We Would Add Hot Dogs To The Lure

I've always been an animal person.  When I was really little, we had cats.  My mom tells me I named my first cat Spike.  Not sure where I got that name but I guess I thought it was perfect for it.  While we still lived in Tennessee, I got a duck from someone at church.  I named it Peep.  It would follow us around the house and it would get into the bath tub with me.  Peep got too big and we gave him to some people who lived in the country.  After moving to Idaho, we got some more cats.  Simon and Rags.  Simon was a mischievous cat and later ran away.  Rags was an interesting cat.  She drank like a raccoon.  I don't remember what happened to her.  When I was 8, I got a dog.  She was the only black curly haired dog in the litter.  She was an adorable ball of fluff.  I named her Muffie.

Muffie was a great dog.  She was a mutt.  From what we could tell, she had cocker spaniel, terrier, & poodle in her.  In the summer time, we would shave her.  In the winter, we would let her hair grow out to keep her warm.  She would be a big ball of fluff in the winter.  After her running around in the backyard through the snow, she would come in the house with balls of snow stuck to the bottom of her.  In the summer time, when she was skinny without the hair, she could get through the fence.  Our solution was to attach a empty milk jug to a leash and attach it to her.  She could get through the fence but the milk jug couldn't.  Often we would have to go untangle her because she would go out one hole and back through another.  If she got out, she ran.  We would have to drive around the neighborhood looking for her.  She loved to ride in the car so we could con her into hopping in.  After a few times of that she caught on and wouldn't come.  So we would add hot dogs to the lure.  And then drive around town making her think we were actually taking her for a ride.

Muffe loved to eat people food.  While we didn't want her to do it, she found ways around that.  She would snatch things when left around.  Once in a while we would give her leftovers if there was just a little bit.  I learned the hard way to not give her beans.  Apparently, beans are not good for animals at all.  One of her favorite things to eat was cookie dough.  Maybe she ate it often because I also like to eat cookie dough.   I had a bad habit of leaving a bowl of cookie dough on the couch or bed while I went to do something else for a minute.  She would get into it.  One time she got the chocolate chip cookie dough.  We were so afraid she was going to die from the chocolate.  It never phased her and we were thankful.  I tried to be better about leaving cookie dough down after that.  Sugar cookie dough is much better for dogs but not as good to eat as chocolate chip cookie dough.  Although they are very good cooked with a little frosting.

World's Best Sugar Cookies
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
2 lightly beaten eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream together powdered sugar, butter, sugar.  Mix in oil, eggs, vanilla.  Add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Dough can be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters or rolled into small balls and press down to flatten.  Bake for 10 -12 minutes.   After baked you can either sprinkle with sugar or cool and frost.

Frosting
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
food coloring
1/2 tsp vanilla (leave out if you want white frosting)

In mixer with whisk attachment, mix powdered sugar, milk & vanilla.  Add food coloring to achieve the color you want.  Add powdered sugar or milk to achieve the consistency you are looking for.

Christmas At Grandma's Was Alway Fun and Always Eventful

As a kid, we would go to my grandma's house for Christmas.  It was a long drive from Idaho to California.  We would pack up the car the night before we were to leave.  We would get up really early in the morning, hop in the car and be off.   We would drive until the sun came up.  Dad would stop so we could eat breakfast.  I always got biscuits and gravy.  I loved biscuits and gravy.  After breakfast, we would get back in the car and head down the road.  My sister and I would color, play games or sleep.  We would stop in Winnemucca for lunch.  The cheapest places to eat were in the casinos, so that's where we stopped.  We'd head back down the road after lunch.  We would drive past Battle Mountain and into Reno.  After Reno was Donner's Pass.  A few times, it was snowing over the pass and we would have to stay in Reno.  Once we ventured over the pass in the snow.  We had to put chains on the tires to make it.  I'm sure my dad was really nervous.  Most of the times we went, it didn't snow.  After Donner's pass, we were basically there.

Christmas at grandma's was alway fun and always eventful.  Like most families, not everyone got along. There were tiffs but for the most part us kids stayed out of the way.  My birthday is just before Christmas so we would celebrate it.  I felt lucky because I got to open presents before everyone else.  Our tradition for Christmas was to open all the presents from each other on Christmas Eve.  Then the kids would go to bed early so Santa could come.  Morning would come (well almost) and us kids would get up.  We would go climb in bed with Grandma and Grandpa.  They would tell us it was too early and make us lay on the floor and wait.  We, of course, would fall back asleep.  After a couple hours, we would be awake again.  This time we would be successful in getting the adults up.  We would spend the next few hours opening presents, eating breakfast and just enjoying the morning.

A couple Christmases it actually snowed.  That was so much fun.  We would get sleds and slide down the hill next to the house.  One year some of the cousins decided to go sledding on the road.  It wasn't a well travelled road so there really was no danger of getting hit.  I didn't go with them but they said they had a blast.  Later on, people in cars had a hard time getting up that hill in the road because they had made it slick by sledding on it.  I thought it was kinda funny.  Some others of us, went up in the hills to go sledding.  We had a blast.  It was different from the hills we sledded on at home.  This hill was really long.  You could slide forever.  It wasn't as steep as the hills at home either.  It was much easier to walk to the top.   I'm sure I was exhausted by the time we were done, but I had so much fun.

When I think back to Christmas at grandmas, I think of desserts, cousins, and lots of fun.  As an adult now, one of my favorite desserts at Christmas is ginger snap cookies.  However, I don't bake them long enough for them to be snaps.  So they are just ginger cookies.

Ginger Cookies
2 ¼ cups flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup butter

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

1 t baking soda

1 t ginger

1 t ground cinnamon

½ t ground cloves

small bowl of granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 ¼ cups flour and the rest of the ingredients.  Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed till combined.  Beat or stir in remaining flour.

Shape dough into balls.  Roll ball in granulated sugar to coat.  Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until tops are crackled.  Do not over cook.  Cool and serve.

Sometimes Simple Things Are Just Better

Do you have a number you use every time you exaggerate?  My mom's number is 16.  We knew when she said 16, 16,000, or 16,000,000 she didn't really mean it.   For me my number changes.  But my mom's has been constant.  After moving to Colorado, I was helping in the kitchen and was told to use 16 eggs in a recipe.  I found that a bit funny and wondered at first if they were exaggerating.  But actually the recipe did call for 16 eggs.  

The recipe that called for 16 eggs was Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies were a big part of being a kid for me.  My mom made them a lot.  I can recall seeing piles of chocolate chip cookies on the kitchen counter so many afternoons.  I loved walking into the house to smell cookies baking.  My mom had a secret to her cookies.  It was a secret she was to pass down to her daughters.  Somehow, I have yet to be given this secret.  So I make my cookies by the recipes that required 16 eggs.  However, I don't use 16 eggs.


Although eating cookies is comforting and takes me back to being a kid, the best part of making cookies is not eating the finished product.  The best part of making cookies is eating the cookie dough while baking them.  My grandmother would have a fit if she heard me say that.  Always warning I would get sick and die from eating the raw eggs.  But I always disregarded her warning and ate away.  


The recipe I got in Colorado calls for pecans, semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, but I think sometimes simple things are just better.  I like basic milk chocolate chip cookies.  I will also give you the variation with the pecans and white chocolate chips.


Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup Shortening
1 cup Brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour*
1 - 12 oz bag milk chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350.  Cream shortening and sugars in a mixer.  Add vanilla & eggs and mix.  Add soda & salt, mix.  Slowly mix in flour.   Add all chocolate chips all at once.  Once you have added the chips, mix as little as possible.  Mixing will break up the chips and turn dough dark which you do not want.  I often hand mix the chips in.
Make golf ball sized balls and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 12 minutes until the cookies begin to turn light brown.


*If you live above 4000 ft in elevation, you may need to add up to 1/4 cup of flour and bake them a little longer.  I live at 4500 ft and I add 1/8 cup extra flour.  At 8500 ft we added 1/4 cup extra flour.


To make the Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies:
substitute 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips for the milk chocolate chips
add 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup pecans