Day 67

I made doughnuts (and doughnut holes). It was so much easier than I expected! And lemme tell you- fresh doughnuts are heavenly.

Stop drooling and make some.

Day 48

Someone didn’t want to wait while I took photographs of his donuts.

Bad photograph- but, I didn’t get anything better this day.

Day 26

Ice cream in January. Ah, FL. We found a cool little shop near the library, that does ice cream the old school way- made right there, no weird preservatives, amazing flavors. I went with Chocolate Peanut Butter, my son went plain old Vanilla (he didn’t get that from ME!) and my husband made me jealous with his German Chocolate. Seriously good stuff- I can’t make it look as good as it tasted.

We’ll have to go to the library more. For the ice cream- AND so we don’t incur another $25 in late fines. Oops.

Day 19

Rainbow ‘playdough’ cookies. Fun to make- just okay to eat. But, the kid loved them.

Day 10

Black Bottom Cupcakes- MAKE these!

Where did the month go?

It’s hard to believe that Gwen will be here in a matter of days! We’ve been very busy working on her nursery and getting things ready for her. Here’s a few fun little details- not sure we’ll have pics of the nursery until she’s in it, but, we’re getting really close to the finish line!

I made a little “clothes line” for easy display of snapshots, art, cards, stuff like that. It was fun- and super easy.

I painted four of these guys, attached ribbon to their backs and hung them on the wall. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE 3M Command Picture removable hanging strips? Use ‘em. Doesn’t get any easier!

I picked up some mini-clothespins at the craft store and Mod-Podged scrap paper to their fronts, to make them a little cuter.

They hold things on the line…

… and work great for other things around the nursery, like keeping little hats attached to their matching outfits.

A few of the bunches of knitting and crochet things I’ve finished in the last couple weeks- a little blue crocheted pinafore:

And a tiny little pixie hat from Baby Beanies: Happy Hats to Knit for Little Heads
:

Finally, Gwen’s adorable big brother. He helped me make chocolate cupcakes- and of course, he helped me eat them, too!

Our cookie monster

Enjoying the cookie he stole. He helped me make them yesterday- and was sooo good. Until we put the first two batches away.

“Helping me”, he copied me as I picked the cookies up off the cooling racks, and put them in a storage container. He picked up this particularly huge one, looked right at me, took a big bite out of it, and placed the rest in the box. I started laughing so hard that it freaked him out, and he took the bite out of his mouth, and placed it next to the rest of the poor cookie. He’s not very good at sneaking yet. Hahah!

Of COURSE we let him finish the damage.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Wait- SOB! He’s NOT a baby anymore- Gabe is TWO!

Whooooo…

… is that TODDLER?!

It’s SOOOOOPHIE! Happy birthday, beautiful!

Cookies! Cookies!!

We love cookies. And Halloween is just as good a reason as any, to bake some, right? There are more waiting to be iced tomorrow- but, these are pretty enough without icing!

Not the best pictures- but, it was dark by the time they were done. And I haven’t started a food blog yet, so the crappy pictures will live here, as an excuse for me to give praise to the fantastic recipe (below).

This is how I’ve found the recipe written up, all over the Internet- it’s simple and makes PERFECT sugar cookies. I always halve the recipe- and it still makes a ton of cookies.

NO FAIL SUGAR COOKIES

This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its’ shape and won’t spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess — Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.