This and That
Shipping food gifts outside the US..
One of my commenter’s left me a bit of interesting advice on shipping food items. When I wrote the article I was thinking about sending gifts to family members in the states. If you have family members in other countries you will want to check with the Post Office to see what kind of restrictions there are for the country you are sending food items to. For instance, I checked for Denmark and found I can’t send powdered milk or products made with it. No idea why, but now I know I can’t send my daughter any cocoa mix.
Speaking of Denmark
I don’t think I have ever shared my daughter Emily’s blog with you yet. She blogs about her life and opinions on issues. Currently she is blogging about her experience in Denmark. If you would like to check it out you can find her blog here: http://missemy07.blogspot.com/ She has recently posted some beautiful pics of Copenhagen and the snowy winter weather she is experiencing!
Cookie Making
Well, it is that time of year for making cookies!! I am thinking when we decorate our tree we should also have a little fun baking and decorating some cookies. Last year my friend Jennie share with me a recipe for Sour Cream Cookies. They were easy to make and we had so much fun decorating them. This makes a huge amount of cookies, but they freeze beautifully. We enjoyed eating them when we made them and then I froze the rest for my cookie platter for Christmas dinner (you can see the pic of the cookies at the top of my blog). Here is Jennie’s recipe:
Sour Cream Cookies
4 cups sugar
1 1/3 cup butter (approx. 2 sticks plus 6 TBSP), softened
4 eggs
2 cups sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. baking soda
9 cups flour
Preheat oven to 350º. Cream together the sugar and butter. Add eggs, sour cream, vanilla and almond extract to the sugar/butter mixture. Mix. Add to that the baking soda and flour. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake 8-10 minutes. This is a doubled recipe. A single recipe uses 2/3 cup butter. Recipe makes approx. 12 dozen cookies.
FROSTING
8 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 dashes of salt
2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla
milk to right consistency
You can divide the frosting into 3 parts before adding the flavoring. Flavor 1 vanilla & color pink. Flavor 1 almond and color green. Flavor 1 maple and leave white. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and flaked coconut.
Congrats to my daughter in law, Lolot!!
Yesterday Lolot celebrated one year here in the USA!! It is so hard to believe she has been here a whole year now. The time sure has flown by quickly. I remember picking her up at the airport last year and then the whirlwind planning of her and my son’s wedding. Lolot has adjusted to life here in this country and life with our family so well. She told me the other day when we were talking about her one year anniversary that it has been an adjustment but it has also been made easier due to a loving family here for her.. kind of melted my mama’s heart.. :) She is currently working while my son continues to go to school.
Today’s To-Do List:
I have a busy Friday planned right here at home:
4 or 5 loads of laundry
Vacuuming, sweeping and mopping
Give my son Isaac a haircut – it is overdue!
Work on my Christmas card list – I need to get them out soon
Finish up the school week : check papers, give a spelling test, etc..
Dinner and food preps
That is all from the homestead today.. hope you have a great weekend! :)
One of my commenter’s left me a bit of interesting advice on shipping food items. When I wrote the article I was thinking about sending gifts to family members in the states. If you have family members in other countries you will want to check with the Post Office to see what kind of restrictions there are for the country you are sending food items to. For instance, I checked for Denmark and found I can’t send powdered milk or products made with it. No idea why, but now I know I can’t send my daughter any cocoa mix.
Speaking of Denmark
I don’t think I have ever shared my daughter Emily’s blog with you yet. She blogs about her life and opinions on issues. Currently she is blogging about her experience in Denmark. If you would like to check it out you can find her blog here: http://missemy07.blogspot.com/ She has recently posted some beautiful pics of Copenhagen and the snowy winter weather she is experiencing!
Cookie Making
Well, it is that time of year for making cookies!! I am thinking when we decorate our tree we should also have a little fun baking and decorating some cookies. Last year my friend Jennie share with me a recipe for Sour Cream Cookies. They were easy to make and we had so much fun decorating them. This makes a huge amount of cookies, but they freeze beautifully. We enjoyed eating them when we made them and then I froze the rest for my cookie platter for Christmas dinner (you can see the pic of the cookies at the top of my blog). Here is Jennie’s recipe:
Sour Cream Cookies
4 cups sugar
1 1/3 cup butter (approx. 2 sticks plus 6 TBSP), softened
4 eggs
2 cups sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. baking soda
9 cups flour
Preheat oven to 350º. Cream together the sugar and butter. Add eggs, sour cream, vanilla and almond extract to the sugar/butter mixture. Mix. Add to that the baking soda and flour. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake 8-10 minutes. This is a doubled recipe. A single recipe uses 2/3 cup butter. Recipe makes approx. 12 dozen cookies.
FROSTING
8 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 dashes of salt
2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla
milk to right consistency
You can divide the frosting into 3 parts before adding the flavoring. Flavor 1 vanilla & color pink. Flavor 1 almond and color green. Flavor 1 maple and leave white. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and flaked coconut.
Congrats to my daughter in law, Lolot!!
Yesterday Lolot celebrated one year here in the USA!! It is so hard to believe she has been here a whole year now. The time sure has flown by quickly. I remember picking her up at the airport last year and then the whirlwind planning of her and my son’s wedding. Lolot has adjusted to life here in this country and life with our family so well. She told me the other day when we were talking about her one year anniversary that it has been an adjustment but it has also been made easier due to a loving family here for her.. kind of melted my mama’s heart.. :) She is currently working while my son continues to go to school.
Today’s To-Do List:
I have a busy Friday planned right here at home:
4 or 5 loads of laundry
Vacuuming, sweeping and mopping
Give my son Isaac a haircut – it is overdue!
Work on my Christmas card list – I need to get them out soon
Finish up the school week : check papers, give a spelling test, etc..
Dinner and food preps
That is all from the homestead today.. hope you have a great weekend! :)
Hi Crystal.. do the sour cream cookies taste like a sugar cookie?
ReplyDeleteyes they do.. :)
ReplyDeleteWe made Amish sugar cookies this weekend! But I cheated and bought the icing :O)
ReplyDeleteCrispe
Hi Crystal,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the cookie recipe again. I remembered it from last year and definitely plan to make these. I was wondering in regards to your December menu that you don't have leftovers listed. What do you do with any dinner leftovers that aren't eaten? Do you send them to work with your husband for lunch or do you recreate meals from the leftovers of another? Since it's just the two of us eating, I usually end up freezing most of a meal and then my husband and I eat the same thing for several days in the week. I'll admit it does get a bit boring by the 3rd time! I'm curious if your family eats the whole meal or what you do with leftovers. Thank you and hope you and your family are having a blessed Christmas season!
Dawn :)
HI Dawn,
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good question. Over the years I have tried to adjust my meals to what my family will eat. At one time I had a good handle on how much they would eat at a meal and could gage pretty well how much to make and if I wanted leftovers I could make more food. Nowadays, my family size is always in flux it seems. I have kids in and out of the house and I don’t always know how many will be home and eating at each meal. So, yes I do have leftovers and when I do we eat them the next day and the planned meal or that night is placed on my list for the next month. Or I freeze the leftovers and put them on the menu for the next month. But since I never know, I plan a meal for each day.
I love the new pictures on your blog heading! Makes it feel like Christmas! I can't wait to try these cookies.
ReplyDeleteHi Crystal,
ReplyDeleteMade these cookies with the vanilla icing. They were good, but I thought I would sprinkle with some cinnamon and put in the microwave for about 10 seconds. They turned out to taste just like mini cinnamon rolls!! Yum! Thought you might like to try the idea.