The Pup, Cookies, and Tables

This week has been crazy busy for me, but not as crazy as it has been for most of you.  I remember the days when I worked, had small children, and all that went with a normal routine, then Christmas prep was added to all of that.

I also remember the day I decided Christmas would be just as much fun if I reduced the amount of baking I did, stopped making chocolate covered cherries, and served less food on the holiday table.  I got to enjoy the month along with the others in my family.

My hat's off to all young moms who do all of this and more.  May God bless your every endeavor.

Yesterday the girl pup got her bath.  She steps into the shower with me and gets the girlie treatment with my body wash.  Then toweled dry and a blow dry on low.  She loves the blow dry part.  I'm assuming because it's warm and she loves to be warm.  Not that she told me this, but because you can find her most days under a blanket with her nose sticking out.

All of my packages for out of state were wrapped early and mailed out.  For some reason I stopped there so the gifts for my family that live nearby have been waiting to be wrapped.  I started that project this morning.  Five down with the rest to go.

The grandson will be coming over on Saturday to learn how to make perogie (spell?) with me.  He and his brother have developed a fondness for cooking shows, but he is the one old enough to work on a big project in the kitchen.

The decorating is now complete for Christmas.  I finished by setting up the table with a Christmas tree theme.  When I  went to the cupboard over the refrigerator to get the holiday dishes, I saw a few things I forgot I had bought after Christmas last year.  What a nice surprise it was to have enough to finish the decorating.

Everything with the exception of the plates was bought on sale after Christmas.  The plates are my one indulgence that came from Williams and Sonoma.  I fell in love with the pattern because it is so warm and homey looking.  The small trees were free with points I earned at the Hallmark store through the year.



One of the best things I found this year was a cookie recipe from Noreen's Kitchen.  Noreen developed a master mix recipe for sugar cookies that makes quite a few batches.  Anything you'd like can be added - nuts, chips, raisins, crasins, peppermint chips - anything.  I made half a batch because hers was rather large.  My needs are less, even with giving this as gifts.  These cookies are knock out genius.  SOOOO good.  I made one batch and got three dozen cookies from it.  I used a melon baller as a scoop so the size wasn't over whelming.  Noreen used vanilla extract, but I experimented with anise extract and was very pleased with the outcome.

The master mix before it becomes cookies.

 

 

 

 The cookies before cooking.

The cookies just before eating.  (Three for breakfast and three for lunch.  Then into the freezer for the Christmas Eve tray.

Here's the link to the video on how to make these yummo cookies.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBjJTa7LQ44

Enjoy and stay safe.