Crunchy Birthday Cookies

When I was a little girl, I'm guessing around 5, I received this birthday card with a recipe for Crunchy Birthday Cookies. I love these cookies. They are scrumptious, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, hearty, full of texture and yum, and the cookie dough pre-baked is pretty much the best thing ever. Not that you should eat raw cookie dough. But I do. Actually I read somewhere that you can buy pasteurized eggs. I've never tried them, but the next time I'm pregnant and get a craving for cookie dough, I might give them a try.

*I forgot the baking soda in this photo.

I love that a birthday card included a recipe. And a recipe new to the family. It's become an heirloom recipe, and those are few and far between in our house.

I'm tempted to eat all of this.

Crunchy Birthday Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg (well beaten)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 c. dry oatmeal
1 c. corn flakes (I use bran flakes)
1/2 c. coconut
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Cream butter; add sugars, then egg and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture. Add corn flakes, oatmeal, coconut, and pecans to mixture. Roll into small balls and place about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Will make approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Don't over-bake them or the coconut starts to burn. Enjoy!

Yum. Yum, Yum. Yum.

This post is featured in Eat At Home's Dry Cereal Ingredient Spotlight.

Random Friday

I call this post Random Friday, which may or may not indicate a recurring weekly post on random stuff. We shall see. Since I've deactivated my Facebook account and don't really care to use Twitter, I suspect this is where all the Facebook status updates I compose in my head will end up.

I've added a follow by e-mail button over on the right. If you want to get e-mail updates when I add a new post, go ahead and enter your e-mail address and hit submit. Easy.

My almost-two-year-old thinks smiling is something you do only with your eyes. Tell her to smile and she makes huge bug eyes that slowly drift off to the side. I'm not sure where this came from, but it never fails to make me laugh. Maybe she thinks "Smile!" is a command to get her to make me smile. In that case, she's got it down.

I'm seriously considering a chore chart for myself. Apparently I am five and thus need some manufactured motivation.

I am also counting down the days until I think my daughters can grasp this concept. It's brilliant. I think I'm almost there with the three-year-old.

I feel terrible for my 137-pound dog who had a growth removed from his foot last Tuesday. He's stuck with a cone of shame for what I've been told will be a "very long healing process" involving twice-weekly bandage changes by the vet.  And did I mention his cone of shame is actually a size bigger than necessary because the vet was out of his size. Her exact words were "it's big enough for a bear." I jokingly asked if he would be able to fit through the door, and she said, "if he turns his head sideways."  It's true.  My daughter observed that he looks like Mother Goose. I'm not sure a bonnet would be any less degrading. Poor guy.

Preschool Game Review: Go Fish!

For Christmas this year my three-year-old received pretty much the most perfect gift for her (thanks, Amanda!), and I thought I'd tell you about. It can be hit-or-miss with kids games, so when I find a good one, I want to share it. The Go Fish game from Playchest Games is actually two games in one. There is a color matching game that's perfect for any little one who knows their colors. It's a fast game, which is perfect for kids (or parents) who have a short attention span.  Fish cards are spread out on the table face down. Players take turns using the fishing pole to fish for cards. If you catch a fish that matches the color of your boat, it goes into your boat--it's a keeper. If you catch a different color, you release it back into the "pond." My daughter and I started out playing the matching game. I've been playing matching games with my daughter for almost a year now, but she's just now finally starting to get it and pay attention and remember where things are. In fact, I left to throw in a load of laundry one day and told her to set up the game. I sat down to play and she got three matches right away. I started to get suspicious when I went to fish and she started smiling and shaking her head. She said, "that's not a green one!" I said, "Hey, you can't cheat. Did you look at the cards when you set them up?" She said, "Mom, it's supposed to be a memory game!" So technically she's starting to get it, but apparently we need to work on the details. This game goes quickly. There are only four slots to fill on your boat, and there are eight cards of each color.  The odds are pretty good. There are also three lose-a-turn cards (a boot, an anchor, and a rubber tire). Two to four players can play.

We quickly graduated on to the second, slightly more difficult game, which is Go Fish pretty much as you already know it.  This game ignores colors and requires the players to be able to recognize numbers. The cards are spread out face down and each player picks six cards for their boat. Oh how I wish there were six slots in each boat. It's taken my daughter several games to figure out how to keep her six cards in the four-slotted boat, and she still occasionally forgets to check the cards that are hidden behind other cards. BUT, she's learning. The fish cards are numbered 1-8 (thank you Playchest Games for not making us distinguish between 9s and 6s! I noticed, and I appreciate it.). Matches are placed face up next to your boat. The youngest player goes first and asks for a number. If the player has the number, the asker gets the card and the match and goes again.  If the player does not have the number asked for, the asker gets to "go fish."  

The fishing rod is awesome. It's got a firm line and a suction cup under the worm that works surprisingly well to catch fish. The line can be angled for the best possible catch and the worm and line can even be "hooked" to the pole for storage. My daughter loves when she has to "go fish." Today when we were playing she pretended to jig, set the hook, and reel in. Cute. She's also made up stories for the fish and the worm. "That fish is hungry, he's licking his lips! The worm is scared, look." I don't know if it's because the youngest player gets to go first, but my daughter legitimately beats me almost every game. Stomps me, is more accurate. Notice in the photo below I am blue and she is purple. I have one match and she has seven.

Another great feature of this game is the storage box. Everything fits easily, and the sturdy box closes securely, so there's no dropping the game and pieces going flying. Is that only a problem in my house? There's even a handle.  I love this game. I've played it at least once a day and usually several times a day with my daughter since Christmas, and I don't mind it one bit. On the box it shows three other Playchest Games: Penguin Plunge, Silly Story Maker, and Once Upon a Castle. I think I'm going to look into those next!

*I was not paid for this review, I just really like this game!

Notes from the Couch

jeff medaugh

Occasionally my girls catch an episode of Angelina Ballerina on Netflix. (Did you know Judi Dench voices Angelina's dance instructor, Miss Lilly, in the series? I love that.) It occurred to me that the girls had probably never seen real ballet. I quickly searched Netflix and started playing the documentary Ballerina. Despite having to explain subtitles, which led to a discussion of languages, etc., the documentary held their attention for a pretty long stretch. We were watching a particularly beautiful and elegant ballet when my daughter said the following: "Mom...Mom...Mom, next Halloween...next Halloween can my costume be a..." 

Could it be? My very tomboyish daughter was getting a girly streak? She was appreciating the elegance, gracefulness, and beauty of ballet?

"...a hunter? I want to be a hunter for Halloween."

Maybe her younger sister will want to be a ballerina.

My Christmas Wish: No More Diapers

So despite having virtually zero freelance work over the last week or so, things have been anything but dull around here.  My youngest daughter will be turning two next month, and I've been waiting for the perfect time to potty-train her (as if there is ever a perfect time!).  My three-year-old was potty-trained a couple months before she turned two, and it went pretty smoothly. Since my workload has taken a nosedive and most of our holiday events have come and gone, I decided now is as good as time as any. So on Sunday morning, I pulled out the underwear instead of the diapers and jumped right in.  My method of potty training is intense, but it's over rather quickly (about five days).

I started potty-training my oldest based on the advice of the sister of my brother-in-law, an experienced mother and day-care provider. Her advice came via a Facebook comment.  I've gone to her with questions before (Best diaper cream? Triple Paste), and she's never steered me wrong. She said to switch her over to underwear (no pull-ups) cold turkey, have her wear tight stretchy pants (hello, leggings!), and ask her if she has to go potty a million times.  Of course, there's lots of praise and a little manipulation going on: Look, you kept Minnie Mouse dry, she's so happy she's smiling!!!  Don't get the ponies wet, yuck!  It also requires your undecided attention for five days straight.  It sounds simple, but it really does work.

I've been through this once before, so I stocked up on underwear and had my stash of tight-fitting stretchy pants ready.  There will be lots of accidents for the first two or three days.  Day one, was accident after accident after accident. Lots of sitting on the potty and more accidents. Day two, was only a couple big accidents where she fully released her bladder, and lots of little accidents where she would pass a little urine and then sit on the potty.  She started having success on the potty on day two. She would pee several times throughout the day, but it would be only a tiny bit at a time.  By day three she was definitely having better recognition of when she had to go. She had one big accident, but otherwise it was all just a spot of pee in the underwear before going on the potty.  The evening of day three we reached a crossroads.  My daughter was doing a great job of not having accidents, but she also wasn't fully emptying her bladder on the potty.  She'd let just a tiny amount pass each time.  This meant lots and lots of trips to the potty and increasing discomfort for her as she struggled with not wanting to have an accident and not really letting it all pass on the potty.  She cried and had the mother of all meltdowns for almost 30 minutes.  She even brought me a diaper in tears.  At that point I took the diaper in my hands and almost gave in.  That's when I realized the potty training was actually working. She understood that she wasn't supposed to go in her underwear; we just needed to help her feel comfortable going on the potty.  It was incredibly difficult, but I didn't give in.  Eventually, she calmed down and went to the potty on her own and released.

On day four there was only one big accident when she was reading and I had gone a long stretch without asking her if she had to go.  On the evening of day four we had a big win, however.  She pooped in the potty!!!  On day one she had pooped in her diaper at nap time (I keep her in diapers for naps and overnight), but she hadn't pooped since then.  I was relieved when she finally went on Wednesday and overjoyed that she did it in the potty.  On day five we had no accidents--not even tiny leaks.  She stayed dry the entire day.  I had some last-minute Christmas shopping to finish up that night and had to leave her with our sitter for a few hours.  I had no idea how it would go, but I got a great report when I returned home: no accidents and two nice long pees on the potty!  She makes lots of trips to the potty (false alarms), but I'd call a dry 24 hours a success! It's now day six and things are going great. She even told me she had to go potty when she was in the bath and then went went I took her out. And she's now fully emptying her bladder every time (as far as I can tell).

I plan to keep her in a diaper at nap time and overnight until she consistently stays dry during those times.  I kept her sister in diapers overnight for a couple months after she was potty-trained.  When I finally got tired of "wasting" a diaper each night, I switched her to underwear.  She's never had an accident at night.

Potty-training this time around has been more difficult.  My oldest never had this bladder-release problem and the grumpiness that came with it.  She also didn't have a sibling distracting her a dozen times in a million different ways. And we've got a fabric sofa to worry about instead of a leather one.  Also, I potty-trained my oldest when my youngest was just a month old and I was pretty much sitting and nursing all day.  I'm much more aware this time around how much focus and time this process takes.  But the timeline for success has been much the same. The bonus this time around is that my daughter prefers to go on the big potty, so I don't have to clean out the little potty.  In fact, I'm planning on putting it away in our storage room tonight.

So it looks like I'm getting my Christmas wish: no more diapers!!

My New Favorite Potato Soup

Last night I was thinking about what I could make for supper. With a trip to the grocery store planned for later that evening, the refrigerator was relatively empty, and I was feeling uninspired. I had a handful of potatoes left from our garden harvest and some frozen diced leftover ham. I started searching the Internet for a creamy potato and ham soup. I scored when I found Christy Jordan's Southern Plate's My Favorite Potato Soup recipe. I'd say that's the perfect name, as it's now my favorite potato soup.  I didn't have any whipping cream, so I used Christy's suggested substitution of evaporated milk. I also added a stalk of chopped celery. I only wished I'd had some green onion and bacon to top it off. Yum!

Potato soup is a big comfort food for me. The smell of it cooking on the stove brings me back to lunch at my grandparents' house when I was a kid. I also love that it's simple and easy. My photos don't do this recipe justice. Click the link above to see a truly delicious photo. My husband usually isn't drawn to potato soup like I am, but he loved this recipe, had seconds, and declared it the best potato soup he's ever had. I had to guard the pot just to make sure there was enough for me to have leftovers today.

The World of Dick and Jane: A First Reader Experience

Today I was finishing up a bit of work at the computer while my daughters were playing quietly in another room. "Quietly" being the operative word. Usually there is laughing, screaming, crying, tattle-telling, singing, crashes, etc. In the quiet, I could hear my daughter reading. She's three.

She started reading a couple months ago. One night I was busy switching out a load of laundry before bed, and I told her to go read (look at) a book while she waited for me. She said, "Mom I don't know how to read." So that night I started teaching her. Way back before she was even walking I bought her a Dick and Jane book. It was the first book I learned to read. It was also the first book my mother learned to read. She still has that copy, tattered and full of the doodles of the progression of kids who have read its pages.

My daughter has been amazing. I think it's a combination of memorizing certain words and certain word characteristics (the long "s" word is "something") and thinking about letter sounds. It been interesting for me, as well. I will never know why she consistently mixed up "come" and "look" over and over again. It's certainly been a test of my patience. She often looks at the illustrations first and has a million questions before she even starts reading...many of which are answered in the text. It took me a while to learn that she wanted to be challenged. We started out by rereading several stories each night often repeating two or three from the previous night. I think she would get bored and start guessing the words rather than studying them as she read. Now we read one new story from the book each night. The beauty of Dick and Jane is the repetition. And as new words are added they appear again and again in later stories. It's true, as an adult the repetition gets old quickly. But what I didn't remember as a kid was the humor in the illustrations. Spot, the dog, digging sand onto Sally who then uses an umbrella to shield herself from the falling sand. The kid who makes a mess and blames the pet. I can identify with the mother who is grocery shopping. Sally (the youngest) grabs a bag of cookies and is ready to go home. That's it. The most important item is in the cart. My daughter thought the story of of the three children dressing up as monsters in paper dry-cleaning bags and then chasing the father was hilarious. While there are a few things to explain, such as milk delivery, the stories are timeless.

Anyway, all of this is background to the moment this morning when I heard my daughter reading all on her own for the first time. Precious. I was beaming with pride. I opened up Blogger and started writing this post. Suddenly I heard her running and the bathroom door open and shut quickly. I could hear my daughter make her way to the potty. And then I heard these words: "Mom, I got poop in my underwear!" (It was just a tiny spot.) Ah, yes. The book so good you just can't tear yourself away. We've all been there. I guess the next lesson for my daughter will be that there are times when you just have to put the book down and take care of business. And then you can always come back and pick up where you left off.

These are the important lessons in life.