I love to bake....in fact, I rather bake than cook...I am not much for eating baked goods, but I really enjoy making them...to me, it is relaxing. Since it is just me and my husband, I find I give away a lot of the items I bake. This week, Travis had a sweet tooth and wanted me to bake something....and due to limited supplies on hand, I narrowed it down to peanut butter cookies. This is a pretty standard cookie recipe, except I have a little twist before baking - I like to roll balls of dough in granulated sugar before flattening with the fork...I like a little crystal sugar on the outside of the cookie...a little extra sweetness!
Peanut Butter Cookies
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine peanut butter, shortening, light brown sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl - beat at medium speed (I use an electric mixer) until nicely blended - add egg - beat until blended.
Sift flour, salt, and baking soda - add to creamed mixture at low speed - mix until blended.
Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into balls - roll in granulated sugar - place approximately 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet - flatten with fork (I like to do a criss-cross pattern).
Bake at 375 degrees F for 7 to 8 minutes or until just starting to turn brown. Cool for a couple minutes on baking sheet - then place on sheets of foil to cool completely.
This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies. I almost always double the batch, as they freeze nicely.
I decided to
foof (wrap with GiftGloss) several packages of cookies for our neighbors - just a fun little summer treat!
This past weekend, I started shipping my new designs (
"Liberty Stitchery" and
"Sweet Simple Samplings") to needlework shops and distributors, so they should be available VERY soon from your favorite shop....visit my
website for more details. I am keeping quite busy with new designs for the Fall Needlework Market, but I did manage to design a new complimentary chart that I will be posting soon - in fact, I will debut it here first...so you can look forward to that later this week (think Christmas!)...
One of my very dear friends (who by request will remain nameless) is having a milestone birthday tomorrow...yep, the big 50. She is truly one of the most giving people I know and is always volunteering and making things better for those less fortunate...and although, she is not one to have people make a fuss over her, that is exactly what we did today! Another dear friend and I have been planning (or should I say plotting) her birthday celebration for months...we decided since she was turning 50, she should have 50 gifts to open...and not just 50 single gifts, we decided each gift should be something with a quantity of 50. A few months ago we started making a list of gifts...both of us took 25 items of 25 and started collecting...and to make it even more fun (if that is even possible) we wrote little notes for each item. For instance one of my items was cotton balls - so I wrapped 50 cotton balls with a note that said "50 Cotton Balls - to remind you not to get soft in your old age!"....another one was "50 Thank You Cards - to thank people for forgetting how old you really are!"...and so on. We tried to come up with 50 things that she really could use...and as we did our shopping, our lists did fluctuate a little bit for size and cost reasons....and some of the little notes had to do with her age, but some were just sweet little sayings. My list included 50 skeins of DMC, 50 needles, 50" of rick rack, 50 pins, 50 mini candy bars, 50 wet wipes, 50 oz. of oatmeal....you get the idea! Over the last couple weeks, I have been foofing (wrapping) and labeling my share (25) of the fifty gifts (shown below). To carry all the gits, I made her the cutest market tote bag with one of her initials on a pocket (shown right)...but of course, all of my gifts didn't fit into the tote, so I had to use a big gift bag, as well. My other "partner in crime" put her gifts in a neat recyclable tote bag...and also brought a bouquet of flowers and a singing balloon (yes, you heard me correctly, the balloon would sing "Happy Birthday" at the push of a button). We met today at a wonderful local Thai restaurant called Cool Basil...and it was a good thing we arrived early, because during our meal, the power went out and all the businesses around were without power for most of the afternoon. You would think the biggest laugh for the day would have been opening the gifts; however, that was not the case....when my "partner in crime" arrived with the balloon and flowers, she accidentally popped the balloon on the way to the table (it touched a hanging light and popped immediately)...first a loud "POP", then it started singing "Happy Birthday"....we all had a very good laugh about it...especially the staff in the restaurant! After a fabulous lunch and opening presents, we did a little shopping together - and although many places were closed due to the power outage, we still made it enjoyable - the three of us always seem to have the best laughs. I truly hope this was a "birthday to remember" for my friend - she certainly deserved all the fuss!
