all my gifts in coordinating paper, so I glued a piece of each in my journal with a note of what gift was wrapped in each kind.  Kinda goofy looking, but a good memory!  He is a good gift giver.

John and Angelina

Delilah

These are the Christmas pictures of my grandbabies.  Love my three sweeties!

Christmas 2013

Here are a couple of cookies recipes that I made this year.  The raspberry almond shortbreads were a big hit with the Beekeeper.  The red velvet crinkle cookies are super easy and just looked Christmasy.

So now that I’ve said all that…let’s move into 2014!

Ni Hao Yall