What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?

What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!
Showing posts with label Snickerdoodles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snickerdoodles. Show all posts

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Sunday Evening Musings

This was today's sunrise!  Sunday morning glory in the heavens!
My post on Facebook said, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!". (Psalm 150:6)

It was breathtaking, but I still praised the Lord with every breath that I breathed.  Such a beautiful way to start the day!


If you want to sing a happy song along with our choir, join in here below:


Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

For God is great and greatly to be praised. God is great and greatly to be praised.

O Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth.

Another great way to start the day!!  (and now that it is evening when I am writing this,  a good way to end the day!)

Today was a lovely day...no rain for a change!  I had kind of hoped to go out to eat after church with a group of our church friends, but they had decided to go to a different place than where we normally go, and it is sometimes crowded and you have to wait in line a while, and we just didn't feel like doing that today, so we came on home. Normally our son Scott comes down on Sunday afternoon for lunch (and does his laundry), but he wasn't coming today, and Rose and Benton weren't coming either because she had to work today, so were kind of at loose ends. However, actually in some ways that was best.  We've had a busy week and frankly I was tired.  

Yesterday we had our church monthly pot-luck "Agape'" luncheon, and I had made my "Taco Lasagna" casserole.  It was good, and I still had a little left over, but I didn't feel like eating that either.  It's not really something that my tummy can handle two days in a row! LOL.  So I made a salad with some ham and cheese on top of the lettuce, etc., and that was plenty good enough. Then we took a nice long nap.

After we woke up hubby said that he wished I'd either bake a cake or make some cookies or something.  Well, at first I kind of balked because I normally don't do stuff like that on Sunday...it's just too busy of a day and I am usually tired. But since we didn't go out to eat and we had such a nice nap, I decided to go ahead and bake some Snickerdoodles!  (Do you know what they are?) I was hungry for something with cinnamon in it, and since hubby wanted cookies that he could snack on throughout the week, that was a good idea.  But I needed some help. Guess who helped me?

Yes, Lily Grace (click that link for a previous time of baking with  Lily Grace)  said she would love to help make Snickerdoodles!  She's trying to earn her cooking badge for the Brownie Scouts, so she needed some experience baking cookies. LOL.  


She especially loved rolling the balls of dough in the cinnamon and sugar!


It's great to have a little helper!



She even helped get them off the cookie sheets when they were done baking!  They sure smelled good!



Snickerdoodles...My Mother's Recipe

Well, of course baking cookies always means they have to be tasted while they are fresh and warm out of the oven.  So it also became an occasion for Lily Grace and Bailey her dog to have a little party:

So I got down the Buster Brown Tea set for them to use:
It's perfect for a tea party with your favorite doggy!    This set belonged to my mother, and she got it from her older sister, my Aunt Margie.  It is dated on the bottom 1910, which is when Aunt Margie might have gotten it when she was a little girl.  My mother remembers playing with it when she was a little girl. My mother is 11 years younger than her sister.  

Anyway,  it is a special family heirloom, so Lily Grace and Bailey had to be very careful.


Then Lily Grace got the idea that she wanted to invite her friend Anne of Green Gables over to have a tea party and share some snickerdoodles with her.  Anne was delighted of course and came right over. We know how much Anne of Green Gables loves tea parties!  Thankfully there was no "Raspberry Cordial" involved in this tea party. If you've read Anne's story, you know about that event! HERE is a link to a previous post about Anne's tea party.
Thankfully they left us some snickerdoodles to enjoy later!

And so that is how I ended up spending my Sunday afternoon.  


Nice little thought for today.  A good reminder, no matter how big or small our "place", we should tend and guard it with care, because it isn't our own place, but "his Who set you there."  And that would be God.  He placed us in our homes and gave us a special place to guard and care for. When you think about your home that way, it takes on a whole new perspective. 


Here's another thought about the home:

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain."
Psalm 127:1


And so I think it is time to end this post for tonight. I hope you enjoyed this little tea party time with Lily Grace (and Bailey too!) and also Anne of Green Gables. I know this is a departure from my usual Sunday activities, but sometimes you just need to "play" after a busy week. We had a good time, except I might have eaten too many warm cookies fresh out of the oven, and so I didn't want much for supper! LOL.  I finally ended up eating two stalks of celery with peanut butter on it, and later some yogurt and granola.  That should make up for my lapse in good judgment. LOL.  

Have a restful night my friends, and I'll be stopping by to visit with you in the next few days.  Tomorrow (Monday) is another busy day as we have our Ladies' Bible Study in the afternoon, and hubby has his men's Bible Study.  But I will try to catch up with as soon as I can.  Love to all of you! "Good Night, sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite!"  LOL.


 

Friday, December 15, 2017

Friday Foto Friends: Family Christmas Cookie Traditions

Hello Dear Friday Foto Friends!
I am writing this on Thursday night, after a delightful day spent with my new daughter- in -love Rose. At her suggestion (and my enthusiastic welcoming response) she wanted to come and spend her day off from work with me! (Her MOTHER-IN-LAW!!) and do some special baking together for Christmas!  Have you ever heard of such a wonderful thing?  I am overwhelmed with joy at this blessing God has brought into our lives!  Not having any daughters of our own, and our only other daughter-in-law lives way far away in another state (1500 miles away), so to have this dear new member of our family actually offer to come spend the day with me and do some baking together...well,  I was almost speechless with delight!  (I say "almost", because I've never ever been known to be totally speechless in my whole life...)

So, of course I wanted to teach Rose some special family Christmas Cookie Traditions...#one being, "Grandma Mursch's Sand Tarts".  Grandma Mursch being my paternal Grandma. (See a story about these cookies below).


I'm not too sure Rose knew what she was getting herself into when she volunteered to come help me bake these cookies.  They are rather time-consuming, with a lot of steps from start to finish...and the recipe makes a lot of cookies, so we were working on them for well over three hours (with a little break for a sandwich for lunch and to sit for a spell to have a cup of Christmas Tea and visit).



But I have to tell you, this was such a wonderful time of getting better acquainted and forming a precious bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that I pray will last our life time.




 Here are the finished products...We made enough to save some for family/friends for Christmas as well as eat some now and plenty for Rose to take home to her sweet hubby (our #1 son!)


Also, at my son, the newlywed's request, I taught his sweet wife how to make Snickerdoodles, which aren't exactly a Christmas cookie, but are good any time!


Please excuse the misspelling of the word Cinnamon above. That's one of those words that always make me have to stop and think when I spell it...and obviously, when writing out that little recipe card years ago, I didn't stop and think long enough! LOL.


The newlyweds!  #One Son Benton and his sweet Rose -Celebrated their one month anniversary this past week!

Christmas time is for bringing families together and sharing the love of Christ with one another...and renewing our family traditions and making happy memories.  I think we did just that today! I feel so blessed. God knew just what I needed!!!!


As you will see from the following story, not only are Sand Tarts a Mursch family tradition (my maiden name), but many years ago my own mother-in-law participated in a day of baking these cookies with me!  So you can see the tradition continues from generation to generation, and from one side of the family tree to another side of the tree...and on and on!!

Here is the history of the Sand Tarts and an excerpt from a previous post from 2011, when our youngest son Scott also baked these cookies for Christmas!

Grandma Mursch’s Sand Tarts

(Elva Hill Mursch )
(My Paternal Grandmother)
December 27, 1896-December 16, 1984

My Grandma Mursch always made these Sand Tart cookies for Christmas. They are from a wonderful old German recipe. In 1980 Grandma shared this recipe with me  (four years before she passed away) so I could make it for my family and continue the family tradition. The first Christmas I made them, I wasn’t sure how many the whole recipe would make, and I needed a good cookie for the church cookie swap. My dear mother-in-law, "Nanny",  helped me roll and cut and bake the doubled - whole recipe, and we soon found out that it made about 18 dozen cookies! That was quite a task! I only needed 13 dozen for the cookie swap, and I was chagrined to discover that I was the only one who had gone to the trouble of baking a rolled and cut cookie for this event!

From then on, I usually only baked the Half Recipe, and it made more than enough cookies for our family and to share with others! As the years went on, and not having any daughters to teach... I eventually taught our youngest son, Scott, how to make these cookies so that he could continue the tradition. For many years he has baked these cookies as his Christmas gift to the family!  (HERE IS A PICTURE OF SCOTT, IN 2011,  BAKING THE SAND TARTS FOR THE FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS!  THANK YOU SCOTT!!!!!)
The secret to a good Sand Tart is to be sure to roll the dough real thin before cutting the cookies. The thinner cookies are crispier and tastier. Just be sure not to burn them! Also, for the brushed on glaze of egg wash, you need two egg yolks and about a tablespoon of milk mixed together to cover the ½ recipe. I buy the pre-sliced almonds to put on top. Use about two tablespoons of white sugar to one teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together in a shaker (I use a salt shaker) to sprinkle on the tops.

This recipe is a keeper…and should be passed down from generation to generation!

Sand Tarts
(Yield about 8 dozen) (This is the Half Recipe)

Mix Together:

  • 1 ¼ cups Butter = 2& 1/2  sticks
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 & 2/3 Cups Brown Sugar 
Then add 4 cups Flour

Roll real thin and cut with cookie cutters. Brush tops with yolk of egg beaten with a little milk. Put a sliced almond on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.
My Son Scott carrying on the family tradition of making Sand Tarts at Christmas (2011)
Enjoy!


I hope you are carrying on some of your family traditions this Christmas! Please share them with us!
Now let's go check in with Deb at Breathing in Grace and find out what our other Friday Foto Friends are up to!