Simple GAB

As if the 12″ of snow this week was not enough to get us into the Christmas spirit, baking coolies sure sealed the deal.

It all started a few days ago when Bubba wanted to make “Stoplight” cookies.  So we whipped up a batch of dough, rolled it out, cut into circles and sprinkled some red, some yellow and some green. Then lined them up in a row like a stop light before we could eat them.

AJ, being a little grumpy the next day said we should have made Christmas cookies, and said he’d  help make some.  Lucky him, we had saved some dough in the refrigerator!

Fast forward to the next day when we suddenly get dumped on with a foot of snow! Perfect day for making cookies.  Bubba was happy to help, AJ suddenly found that playing FIFA soccer on the Wii was far more exciting.  (ha you think you are getting any cookies now mister?)

Behold the final product, beautifully decorated as only a 5 year old can:

Christmas Ornament Cookies

(adapted from Treasury of Christmas, 3 cookbooks in 1)

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon orange extract (recipe calls for almond, but the boys don’t like it)

assorted sugars, candies or decors

Place flour & salt in medium bowl; stir to combine. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl with mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla and extract. Gradually add flour mixture and beat on low until well blended. Divide dough in half, cover and refrigerate 30 minutes or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Take one portion of dough and roll out onto lightly floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutters.  Reroll the trimmings and cut out more shapes. Place cookies on ungreased baking sheet.  If using sugars, decorate cookies before baking (if using icing or frosting decorate after baking)  To make cookies into ornaments for the tree, take a drinking straw and cut a hole near top of cookie so that later you can insert a ribbon for hanging.

Bake 10 -12 minutes until edges barely turn a light golden brown. (cook them any longer than that and they will be best used as ornaments & not eaten!) Let stand on cookie sheet 1 minute to cool, then remove to wire rack.

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I will try to post a recipe as we work our way through our holiday baking.  I have a few favorites I make only at this time of year.

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe that you like to make for the holidays?

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Did you get a lot of Trick or Treaters?  Not here….we had 2, yes you read that correctly, just TWO.  We would have had ZERO except Bubba accosted a girl trick or treating at the neighbors and said are you coming over to my house…then asked the 13 year old boy across the street if he was coming over. Fortunately they both obliged and Bubba got the thrill of passing out some candy. Then we waited, and waited, and no one else came…well except Daddy came home and took him out for more trick or treating! Whoo Hoo Dad’s rock.

Here is after the haul:

This year Bubba was so into the Halloween activities. He has had several parties to go to, and has now been dubbed Mr. Social!! We get to the school Halloween dance and he says “I have to go find  my girls”…so he could ask them all to dance!  I cannot wait to see how that plays out in the future.

Thanks to M’s mom for giving us this shot from the dance

A Firefighter & his Princess

Here are a few shots from his school party:

Donuts do not get past this boy!

With so few Trick or Treaters we have plenty of candy left…how about you?

…as the first day of Kindergarten is finally here!

Of course he has to show off the backpack:

School was GREAT!

Bubba jumped right in to his “homework”. (which really consisted of giving Mom some papers!)

Oh, and remember to always make your mini-man the night before:

Now what’s a mom to do with 3 ½ hours of free time everyday?

Every Thursday from 3-6:30 p.m. during the summer and early fall our town has a little Farmer’s Market.
We made it to the very first one way back in early June, and since it was too early for produce then we mostly had soaps, herbs, wine and baked goods to choose from.
Yesterday we decided to swing by again, since there were reports of some delicious fruits and veggies to be had.

I told Bubba I was looking for nice ripe tomatoes, since our garden at home is still full of green tomatoes.  Bubba’s sole purpose for joining me was to get a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie from My Street Bakery.

Here’s our take for the day: a few ears of corn,  orange cherry tomatoes, and of course a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie:

Nope, not a big reveal on a new Will Smith movie, but please go ahead and read on anyway.

Bright and early Sunday morning we traveled down the long and winding path…

…to find these ripe for the pickin’!

I was so glad G-man could reach across the tough spots.

Then I caught AJ,  just trying to sneak a taste.

Bubba, well he was not so discrete!

Here he is again, creeping up on Mr B&W…

The fruits of our labor; this is what 14 pounds of freshly picked blueberries look like:

(Mom’s bucket is the full one,  BTW )

The guys were very pleased with their haul.

And the morning would not be complete without the requisite Blueberry Pancakes.

I better tell Sugar Momma I think we are going to be needing a little more Maple Syrup

Oh and later we also made a scrumptious Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake!

Thanks to Virginia at Living the Local Life for giving the heads up that Berrybogg Farm was finally open for the season!

Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful Fourth of July!

©Scott Bulger Photography

We are expecting rain…surprise, surprise…so that will put a damper on the fun. Many places have already rescheduled their fireworks displays. At least that means more opportunities to celebrate and enjoy the fun.

I am really hoping the Fireworks over the lake are still on for tonight, as that is my favorite setting to view them.

Please stop by Frugal GAB for a link to get a free Star Spangled Banner mp3 download!

For those of you are are not NASCAR fans (like me), you may not have known that last weekend at NHMS was the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 race.  Normally we try to stay around home on race weekends because the traffic can get unbearable.  But on Friday we had to run a few errands, so we ventured out.  Soon we saw a few of the race car trailers all blazoned with logos and Bubba knew what that meant…cars, yeah race cars, all around town.

Most of the teams hook up with their sponsors or participating retail stores to have the cars on display, and Bubba remembered that from the last race.   So we decided to make the loop of possible sites, and of course  WalMart did not disappoint, as we soon saw the big trailers for the Cheerios car and Kellogg’s Poptarts/Frosted Flakes car.   The PopTarts car was outfitted with a race simulator inside, and since Bubba is 5 he could not reach the pedals, so he had to sit on my lap while I operated the pedals.  Great fun!

Next we moseyed on over to Home Depot, and sure enough they had the Home Depot Racing car! No race simulators here, but they were taking free photos which you could later retrieve online.  Good thing since I did not have my camera with me. So Bubba happily stood in front of the #20 car for his photo.   Later he proclaimed this was his favorite race car (mind you this boy has NEVER watched a NASCAR race in his life).

Imagine his delight when he later discovered that Joey Logano, the driver of the #20 Home Depot Car was declared the winner of the  LENOX Industrial Tools 301 race after 273 laps, and too much rain to continue.

Sigh, a fan is born.

Thanks to Home Depot Racing for the free photos!