let the christmas-ing begin!

The kids are out of school,
it's rainy and cold here,
the She & Him holiday station is playing on Pandora,
and I've been wearing comfy pants and baking all the live long day.

It's dark enough during the day with the rain that
I can leave the lights on on the Christmas trees
{yeah...we have two...i'm one of those people this year}
during the day and it's perfect.



This was yesterday around my house.
The kids weren't home from school yet and it was clean.
It stayed that way for a glorious 2.76 hours.
My house is my favorite this time of year.  It feels the happiest to me.

And can we all just agree that Christmas cards are the best?
Taking them down in January always makes me a little sad.







Today I made some of my very favorite cookies.
These are some of my mom's specialties: Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookies.
Ditch the fruitcake and put these on your baking list for the weekend.

They make your house smell better than any candle.







And...they're a pretty cookie.
Which totally matters.
Give a plate to your mail carrier or UPS man tomorrow.

Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookies

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 stick butter, room temp.
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
ice water 
sugar

Preheat oven to 350.
Lightly grease cookie sheets or use a Silpat.
Stir together the first six ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a mixing bowl beat the shortening, butter, and brown sugar
until fluffy.
Add egg and molasses to the butter mixture
and beat until blended.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Refrigerate dough 1 hour.
Roll dough into small balls and dip quickly in ice water.
Roll in sugar to coat.
Arrange on cookie sheet and bake until cookies
are pale golden and cracked on top but still soft to touch,
around 10 minutes.
Let stand 1 minute then transfer to cooling rack.


Mmmmm.  Chewy, Christmas goodness.

another sick day.

Well the germs are still hanging around.
Avery and Colin are both down for the count.
As my friend Lori would say,
they have a bad case of vomitosis.
Which is not my favorite thing to deal with as a mom.
But we've got a bucket that stays by their side
and all will be well.



Don't let that smile fool you.
Girlfriend was feeling crummy all day long.

I made chicken soup this afternoon,
because you need chicken soup when you're sick.
And also...it's easy.
And the boys call it delicious and go back for seconds.
That n.e.v.e.r. happens.  Seriously.



That's homemade chicken bone broth in those mason jars, y'all.
Made back in October in the crock pot from a Costco rotisserie chicken and then frozen.
Easiest thing ever.



And I know usually chicken soup has celery,
but I can't hang with celery.
Celery has no place in my life.

But dessert does.
Riley made these almond sugar cookies a couple of nights ago.
{it's jessica's fault that i even know about these.}
I think he slipped some crack into them.
They are SO good.



One a day.
That's all I allow myself.

And here's the chicken soup recipe,
in case a round of vomitosis hits your house:

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T butter
8oz. egg noodles
10 (or more) cups chicken broth
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp bay leaves or 1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp. dried parsley

Saute the garlic and onion in butter in a large stock pot.
Add chicken, broth, and spices, and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
Add noodles, and simmer for 10 minutes more.

Done.
Soups on!
Enjoy.

another cookie post: thanks pinterest.

Sorry.
I'm talking about cookies again.
And...not some healthy, whole wheat, quinoa- and bean-filled cookies.
These are white flour, white sugar, butter, the whole unhealthy deal.
{so...of course...they're delicious.}

For Jess' Pintertest Kitchen this month I knew what I had to do.
I had been eyeing these pumpkin snickerdoodles for awhile.
Pumpkin + snickerdoodles...my two loves.



Don't they look delish?

I started making them this afternoon.
The kindergarten contingency was in full effect.



They're very easy.
Cream the butter and sugar...
add the pumpkin...
add the eggs and vanilla...
add the flour/salt/baking powder/cinnamon/nutmeg combo...
chill.
The kindergarten contingency was very unhappy
about the whole "dough has to chill for an hour before baking" thing.
Good thing I still had other cookies to offer them.

After the cookies had chilled
and the big kids were home from school,
we rolled the cookies in cinnamon and sugar.
The recipe calls for ginger and allspice too, but I didn't think my kids would like that as much.



There's never any shortage of people volunteering
to roll the cookies in the sugar in this house.

So...the cookie verdict.



The kids and I LOVED them.
Gary doesn't like snickerdoodles so he didn't have any.
{he clearly needs counseling of some sort.}



If you're a fan of snickerdoodles and pumpkin at all,
make these.
White flour and sugar, for the win.

This was definitely a Pinterest success story.
The original recipe is here.



Linking up with Jess.
The Pintertest Kitchen is turning one!
Go check her out.
You'll like her.

it's october. and it's hot. and i'm baking.

October may just be my favorite month.
The weather here in the bay area is nearly perfect in October.
Oh, except for the last few days.
It's 99 right now.
And the kids are all at soccer, sweating their little hearts out.
But by Thursday it's supposed to be back in the 70's.
I'm so ready to wear socks again.

October is also the only month I feel compelled to make pumpkin goodies.
Pumpkin cookies are my favorite.
{here's the recipe}



I made the dough one day {which makes a TON} and have just been baking a dozen at a time.
Freshly-baked cookies every night, for the win.

Do you remember the other day when I told you about that bra company, True & Co?
Well I got my box in the mail.



The bras were so pretty.
I tried them on in the comfort of my own bathroom,
kept one, and returned the rest.  Easy.
I wish the polka dot one had worked.  Isn't it cute?

I'm on a nail polish kick lately.
And I have a confession.
When I'm in Target or CVS or wherever looking at colors
I usually paint one of my nails in the color I think I want.
Is that bad?
Is it kind of like eating a grape at the grocery store before you pay for them?
{i don't do that.  that grosses me out.}



See my copper-colored thumb?
It's a new Essie color...I think it's called Penny Talk?
I like it.  My nails look like shiny new pennies!

This is our dining room.
I finally hung up the plates for my plate wall.
My friend Lori brought me that beautiful green one from Portugal.
I like the wall...but I think maybe a spaced them too evenly apart.
Something is bugging me about this wall, but I can't quite figure it out.
I need to stare at it some more.



And I hate that light.
With a passion.
#firstworldproblems

I've told you before about our bingo group that gets together every month.
This month's theme was "a pick me up".



There was nothing too fancy inside:
an Essie polish, Burt's Bees lip balm, a frappuccino, a candy bar,
and a copy of Mumford & Son's latest.
{which, like everyone else, i am L.O.V.I.N.G.}

The leaf was from my morning run,
and the letter stamps from the Target dollar section.
That was seriously my best dollar bin score to date.

And now that the temperature has just bumped up to 100 degrees I'm off to soccer
and to dream of Thursday when the high is supposed to be 73.
Ahhhhhh.

Mother's Day cuteness...and cookie weirdness

I love Mother's Day.

It's the one of the only days of the year when I ask my husband to rub my shoulders
and I know he'll say yes.

My kids try not to fight with one another.
They're not always successful....

I don't have to cook anything.
Nothing.
{It's in my contract.}

And I love the gifts the boys make at school.


Riley made me a recipe card holder.
It is the cutest.
The room mom really outdid herself with this project.
{The fork and flowers are cemented into the pot.}
I love it.

*************

Today was a dreary, rainy, windy day.
Blah.
I needed cookies.
Specifically, cookies with chocolate.

But I was feeling guilty for the piece of coffee cake I had at breakfast yesterday,
so I went with my "healthy" cookie recipe.

OK, this is going to be weird.
Stick with me here....


Garbanzo beans.

...I know...

Do you remember Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook?
Since it came out a few years ago I've made this recipe a few times.
And...I kid you not...my kids have *never* realized the cookies contain garbanzo beans.
{I admit...it even seems weird when I type it.}
But they're yummy.


{Check out the chalkboard...18 more days of school! Only 18 more lunches to pack!}

*************

And I'm so happy to report my sewing machine and I are back together.
We took a break for awhile.
But I bought some new fabric...found some cute patterns...and it's on again.

Maybe some day I'll reconcile with my etsy site as well.
Who knows....

Baking...With Children.

Baking cookies with the kids always seems like such a fun way to spend a day of Christmas vacation.

But baking with kids is actually...
let's see, how should I put this...
not relaxing.

There's a lot of refereeing.
And never enough mixing to divide between three people.
(Because each kid thinks they *NEED* to be mixing something all the time. Anything!)
And a lot of time spent cleaning up flour.

But the end result is always nice.

Fudge, gingerbread cookies, chocolate chip cookies (per Santa's request), pretzel hugs, and salt dough ornaments.
My shoulders were sore yesterday from rolling out dough.
(So sad. Work out, much?)


I'm guessing we'll have a pretty decent sugar high on Christmas.

What's your favorite Christmas treat?
Definitely my Pampa's fudge for me.
With my dad's peanut brittle a close second.

{And on that note: I will consume only spinach and tofu in January to make up for all of this December eating debauchery.}

Good Medicine.

Today, as I entered hour 36 of my migraine, I thought:
this isn't working.

So...while doped up on migraine medication and ibuprofen and caffeine...
I made snickerdoodles.
With the kids.
(Actually, with two of my kids plus three of a friend's.)
They were all great.

And I think it helped.

So I don't really know if it was the medicine or the caffeine,
or this...

...but I can finally see that light at the end of that darned migraine tunnel.

I should have known that snickerdoodles had magical healing power.

Cookies. Take Two.

After having to abort the cookie mission yesterday,
today we tried again and were successful.
Riley was home sick today, so I had two helpers in the kitchen.
This recipe is pretty large so there are a lot of ingredients to help dump. They like to dump ingredients.


There is A LOT of butter in these cookies.
Three sticks.
If that scares you off, I totally understand.


This is the best part: adding the pumpkin.
Here's where they get all yummy and fall-like.
Notice my helper there on the edge of the photo.


This is the boys' favorite part - adding the chocolate chips.
No brainer.


The Silpat is awesome.  Nothing sticks to it.
I only have one so I can't bake all the cookies on it, but I really like it.
It definitely bakes them evenly and they slide right off the mat.


And then the final product.
Yummy with milk.
Yummy without milk.
Just yummy.


Here's the recipe, if you're interested.
They are good Take To Your Neighbors cookies,
because they make A LOT.
So take some to your neighbors! They'll thank you for it.
Pumpkin Cookies
4 cups unsifted flour
2 cups oatmeal
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
3 sticks butter
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup regular sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 can 15 oz. solid packed pumpkin
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Put aside.
-Cream butter until fluffy and gradually add sugars and beat until fluffy.
-Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
-Add alternating spoonfuls of dry ingredients and pumpking, mixing well after each.
-Stir in chocolate chips.
-Put cookies on lightly greased cookie sheet.
-Bake 15 minutes.