Let the yumminess begin.

As a child, whenever I was visiting my Grandma Micki's house, you can bet there were cookies in her cookie jar. That cookie jar was the best thing in the Whole. Wide. World.

What made it better than any other cookie jar, you ask? Try snatching a cookie out of my mother's cookie jar, then we'll talk.

Okay. Really my point is that you could snatch cookies at nine in the morning, 11:55 (just as you're sitting down to lunch), nine in the evening...and any old time in between. Without being scolded or getting your little hand swatted!

More often than not, Grandma had Ice Box Cookies stored in her cookie jar. (On occasion, she'd go on strike and just buy Oreos, though.) Grandma's Ice Box Cookies are my favorite cookie of all time. I was fortunate enough to get a recipe for them, and now I'll share it with you!

Ice Box Cookies
(a.k.a. Refrigerator Cookies)










1 C. Sugar
1 C. Brown Sugar
2/3 C. Shortening (I use butter flavored Crisco)
2/3 C. Butter (room temp.)
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs

3 1/4 C. Flour
1 C. Chopped Nuts (I used pecans and walnuts,
but whatever you have on hand is fine)
1 tsp. Salt

1. Cream together first six ingredients, adding eggs one at a time.

2. Mix in dry ingredients, adding flour gradually.

3. Seperate cookie dough into two equal-sized balls. Form each ball into a roll (approximately 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter) and wrap in wax paper. Chill at least 8 hours.

4. Slice about 1/8 inch thick and bake (I prefer to use parchment paper) at 375 degrees for 8 minutes - or until edges are just golden brown.

(See where there are a couple missing? Avery and I just couldn't wait any longer...)

I promise - if you like buttery, nutty, chewy and crunchy goodness, you will love these cookies.

How many ways do YOU eat blueberries?

Okay, so they're a "super fruit." The antioxidants in them provide a human body with all sorts of healthy goodness. But aside from all the health benefits, they're just plain yummy.

Avery and I have spent the summer eating them in yogurt with granola, warmed in oatmeal with brown sugar, and straight out of the fridge whenever we're in need of a bite-sized snack.

Fresh blueberries are expensive if you purchase them from the local grocery stores here, though! We had been treating ourselves to a pint every other week or so, which was costing us approximately 3-4 dollars a pint. When you consider how many you can pop into your mouth in a sitting, they sure don't last long.

Then, during a visit to Sam's Club for our industrial-sized box of diapers, I spotted the Holy Grail of fresh fruit: a 2 pound tub of fresh blueberries for the low, low price of $4.99! That was two weeks ago, and we've had beautiful, delectable blueberries coming out our ears ever since.

The tub contents dwindled until I just barely had two cups of slightly softening berries left. So this morning I decided to bake something delicious with the remainder.

Great-Grandma's Blueberry Muffins

* 1/4 C Butter or Crisco (I used Crisco because I wanted my muffins light golden brown. Butter tends to brown them more.)
* 1 1/4 C. Sugar
* 1 Large Egg
* 3 3/4 C. Flour
* 1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
* 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
* 1 C. Milk
* 2 C. Blueberries

Topping:
* 1/4 C. Flour
* 1/2 C. Sugar
* 1/2 C. Butter, cold and cut into chunks (I used the real thing this time!)

1. With an electric mixer, barely blend butter and sugar.

2. Add egg.

3. Mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture alternately with milk.

4. Fold in blueberries.


5. Sprinkle with topping.
Topping: Using a fork or pastry cutter, mix ingredients until all the flour and sugar have adhered to the butter.


(I don't know what kind of mammouth muffin pan my great-grandmother used, but this recipe states that it yields 8 muffins. If you use a regular muffin tin, you should get about 20.)


Bake at 350 degress for 20-30 minutes until tops are just golden brown.



ENJOY!

Mine! Mine! Mine!

I alluded to the fact that Avery may have some issues with sharing.

So this book really caught my eye. (I don't know who Amazon is kidding. $45 plus shipping for this book new? And used copies starting at $28 plus shipping? I guess we really got a good deal at $1.99!)

Anyway, I'd like to confess something: I'm a sucker for rhyming. Add to that some cute dinosaurs and a very good lesson, and I'm really sold.


I love the crazy, unbalanced look in his eyes. His mama is NOT proud of this moment.


As if that first display wasn't bad enough, he then steals everyone's snacks. (I'd have probably thought about stealing the scones, too. Man, those babies are delicious!)

In the pages to follow, somehow this selfish, wacky guy learns his lesson, though.



I'm sure his mama is breathing a huge sigh of relief.

What's for supper?

I'll tell you what's for supper at our house! Baked beans and cornbread. Yummy.

Pioneer Woman has an amazing recipe for this fantastically filling food (like my alliteration?). But I wasn't really in the mood to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen today. Last night I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, country gravy, and peas...and delicious as it was, I just wasn't willing to do that many dishes again.

So today I'd like to pass on the cheater's recipe for baked beans.

Shhhh. It calls for pre-cooked, canned beans. Don't tell your professional chef friends.

Oh yeah -- it also calls for hamburger. As Jennifer stated so eloquently, "Men Like Meat."

EASY Baked Beans

2 cans Lima or Butter Beans
1 can Pork & Beans
1 can Kidney Beans
1/2 lb. Hamburger
1/2 lb. Bacon
1 C. Onion, chopped
1 tsp. Dry Mustard
1 tsp. Salt
1 C. Ketchup
3/4 C. Brown Sugar
Drain lima and kidney beans. Brown hamburger, bacon, and onion and cook until nearly done. Add hamburger mixture to beans and spices. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hr 20 min, covered. ***Or, if you're like me, follow all directions, then throw the entire mixture into your crock pot. Cook on low for approximately 4 hrs.***

Your carnivores won't be disappointed!

Did you know?

Spaghetti sauce is great for the skin. The acidic juices of the tomato gently peel away unhealthy skin. The herbs cool and calm any red, irritated spots. It's also especially helpful in aiding the healing of any carpet burns, bruises, bumps, and scrapes.

Oh, wait. I'm making this up. I just thought I'd try to make Avery feel better about his slightly out-of-control self-feeding episode the other night.

Autumn Greeting

Apparently summer is backing away from us, and autumn is eager to fill its place. This week, we're already getting down into the 40's during the night. Brrr!

I'm one of those people who are impossible to please. I hate sweating the second I walk out the door during the summer months, but I also despise shoveling snow and bundling up. I suppose that's human nature, right? Let me feel a little bit better about my constant state of discontent when it comes to this region's weather...agree with me, please.

I dragged out my crock pot today. This chilly weather is putting me in the mood for something slow-cooked and wholesome. Beef roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and some fresh garden peas should do the trick. Mmmm...I can't wait for supper and it's not even noon!

Mmm, Mmm, Mmmmmmm

I LOVE scones.

Our local Sun-Mart makes the absolute best cranberry scones. I've tried numerous times with various recipes to get the consistency of theirs. That's the key to really good scones, by the way - their flaky, buttery, light texture. Mine have always come out tough and chewy.

Yesterday while scoping out Fargo's new discount-type store, Tuesday Morning, I came across these packaged scone mixes. (they're made by King Arthur Flour) So I baked some this morning. They are WONDERFUL! I'm seriously considering ordering more of their mixes. But the nicest part is that they have recipes on their site, as well. So even if I don't order their product, I can still make them myself!

Just look at my yummy success!




I added chocolate chips to my scones, since I purchased just the plain scone mix. Paired with some good, strong coffee and that flavored creamer, I think I'm starting off my day rather well!

Have a happy weekend everyone.

Spectacular Summer!

I thought after my last post, I needed to add something positive here...

We spent some quality time at the lake cabin this weekend, and were fortunate enough to have lovely weather! Here are some of the highlights:














After all that excitement, we had an awfully tired child on our hands. Naps were taken whenever there was an opportunity!

About Me

It has recently been brought to my attention (Thanks, Matt) that I blog primarily about Avery and not as much about myself. So - here are some tid-bits about myself.

1. I LOVE to read - I get caught up in a book so easily, hours can pass without my even realizing it.

2. My favorite holiday is 4th of July. This is mostly because as a child we'd always spend it with my grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins at the lake cabin near Detroit Lakes. Grilling, swimming, tubing behind the speedboat, staying up late playing Pinnochle...there are so many great memories.

3. I have birthed two children without an epidural. (The first was purely by chance. The second, by choice. And I realize to many of you, this is a strange inclusion...but it's a motherly thing of pride for me.)

4. As a child, meatloaf and canned peas were a staple in our home. Both of which made me gag. Today, I can stomach my own meatloaf, but do not come near me with canned peas.

5. I love trees. If there is just one thing I would change about North Dakota/Minnesota it would be the addition of more trees. (Second would be the nasty winters.)

6. I have never lived anywhere more than 45 minutes from my hometown: Arthur, ND.

7. I am a tough person. It takes a very serious situation to cause me to break down.

8. Taking #7 into account, I get very emotionally attached to pets. When our childhood dog, Gypsy (an ever-curious, good-hearted, & VERY patient Golden Retriever) died, I think I cried for a week. Seriously. Also, I had to put my teenage pal, Payton (the friendliest - and most responsive - cat I've ever met), down when he contracted Feline Leukemia. Matt and I took him, with his withering little body wrapped in an old bath towel, to the nearby vet's office. I remember sobbing all the way home, his dead little body still wrapped in that towel, enclosed in a medical supply box. I hugged that box tightly, repeating: "It's just not fair" over and over again.

9. I'm very handy. My father never had any sons, so there were never "boy tasks" in our home. Anything was fair game to everyone. I can replace caulking and points on 50+ year-old storm windows, drive a stick-shift (at this point it'd be pretty rusty though), drive all sorts of farm machinery, lay shingles, change the oil on my vehicle, etc. Farm life definitely promotes independence.

10. My love of English can be credited to my high school English teacher, Mrs. Nyberg.

11. I love coffee; plain black, mochas, iced lattes - you name it, I love it.

12. I remember when I told my first lie. (Terrible, right?!) The whole family was sitting in the living room watching television and I told my mother I wanted a piece of gum. She said "No, it's too close to bedtime." I left the room, snuck into her purse (she always had spearmint Trident, and her purse always had this aroma of mint and tobacco), took a piece of gum, and returned to the living as though nothing happened. If you're familiar with spearmint Trident, you know you can smell when someone is chewing it from about a 6 foot perimeter. My mother asked me: "Megan, did you take a piece of gum from my purse?" Me: "No, Mom, I didn't." Mom: "Spit it out in my hand NOW." Me: (spitting the gum out) "Sorry Mom." -- Not an especially evil lie, but I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 at the time. Shame on me.

13. I have seasonal allergies so bad that sometimes my eyes swell so badly that all I have are little gunky slits to see out of. (Pleasant mental picture, right?)

14. I have ALWAYS wanted to learn to play guitar. (I just got one, so hopefully soon I'll be serenading you all soon!)

15. I have never traveled out of the country - unless you count Canada, which I don't.