Cookies Anyone?

What do you do on a snowy day when the kids are home from school, besides stay in your pajamas all day? You bake cookies, lots and lots of cookies.

With Emily getting older and telling me so all the time, I want her to start participating regularly in domestic tasks around our home which will ultimately train her for her future home and family. When I told her we were going to bake cookies, but that I was only going to supervise and she was to do the  majority of the work, she was very excited. Now, I'm going to be completely honest and confess that all of the cookies were made with mixes from my good friend Betty Crocker. 

Matt, of course, did not want to be left out from the action and contributed in his own way. He did help pour in one of the ingredients needed for the first batch of cookies but found his "job" when we removed the mixer from its stand. Matt did clean up!

First cookies up, molasses. My personal favorites!

Next, peanut butter cookies with mini m&m's. Another yummy favorite!

Our final cookie was key lime with key lime frosting. We were trying to bring the taste of summer to this very cold, snowy, winter day.

One of the reasons I planned to bake cookies today is that I wanted to give some as a "thank you" to our neighbor. Last night, he came over around 10 p.m. and plowed our sidewalks and driveway.

This task became a good teaching lesson for Emily and Matt. You see I want them to learn that when someone does something for you, especially something unexpected and so very helpful that you can just say "thank you" but doing something as small as baking cookies makes the "thank you" even more special. 

Emily was very proud of the work she had done baking today and is already wondering when her next baking day will be. What made me even happier was that she was excited that the cookies were going to be given to our neighbor to say "thank you". Lesson learned.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Cookies and Cashew Chicken

Today was my day to get back into cooking mode when it comes to our evening meal. 

Well, I was so inspired by the thought of cooking the meal I decided to make today also a "homemade, from scratch cookie baking day". I admit that I usually use cookie mixes just to make things go a little faster. 

Okay another confession, I've had the ingredients for these Pumpkin Scotchies cookies on had for several weeks but just haven't been inspired to bake. Today's cold, flurry flying morning put me in such a mood. I found the recipe for these cookies off Pinterest from the website The Girl Who Ate Everything. They are very yummy and perfect for this time of year. Love the combination of pumpkin and butterscotch!! 

Of course, I made these while the kids were at school and sampled a few (just 2) to make sure they were edible. When I went to pick up Matt who waits with me at the school for Emily's hour and a half of basketball practice, I surprised him with two of the cookies, which he gave a big thumbs up!!! Emily tried one when she came home...also a thumbs up!! Dave has yet to try them but if he approves there is a batch waiting to accompany him to work tomorrow. This recipe made a lot of cookies....too many for us to eat. 

All this cookie excitement did not distract me from my mission to make dinner. I decide to make the Crock Pot Cashew Chicken recipe I found also through Pinterest at the website  Daydream Kitchen. 

The cooking time is for 3 hours on low so I assembled the ingredients and turned on the Crock Pot just before heading to the kid's school. I heated some rice to serve the cashew chicken atop. So, the rating are thumbs up from me and believe it or not my "chicken snob" Emily. Matt was a so so mainly because he didn't like the cashews. Fortunately, my Crock Pot has a warmer setting so I was able to feed Dave this same meal just a little while ago when he came home from work. He gave it his approval so it looks like we have another recipe to add to the family binder. 

As always, thanks for stopping by! 

Choices, choices, choices.......

For a while now, instead of buying cookies we have been making them. Now I am not going to make it sound like I've become Betty Crocker making homemade cookies BUT I will admit I use Betty Crocker. Thankfully Betty Crocker has a wide variety of cookie mixes. You can tell just by the variety we have here at home - chocolate chip, molasses, pumpkin spice, oatmeal chocolate chip and peanut butter. The reasons I like to use these are: the ease of making - butter, oil and eggs are the only things I need on hand; the mixes only make usually 2 1/2 dozen cookies - so you don't get sick of them before they are finished; the bags have at least one and some times two Box Tops - which the kid's school collects.

Surprisingly for mixes the cookies are yummy but then again we are a talking Betty Crocker....this woman knows her stuff. So in the future when I say we are baking cookies you'll know our "trick".