T Stands for Cookies

Last Saturday it was snowy and so that made it a good day to stay home and play in the kitchen. It was cookie baking day.

You can see my diet coke in the background. 

And  I'm showing you a little drink since it is also Tuesday,it is time for T. Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's  and join us for T or whatever else is your drink of choice. 

 I began by making the dough for some hazelnut crescents. I think it was Susi who showed some of these last year. They looked so good I went and found a recipe to try them. I was lucky to find a recipe in a cookbook I had.

 And I tried a new recipe for these soft gingerbread circles. These were fun to make. You roll them into a ball, press with a cookie stamp, bake, and then drizzle some sugar glaze over them. I love how they shine.

 Then I made some shortbread. 

 I had some peppermint bark and put it in to flavor these.

Finally I tried making some German springerle. I used what the cookbook said was the original way they were made, without butter.  Some of you might know that better than me as I have never made or tried these cookies before.
I found the dough a little hard to work with, but I did manage to get them rolled and made.

 Last year for my birthday my hubby got me one of these fancy carved rolling pins. On my birthday we had gone to a baking store (my pick not my husband's) and they had these rolling pins marked way down. My birthday comes in March and people aren't looking for rolling pins to make holiday cookies then. That's ok, it, doesn't spoil and I have it now for holiday baking. :) The hubby bought it for me since he said I would never buy myself one. Plus he knows how much I like animals.

Here's the final cookies. I am happy with the imprints. Next time I am going to try a different recipe though.

So have a cookie (or 2) along with a cup of coffee or tea. Or milk and water if you prefer. And if you're in the chill and nasty weather that we are going to get, maybe even a cup of coco to warm you up.
Happy T day everyone.

Weekend Wind Down

Sitting here relaxing. It's Sunday evening and another weekend is almost over. As usual the weekend flew by, but at least this week at school should be more "normal" since spirit week is over. However it is the last full week before quarter exams which means I need to push those kids so we can finish up the work needed for exams. 

Well, at least I will try. :)

Yesterday I met my daughter, and we went to visit my mom. She recently turned 88 and we went to have a little birthday celebration visit.

Mom commented how the 3 of us have the same smiles.  And that we do.

On the way home we did some shopping. Next weekend is the hubby's birthday and we went on an expedition to find him a couple of gifts. We had success too!

Today was another beautiful day when I took the dogs out for our morning walk. I also enjoyed the colors of fall.

And I noticed this tree had been cut by a beaver. That might be the dam to the right, and next walk I am going to take a better look. I've walked by this little swamp many times and never noticed the tree (maybe the leaves blocked it).  I wonder if it's recently been gnawed down.

And after a very long and productive play time with paints and some coasters, I relaxed with my latest book and this book of cookies.

Oh yes, they are back! Last year I devoured about 5 boxes over the course of the fall pumpkin cookie season. I ate way too many out of this box too.

And I did finish up a tag I started for Tag Tuesday. The latest challenge is Autumn/Halloween.

I am all about Halloween art lately. I think it's the one time of year I can let go and just let the little bit of dark side out. ( You may have figured out I am NOT a dark person. My dark side art isn't even very dark if you  haven't noticed.) 

So the weekend is ending with  the Outlander tv show overlapping with the Patriots football game. Such conflicts mean there is only one outcome.  Seeing the hubby is a huge football fan and also has become a  Outlander fan, (but not as big a fan as he for football), Outlander will have to be recorded and wait until tomorrow night.

Sigh The reunion of Claire and Jaime will have to wait for me.

Happy new week everyone. Hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Cookies

I've been home the last few days with the hubby  while he's recuperating from his recent heart surgery.  I finally woke up today feeling caught up on my rest.  I didn't realize how wiped out I actually was, but its not surprising since I had the hubby's surgery, the daughter buying a new car and school having exams  and the end of the grading quarter all going on at once. I've really enjoyed my time home, although not exactly a vacation it is a help not to have to think about much other than spoiling the hubby a little bit and doing a few of those things around the house I have wanted (or needed) to do.

This morning I finally vacuumed (boy did it need it) and also managed to clean 8 trash bags of  junk out of the basement. Now tomorrow it all has to be lugged to the dump, which will probably be quite a comedy since the hubby's truck is about 3 times taller than me.

I also baked the hubby a little treat today. 

I made some butter refrigerator cookies. This is an easy recipe from Martha Stewart than can also be flavored differently. 

Once you make the cookie dough, you roll or shape it into a log, refrigerate it for at least a few hours, and then slice it into cookies ready to bake.

At Christmas I like to roll the dough log in colored sugar before refrigerating to make them festive, but today I didn't. I actually made 3 batches today- plain with vanilla flavor, some with chopped hazelnuts and finally some flavored with lemon a a bit of cracked black pepper. It was just as easy to make 3 batches as it was to make 1 batch since I had everything out and ready to use.

 They're not fancy but they do taste good. 

The hubby enjoyed a couple too.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.