Valentine traditions

You have my heart!!

Well, I almost did not get this accomplished this year, but did manage to get them made.  For some reason Valentine's Day seems to sneak up on me every year.

Many many years ago, when our children were young, I was thinking one day about what could I make to give to each of our close neighbors and friends to let them know we were thinking of them on Valentine's Day and wanted them to know they were loved and special to us.  I decided I would make some sugar cookies for each person and put their names on it.  Now it seems to me that Valentine's Day and chocolate are synonymous, so I wanted to come up with a way to combine the two items.  I had some chocolate chips, so I decided to melt them in the microwave and try spreading the wonderfully goodness on the cookie instead of a layer of frosting.  Then I made regular buttercream frosting to decorate the edges with a lacy scroll and write the names of each special person on the cookie.  

They were an instant hit and I pretty much have made them ever since on VDay.... only once a year.  Our neighbors grew to expect them and it has really been a fun tradition in our family.  

The recipe for the cookies is from the Betty Crocker Cookbook and they are called Aunt Mary's Cookies or Deluxe Sugar Cookies, but you could use any favorite sugar cookie recipe.  This particular one makes a very delicate cookie and calls for powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.  It is a favorite for us.

You bake the cookies and cool them on a rack.  Then,  I put about 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips in a bowl and melted them in the microwave for a little over a minute.  Stir until the chips are dissolved.  You have to watch it closely and do not want to heat them for too long or the chocolate will become grainy.

Then, spread the chocolate on each cooled cookie.  I usually let them set over night to completely cool, but you can put them in the fridge or freezer to set up faster.

Then mix up your favorite butter cream frosting and put in a pastry bag with a star or shell tip.  Just go around each cookie kind of moving in and off the edge of the cookie.  I usually start at the center and move down the side and then go back to the center and do the other side.  Usually, I hold each cookie in my hand, but a turntable might make it easier.

I'm not really sure what happened this time, but my chocolate looks a little speckled.  Oh well, it should taste just the same. ha.

I usually do all the scroll edges and then go back in and write the names of my family and friends last.  It helps to calculate just how many of these you want to send out before you make your cookies by making a list of recipients.  This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies.  My cookie cutter is about 3 inches across.  So, sometimes I have to double up on the recipe.  You can make them ahead and have them in the freezer ahead of time and then all you have to do is pull them out and decorate them.  (Usually, I am NOT that organized, but it has happened that way a few times.....)

I like to put them on a paper plate with a red napkin underneath, usually left over from Christmas.  Then you can put the plate in a ziplock gallon-sized bag for delivery.  For our children who live out of town, I store them in the freezer until we see them and they do just fine.

You could leave one in the mailbox for your postman, or take some to your favorite hairdresser or doctor.  I have made them for our church staff also and put them in the break room.  And I always try to take them to our close neighbors and any elderly widows we know.

It is just a fun way to say " I appreciate and love you" in a personal way.

And,........... THEY ARE YUMMY!!! The chocolate with the frosting and the cookie, oh MY, a perfect combination with a cup of coffee!!!

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my little cookie valentines.

So, will YOU

???????

Have  a wonderful Valentine's Day my friends!!  All diets are off until tomorrow!!! ( or until you finish that box of chocolates your handsome husband gave you!!

I got red roses too......love that man......we will most likely go out for dinner and a movie tomorrow as we have some sweet granddaughters to support at a basketball game tonite!!



Singing His Praises,

Linda

Back to blue and green, my first love.

Hi friends, I hope you are all having a great month!! I have been spending a lot of time taking down all the Christmas and then trying to reorganize and accessorize as I go.  It is a slow but enjoyable process and one that I am relishing these days.  It is very cold in Kansas right now and I don't have much desire to leave the house anyway.

For Christmas, I had a lot of my red and white transferware out to go along with everything.  What I have the most of is blue and white, and usually have most of it in the diningroom, but it is OVERFLOWING, I decided to use it in the kitchen too with my green.  I just love blue and green together, don't you?  Seems like green is really making a comeback also.  GREEN is my favorite color and is kind of an anchor color in my home.  It really serves as a great neutral in decorating and you can change it up with the addition of so many other color combinations.  And, I find it so peaceful.....

I am enjoying a new plate rack to the right of the stove that I got from Nell Hill's this last fall on a fun shopping trip to Atchison.  What a treat that store is!!

Someday I have beadboard wallpaper to put in the back of the the glass door cabinets.  I just need to make the time to get it done.  I keep realizing that is the key, is just deciding to go ahead and do it and cross it off my list, one of the things I hope to do better this year.

See the Moon and Stars green candy dish in the background..... it was my mother's and now it is mine to love.  We always had a batch of hard candy in it at Christmas, a special childhood memory.  We lost my mom this last summer, it still seems hard to believe.  I find myself thinking that  I need to call her just about every week.  

This area is totally different than it has been during the eight years we have lived here.  I did have a country possum belly hutch here, but is seemed to really crowd the space.   The fake mantel came from some very dear and precious friends of ours who found it in an old house they purchased and did not want it.  I gladly took it off there hands...;))) and have enjoyed it since the late 70's.  I added the shutter doors over the opening.  The empty frame above I have had forever also.  I think it is part of an old game table.  I just washed it with the off white paint.

Oh, and I have some cool fabric to make new window toppers, also on the list!!

This is how this area looked for Christmas:

What is missing in this picture is a wreath around the Santa head.  I never got that accomplished, oh well, there is always next year, right?  

I found the cache pot at a garage sale this fall and already had the pedestal, I think they look lovely together. For Christmas, I had paperwhites in it and it looked so pretty.

This little bookcase sits on a larger cabinet and is always fun to decorate for any holiday.  I had a few of my smaller Santas in it along with the dishes.


Now, it looks like this:

That is my blue and green story for the kitchen.

Next up, I am totally going through my art studio that has been absolutely neglected for the last two years!!  Hoping to be spending a lot more time in there creating in the coming months, but oh my it is really a process...but I'm getting there......

Thanks for visiting special friends!!  It feels good to have a little change of scene and things freshened up doesn't it?



Till next time,

I'll be singing His Praises,
Blessings, Linda

Linking to Jennifer's fabulously creative Friday

Something good in the oven

 Hi friends, since it was a dark and dreary morning, I
 decided to make a batch of scones to take to some friends who just lost their mother.  My friend also, Sylvia was British and such a wonderful  person.  I thought scones would be fitting.  I decided to double the recipe so we would have a few too.  These are super easy and one of the best scones I have ever tasted.  The recipe comes from the blogosphere, but I don't remember just where I got it a few years back and I am sorry  I can't give credit.  They were called Chocolate Chip Scones, but I make them with cinnamon chips instead and they are sooooo good!!  They freeze well also.

Here is the recipe:
I often double it.

Cinnamon Chip Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon backing powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into pieces
(I use my pastry cutter for this)
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cinnamon chips


Preheat oven to 400 degrees -( I set my oven on 385 degrees as it seems to run hot.)

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Add butter over flour mixture and using fingers or pastry cutter or fork, work the butter into the flour  until the flour mixture is very coarse.

 In a small bowl, ( I used my measuring cup), whisk sour cream, egg and vanilla till smooth.  Stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form.

Add the chips.

When dough starts to come together, turn out onto a clean surface and shape it into a 7 inch circle.  If you prefer, you can make two rectangles.  Slice the circle into 8 triangles or slice each rectangle into 4 triangles.  ( Since I doubled my recipe, I did this in two larger circles and wanted smaller scones, so I cut each triangle into 2 smaller triangles.

Arrange triangles a few inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake until golden, about 14 to 15 minutes. You just want them to barely start turning brown around the edges, so watch the first batch to know how long to bake them.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Then, glaze with a powdered sugar and milk mixture and serve while warm.  Enjoy!!

Hope you all enjoy these as much as our family does.  You could add dried cranberries, cherries, nuts, toffee bits, etc. also.  I just tend to do the cinnamon every time.  By the way, the cinnamon chips are almost impossible to find except during the holidays, but you can order them directly from Hershey.  I think I used Amazon.com.  But, be warned, if you order them in July, they pretty much come melted in the bag like this:

So, you have to chop them up.  I plan to order some more when my stash is gone BEFORE  it gets hot!! ha.

Well, girls, I made it through this post with the new format, but did have some troubles with the pics, managed to get it all figured out, finally!!  I am so technically challenged..... Now to see if it will post.........

Singing His Praises,
Linda

Linked with Fabulously Creative Friday Linky Party.http://www.jenniferrizzo.com/2013/01/fabulously-creative-friday.html

Testing.......Is anybody there????

 

 

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends.  Yes, it has been quite a long time since I posted!!  Life sometimes demands that we put other things on the backburner and that is what happened.  But, hopefully I can get back in the swing of blogging, as I have truly missed it.  Unfortunately, the Blogger format has changed since I last posted and I am relearning how to go about this, so wish me luck.  This is my second try this afternoon!!! I am scared to preview, as that is where I went wrong, so I may just hit publish and take my chances. ;))  Hope you are all well and looking forward to a wonderful 2013.  I sure am hoping to have more time or maybe I should say MAKE more time for creative endeavors.  I have decided that there is ALWAYS something I "should" do, and my usual habit is to choose that.... but alas that leaves me feeling kind of unfulfilled (if you know what I mean.)  Just hoping and praying to have more opportunities to create, as that is my heart's desire.  Wishing you the desires of your heart also my friends,

 

Blessings,

Linda

(here goes).............

Bring on the pansies!!!

Well, this is my house, no not today, but very soon, I hope!! Today, we are socked in with heavy fog all day and another 6 inches of the white stuff on the ground!! I just can't think about it anymore. So, I am looking at my gardening books and magazines and dreaming of warmer days to come!
Soon, I will be hearing the frogs in the pond across the road, the first sign of Spring to me. I love that sound!! I am hoping my ground cover will be a bit more prolific this Spring in the Secret Garden, and there is a rumor afoot that there might actually be electricity hooked up this lovely fountain!! Wouldn't that be wonderful? I have a hard time keeping the rabbits from eating everything I plant in this area, but I keeping persevering!!

Would love to have a bunch of ferns take hold under the trees here.

Easter comes late this year, which I think will be so nice as all those cute little Easter outfits might actually be seen without the coats which cover them up so often here!!!

Thought you might enjoy seeing one of my miniature Easter baskets. They are such fun to make!!

Hope you have all had an enjoyable and restful weekend. Lets all think about all the things we want to plant. Yes, the SUN WILL come out tomorrow and Spring will arrive again.!!

Singing His Praises,

Linda

Dreaming of Spring decorating

I am soooooo ready for Spring and all that comes with it!! Would you believe these are my bookcase shelves that I did last Spring and liked them so much, I just left them up all year!! It is balmy here today, a little windy and overcast, but still a pleasant change from the Artic expresses that we have had this winter in Kansas.

Love my little sheep collection and I am ready for Easter, arent I? I am way ahead of the game this time, ha. I am so pathetic. We have been working on so many projects (downstairs) in the last few months, my house (upstairs) has suffered. But, I am NOT giving up. I will keep preserving with my ideas and brain storms to make our home as welcoming as I can. It is me, I can't help myself!! I have found that working at home has made me even more of a homebody than I was before though, and that is not necessarily a good thing!

Sometimes, I have to make myself go get groceries. After I am out, I am fine and could go all day, it is just the want to. ha. I am spending too much time in my grubs with my hair undone, I guess. Any ideas from any of you who work at home?

Have been going through closets and drawers little by little as I plan to have a huge garage sale this spring. I just have WAY too much stuff and I am finding that I cannot keep it clean if I display it. That, and I am finding that my taste is changing a little and I am liking things a bit more streamlined I guess. BUT, it is NOT NEARLY AS MUCH FUN as my usual weekly trips to the Goodwill store!!! I still indulge every now and then, ha.

Hope it won't be long before we can really get out and enjoy being outdoors, planting flowers, etc.

There I go again with all my plans!! Lets see, I would like a new bed in the back yard, a brick walk, a little privacy screen for the trashcan, a little patio area off the deck, some new bushes in the back beds, more roses, a new bed in the front, a fountain in the secret garden............


Have fun with your ideas, girls, we have to keep our husbands busy so they won't be bored, right?

Singing His Praises,

Linda

Merry Christmas to all my friends!!

Merry Christmas to everyone of you and all of your families!! I am still here even though you haven't heard from me in a while. It's been crazy in my world for several months, but I am learning to cope better with the changes in my life, I hope..... I wish each of you the most wonderful Christmas with those you love and a year ahead full of bountiful blessings from the Lord above. He is so good to me and patient with my mess-ups.

I am so grateful for a loving family and husband who is my best friend on this earth. We have a new grandbaby we are anxious to see soon. This time we have a BOY to go along with the eight little girls in our lives!! What a blessing grandchildren are!! We watched a Hallmark movie today and one of the characters said that children "force" you to live in the moment because that is how they live. I am continually striving to get better at living in the moment, aren't you?

Schedules are usually begging to be broken so the fun can begin.

I want to work at letting it be okay that I did not do everything on my expected task list every day.

I am grateful that I have a loving Heavenly Father who always has time to fit me into his schedule if I will just show up....

Hope to visit with you more in the future, dear friends.

I will close with a picture of some of the minis I made for our miniature club gift exchange. I really want to duplicate the whole thing in full size too!! There I go again.... making plans.....

Singing His Praises,

Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on Earth and good Will toward Men.

Linda