Inspirational Pinterest boards

I thought I would add this bit of information concerning a word for the year.  Choosing a word to focus on each year is something I've been prayerfully doing for about seven years.  The word of choice isn't my only focus of study, but it definitely plays into it.  I find that I tend to study the word and/or the biblical principles it points to at the beginning of the year, usually January maybe into February. 

I have found, though, that as I go through the year, I invariably come upon material relating to my word or encouraging me in my focus on it.  So what I've done the past few years is to make a Pinterest board for my word of the year.  It's great when I come upon a blog post or other online material to be able to just pin it to a specific board to refer to later.  Just as an example, here is the link to my Settled Pinterest board.

 Below are screenshots of my other "word" boards.  If you want to check them out, just go to my Pinterest and you should easily be able to find them.

(Please read: As mentioned earlier, I'm very much aware and sensitive to the fact that there is nothing magical, more spiritual or even necessarily desirable about choosing a word to focus on for a new year.   Barbara H. wrote a bit about this last year, and this year she has expanded upon the theme with this post: You don’t have to choose a word for the year.  She's right; you don't.  I don't have to, and the time may come when I don't feel led to.  

But this year, and the seven preceding it, I have found that having a word to focus on has helped me greatly.  For example, the year that I chose "stewardship", I found it so encouraging anytime I felt like giving up to just think about my responsibilities to God to steward my life well for His glory. 

So please, don't choose a word for the year just because I or others do, and don't ever feel less spiritual for not choosing one.  It's just not necessary.  It's something I do because I have found it helpful in my Christian walk -- and you might too --  but then again it may well not be for you.)

Trying a new cookie recipe

So tonight I'm hosting a cookie swap here at my home for friends from church and anyone else they may invite.  As before (I did this a couple of years ago), I'm keeping it pretty low-key and relaxed.  No competition or anything, just a fun time to visit, eat yummy appetizers, sip mulled cider and cranberry juice, and exchange some cookies.  In addition to bringing a specified number of cookies, I'm asking each lady to bring along a "sweet thought": a memory, story, testimony or favorite Scripture to share.  It should be fun.

Photo from Ice Cream Inspiration

I found this recipe for Chocolate Orange Cookies on Pinterest back in 2016, and immediately pinned it to my Christmas Cookie Exchange! board.   I'm only now getting around to trying the recipe.

The flavors of chocolate and orange together are so festive!  They bring to mind those nifty chocolate oranges that are to be unwrapped and eaten a wedge at a time.  And these yummy chocolate dipped orange smiles that I make each Christmas and that are so delightful on cookie trays.
 
So yesterday I baked these cookies.   I was interrupted in the mixing of the dough and forgot about adding in the chocolate chips.  I had baked about half the cookies when I remembered.  So I used half the amount of chocolate chips and mixed them in with the remaining dough.  I will let the ladies at the swap decide which they think is better!

My "Christmas Hospitality" Pinterest board

Here's one of my Pinterest boards that might be a help during this festive, busy season: my board for Christmas hospitality.

I've been thinking about this because later this week, I'll be hosting a simple cookie swap for some of my friends from church.  This board has some great printables for a cookie exchange, including invitations.  It's way too late for that, but some of the other ones might be fun.  The last time I did a cookie swap, we didn't make it competitive at all, but this printable has a way to vote for most creative, best tasting, most festive, etc. We will see.  I sort of want to keep it relaxed.

This board also has a great post about hosting an ornament exchange party and several different ways that can be done.  My daughter and hubby out west have hosted a party like this a number of times and it sounds like a lot of fun.  I've thought for awhile about doing this.

And I seem to have pinned a great many ideas for hot cocoa bars.  Seems like it's something I really want to do!  Last year my daughter Carrie did one of these and left it up all winter. It was handy when the kids (or anyone) came in from sledding or other outdoor winter activities.  She has one all set up for this year, too.  Below is a photo of last year's hot cocoa bar.

I have a few recipes pinned also -- a cranberry lime party punch that looks so festive and refreshing,  a peppermint bark cheesecake,  a gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting, and more.  There's also a peppermint bark cheesecake dip into which one dips chocolate-covered pretzels!

Last but not least, I pinned a wonderful post from blogger Diane Miller concerning stress-free holiday entertaining.   The first point she makes is that we must always remember that hospitality is not about us.  This quote really hit home with me: "It’s about gathering people together to have fun, to develop friendships, to offer a place of safety, a place of peace, and to break bread together.   People come with all kinds of baggage.  Your job as a host is to think about your guests, their comfort, and most of all to listen, care, and offer true hospitality."  I loved this.  She said it so well.

Thinking about Christmas hospitality?  Head over to my Christmas hospitality board for some ideas!

My winter Pinterest boards

Although winter is not my favorite season (I would choose autumn, summer, winter, and spring, in that order), it does have a beauty all its own which I very much appreciate.  One of my favorite Bible verses is Genesis 8:22 ~ "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

There are also some beautifully descriptive verses about winter in the book of Job:
"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?  or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail ...?"
(Job 38:22)

"The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen."  (Job 38:30)

Psalm 148 tells us how all that God has created praises Him, including "Fire, and hail; snow, and vapor;  stormy wind fulfilling His word."  (Psalm 148:8)

In New England,  winter can be very cold and snowy, and sometimes quite dark.  So many people add light and sparkle to their homes with white lights, candles, snowmen, snowflakes, icicles, and more.

Today, just in case some are in the mood to browse Pinterest, I thought I would share my winter-themed boards with you.

My Winter Pinterest board is one of the first boards that I created.  It has everything from gorgeous winter scenes to decorating ideas to hot cocoa recipes!

Inspired by a post that my friend Vee wrote concerning seasonal decorating (and much more; you'll just have to read it for yourself!), I decided to create a second winter board  with decorating ideas.  Here is the link to that one: My Winter Decorating Inspiration Pinterest board.

Happy browsing, pinning and decorating!

Winter in a jar

I saw a similar project (a more elegant version) on Pinterest, and knew I wanted to try making one of these.  The one on Pinterest was made in what appeared to be a fancy candy jar, but these pantry-type jars were what I had on hand and fit my style better anyway.  None of my pictures are that great, but I wanted to share this project anyway just for fun.

So I started with a simple jar, bought at Walmart some time ago.  I partially filled it with epsom salts and sprinkled a bit of glitter on top.  I arranged an old photo (vintage winter scene of my mother and three of her siblings), plus various styles and textures of snowflakes.

This is what the photo actually looks like.  I know it's very hard to see what's inside the jar.

I didn't want to use the actual photo, not knowing for sure what effect the epsom salts might have on it.  I had previously scanned the photo, so I just printed it out on plain card stock.  The first print turned out too big for the jar.  It would fit into the jar, but was out of proportion with the other items.  Just a bit too tall.

As for other items in the jar, there are a couple of silvery plastic snowflakes, a pretty clear glass snowflake there in the front, bits of a broken blue glass snowflake, a seed-bead-trimmed felt snowflake there to the right of the photo, and a star-shaped Glittery Paper Ornament toward the far right.  My snowflake-shaped ornaments of the same type are already in place on the picture window garland, but I'll show a picture of one below.

Glittery paper snowflake to the right

 There were many places I could have put the jar,  but it just didn't look right on a table.  In order to actually see what's inside, it has to be on a shelf.

So I did put it on one of the hutch shelves.

I'm fairly pleased with how it came out.  I think it might be better with a closer-up photo, and I do have others that might work, but I really wanted to use this photo because I just like it.

Vintage winter in a jar.

(Sharing today with Vintage Charm and Share Your Cup.)

Pinterest [pumpkin] recipes tried and tweaked!

Photo from Inside BruCrew Life

It's always fun to try new recipes, and I always find loads of new recipes on Pinterest that I want to try.  When I try them out,  I like to post about the results (when I remember!).  My Perfectly Pumpkin Pinterest board (now there's a mouthful!) is filled with recipes I just couldn't resist pinning.  So I want to share about a few that I have tried.

These Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie Bars (photo at top) are from a recipe that I tried last year.  I actually have a pan of them in the oven right now.  I'm sure the chocolate glaze on top adds the perfect finishing touch, but I decided to save calories by leaving it off, and the bars were delicious without it.  You may not think chocolate and pumpkin would go together that well, but they really do.

I made these Cinnamon Chip Pumpkin Cookies to take on our lakeside getaway up north in late September.

Photo from Baker by Nature

They were very good.  It's unusual to find a pumpkin cookie that is nice and chewy and not soft and pillowy, but these are.  I didn't have cinnamon chips on hand, but I did have some pumpkin spice morsels left from last year (bought on clearance) so I used those. 

I also made a pumpkin streusel coffeecake to take along, but I can't find the pinned recipe that I used for that.  It was very good, though not as good as my usual Pumpkin Coffeecake recipe that I've used for years. However, it was just right for this trip because it was a lot quicker and easier than my usual, and I was doing this baking just a day or two before we headed north.

This week I tried a couple of other pinned recipes.  I want to end on an upbeat note, so I'll talk first about these Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars which were somewhat of a fail.

Photo by A Kitchen Addiction

I was quite disappointed in these, though I still don't know if it was me or the recipe or a combination of both.  The bar part turned out far too dry, and I think too thick as well.  It really seemed to me that these should have been baked in a 13x9-inch pan, but the recipe clearly specified an 8 or 9-inch square pan.

The frosting part, though, was really great.  I did have to add the additional confectioner's sugar, and maybe even a bit more, to get it to the consistency I wanted, but it was truly pumpkin-y and delicious, and I will keep this frosting in mind for other recipes.  It would be great on cupcakes.

Lastly, my favorite of the three recipes that I tried for the first time this year was these Pumpkin Magic Bars.

Photo by Crazy for Crust

They turned out truly delicious and I will definitely be baking these again.  Dorothy's idea of adding pumpkin and spice to the sweetened condensed milk is genius and something I would never have thought of.   (Which doesn't say much for my creativity,  I guess.)

 I did tweak this recipe quite a bit because I wanted to double the recipe and make it in a 13x9-inch pan.  I used some of the proportions in this recipe, doubled, and took some of my quantities from the 13x9 recipe on the graham cracker crumb package.  I used these thin gingersnaps

(Photo from Walmart.com)

 for the crust because I don't have a food processor and knew I was going to be making these crumbs with a rolling pin.  I wasn't sure how far the gingersnaps would go (I needed 1 1/2 cup crumbs), so I used 1 cup of gingersnap crumbs and 1/2 cup of graham cracker  crumbs.  In retrospect, I think that the package of gingersnaps would have produced just enough crumbs.

And I used a whole can of sweetened condensed milk.  While it's possible to use only part of the can, it's messy, and one has to figure out how to use the leftovers.  Also, I didn't double the pecans or the toffee bits.  Oh, and left out the sugar in the crust.  You know, I think probably, even though I've linked to Dorothy's recipe as is, I'd better write out just what I did for the 13x9-inch pan.

Revised Pumpkin Magic Bars for a 13x9 pan
1 package Swedish ginger thins, crushed into crumbs
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup toffee bits
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray 13x9-inch pan well with cooking spray -- I use a coconut oil one.  Combine the ginger thin crumbs with the melted butter or margarine and press this mixture into the prepared pan in an even layer.

Sprinkle the chips, pecans, coconut and toffee bits evenly over this layer.

Whisk together the condensed milk with the pumpkin puree and pie spice.  Pour this mixture evenly over the top of the other ingredients.

Bake at 350º for 29-31 minutes, or until edges have begun to brown.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into small squares.

These are delicious and I also found that they freeze very well, packed in a tin between layers of wax paper.

Hope you will enjoy these recipes if you try one or more of them.  It's always fun to try some new pumpkin recipes every fall!

My fallish Pinterest boards

If you haven't visited my fall-ish Pinterest boards, you might like to head there for a fresh dose of fall inspiration.  The first one, which also happens to be one of the first boards I created on Pinterest, is simply called I Love Fall!.

You will find all things fall on this board, everything from gorgeous foliage photos to fall decorating ideas to printables and everything in between.

One of my newer boards is Autumn Decorating Inspiration.

 This board has decorating ideas for every room in the house and even a few for outdoors.  There are a number of pretty autumn wreaths pinned to this board as well.  Here you will also find some lovely fall printables.  Most are free, but some may not be. 

Another of my favorite boards is All About Apples.

Mostly recipes, with perhaps a photo or two of apples, this is the perfect place to turn for ideas to use up all those apples you just picked.

And then there is my Perfectly Pumpkin board, which is seeing a lot of traffic right now.

This one is mostly recipes, but there are some decorating and craft ideas on here as well.

Lastly, I want to mention my my Thanksgiving Pinterest Board.

If you could use some new recipes, printables, or other Thanksgiving ideas, you will want to visit this board for inspiration.  I plan to revisit it myself soon!

Hope you'll enjoy your visit to my boards.  Happy browsing!

National Cookie Month

A vintage cookbooklet from my collection

Did you know October is National Cookie Month?  Neither did I, until I read this amazing fact in an email from King Arthur Flour.  Now, I think it is important that we celebrate!

Cookies and bars are some of my very favorite things to bake.  In fact, I have an entire Pinterest board which I have titled The Cookie Jar.  Check it out -- you will find loads of inspiration there.

And, as you might guess, I have loads of cookie recipes here at my kitchen table.  I went back to the archives and linked up to some of them for you.  These Best Blond Brownies really are the best.  I highly recommend them and they are so easy!

Photo from Taste of Home

The Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies Ever take just a few simple ingredients and are a fun cookie to bake with kids.

Page from a vintage cookie booklet

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are a perfect cookie for fall baking.  Yes,  they actually do contain pumpkin as an ingredient ... they are not just pumpkin spice.

Photo by Annie's Eats

These Crunchy Toffee Crackle Cookies are a recipe I developed myself to taste like cookies I remembered from the hometown bakery of my childhood.  They come pretty close!

And if you are interested in a whole bunch of cookie recipes, go here: Cookie Recipes Galore.  This is a post I did with links to collections of my cookie recipes.  It was a link-up to Gooseberry Patch's Recipe Round-Up, so there are also tons of  recipe links below my post.  Have fun with them!

 Happy National Cookie Month!  And happy baking!

A transitional fall wreath

I love fall!  It is very easily my favorite season!  In fact, I even have a Pinterest board called I Love Fall!.  And another about pumpkin, and another about apples ... but I digress.

I was recently inspired by this post: Transitioning Fall into Your Home by Denise at RefreshHer. It's well worth your read!  You will find some fun and doable fall decorating ideas.  Denise expressed the thought that fall comes gradually, not all at once, and so it's fun to do your fall decorating gradually,  as well.  I quite often do this, adding a judicious amount of fall decor in September, then more in October (I do not decorate for Halloween, however).  Then at the beginning of  November I will add in some Thanksgiving touches.

Often, though, for my front door wreath -- I have a grapevine wreath which is wound with silk ivy and change the trims with the seasons -- I simply tuck in some colorful fall leaves and it stays that way for the entire three months of fall. 

This time, inspired by Denise's post, I decided to do something just a little different for September.

The above photo was taken with my Kindle, so it isn't as good as I'd have liked.  But you get the idea!  Oh, and our door is not maroon as it looks in the picture.  Just weathered wood.

I tucked in some faux sunflowers and a few leaves I had in my stash that are more yellow-green with a touch of orange -- more like real leaves that are just beginning to turn.  I would ordinarily write a chalkboard message like "Happy Fall!" but since fall is not yet here I went with "Welcome Fall".  I am going to work on my first installment of fall decorating throughout the week, but wanted to get the front door taken care of first thing.

Have fun with your fall decorating!

A Pinterest recipe tried and tweaked: Trillionaire Bars

Photo from Creme de la Crumb

This past weekend I was looking for a new dessert recipe to take to our weekly potluck at church.  I went to my  Sweet Treats Pinterest Board and there found this one that I had everything on hand for: Trillionaire Bars from Tiffany at Creme de la Crumb.  These amazing bars have a brownie base, then a layer of caramel, then a layer of cookie dough (no eggs, so don't worry) and lastly a layer of chocolate.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I tend to be a recipe tweaker.  It's actually very seldom that I make a recipe exactly as written, even the first time.  When I first looked at this, I thought I might try it as written.  As I got into the process, however,  I decided to change up a few things.  Tiffany's recipe is for a square pan, and I wanted to use a 13X9 to make more servings.  So the first change I made, to avoid doubling the brownie part, was to use my own favorite brownie recipe.

The brownie recipe is the best I’ve ever had. It came originally from my pastor’s wife, and I still want to give her credit for this great recipe even though I’ve changed a couple of things.

Brownies:
THE PASTOR’S WIFE’S BROWNIES
1 cup flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil
2 scant cups sugar (I used about 1 1/3 cup)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a mixing bowl beat together the remaining ingredients. Sift in the flour mixture and stir it in thoroughly. (Some people will add 1 cup chocolate chips here.) Scrape into a greased 13x9” pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or just until done. Don’t overbake or you’ll lose the fudgy texture.

Tiffany's recipe didn't say whether or not to cool the brownies first before adding the caramel layer.  My feeling was that if the brownies were still warm, the caramel might spread better, and so I cooled them for a few minutes while I was melting the caramels and then spread the caramel right on.

Caramel:
For the caramel layer, I melted 2 cups of unwrapped caramels with 1/4 cup fat-free half and half.  Next time I would use the caramel bits, but this was what I had on  hand.

Put the caramel-topped brownies in the fridge until the caramel sets up nicely.  I never did get mine in the fridge because I was busy doing other tasks.  The caramel still set up beautifully.

Now, for the cookie dough part.   I have a Cookie Dough Brownie recipe which I've used for years, and which originally came from Taste of Home magazine.  When I looked at the recipe from Creme de la Crumb,  I quickly saw that the cookie dough part required the same quantities of ingredients for a square pan as my recipe did for a 13X9.  Since I knew my cookie dough made plenty for a 13X9,  I decided to just use my own recipe as is.  That worked out really well and saved a bunch of sugar and fat calories -- though these things are still outrageously rich.  (That's where the "trillionaire" designation comes in.)  I did add in two ideas from Tiffany's cookie dough -- some oatmeal, and some mini chocolate chips.

So here's what I did:

Cookie Dough Filling:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips

Beat together the butter and sugars until creamy.   Beat in the milk and vanilla, then the flour to make a nice cookie dough consistency.  Stir in the oats and chips and spread this dough over the cooled and set caramel layer.

Glaze:

• 1 cup (6oz) semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 Tblsp. fat-free half and half

Place in microwave safe bowl and cook at High a minute or so, stirring every 20 seconds, until melted and smooth.  Spread carefully over the cookie dough layer.

And that's it!  It sounds like a lot of steps, but it's actually very easy.

Chill pan of bars to let the glaze set before cutting. I actually chilled mine overnight.  After cutting, you can either leave them in the pan or place in a covered container for storage.  I would store them in the fridge because the caramel becomes quite gooey.

As delicious as these were, I have a feeling that this whole exercise taught me something.  The caramel does put these over-the-top and they are wonderful.  I would make them this way again.  But I think when I make cookie dough brownies again, I will make them just this way only without the caramel.  The whole reason I haven't made cookie dough brownies more often was that I didn't like the brownie layer as included in the recipe.  By using my old favorite Pastor's Wife's Brownies, it improves the entire cookie dough brownie recipe.   And so does adding oatmeal and mini chips to the cookie dough part.  Recipe tweaking pays off sometimes!

Homemade Samoa Bars

Photo from Inside BruCrew Life

Yes, it is Girl Scout Cookie season!  Last Saturday my hubby and I went out for breakfast and made a quick stop at a Walmart in another town.  Girls and ladies were busily setting up a table to sell Girl Scout cookies in front of the store.  We determined then and there that we would stop on our way out.

Wow, was that table busy when we got back out there!  People were standing in line, and it was also obvious that some people had come there specifically to buy cookies.  They were literally driving up to the table!  We picked up a box each of our favorites, Thin Mints and Samoas.  The price has gone up over time and the boxes seem to have become smaller, but it's a good cause and the cookies are tasty.  It's sort of a March tradition for us to pick up a box or two.

But if you crave the taste of Samoas all year round and would like to replicate the flavor, here is the recipe for you:  Homemade Samoa Bars!  The recipe is from Jocelyn at  Inside BruCrew Life, one of the most prolific bakers out there.  I always turn to her blog or to recipes of hers I've pinned to my Sweet Treats Pinterest board if I am looking for a new and different treat.

I made these Homemade Samoa Bars back in February when we hosted the dessert course for a teen progressive dinner.  I had asked one of the teens for ideas, and her response was, "Anything chocolate!"  So I made four chocolate items to choose from, and these bars were one.  They got raves and disappeared quickly.

Another of the pins on my Sweet Treats Pinterest board is this wonderful assortment of Girl Scout Cookie-Themed Recipes from Julie’s Eats and Treats.  These bars are included in the collection, as well as loads of other Girl Scout Cookie-flavored treats.  You might want to try some of these for when your boxes of Girl Scout cookies run out!

My "Christmas Cookie Exchange" Pinterest board

Photo from Taste of Home -- I am hoping to try these cookies today!

Today I would like to invite you all to visit my Christmas Cookie Exchange!.  Just a virtual cookie exchange, it's my Christmas Cookie Exchange Pinterest board.

Tomorrow I will post about a few more of my cookie pins over on my Christmas blog.  For today, I will just share a few of them here.

Jocelyn, over at Inside BruCrew Life, is one of the top bloggers of sweet recipes, in my opinion.  She is always baking up something new and different, and often has fun stories to share about her family or about how a particular recipe came to be.  Two of my cookie pins I'm sharing are from her blog:

Hot Cocoa 3 Musketeers Brownie Bites

Photo by Inside BruCrew Life

and

Cinnamon Caramel Cookies.

Photo from Inside BruCrew Life

If you like oatmeal cookies but they seem a bit plain for Christmas, go over to Kleinworth & Co. and check out Gina's Eggnog Oatmeal Cookies.  A delectable-sounding chewy oatmeal cookie with a glaze made from real eggnog -- they sound wonderful!

Just one more for today -- Peppermint Chocolate Shortbread Bites from Jenn at Clean & Scentsible.  This is one recipe I'm definitely going to try!

Photo from Clean & Scentsible

Have you tried any new cookie recipes this season? Which ones would you like to try from my Cookie Exchange board?  Please share in the comments!