Best recipes ever?

Can't vouch for this site as I just discovered it but if they proclaim they have the best recipes ever, they deserve a second glance. http://www.best-recipes-ever.com/Best_Recipes_Ever_-_Recipe_Index.html
Sometimes, it is nice to find a link with tested recipes that have taken all the problems out of the equation and you just have to pick a recipe to try and go for it.

Don't like cake? Let them eat pie!

http://allrecipes.com/features/baking/pies.aspx

Another great link for baking. I went to this one to check out the pie recipes but noted they also cover cookies and other great baking ideas. I have my own tried and true pie recipes but this site lured one into gathering ingredients to try one of their recipes. Hey, I'm not too proud to take on a new, gooey, delicious pie! It's the Christmas Season coming up and calories don't count during the holidays, right?

Can definitely relate . . .

Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.

- Tallulah Bankhead

Candy-Making Week?

I've just about exhausted my energy on the cookie-baking level and am thinking of making Christmas candy next. I like to deliver the goodies to my friends and neighbors early in the season before everyone is flooded with sweets and treats. I remember to purchase some small, foil candy cups for making the Peanut Butter Cups. I'm definitely going to try the Peppermint Truffles, too. I have almonds on hand so will use a block of white candy coating to make almond bark. My husband had requested Peppermint Bark. There will be some fudge in the feature and probably chocolate walnut . . . just because that is my favorite!

I have a friend coming home this weekend and want to try out a recipe to honor that homecoming. I found it on the back of the bag of sugar and it has been something I've been looking for in the way of cookie recipes. It is a soft sugar cookie with a buttercream frosting. The thick frosting will lend itself to food color, sprinkles, toasted nuts, and crushed peppermint candy. I'm looking forward to trying it and will share it if it works out as I hope.

Fun shopping . . .

I think they must hire the same stock clerk for the yarn section at all Walmarts. A few weeks ago, I needed another skein of the cream-colored yarn I was using and dropped by the store. I grabbed the skein and was about to head for the cash register when I looked at the yarn more closely . . . It didn't seem to quite match. I checked the name and it was 'vanilla' and not 'off white' which is the one I wanted. It was very close but would have shown up worked into the project in progress. I noticed that the 'off white' bin was empty but the 'vanilla' bin was overflowing. The stock clerk had given the yarn a passing glance and deemed it all 'white'. I couldn't help myself -  I separated them out into the proper bins!

Today, we ventured over to another Walmart location because, again, I had run out of 'dark sage'. My husband decided to treat me to four, new skeins for the news project. He liked what he called 'cream' colored yarn. I grabbed the first two and even my color blind husband immediately saw there was a slight but definite difference. It was the vanilla vs. off white all over again! Yes, most of the skeins had been dumped in one place regardless of the name on the label. Yes, I sorted them out, again! Guess it is sort of like life in that little differences can make a big difference in the scheme of things.

Interesting experience . . .

My son and I went Christmas shopping for my husband's gift this year. He is difficult to shop for so I was thrilled to find an ad on the table with two items I knew he would like. I know he didn't put it there for a hint because this particular store hands them out as you exit or puts them in your shopping bag. We headed over to the store, this morning, and were looking around for the item when a clerk offered to help us. He couldn't find the item but said that the ad had expired yesterday. Since the price, without the sale, was still reasonable, I resigned myself to not saving $10 on the purchase. The clerk said I should ask his boss if I could have yesterday's price which I was hesitant to do. Before I could voice my concerns about doing this, the clerk saw his boss and he asked the his boss who immediately okayed it! Nothing like a bargain with an adventure. It kind of shows you that it never hurts to ask because all they can do to you is say no. Still, I'm glad the clerk took the lead on this deal! Naturally, my teenage son is dying a thousand deaths because we aren't going to prescribed norms in shopping according to teenagers.

Happy to say that I am just about done with Christmas shopping. We cut way back this year because we should learn to live with less and we just don't know where the economy is heading from day to day. I still have some crocheting to complete if I can find just one more skein of yarn in the color I ran out of yesterday. Still have a couple of packages to mail overseas but I can now concentrate on the Advent Season and prepare my house and heart for Christmas. Our pastor told us on Sunday that Christmas is not about presents and parties but a renewal of our longing and waiting for the Second Coming. It is a time to doubly prepare our hearts and souls so we don't take the chance of experiencing fear and dread upon the Savior's final arrival here on earth. Good thoughts to complete the season.

I have way too many of those moments . . .!

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

- Will Rogers

Something to remember . . .

How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on the inside of us.

- Park Cousins

Stir and Drop Sugar Cookies

I've seen many versions of this cookie, over the years, but it all comes down to a very basic, comforting cookie you can put together in minutes and treat your family to an unexpected surprise. When I would do Christmas baking and still had little ones running around, I had to curtail the little hands from grabbing all the cookies slated for gifts so would 'supplement' the baking with these. Mine thought they were special to get a plate of warm cookies and a cup of cocoa in front of the televison with a favorite video.

Stir, Drop and Bake Sugar Cookies

2 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Beat eggs until foamy; stir in oil, vanilla, and sugar. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Combine until smooth. Drop by teaspoonsful about two inches apart on very lightly greased cookie sheet. Dough should be rather soft. Sprinkle a bit of sugar on each cookie before baking. Colored sugar is fun if it is on hand. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

The Blessing of Life . . .

It is very disheartening how the world treats the unborn in our civilized society. It is also sad that so many people aren't even aware of the magnitude of offenses against our tiniest citizens. I remember talking to someone in the extended family and they weren't aware that abortion is legal. Just yesterday, I was chatting about babies and recalling delivery 'memories' of our respective children with a friend. Both of us had doctors who would have rather left our babies for dead than try to save them. I mentioned partial birth abortion and the friend looked perplexed and asked, "What is that?" I was stunned but explained and she was shocked as well she should be. Then she said, "It's not legal, right?" It sure explains how some of our anti-life politicians get into office.

I really got slammed by people for my vote in the last national election. I said I would not vote for a candidate who was adamantly in favor of abortion and who would see nothing wrong with using our tax dollars to fund such a cause. They came back with either "I don't believe he is for abortion!" or "You have to look at all his policies and not dwell on just one, small part."

I have to wonder about these people who attend daily Mass, receive the Sacraments, and then support someone who is bound and determined to extend abortion rights. If these same people were informed that a mutual friend has one problem - if he is handed a gun, he will shoot people until it is taken away from him - would they hand him the gun to see if this is true? Seemed to work in our last election. The record showed an anti-life voting record yet so many Catholics voted in to see how it would go. The week the elected candidate took office, he rescinded all the abortion restrictions set in place by the retiring president. The truth was out there during the election so claiming invincible ignorance wouldn't be valid if one voted responsibly.

If the anti-life group is going to follow through entirely on this, shouldn't we all call the growing child in the womb a fetus until he sees the light of day and is accepted as being a baby?  Fetus showers? Asking a pregnant woman 'when is your fetus due'? And should we use the term 'pregnancy' since that seems to denote 'having a baby' and if the anti-life group could totally have it's way, it isn't a baby until we say it is a baby! I'm being a little sarcastic here but with the disrespect for life these days, can this sort of attitude be long in coming.

Crocheting help and easy patterns . . .

Even though I've been crocheting since I was a child, it is not my first craft of choice. Lately, however, I've been making shawls and scarves so have been browsing around for patterns that are nice but easy enough for a rusty 'crafts person'. This site seems pretty comprehensive and I found a lot of ideas in addition to the particular patterns I was looking for.

http://crochet.about.com/od/easy-crochet-patterns/tp/easy-crochet-patterns.htm

I don't know where my sudden inclination to crochet has come from lately. Perhaps, it is the long car trip taking one of my children back and forth to school. Don't worry! My husband drives. It's not me trying to multi-task on the freeway!

I'm thinking the cold weather has warmed me to the task of fussing with crochet hook and yarn. In the summer, one doesn't want a lap full of crocheting to add to the high temperature whereas I'm not adverse to anything that keeps me warm lately!

Some fun social truths . . .

"Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public."
-- Edgar Watson Howe

"Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers."
-- Jimmy Breslin

"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."
-- Bill Vaughan

"It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated."
-- Alec Bourne