Lemon Cookies

Hello Friends,

Hi! How are you doing? I am doing well. The weekend has been very relaxing and enjoyable. Yesterday Little Man had his first basketball game. It was so fun and funny watching the kids play basketball. They are fourth and fifth graders and they just go for it. Sometimes they are all over the place and the throws can be kind of crazy. Little Man did really good though and one of his shots was super close. Most importantly he had fun.

Once we got home we had lunch and then it was time to get on the couch for the National Readathon Day that I told you about in the last post. Did any of you participate? Little Man read to me for half an hour and then I read to him for half an hour. Then we made our cookies followed by an hour of reading to ourselves.

The cookies we made are Lemon Sugar Cookies. Mmmm the lemon flavor is wonderful and it is one of Little Man’s favorite. We followed the recipe as written except that we did not roll them in sugar before baking. Also I did not have large lemons so i zested four smaller lemons.

Here are all the ingredients. I didn’t use the lemons pictured here because i started zesting one and it just didn’t smell lemon-y to me. My mom gave them to me and sad they were Meyer lemons, which are supposed to be the best lemons. I have bought them at the store and they smelled better then the ones she gave me. SoIi just used regular lemons.

We poured and mixed the dry ingredients.

Mixed the wet ingredients.

Then mixed the dry and wet together. And made cookie balls. 🙂

Baked them for about 10 minutes and after 2 minutes of cooling put them on the cooling racks.

They came out beautifully and taste so lemon-y and delicious! I tried squishing a bit to many on a cookie sheet so some of them ending up sticking together, which is why some looked like they have a flat edge, I had to do some surgery to separate them 🙂 My husband tried to say that those just counted as one cookie and didn’t need to be cut apart. We will be making these again!

After reading for an hour, I went into the craft room and managed to sew another one of my squares on that I mentioned on Friday. I also sewed the last and first square together to form the main body of the box. I still have to sew on the bottom and then the lid. Maybe I will try to work on it after I am done posting this.

Then we had homemade pizza. I was going to make my own dough but then I got lazy so when we were at the market store, they have fresh pizza dough you can buy. It;s really good so I just picked up some of that. We each had our own mini pizza. I made mine a veggie pizza. It has broccoli, red onion, red pepper, and mild peppers.

Well i have laundry calling me from the dryer so I will end here.Tomorrow we are all back to school and work. I don’t have any special plans for the week. I forgot to take pictures of the books that I told you the library made me get. So I will share those with you in my next post. I am thinking that will be on Tuesday.

So I wish you a wonderful a week!

Slow

Hello Friends! How is everybody doing? Work and School started back up for Little Man and I last week, so we have been getting back into routine and I have been a bit lazy in the evenings. We have had bitter cold and it seemed like everyday there was a little bit of the white stuff falling from the sky.

Last post I talked about getting my sewing table cleaned and i was successful. Less so when it came to pulling out some fabric and cutting it up, maybe this weekend. I have so much fabric and a lot of it i bought because i just like the pattern, so I want to do either strips or squares and make a quilt, something to use my stash up. It’s all fabric that i say “oh but it’s so pretty i have to save it.” This way all my “so pretties” can be in one place and treasured!

I also mentioned Little Man’s new game Forbidden Island. We have played a couple more times and still have not won!! The island beat us every time.

I think Little Man is starting to get a little frustrated. We have been halfway there a couple of times and he gets his hopes up and then an important piece of the island goes under water and the game ends. I have looked online to see if we are doing something wrong and it doesn’t seem like we are but some comments are about how easy the game is or how quick to beat and all i can think is “What are we doing wrong?” I am not giving up yet though! Little Man does enjoy playing it though so i know we will get there eventually.

I have been using my duct tape wallet that I mentioned in the last post and I love it! I don’t normally carry such a small wallet except for work because i don’t like to leave stuff like that in my locker so i just have a small wallet in my pants with the important stuff i need. My duct tape wallet is thin and much more fun than the boring brown one i was using!

I finished my P.D. James book that I was reading for the Bringing up Burns Book Challenge. Now I am on number two: A book that was made into a movie.  I chose Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larrson.

It is the third book in a series, it started with Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I am not sure an English version of the third book was ever made but i know they made a Swedish film. I read the first two books a couple of years ago right after the other and then i needed a break from Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. If you have not read them, they are great books and I feel like they move right along and are suspenseful. They do touch on some topics that some people might not want to read about and can be quite graphic.

In the past week I finished the puzzle that I you can see started in the last photo. It was a fun one and i love these Sheep World Characters!! I have only seen them in Germany.

Today I made some Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Half of them are a gift for a friend because it is their favorite cookie and the other half are for us to enjoy. I forgot how much i love homemade Oatmeal Raisin cookies. It has been years since I made some.  I had already started when i thought, oh I should share with you guys. I soaked my raisins in warm water while I got the dough together.

Here is the butter, sugar and eggs mixed up and i added the vanilla:

Then i put the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

I mixed the wet ingredients with the dry and added the oatmeal and the raisins to be mixed in.

That part was a bit tough.The dough is very thick and sticky.

Then i put my dough in the fridge for about a half an hour so the cookies wouldn’t spread quite so much. Rolled them into balls.

And baked them up for 11 minutes and then let them sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack.

Yummy!!!! I will be enjoying a couple with my bedtime tea!

I hope you all have a wonderful night or day depending on where you are! I will be back soon! No more long absences like this if i can help it.

A Few Things

Hello Friends! It is a cold, rainy and dreary day. I have been doing some cleaning and organizing in the crafty room. Last post I said that I wanted to do some more sewing this year. Well this is a big part of the problem:

I have managed to clear off most of the items and pretty soon I will have a clear table!! That will definitely help with being able to sew 😉

Yesterday Little Man and I had a fun day. We went for a walk after lunch and then played some games. I got Ticket to Ride for Christmas and he got Forbidden Island. So we decided to try them out. They are both really fun games that require some thinking and planning. Forbidden Island is a teamwork game and we played twice yesterday and were not able to win the game so we are determined to try to beat it sometime this weekend. Little Man is feeling a bit under the weather today so he has just been resting but maybe later this evening or tomorrow.

After dinner we made duct tape wallets. It was a bit tricky and sticky 😉 and took longer than I thought it would but we still had fun and are both very happy with how they turned out. I used a couple different tutorials online because of how Little Man wanted his wallet to look and one had some easier steps than the other one.

Here we are making our duct tape sheets.

Then we cut it down to size and since we made our duct tape sheets big enough we had enough to make the pockets, which Little Man was happy about. He was struggling a bit with the sticky and making his sheet.

Here we are setting up the pockets and I.D. section to be taped.

Here they are all done!

We are super happy with how they turned out, especially for our first time. There are little things that could be better, wrinkles and some crooked tape but overall I think they turned out great. I am super proud of how Little Man’s turned out and he did most of it himself and barely wanted my help. It is a bit sticky but I see us making these again.

On Instagram the other day I came across a reading challenge that is on Bringing Up Burns. It’s called 26 Books to read in 2015. There are 26 prompts that you follow. You don’t have to do them in order and I am not sure if I will or not. But to start I am doing the first one.  It is A book you own and haven’t read. I am not lacking in choice.

Some are newer and some have been around for a while. I wanted to make sure I picked one that has been sitting around for a while.

I picked this one up at a library used book sale. I have never read P.D. James before but I have heard good things and I really enjoy mysteries.

So after making donuts this morning for breakfast as requested by Little Man. I go the recipe from here.

I sat down at the table and enjoyed a couple of chapters and a couple donuts. They are really yummy. I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, so I just used regular milk and they came out fine.

Well dinner is almost done so I hope you all have a cozy weekend.

Happy New Years Cheesecake

Hello Friends! How are you? This post should have been up hours ago but my computer had other ideas and did not want to recognize my iphone that I had my pictures on. After tons of google searches and messing around with my laptop I finally had to uninstall and reinstall Itunes and everything was working. So here I am.

It’s a new year! I almost can’t believe it. I hope everyone had a nice time ringing it in or sleeping in to the new year. Little Man and I stayed up and played Minecraft and then at 11:30 we had cheesecake (recipe to follow) and watched the ball drop. After that we went for a walk around the block to see some of the fireworks and bang on pots and just make some random noise to welcome the new year.

Do any of you have resolutions? I really don’t, I have never been much of a resolution maker. There are some things I am hoping for in this year. Some more sewing, getting some projects off the needles and really taking in the day-to-day more. I have realized how much just flies right by me and I don’t notice or take the time to enjoy it and really treasure it.

So Little Man and I decided last week that New Years Eve dessert would be Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. We were playing a game yesterday that he was training to be a Jedi Master. Along with the light saber training, I told him that to be a true master he had to do some cooking too. So he made bean dip and cheesecake with his master 😉 watching over him.

So we got all our ingredients together.

2  8oz packages of cream cheese, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup chocolate chips, I normally use semi-sweet but Little Man picked dark chocolate

1 crust, store-bought or homemade, ours was a store-bought shortbread crust. Really good, I normally do a graham cracker crust.

Preheat your over to 350 deg F.

In a mixing bowl add your cream cheese and sugar. Mix well. Then add your vanilla and mix.

Add eggs…and mix.

Then you will want to fold in almost all of the chocolate chips, save some to sprinkle on top. Recipe says to mix in a half a cup, I just eyeball it.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into your crust and add the chips on top.

Then very carefully into the oven it will go.

Bake for about 40 minutes depending on your oven. You want the middle to be set. I probably could have taken mine out a minute or two sooner as we got a crack in it.

Then you let it cool for a bit before putting it in the fridge for about 3 hours or overnight.

Here it is all settled and cool and so super yummy and delicious!! I haven’t made this in such a long time. It used to be one of my favorites. I always wanted my mom to make it for me for my birthday.

Little Man did a great job and he was promoted to Jedi Master!

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2015!!!

Christmas and Cookies

Hello Friends! How are you? How was your Holidays? Mine was wonderful! On Christmas Eve we went to my father-in-law’s house to celebrate with him and his fiancée’s family. She made a delicious dinner of pot roast and lobster. She decorated the table beautifully.

When I said something about it, she said ” I just thought Forest and decided that was how I was decorating the table” We even got to take home the cups or pots on the table. In each one she had put a bulb and right now I can’t remember what she said it was. It will be a surprise for me 🙂

After we got home, we put on our Christmas Eve pajamas and sprinkled reindeer food outside, got out cookies and milk for Santa and off to bed we went!

In the morning we woke up to this.

We were all spoiled and received some wonderful things. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying our presents before it was time to make dinner.  I didn’t even think to take a picture of our dinner. Lane was in charge of the turkey and I made the stuffing, cheesy potatoes, head salad and a peanut butter pie. I did get a picture of the pie!

It didn’t set up as much as I was expecting it to. It was still super yummy to eat though! Everything was perfect!!

Now on to the cookies I mentioned in my post before Christmas. On Tuesday I was on a mission, I got all the butter out I needed and set it out to soften. I cleaned some dishes, got the cookies sheets, cookie cutters, cookie racks and mixing things out and ready. Then I did the most tedious part of making my cookies.

I ground my almonds. It actually wasn’t as bad as I remembered. After I got started on the first cookies, which actually became my second cookie since I didn’t read far enough in my recipe to the part that said the dough went in the freezer for 45 minutes. Oops. But no problem I just made the Vanillekipferl first.

Then back to the freezer for my Chocolate Snowcaps. It’s a chocolate dough that you roll in powdered sugar.

And then after they have baked they come out looking like this.

They have some instant coffee grounds in them and it really brings out the chocolate flavor and makes them so yummy!!

After those I made the ZimtSterne, (Cinnamon Stars, that’s not the recipe I use but it gives you an idea) which are my absolute favorite cookies ever. They have this slight crunch on the outside but are so moist and gooey on the inside. Yum!!!!

I saved the ones that are the most work for last. These are the Spitzbuben, i have also heard them called Linzer cookies. There is lots of cookie cutting and rolling of the dough and in and out of the oven. They are worth it 😉

Then I put Raspberry jelly on the bottom part of the cookie. Put a top on it and dust them with powdered sugar.

Christmas cookies are some of the best!!

Also in my last post I told you about the package i received from my friend Jules. I have opened all her little Advent surprises now.

So much fun stuff!! When she said she still had quite a bit of Diddl stuff she was finding, I never imagined all this! Every bit of it is a new treasure!! I can’t wait to look at the books and postcards more in-depth. The new Diddl friends are already meeting my old Diddl friends! It’s a Diddl party over here! Thank you again so much Julia!!!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

A Day Off

Hi all! Thanks for the pumpkin love! I always look forward to carving the pumpkin every year, even though I groan about cleaning it out. Halloween was fun, Little Man got lots of candy and the rain held off until the last half hour. My husband’s umbrella was blown inside out twice much to my enjoyment. I couldn’t stop laughing, especially since his umbrella is so big and he had a hard time getting back the right way…Yes, I did just stand there and laugh instead of helping him and I am not ashamed to admit it.

We had the day off school and work today because of elections so Little Man and I went off gallivanting and did a bit of shopping. I found a new tea Joanna, and since you have shared yours a few times i thought I would share the one I picked up at TJ Maxx (TK Maxx for you).

I had one after we got back and it was very good. I don’t add any sugar or honey, What about you fellow tea drinkers, do you put anything in your teas?

After shopping, Little Man and I then made some Apple Bread. It’s one of my favorites and it has been much too long since i have made it. While we were out we got some more Honey Crisp apples.

Here is most of our supplies, there are two bags of flour because I wasn’t sure I had enough but in the end we just made it.

Here is the end result. Yummy!!!!!

We are down to almost one loaf already, but it’s not all in our bellies, I made a few baggies for some ladies I work with because we are always sharing new recipes or treats with each other.

After cleaning up, making dinner and then cleaning up some more, I went for a quick 15 minute walk around the neighborhood. It was so nice and peaceful and I didn’t have to worry about walking alone because I had this guy with me…

Yep, that’s right, Batman is my own personal bodyguard. 🙂

Good Night my friends!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Today was a beautiful day and Little Man even had the day off from school so we made the best of it!

First we went grocery shopping, Little Man would probably say that was the worst part of the day 🙂

After lunch we made pine cones again. Here is one of them:

Then we went to the park to slide

and swing.

Then we came home for a snack and we decided to make a picnic out of it.  Little Man loves picnics and has been wanting to have one for quite some time.

After our snack we washed Little Man’s wagon-it needed it.

While the sun was doing its job and drying the wagon we made the dough for our cookies.

After you wash a wagon you HAVE to go for a ride in it…

(He is in mid-song here)

A ride to another park.

Then we walked back home slowly enjoying the sun on our backs

After taking my mom to her Tango Class we stopped to get invites for Little Man’s b-day and look at yarn at Joann. 

Yep, i got some yarn but it’s not for me-it’s for Steggie. I know i said i was gonna hold of on it but i think it will be a quick knit, he really wants it and Mommy is weak and can’t say no.  It’s Vanna’s Choice, one of the only yarns that had all the colors Little Man wanted.  The colors are a little different then in the pattern but not much.

After we got home it was almost bedtime but i quickly frosted the cookies so we could have one on the day they were meant for. My planning was a bit off with the cookies today but it was all worth it and we had a great day. I hope you all did too.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The recipes for the cookies is here.  I made a small change, I left out the Almond extract and put in some lemon juice and lemon zest. I also added some lemon juice to the frosting.  Super Yummy-one of the best sugar cookies i have had so far.

Cake, Raven & a Blanket

How the time goes by…I never meant to be gone so long but we have been plagued by a succession of colds, Aidan and I not hubby…he never gets sick.

Last time I posted about Little Man’s Valentine’s gift but that wasn’t the only gift i knit up.  My mom had a special request and I obliged.

Pattern: Ferdinand the Raven (pattern on Etsy)

Made for: Babsi

Dates: Feb 15-16, 2009

Yarn: Vanna’s Choice Baby in Aqua and Duckie

Needles: US 4 douple points and crochet hook i think 3.00 mm

Notes: Quick and fun pattern. Easy to follow and the little crochet bits added a nice change.  He is supposed to have a little tuft of hair on the top of his head. I forgot to put it on and didn’t realize until I already gave it to my mom!! Next time I go over there I will add the tuft. I think he looks just as cute without 🙂

On February 21 hubby celebrated his birthday and Little Man and I always bake him a cake. Little Man really gets into birthdays even if it’s not his and this year was no different.  He had some trouble figuring out what to give Daddy so we went over some of his favorite things: Tools, Tv, Computer and Making Knives.  As soon and he said “Knives” something in his brain clicked and he said “That’s it! I will get Daddy and knife and we will make him a knife cake.”  And that is exactly what we did.

To me it looks more like a pirate sword than a knife. Cutting a cake freehand is not my forte At All but hubby knew right away what it was and that was all that mattered and he loved it.  I was so proud of Little Man coming up with that idea and we had a good time making it.

Last Summer i started making a blanket based on this pattern.  Remember this?

Those were from my blanket, still unfinished but that is my goal for this week-i really am so close.  Anyway Little Man wanted a blanket like mine as well so we went and picked out some fabric in the Fall and i washed it right away.  A few weeks later I cut the squares and the sat in a pile, in my closet for monthes.  Last Sunday it suddenly hit me that though it is freezing outside it hopefully won’t be that way for much longer so i better get that blanket done.  I finished all the sewing by Monday.  I did not want to quilt it, I don’t have the patience for it, so i decided to Tye the quilt. I spent almost all day hunched over it with a few breaks it’s finished. 

Bad Close-up of the tyes:

 I am very happy with the end result and have decided to use the same technique on my blanket which means i should have mine soon as well!

I love the fabric Little Man picked and they are a good reflection of the things he likes. 

We already snuggled and read bedtime stories under it 🙂

Junie Bug

Another FO! WOOHOO! Now if only it hadn’t been in progress for over a month.

June Bug, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

Project: June Bug by Jess Hutch
Made for: Me
Dates: April 2-June 2, 2008 (wow exactly 2 mths-i am ashamed)
Needles: 6 & 8 double points
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft for the grey and dk. Purple and i think the light purple is Bernat Satin.
My thought: Very easy pattern, i got kind of tired of the legs even though they technically could be go pretty quickly. I messed up on the placement of one of the legs a little but other than that no problems. So far i am having great fun with these patterns and can’t wait to do more but i don’t think it will be soon because i have Summer of Socks coming up and i have some socks to finish before then and i want to knit a lace shawl to surprise my Grandma. There is so much i want to do!!

And i forgot to load this last time so here is the cake i promised-i got the recipe here. Blueberry Banana Cake-i followed the recipe but instead of Cream Cheese frosting i made a powdered sugar and lemon juice frosting. I made it for the tea party little man wanted to have and it was delish!! But he changed it last minute to a Hot Chocolate Party-either way it was great and we all had fun 🙂

 

Knitted Bear, a birthday and some pie

A new friend joined the family this weekend. He is Dill the Bear from Clare Garland’s new book Knitted Bears. Ours has yet to be named, Little Man wanted to name him after himself but then decided that would be silly. So the bear is sitting on my bed nameless and waiting for clothes. Knitted Bears has some really cute patterns for outfits so i am looking forward to making them especially the ones for the girl bears-which i plan on making for myself in the near future.

Knitted Bear, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

Details–
Pattern: Dill the Bear from Knitted Bears
Made for: Little Man-he wanted him so bad so i made a bear for him first but really i should have stuck with my instinct that the bear would only be cool for a couple mins. he will be cool for another couple mins after he has clothes 🙂 but that’s always how it is with kids.
Dates: May 18-24, 2008
Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby in pale blue and Lion Brand Baby Soft in Cream
Needles: Straight size 5
Thoughts: Oh Boy!!! I had a few problems with this that really didn’t start to show. The stripes were a pain, when i carried the color up even though i tried really hard to be loose-i wasn’t loose enough and when i went to do my seaming i noticed some curving on one side. Which equals curving as i was matching the stripes 😦
There is a lot of seaming-i think with the next bear i want to try and do some of it in the round if i can-and in one color!!!!
My arms were fixable because i could manipulate them more but on the legs only the feet get stuffed so thy have cute dangly legs and you can really notice the curving.
In the book she does her seaming with the right sides together and then you turn them around. i didn’t do that because it was to hard to match the stripes so i mattress stitched everything and i don’t thik that helped my curving either-i tend to pull my mattress stitch a bit tight-Basically everything was working against me on this one-i kept doing silly things that i should know better by now. When i was first done i really didn’t like him but he since he has been sleeping in my bed since Saturday he has grown on me.
i did make one other change-in the book she sews a bead onto the felt eyes and i used a safety eye instead, it saved me from having to sew the felt on.
I look forward to more bears 🙂

How was everyone’s Memorial Day? I did some knitting in the morning and then cleaning in the afternoon. Right now i have a Apple Pie in the oven-I have never made one before so hopefully it turns out. I am using Apple Pie 1 recipe from th Joy of Cooking book.

Last Friday was Rhino’s (Little Man best stuffed pal) birthday. He sprung on me suddenly so i had to get party stuff ready by the afternoon. it turned out really great though-we had ice Cream sandwiches that we made and we made hats and decorations for Rhino it turned out really cute 🙂 Here’s a shot before Rhino blew out his candle…

Time to take my pie out of the oven.
ETA: Looks Yummy