Kid Friendly Food (AND Holiday Tradition!): Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Mr. Pie didn't bring a lot of Christmas traditions to our family when we got married, which was hard for me, because I come from a big family full of tradition.  Games and movies and outings and recipes...there was so much I wanted to bring from my Christmas experience to our family!

 

But in the beginning, I felt like I really needed to scale back because: 

 

A) Mr. Pie didn't seem to really get into Christmas, and

 

B) I felt like I would be steam-rolling right over him if I bombarded him with all the things I wanted to bring over from my family. 

 

So really, until we had kids, our Christmases were rather quiet.

 

However, there was one tradition he did bring... Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

Every year, the one thing that did seem to make him happy during the holiday season was the package of Chocolate Crinkle Cookies that usually arrived either from his mom or his sister.

 

According to my husband, they were his grandfather's favorite cookie, and his grandmother would make them every Christmas.

 

Eventually, the packages stopped being sent from his mother, and the responsibility of carrying on this one tradition for my husband fell to me.

 

Well, this is definitely a Christmas Tradition I can get behind!

 

But what's even better is that I now have three little boys who like to help/watch me make "Daddy's Special Christmas Cookies", as they are otherwise known at our house.

And I have a feeling these cookies will become a strong Christmas tradition for them in the years to come.  And that makes me happy.

 

 

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
(recipe taken from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book)

1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 c. sugar
1 T. vanilla
4 eggs
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
powdered sugar

In large bowl, mix oil, chocolate, granulated sugar and vanilla. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours. 

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. 

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into powdered sugar; roll around to coat and shape into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

Bake 10 minutes. You want them to still be slightly soft in the center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Tips:

 

Although it says to just drop the dough into the powdered sugar, I actually roll the dough into a ball before rolling in the sugar.

 

I also bake these only for 10 minutes.  I have found if they are baked longer they will dry out more quickly. 

 

Enjoy!

Christmas Time Is Here

Christmas is just about here, and before it is time to pack up all the decorations once again, I thought I would post a little photo tour of the Cocoa Pie Christmas House 2012:

Snowmen
Here is our little snowman collection.  It started with just the blue snowman candle holder, which was just a random decoration I had from before I was married.  Over the years we have slowly added to our snowman family.  The newest addition is the little guy in the red scarf perched on top of the original blue candle holder snowman.

 

Santas

This is one of two Santa vignettes I have set out.  My favorite is the big Santa, which is new to our house this year.

 

Here is a look at the entire set up, including some countdown blocks that one of my best friends made for me last year, as well as the advent book that she made for me this year, and the paper covered barn star I made this year:

 

 

 

Nativities

For a long time, these little mini nativities were the only ones I had.  My mom has sent me all of them.  There is a bookstore in Utah, Deseret Book, that usually offers a small nativity for a super cheap price if you buy a certain dollar amount of product.  So my mom will usually buy one for me and my sisters as she does her Christmas shopping there.

 

After 8 years of marriage, I finally bought myself a full-sized nativity set.  I have been wanting one since before I was married, but just never found one that I liked.  This year, especially because the boys are old enough to really start understanding the real reason for Christmas, I knew I needed to get one. 

 

I found this one at Hobby Lobby the first week of September.  I knew from an earlier experience at Hobby Lobby that if I saw something I liked, I needed to get it because they don't restock their seasonal products.  So, I bought it for 50% off and stuck it in my closet until it was time to decorate. 

 

Poor Joseph has already had his hand broken twice.  It made me sad, but with three little boys in the house, what can you do?

 

 

"Mantel" 

And here is a photo of the stockings I made a few months ago actually hung by the fireplace:
 

 

And here is a full view of my weird fireplace.  It's not a mantel.  It's one of those media center nooks that I hate.  I do the best I can, but it is really hard to decorate this weird, stupid nook.

 

 

 

Cupboard

I have a small cupboard in my kitchen that is the perfect place for various decor.  So, my second Santa vignette lives up here during the holidays, including an "Irish" Santa that I found and bought to incorporate Mr. Pie's Irish heritage, along with a Christmas tree cookie jar my mom bought me the year my twins were born while she was visiting over Christmas, some little Santa salt and pepper shakers, a cute tin my sister-in-law sent full of cookies one year, and some "Merry Christmas" blocks my sister gave me a few years ago as a Christmas gift.

 

You can see in the top right corner of the photo the lighted garland that decorates the top of my kitchen cupboards, as well.

 

 

And there you are, a little peek into my home, and some of the things that we call Christmas. 

 

I love to put things up that have a story and meaning behind them.  I guess I am a little sentimental that way, but I like being able to have a happy memory of a person or event every time I unpack these decorations.

 

Now go and have yourselves a merry little Christmas.

A Little Thing

I made my niece a baby doll quilt (among other things I will post about soon) for Christmas.  I am also making a gift for her mom, my sister. 

 

As I was finishing up my niece's quilt, I decided to use some of the binding scraps and make this little pincushion for my sister as an add-on to her gift.

 

 

 

I followed the pattern exactly.  It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.

 

And I love it so much, I am going to make one for myself and one for my other sewing sister :)

Back from Hiatus

I have had a lot going on the past few few weeks.  We had family visit for Thanksgiving and took an impromptu trip to North Carolina in between all the normal craziness of the Holiday season kicking into high gear.

While I have been sewing (frantically at times!), I have also had a couple of other projects going on that took priority simply because they had deadlines. 

I taught a class at my church on my paper-covered barn stars the week before Thanksgiving. 

 

I wish I could say it was a smashing success, but I have come to realize that there are a lot of people out here (I live in rural-ish Virginia) that have probably NEVER paper crafted before.  While it should have been a simple "cut and paste" project, I think a lot of people that took it were overwhelmed.  Oh, well. 

I am also in the Primary (Children's organization) Presidency at my church, and with the new year comes a new theme and just a general renewal of all the materials we use throughout the year.  My current project for Primary was making new binder covers for the Presidency and all the teachers.

     Below is a sample of one of the teacher binders.  Even though now that they are done I wish I had used the same red paper on the text and the list, I think they turned out really cute!

 

(The empty block is where the class, children's names and birthdays go.)

 

I used a free kit from Summertime Designs to make the covers.  She has some really lovely kits, and they are amazingly all FREE!

 

 

 

 

  

 

WiP #26

 Not much time today, however, I have a few WiP's to report, despite a crazy busy weekend!


#1 - I have cut out most of the fabric for my nieces baby doll bibs and diapers.  Most of it comes from my scrap bin, and I wanted to give a little variety for the little hands to feel and play with, so I have plain cotton, flannel and even a denim one.  I am going to embroider their names on the denim bib.  I will be lining all the diapers in white fleece.

#2 - Since I cut into a pair of jeans for the bibs and diapers, I finished cutting the rest into squares for my denim rag quilt.  I thought I might cut a few squares with a seam in them, just to give a little visual interest and see if I like it.  I also saved the denim scraps and cut them into strings to possible throw a few string squares into the mix, too.  We will see.

#3 - I made a pieced strip for the backing of my baby quilt with my leftovers from the top, and finally found some perfect fabric for the binding.  Now I just need to piece the backing and get quilting!

 



 

 

Linking up to WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

This Is How Nerdy Quilters Get Excited

I was driving back from taking my kids to the pediatrician this morning when I remembered that a new quilt shop was opening in town not too far from the doctors office.  So I swung around, intending to just check and see where exactly it was, and if they had an opening date on the door. 

 

O. M. G., they were OPEN!!

 

So I riled all my boys up until they were squealing with delight about how excited they were to go to the new fabric store! 

 

Now, while it is still nothing like the quilt shops in my beloved Utah, compared to the selection I have here in northern-central Virginia, this place seems almost like an oasis!

 

I managed to pick up two charm packs.  One I need (really, I promise, I NEED it!) to use in my sisters Christmas gift but haven't been able to find locally, and one I just bought on a whim at checkout.

 

 

 

Actually, I have been looking for a Vintage Modern charm pack (which nobody in northern-central VA has, even though it has got to be one of the most popular fabric lines out there), but Marmalade will do for what I need it for.  And they had it in a mini charm pack, which is actually perfect.  I was going to chop the regular charm pack into quarters anyway!

 

The Joy charm pack I bought on a whim because A) it was too cute when I actually saw it in real life, and B) because I bought a Flurry layer cake last year for a tree skirt for my brother's Christmas gift, and then decided against it and went with something else.  So I've got this lonely old Layer Cake that needs to be used, and I though I could add to it from this charm pack once I decide what to do with it all.  (Currently I am thinking either a wall hanging, table runner or pillows.  We will see.)

 

So to recap, I am a nerdy quilter who gets way too excited when a new shop opens in town.

 

The End

 

Costumes of Halloween Past (and Present!)

In honor of a fun Halloween yesterday, I thought I would do a post of the costumes I have made in the past.

I have always loved dressing up for Halloween.  I have been making my own costumes since I was a teenager. 

I remember one year I was a cat and made my own cat ears out of poster board and crepe paper and a tail out of an old pair of black nylons.  I used lipstick to make my nose pink, and it didn't come all the way off.  I had a pink nose for the whole weekend.

Another year, I altered a long, (really lovely) hippy dress of my moms from the 70's into a Shakespearean gown.  One year a was a Greek Goddess with a handmade laurel wreath in my hair made from a wire coat hanger and tin-foil leaves that I hand cut and glued on, one at a time.

I made a Princess Leia costume one year out of an old bed sheet, cardboard (for the belt) and some cheap silver lame fabric.  That as the first time I ever covered buttons in fabric. I even dyed my blonde hair brown with some "wash-out" hair dye that didn't fully wash out for quite a few days.

And one time, I made a super girl costume with no sewing machine!  I was at college and didn't have access to a sewing machine.  I made the costume out of a long sleeved white t-shirt dyed blue, some felt Superman emblems that I cut out and glued together by hand, and some red costume satin that I made the skirt and cape out of with only a needle and thread and some stitch witchery.

Unfortunately, and don't ask me why, but I have almost no pictures from my Halloween Past!

Then I went through a phase where I didn't really have a reason to dress up.  So I didn't.

Once I had kids however, that changed, and I could embrace my love for dress-up once more!  And this time, I took pictures.

 

Here are a few of the Halloween costumes I have made in more recent years:

 

Angel and her Devils -2009

 

This was the twins first Halloween (2009).  I bought the red shirts and sweat pants, and made the devil hats and tails out of red cotton and black satin. 

 

I also made my angel costume, but unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of it, so you can;t see the whole thing.  It was a semi-sheer white fabric top with flowing sleeves, and a white, silver glittered satin skirt underneath.  I made the ties out of a star-patterned, silver lame-type fabric.

 

 

Below are the boys "official" Halloween pics from that year.  You can see the devil tail in the second one:

 

 

The following year (2010) I had just given birth to my third son, so I didn't make any costumes, although I did have to alter their store-bought ones, since they were a little too big.

 

2011 my boys were obsessed with pirates.  I decided to make their pirate costumes, rather than buy them.  Then I got the brilliant idea to make my youngest son a parrot:

 

 

 Pirate A & Baby Parrot - 2011

(This is the best photo I have of a pirate and the parrot together.  My boys were barely one and not-quite three at the time, so rounding them up for a group photo was pretty much impossible!)

THIS year (2012), my boys all wanted to be Superheroes.  Bummer.  I'm not even going to bother making Superhero costumes when you can get cool(cheap!) ones at the store.  However, that didn't stop me from some Halloween sewing!

 

My boys decided I was going to be a witch.  I figured, I will probably be a witch more than once more in my life, as it is a pretty great go-to costume, however uninspired it may seem.  So I decided to make a good, sturdy basic costume that will last me forever.

 

(You can read about the actual construction of the dress HERE )

 

 

The (Not-So) Wicked Witch - 2012

 

I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  We did!

 

As for me, it is now time to get serious about my Christmas projects.