Cran-White Chocolate Cookie Recipe

Every Christmas time my sister, Katie, brings us an enormous plate of homemade Christmas cookies, candies, and chocolates. It really is amazing. I'd show a picture, but usually the kids have started eating it before I get the camera out:)

After we have enjoyed her efforts, Katie takes an informal poll of our favorites so she can save those recipes for the next year. While all of the goodies are divine, my favorite every year is the cranberry white chocolate cookie. Mmmmm. This is the perfect cookie because it freezes well and is a crowd-pleaser.

I'm not sure where Kate got the recipe, but I hope she doesn't mind me posting it to share:

Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Yield: about 3.5 dozen

1C butter, softened
2/3 C sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
2C all purpose flour
1-3T water
3/4 pkg dried cranberries
3/4 pkg white chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, flour and enough water so the dough sticks together when scooped. Mix in cranberries and chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.
When cooled, melt some white chocolate chips in the microwave with 1t. shortning. Drizzle on top of the cookies.
Yummy.

Complainer

You couldn't ever accuse me of keeping my mouth shut when conditions don't meet my unrealistic expectations. It's one of my greatest qualities.

A few weeks ago new name plates were ordered for all the permanent employees in the Office of the Governor. As a hired-gun, my desk was notably absent of a fancy new name plate. So I did a little whining and complaining and drawing attention to the lack of a name plate on my desk which is just fine because you're all going to just kick me out of here soon anyway. We can't wait to get rid of that Scott guy - boy what a cad.

When I returned to my desk after being called away on important fellowship duties, I discovered the following printed on cardstock.

and today I received my very own . . .

Squeaky wheels get something or other.

(Thanks to all the great folks in the Office of the Governor for putting up with me!)

District Spelling Bee

So last nite Anna competed in the district spelling bee. T-E-N-S-I-O-N

There were fordy or so kids ranging in ages from 6 to 47. I had reservations about the kid sporting the graying goatee.

We picked up her fancy name tag and posed for some type of picture in front of a green screan.



Then she assumed her position in the front row - she was contestant #8. It didn't seem to matter if you were early or leight in the order - it was more important which word you droo.



First round she drew MANGLE.

"Em Ay En," she began.



". . . Gee El Ee." whew!

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a nife.




She got through her second round word NYLON, and then the group advanced to the intermeddiate words.


SUSCEPTIBLE - was her third rownd word. "Es Ewe Es See Ee Pee Tee Eye Bee El Ee." She jumped through that one like a champ.

For the fourth round she drew SORGHUM.

"Ahh," she thought, "one of the five top cereal crops in the world, along with wheat, oats, corn, and barley. It originates in Africa, having been cultivated in Egypt in antiquity, and the largest producer of sorghum in the modern era is still Africa, although the crop has spread to southern Asia and the Americas as well."

"Es Oh Are," she began, "Gee Seven Ewe Em."

"Bing!" went the bell. "I'm sorry; that's incorrect." said the judge.





11th Place - and a participation award earned a trip . . .



. . . to Peach City for a milkshake.






Nice job Anna!

Recipes - Jambalaya & Banana Pudding

Missy made us Southern food a couple of weeks ago and as she cooked, I made notes. I think I got it right, but if I didn't hopefully Missy will comment with any changes.

Missy's Jambalaya
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 minced garlic clove
1-2 chicken breasts, cubed
1-2 kielbasa sausage
3 c. chicken broth
1 t. thyme
1 t. Texas Pete (find at Smith's)
1 1/2 c. parboiled rice (Uncle Ben's)

Saute the chicken and sausage until cooked through in a pot with a lid. Remove and saute the onion, gr. pepper and garlic in the same pan. Add the chicken broth, thyme and Texas Pete to the vegetables. Simmer 10 minutes. Add the meat back to the pan. Add rice and cover until done. Yum.


Wicked Banana Pudding




1 lg. box instant vanilla pudding (prepared according to package directions)
1 pkg. cream cheese, at room temp.
1 small tub cool whip
1 can sweetened and condensed milk (I told you it was evil!)
4-5 bananas
12 box vanilla wafers

Beat cream cheese. Add sweetened and condensed milk. When mixed, fold in cool whip. Stir in prepared vanilla pudding. Layer cookies, bananas, pudding in a square casserole dish or other like-sized container. Continue layering ending with cookies on top. Refrigerate overnight.

Thanks, Miss!

Frost on the Willow Tree

New Glasses

In a fight with ten ninjas, Steven damaged his glasses beyond repair. (he handled nine; tenth one got him.)

So today we went for a little adventure to the optometrist. Glasses are hard to pick - I'll never forget the cover to my fourth grade English Grammar book with two ladies on a carnival ride wearing horned-rimmed glasses. Nothing (until the modern cell phone and maybe the powder blue tuxedo) is so time revealing as glasses. The trick is to get something that isn't too trendy and isn't too bland.


So let the selection begin!






too red . . .




too Keanu . . .



too old timey . . .




too bold . . .




too alien . . .




too big . . .




not bad . . .




After checking the prices we settled on a great pair













Very nice!

By Popular Demand

I Love Dogs

By request - a resubmission of our second post. I guess we're syndicated now.

I emailed this to friends from the Weber Dispatch Center in March of 2005. I had been in Cedar City for a little over five months. Mary was still living in Ogden and working tirelessly to keep the home with eight little hands clean enough to show to potential buyers. It was hard times for us, but in retrospect, it brought us closer together. Like John Donne's arms of the compass, we leaned towards one another the further we were apart.


I'm leaving the grammatical errors in; it accentuates the story that way.

C-Note Post

If Google can be trusted, this is our 100th post. We have accomplished this feat in 260 days meaning that we post about once every two and a half days. This is right on schedule with guidelines established by MaryElla & Patti.

We have received 547 comments on our posts (a little less than 5 1/2 per post) and I'd like to thank each and everyone of you for participating. While I have enjoyed writing and sharing our events and thoughts, it makes it so much more enjoyable to have such kind readers sharing the experience.

To those of you who don't comment - thanks for reading. It warms my heart when I am speaking to someone and they mention something that they have read on our blog. It's very gracious of you to take the time to follow the goings-on of our little family.

Another sincere thank you to those of you who placed a link to our blog on your own.


The posts that garnered double-digit comments were:


Derus or Bizarros Wolfords


Club Theory

Princess Mary Reformed Flower Killer


Anna's Birthday Party


Butter - it's what's for dinner!

Before & After

&

Helicopter Ride



We've had a total of 3,318 visits with 7,139 pageviews since 4/26/09 if you believe google and 5,755 visitors with 7,909 pageviews if you believe Stat Counter.

We hope that the next hundred posts are every bit as enjoyable as the first hundred.

(And now our Christmas Portraits for no good reason other than I must maintain the correct word-to-photograph ratio as recommended by JP)

Nine O'Clock Church

The best thing about early church is the Sunday afternoon nap. Mary always has a great lunch in the crock pot or dutch oven waiting for us, so well before 2:00 we all settle down for a good family snooze. Everyone participates, and even the most ardent critics succumb to a warm, soft chair.

The dilemma with the nap, is deciding how long should you sleep. It seems silly to set an alarm clock to wake yourself up from a nap, but more than once I have woken up after pounding out a good three hours. (Mary was pretty sure I was dead, but the Sunday nap is so good she didn't want to risk waking me - you can always call the funeral home on Monday.)

You are probably in the zone if you are between 60 and 90 minutes. Anything longer than that and you risk staring at the ceiling fan in the bedroom for 1/2 as long as you slept over the 90 minutes. Three hour nap? It's going to cost you 111,700 revolutions of the ceiling fan. It's like counting sheep only faster.

Dinner from the Sowf

So my sister, Missy, had last week off of work and decided to visit her favorite sibling (me) and fix us a marvelous Southern dinner:
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Jambalaya
Sweet Potatahs (I didn't know a vegetable could taste like that!)

It was to DIE for!

The banana pudding was the most amazing, evil dessert. If I lived in the South I'd be dead by now.

Thanks, Miss!

Christmas Tree

Spelling Bee

Today Anna competed in the Foothill Elementary Spelling Bee. She competed for the first time last year and got tripped up by the word "margarine." She knew the word, but something about being in front of some scary judges and the whole school can be a little overwhelming.

The judges were scarier this year, but Anna made it through six rounds into third place.

In the seventh round Anna was narrowly defeated by the word "syntax."

As a finalist, Anna will compete in the district event in a couple of weeks. Go Anna!