Rocks - in -the Road cookies

I am not the world's greatest chocolate fan but I do love a moist warm brownie. Go figure. When I was a little girl making my Mom and Dad's chocolate chip cookies at home, I would always make the first batch without the chocolate chips just for me. I do love cookies however, so I thought a brownie tasting cookie would be great. I am still working with the scouts so when I serve these to the scouts they have to have an outdoorsy name. These cookies are quite flat and when I added the white chips (and later white and chocolate chips for everyone else) they looked like bumps so I called them Rocks-in-the-Road Cookies.

Rocks-in-the-Road Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extgract
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, soda and salt in another bowl. Slowly add to other ingredients. Mix well. Add chips until well distributed. Scoop with a small ice cream scoop onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. These cookies spread so place cookie balls at least 2 inches apart. Bake at 350º F for 8 minutes. The center will still be doughy. After removing cookie sheet from oven, leave cookies on sheet to finish cooking for 2 minutes. Carefully remove from pan and let cool completely. Avoid eating them all while the chips are still warm and melted. Save some for others.

Valentine Cookies

 The best part of making these cookies is making them with family and friends. The real recipe should say add 5-10 grandchildren and parents who can be nice and patient. One rule of making cookies at grandma and papa's house is that you have to make at least one plate of cookies to take to someone in your neighborhood who might need a special visit or treat.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

6 cups flour

3 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. soda

4 large eggs

1 cup dairy sour cream

1 tbsp. vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (opt.)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (opt.)

Blend as for pie crust: flour, sugar, salt, shortening, baking powder, soda. Mix in remaining ingredients until soft dough. Roll out on floured surface to 1/4" thick. Cut in desiredshapes. Bake 400° for 8 minutes. These cookies do not need to brown to be done.

Frosting:

2 pounds powdered sugar

1/4 c butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon almond flavoring

2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring

dash salt

1/2 - 3/4 cup milk

food coloring

Sour Cream Frosting:

1 cup butter (room temperature)

6 Tablespoons sour cream

6 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

6-8 cups powdered sugar

Home-style Chicken Noodle Soup

When someone in my house is ill I know it's time to make this soup, the traditional way. Boil them bones good. But if it's me not feeling so good, I just have my husband by a rotisserie chicken and make it the fast way. Both are delicious and so good for you mentally and physically. But you don't have to be sick to enjoy it. Soup is always a good choice. This makes a big batch so I often take a quart of it to one of my neighbors. It's especially good when you have warms rolls to go with it. Always look for ways to have better relations with your neighbors you can never have too many friends.

Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup (traditional slow version)

1 whole chicken
2 cubes bouillon
2 qts. water
1 small onion, diced
1 pkg. Grandmas' Frozen Wide Noodles, slightly thawed
4 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
7 carrots, peeled and chunked
1 can green beans
Parsley

Boil chicken in water with bouillon and onion until chicken is cooked. Remove chicken from broth. Add noodles. Boil 1 hour. Remove meat from bones and cube meat. Add meat and veggies. Boil for 20-30 minutes.

Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup (Fast version):

1 Costco Rotisserie  chicken (or the store of your choice)
2 cubes bouillon
2 qts. water
2 tablespoons chopped dried onions
6 oz. dry homestyle noodles (I use the Country Pasta brand at Costco called Homemade Style Egg Pasta)
4 small potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1 cup baby carrots
1 can green beans
Parsley

Bring water with bouillon and onion to a boil, add noodles cook for 30 minutes. Add veggies and cook 20 minutes more. While noodles and veggies are cooking remove bones from chicken and cube meat. Add meat and drippings to noodle/veggie mixture and boil for until noodles and veggies are soft. Add green beans and parsley when there a only a few minutes left to cook.

Cornbread

I am very picky about the kind of cornbread that I like. I like it sweet, non-greasy and not to dense, not to fluffy. Sounds more like a personality. But this is not only my favorite cornbread, my extended family loves it as well. Every Halloween for the big extended family party I have to take a huge pan of it to go with Aunt Carla's Chili. Yum! It is a delicious combination especially with honey-butter melting all over the warm cornbread.

Diane's Cornbread

2 cups flour

1 cup cornmeal

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups milk

1/4 cup oil

3 eggs

1 pkg. vanilla pudding (optional)

 Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside.

 Mix next 3 ingredients. Beat well.

Add dry ingredients (including dry pudding if desired) to wet

ingredients and mix lightly with a fork. 

 Batter will still be lumpy.

Pour into a greased 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes. If making muffins, spray 2 12-cup muffin tins with a cooking spray like Pam. Scoop batter into cups using an ice cream scoop or just pour batter into cups until 2/3 full. Bake 375ºF for 13-15 minutes. Enjoy.

Logan's Baptism Quilt

My oldest grandchild just got baptized. I wanted to make him a comforter and I had seen a perfect quilt for this years ago. I couldn't find the patterns so I had to just make it as best as I could remember. I asked him to tell me his favorite primary songs. I made a quilt square for each picture using fabric markers. For the squares with his hands I used fabric paint. The middle square with his name and date of baptism has pictures of things he likes right now.

 I machine quilted around the figures in the white squares. In the 4 patch squares is just quilted a large star.

 I believe this is the Primary song from 2010

Logan has a younger sister and a little brother so this picture I found was almost perfect after I changed some hair lengths.

 This is the Primary song from 2011.

 This is the Logan temple.

 I pieced the back with the flannel leftovers from the front. I added a few little patches to make it look cute.

On the back you can see the stars from the 4 patch squares on the front and also in the upper right corner you can see my quilting around the word 'power' from one of the white square on the front.

This is how I quilted the boarder. I included a few stars in the stippling to coordinate with the middle of the quilt.