Molasses Gingersnaps and Ornaments

 

Oh my goodness!  Has it really been six weeks since I last wrote a post???  Since blogging isn't my first priority time can slip by me quickly.  My family, job as a substitute school nurse and embroidery usually take precedence over blogging.  When I do finally take the chance to blog, I get so into it, I find myself wondering why I don't make it a point to do this more often!  But then I look and six weeks have flown by.  Oh well, I'll just enjoy it when I can.  I hope you enjoy reading my blogs as much as I enjoy writing them.


Today I have a couple of new treats to share.  One is edible, and the other isn't.  The first is Molasses Gingersnaps.  My father's sister, Audrey, used to make this and I LOVED them.  I've been eating them all of my life and making them for at least 40 years.  I have used various combinations of the shortening.  Sometimes I use 3/4 cups each of Butter flavored Crisco and butter.  You do not want to use 100% butter, and you do not want to use plain Crisco.  You want butter flavored.  When I was a teenager, my dad would provide black strap molasses for me to make the cookies.  I've found molasses that calls itself black strap but it isn't like the nasty stuff my dad was able to get.  I saw nasty because it was REALLY bitter.  But it made the BEST cookies.  The more bitter the molasses, the better the flavor in the cookies. My daughter has been known to eat almost an entire cookie jar in a fairly short period of time!

Printable Version

Aunt Audrey's Molasses Ginger Snaps 1/2 cup  Butter Flavored Crisco 1 cup  butter 2 cups sugar ½ cup  BlackStrap or less sweet molasses such as Grandma's Robust 2 eggs 4 cup  flour ½ tsp  salt 4 tsp  baking soda 2 tsp  cinnamon 2 tsp  ginger 1 Cream shortening, butter, sugar and molasses. Add eggs. Beat well. 2 Add dry ingredients and mix well. 3 Roll into small balls, 3/4" to 1" in diameter. Dip top of ball into sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet - I use parchment paper- about 2" apart. 4 Bake at 350° for approximately 8 minutes. Servings: 108 The second thing I want to share is Christmas ornaments.   I have been stitching lace Christmas ornaments.  I can make them in any color. They measure approximately 3" to 3.5".  They are extremely affordable at $3.50. An added bonus is they are non-breakable! Take a look at the ones I can stitch and see if you'd like one as a gift for a special person.

Aunt Georgia's Sugar Cookies

I have tried  many different sugar cookie recipes but this is a family favorite.  I have a dear friend, Brenda, who I've literally known all of my life.  Our parents were friends before we were born.  We started attending the same school in middle school.  At some point during our friendship, I was given the recipe for these cookies. Years later, her sister, Cheryl, had a son and I had a daughter.  I made these cookies for almost every holiday when my children were small and continue to do so.  My daughter knew that "Aunt" Brenda  had a sister and that the sister had a son but Cheryl's son and my daughter did not know each other even though they were just a year apart in age.  My daughter grew up and went to college.  She was home for spring break when we attended a celebration for Brenda & Richard's 25th wedding anniversary.  Lauren and Ryan met, married and now have two children.  Many people avoid making sugar cookies because of the time it takes to decorate them.  Don't try to be Martha Stewart!  I just sprinkle a little sugar and decorative sprinkles to match the occasion and design.  No one minds that they aren't iced like butterflies, bunnies etc.  Sometimes I put chocolate chips on top of a few just as they come out of the oven, and then as the chocolate melts, I spread the it around like icing and them put a few decorative sprinkles on top.  Aunt Georgia's Sugar Cookies. This recipe came from Georgia Redington,my son-in-law's great aunt. If you use the small cookie cutters from Pampered Chef or similar, the recipe will make approx 270 cookies at about 30 calories each. 1 cup  oil, ( canola , olive, etc.) 2 sticks  butter 2 eggs 1 tsp  baking soda 1 tsp  cream of tartar 1 tsp  vanilla 1 cup  sugar 1 cup  powdered sugar 4 cup  flour 1 tsp  salt 1 tsp  lemon juice 1 cup  powdered sugar for rolling dough 1 Cream oil, butter, and eggs. 2 In separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients then add to creamed mixture. Add lemon juice to all and mix well. Put dough in refrigerator for several hours. 3 Generously sprinkle powdered sugar on counter or other rolling surface and roll dough to ¼" thick , cut with cookie cutters, decorate as desired and bake at 350° for 7 - 10 min. or until starting to brown. 4 ** Other ways to make the cookies is to roll dough into 1" balls, roll in granulated sugar and press with a decorative cookie press or with the bottom of a glass. 5 ***For chocolate frosting, don't decorate cookies before baking but immediately as they come out of the oven, place a few chocolate chips on top of the cookies, wait until the chips melt and then spread around to "ice" the top of the cookie. You can then add decorations to the top of the chocolate. I like to use the Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chips. Servings: 60  Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1 serving Percent daily values based on a 2000 calorie diet. Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients. The following ingredients were not linked to the ingredient database and were not included in the nutrition information: powdered sugar for rolling dough Amount Per Serving Calories 111.45 Calories From Fat (54%) 59.94 % Daily Value Total Fat 6.80g 10% Saturated Fat 2.22g 11% Cholesterol 11.02mg 4% Sodium 82.73mg 3% Potassium 18.39mg 1% Carbohydrates 11.76g 4% Dietary Fiber 0.23g 1% Sugar 5.35g Sugar Alcohols 0.00g Net Carbohydrates 11.53g Protein 1.00g 2% Recipe formatted and exported by Living Cookbook from Radium Technologies, Inc.

Facebook and Ice Cream Cups

Recently Facebook made it easier to give everyone a way to find my  Nan's Nappies page.  If you are on Facebook, please be sure to click on the link below and "Like" it so you can keep up with all of my work.
 
https://www.facebook.com/NansNappies


Now to tell you about something yummy, clever and easy!  I saw this link on my good friend, Hannah's blog.  (http://aholeistodig.blogspot.com )

 http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/2012/03/thin-mint-ice-cream-cups/#comment-25389

The ice cream cups in the photo are made with Thin Mint cookies and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.  My husband is not a fan of mint flavors but I can imagine all sorts of ice cream/cookie combinations for this.  How many times have you had a party and stood there trying to quickly dip ice cream for your guests?  How many times do you hear someone ask for " just a little bit" ?  How many times have the first bowls you dipped been melting while you were frantically dipping and your hand was getting tired?  No more!  You can make these several days ahead of your party.  I can imagine vanilla wafers with any flavor ice cream, Oreo's with cookies and cream, Pecan Sandies with Butter Pecan.  What flavors do you think you would try?    They are like individual ice cream cakes without the sore hands from trying to rapidly cut the cake for your guests.  CLEVER!

I worked for a couple of hours today at my second job as a school nurse.  Today I went with a group of special needs students to a pool.  I have one student in particular that I travel with.  He is a sweet autistic boy with diabetes.

I have an order to embroider a Formula 1 Race Car on a t-shirt.  The customer's first choice was for a red-t-shirt.  I didn't have a red t-shirt on hand but just knew that I could find one at Hobby Lobby.  I went there after work only to find that their smallest red T-shirt was a size 2-4.  I needed an 18 month size.  The second choice was light blue; they only had royal.  The third choice was white but they didn't have a white t-shirt in that size.  The customer told me to use a onesie.  Guess what?  They were sold out of 18 month size onesies!  I stopped by Babies R Us and bought 18 month size onesies.  Unfortunately they do not sell plain t-shirts in any size so I couldn't get the t-shirt there either.  There are days when things just don't work out as I'd like them to.