Peanut Butter Thumbprints

I bake a lot of cookies. I like cookies because they are easy. They offer up a lot of "wow" for very little work. I have to admit, that I feel very "June Cleaver" when I whip up a batch of cookies. I especially like when I have everything I need in the pantry.
Today I made Peanut Butter Thumbprints (They are also sometimes called Peanut Butter Blossoms) Sooo easy. Sooo yummy. The best part is it only has 4 ingredients and these are about as "beginner" as they come, perfect for cooking with the kiddos.

Peanut Butter Thumbprints
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 C Bisquick
3/4 C Peanut Butter (I've used both chunky and smooth)
36 chocolate "melties"

Mix the first 3 ingredients until well blended.
Use a T scoop and roll ball in white sugar (this is optional)
Place on a cookie sheet and bake 10 min @ 350 degrees.
As soon as you have taken them out of the oven, press the meltie into the cookie. It will flatten the cookie, it is supposed to do that.
Let them cool and enjoy them with a nice glass of cold milk.

If you don't have chocolate melties, you can use Hershey kisses or even melted chocolate chips (just use the back of a spoon to flatten the cookie) Enjoy!!

MLK

When I was teaching, one of my favorite units to teach was on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Even though most of it went over the heads of my Kinders (the thought of kids going to different schools based on what color there skin was simply didn't compute to them ~ a testiment to the work he did) it never failed to amaze me at how much he changed our country. There was a poll a few years ago about who the greatest American was. Dr. Marthin Luther King Jr. would have gotten my vote. In a time of termoil and conflict, we could all use a little refresher course in his teachings. As most of us enjoy the day off, take a little time to reflect on the great man being honored today.

Mrs. Wishy Washy

I have been without a washer for the past two weeks. It has been awful, although it could have been worse (at least it broke AFTER I had done my washing for the week) Thankfully my mom lives around the corner so I could take loads over there to do, but still it was a kind of a drag. However, now all is right with the world and my washer is up and running. As I type I am listening to the sweet sound of wishy, washy, wishy washy. Joj has taken the kids to his mom's for dinner and now I'm left to catch up on all the laundry, but I have to say I'm kind of looking forward to the house smelling like Downy again.
Happy Humpday
:0)

Entre Nous

Have you stopped by the Nester today? She is having a giveaway, that is very fun. She is partnering with Danielson Design for a custom designed sign. There are a ton of different styles to choose from and the best part you get to design it yourself. Here is the one I would get if I win.



When we were in HS, Joj wrote me a "love letter". He basically printed (on his dot matrix printer) the lyrics to the Rush tune Entre Nous. Oh, so very Joj.
So bop on over to the Nesting Place and have fun creating your own sign.
:0)

J'dore My Door

I'm back. I enjoyed my time of lameness, but now I'm hoping to get back on track with this blogging thing. We'll see how it goes :0)

For the longest time I have wanted a new headboard. The one we had didn't fit the bed frame so it was just kind of leaned up against the wall and even the slightest movement would result in a loud bang (not very restful) So I began my search for a new headboard. I wasn't sure if I wanted a wooden one, or a metal one, a fancy on or a plain one. I did know that I wanted a cheap one.

I finally realized that what I really wanted was a headboard made out of an old door. You see them everywhere and I love how simple they are. I made my way up to the Re-Store in Ballard and found EXACTLY what I was looking for. Seriously, how often does that happen? I wanted a five panel door that wasn't too wide. Boom, there it was (if I didn't know better I would have sworn it was back lit and I could hear angels singing) Best part, 20 bucks and she was mine.

Here is what she looked like in her "before" stage. I probably could have done more to her, but I'm lazy. I just hit it with a palm sander and slapped a couple coats of paint.

Once she was all painted Joj and Jim attached a french cleat to the back (I am now an official fan of french cleats, those babies are great) and hung it on my wall.
I LOVE it.

It has that clean line cottage feel to it and it is very "me"
It was definitely 20 bucks well spent.
I'm linking this up to A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day

:0)

Theme Tree

I was reading The Nester yesterday during my "research" and she feels every tree needs a theme. Not sure how I feel about that. Years ago, after a busted water pipe wiped out most of our families ornaments (that was a sad day) my mom decided she was going to do a theme tree: pine cones. We started buying all the pine cone ornaments we could find. It was pretty, but is was still missing something, so we added snowflakes. Still missing something, so we added red balls. The always looked nice, but for me, it always looked there was something missing. I guess it was all the old ornaments I looked forward to hanging up every year.


On my tree, we started out with a little bit of everything (the "no theme" theme if you will) I tried collecting cow ornaments. I have a few, but finding ones that aren't totally tack is difficult. Then I tried "green santas" (this was my protest against red santas when I found out that the red and white suit was a marketing tool for Coca Cola), but those are even more scarce than non tacky santa cows. It wasn't until I was at JoAnns one day and saw some photo frame ornaments marked down to next to nothing. I bought all they had. I was teaching at the time and figured they would make good thank you gifts for my parent volunteers. The left over frames sat in my Christmas box for a long time until we had Ben . We brought Ben home on Christmas Eve and so when I found this little frame, I thought it was perfect.

From then on, every year we add new photo ornaments to the tree. Each kid has a school picture ornament and I have one of the both of them in front of the tree. It is amazing how much the kids have grown and changed. As Sam was helping me trim the tree last night, she commented on each of her pictures. "I sure was cute back then. Huh, mom" and then practiced her potential poses for this years picture. In addition to the photo ornaments, Santa brings the kids an ornament every year reflecting their current interests so hanging out between the photos, we have Elmo, the Hulk, Dora and Hello Kitty, to name a few. Of course, no tree is complete with out painted macaroni and we have a couple of those too.


So I guess if I had to pick a "theme" I would go with "our family". Sweet and simple, just like us.

December is here: ready or not

Today is December 1st.

It struck me this morning that I have a lot to get done these next few weeks.

I know I should be chipping away at my to do list, but here I sit blog hopping. I'm calling it "research" to make myself feel better.

We have our annual Christmas party this Saturday. I can't do a lot of decorating until the carpets get cleaned tomorrow, but once that is done, I'm all over it. The real reason we have the party so early is so that we aren't putting up the tree on Christmas eve. I think this year will be fun because the kids are at an age we they are really into it and are actually helpful. Ben has inherited my "it must be symmetrical" gene so his help will actually be helpful when doing the tree. Sam is still in training :0)

What I'm looking forward to this year is that fact that we are keeping things really simple. Our "buy a gift" list is pared down and I'm excited to do a bunch of baking for friends. We don't' have a lot going on in December so I'm hoping things will just be mellow and enjoyable. Isn't that the point? To take time and reflect on family and friends and spread some joy as opposed to pulling your hair out? Well, that is what I'm going to try and do. I'll let you know how it goes... :0)