Let Me Introduce You…

To some of the inhabitants of this wonderful place where I’m now living.

This is Lucky.  He is usually the first one to meet and greet you.

You can kind of see his shorter, smaller right front leg.  He came to the family with that leg.  Carol’s late husband came in carrying a little red fur ball that he found laying on the country road out close to where they lived. Someone had dumped him because of his deformity he thought. Anyway he was “Lucky” that Butch found him. 

Here is a shot of what is fast becoming the “three musketeers”.  Spud, SueSue and Chloe. Actually it’s more Spud and SueSue.  Chloe is more content to hang around the house with my Cuz and myself… us old ladies. Of course if I’m out and about she wants to be right there with me.

Here is the duo. They are probably waiting for me to throw the ball.  Spud is crazier about chasin’ a ball even more than Suess.  I never thought I’d see another dog more crazy about a ball than my baby girl.

He is just so funny about it.  He will lay the ball down and then crouch down in a ready to run mode… and glance up to make sure you know he is waiting on you to pick it up and throw it then go back to the ball stare down.

You can see him assuming the “on the ready mode” just waiting for you to pull the trigger and throw the ball.

Meet Fluffy.  He is the resident cat.  He lives outside but he is not a feral cat.  He loves to be loved on but we are having a bit of difficulty convincing SueSue and Chloe that he belongs here.   They got used to chasing the cats that wandered in on the ponderosa when we lived out south and east of Noble. We have had several introductions with me holding one or the other of the girls in my arms, petting Fluffy with one hand, then sticking it up to their nose so they could smell him, all the while telling them that Fluffy was a baby (not) and you DO NOT HURT THE BABY.  Yes I lied to my girls but they understand about BABIES and that they are not to hurt them.  It just takes a little reinforcing to remind them of  that sometimes.

Yesterday I was out on the porch and Fluffy was on the bench and I was petting him and telling the girls what a good baby boy he was and he was walking back and forth rubbing my leg.  Chloe got to sniff his butt so she is now pretty much disinterested and Fluffy and Suess sniffed noses and all was well with the world for that moment.  As long as I’m there.  And as long as Fluff doesn’t decide to jump off the railing or the bench… then the chase is on once again.  At least with SueSue… but then you all know how she loves to play chase.

I  took this off the front porch toward the setting sun.  And I’m tired so I’m closing for tonight.  The barometric changes with this front rolling in are doing a job on the fibro today.  Bro and I will go to Ft. Worth tomorrow instead of Thursday so I don’t know if I’ll get photos of the guinea hens that stay around here or of some of the cattle that graze in the pasture behind the house and on down the road but that will give me something else to work on after I get back.  I’m still working on my favorite Christmas post so I will have at least one more post before I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

I hope you have all your shopping done and I know most of you will be getting ready to start cooking the Christmas dinner unless you are as lucky as I am and people know that I’m not a good cook so I just get to taste and make sure things are good.  Hang in… I’ll be back.

HAPPY NEW YEAR... And More...

COOKIES.

I love cookies, especially home made sugar cookies. Especially these sugar cookies, these Million Dollar Sugar Cookies.

When I left you I had mixed everything up and stuck it in the fridge to cool. It makes it easier to ball the dough in the next step.

I just take a teaspoon and scoop up the dough, then, depending on my mood, I either roll it into a ball or just kinda wad it up some and put it on the cookie sheet.

I did some of both when I cooked these up last night. I did the little wads first, because I wanted to get them in the oven and cooked so I'd have some to snack on, otherwise I'd eat more cookie dough than I'd make up into cookies.

After you get it wadded or rolled and onto the pan, it's time for MORE SUGAR!!! You take a flat bottomed glass, in this case an Oklahoma State Cowboys glass in honor of how well they did this season even if they got whipped in the Holiday Bowl, and you squash the bottom into some sugar in a bowl and you flatten the cookie balls.

I like to make them pretty flat, less than 1/4 inch because I like them more crisp, but you will have to determine what you like best. If you don't want them as crisp don't squash them as flat.

Then all that's left to do is bake and prepare for the battle, because you're gonna have to fight people off to get your fair share. Yes, in my opinion, they are that good.

And the finished project. I got this pan just a bit brown on the edges, but they are still tasty. Did I mention that I don't cook much? So I wasn't used to how the oven heats. The top rack was more true to the time on the recipe... the bottom was hotter, so less time was necessary. These were cooked on the bottom rack.



I'd print photos of me chowing down and savoring these crispy, delectable (that's a good 35 cent word) cookies, but I've been told that I could be arrested for indecent exposure. And extreme mis-behavior. And lustful drooling...


Now for the recipe...

MILLION DOLLAR SUGAR COOKIES

1 C. powdered sugar
1 C. granulated sugar
1 C. butter
1 C. oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar

Cream both sugars and softened butter. Add oil and mix well. Add eggs, vanilla and mix again. Sift together flour, salt, soda and cream of tartar. Add to batter.

Chilling for at least 1 hour will make the cookies easier to handle. Form into balls of about 1". Flatten with bottom of glass dipped in sugar. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

Then throw your arms around them 'cause you are going to love them.

P.S. I get kitchen privileges because I do clean up after myself. Very well.

What Happens When...

They turn me loose in the kitchen...

I decided that I wanted to make one of my favorite cookies, Million Dollar Sugar Cookies.

Anytime I volunteer to cook anything, Missy just kind of raises her eyebrow and lets out a mostly quiet groan. I don't often do anything in the kitchen besides walk through and get something to drink, or do dishes or clean the stove or mop the floor.

I do cook a little bit once in a while, in fact last night I made a one skillet dinner called Mexican
Dinner (a real original name). It's also one of my favorites and is really easy.

But I wanted sugar cookies. When it comes to light weight stuff like flour and powdered sugar, I can sometimes get a little messy. A lot messy. I bought this mixer for Carol (Missy as I sometimes call her) last year for Christmas.

I, once again, don't usually do anything other than carry it to the table for her to use. In fact, I think today s the first time I've used it since we brought it home.

I mostly did okay with creaming the butter and sugar together, but then I added a cup of powdered sugar. Not being familiar with the speeds on the mixer, I turned it up too fast and, whoosh, the powdery stuff went flying.

No problem, slow it down and add more powdered sugar, right? Right. Then after the oil, vanilla, and eggs are all creamed in, I put the rest of the dry ingredients in a bowl and started mixing them in, nice and slow.

After adding about half of the flour, being the bright person I am in the kitchen, I decided that,
since it was thicker I needed to speed it up a bit. Whoosh, there it goes again. After that fog I just put it on nice and slow and left it there.

For those of you that haven't had enough of sugar cookies, or like me, can't get enough of sugar cookies, I will post the recipe on the next post.

The cookie dough is in the fridge right now. The recipe says it's easier to roll 'em into balls to smash if you put them in for a couple of hours, so when I do the next step and cook them so you can see the results, I'll share the recipe with you.

But I'm warning you now, these cookies are sooooo good they are bound to become favorites. If you need to lose 20 pounds like I do you may want to disregard my next post.

Just try, I triple dog dare you!!!

Is It Cooking, Or Is It Memorex....

Silly me... you know how I am about fun titles. I try real hard to amuse myself figuring that I will amuse anyone that stops by in the process, but I would like your opinion...

I am, what I fetchingly like to call myself, a survival eater. Basically that means I eat when I'm hungry. I rarely plan a meal and at times in my life when I've lived alone and been responsible for my own survival, food-wise, I'm very off the cuff, as it were... I can cook a passable meal, but I really don't much care to about 97% of the time. I am fortunate enough (or smart enough) to be surrounded by people who can cook. My friend that I have lived with for years is an excellent and creative cook. Same with my middle brother, Bro, who lives with us. I have a multitude of family and friends that are good cooks, and in our discussions about meal preparation the question arose, "what is cooking?" My contention is if there are three steps involved it is cooking, such as getting a can out of the pantry, opening the can, dumping the contents into said pan on the stove and turning on the fire under the pan, that's more than three steps, so that is cooking, plus an extra step. Missy, my wonderful cooking roomie, and other friends have decided that cooking requires more than one item, adding one or more ingredients into the basic mix, before it can be called cooking, instead of just heating food to eat. Last night we had what we affectionately call a 'root-hog' night which basically means no one is in the mood or feels like whipping up dinner and everyone is left their own devices to root around in the fridge or pantry to find something to eat. I got out a can of spaghettios, opened it, put it in the pan, turned on the stove... therefore, in my opinion, cooking. Then I got a hot dog out of the fridge, cut it up and put it in with the spaghettios, turned and asked Missy and Bro if that meant I was cooking by other people's standards....

Now back to the question... what, in your esteemed opinions, constitutes cooking? Or have you all gone to sleep after trying to read through all the above idiocy?

I thank you all and appreciate your opinions...