Good Morning All. 

Here it is Feb. 14th already! The time just flies by! Happy Valentines Day to you all. I thought I would share a photo of my Primitive Heart Ornies Pattern. Available in my Etsy shop. My daughter and Grand showed up this morning with a bouquet of yellow & white Daisies. What a sweet surprise. Below is a recipe for my favorite sugar cookies.

                                        Crackled Sugar Cookie

 1-1/4 cups white sugar **1 cup salted butter ** 3 egg yolks ** 1 tsp. vanilla extract  **

1 tsp. almond extract ( I usually use 2 tsps. of the vanilla extract & omit the almond extract)

       2-1/2 cups all purpose flour **1 tsp. baking soda ** 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar ** 

       1/4 tsp. of salt ** coarse sugar crystals

Directions: Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together butter & sugar until creamy. Mix in 1 egg yolk at a time, add extract, mix. Add in flour, soda, cream of tartar, & salt until completely mixed.

Using a medium sized scoop ( or a heaping teaspoon) form dough balls & roll them into the sugar crystals. Place balls on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 2 inches apart. Do not flatten the dough. Bake for 12 minutes, until surface of the cookies have a cracked texture. The cookies should still look a little puffy. Remove from oven let sit on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

Makes about 30 medium sized cookies.

This is the best sugar cookie I have come across! Everyone who has tried them loves them!

 

Happy Saturday

Well I figured since I had made one toilet seat cover I would make another for the master bathroom while it was still fresh in my mind. I only had small pieces of the matching fabrics left that I used for the valance. I had gotten ambitious years ago and cut it all into quilt pieces thinking I would someday make a quilt for the bed to match. After all I had made a matching valance over our bedroom window besides the shower curtain. I found the pieces all cut and half sewn into quilt blocks but no pattern in sight to know what I had been sewing. Oh the story of my life! The best plans, I get started, then life gets in the way. At least I had all the pieces together tucked in a plastic shoebox waiting to be finished. So I guess that bed quilt will probably never get finished since I used the center squares that were supposed to go in the stars and made the toilet seat cover. I got smart and drew a pattern and instructions up while I was making the second one. In case I decide to change the colors in either bathroom in the future. Here's the second one. Just goes to show you how life gets in the way...I still have yet to finish the pattern and samples of the priarie flowers I was working on a couple weeks ago! I have to admit it felt really good to make something for me and our house for a change.

Next I wanted to share a really good tasting recipe I got from the Nate Berkus show. As I removed the pan from the oven it turned out looking pretty ugly, glad they didn't taste as bad as they looked! Recipe link follows. Pecan Butterscotch Bars   Scroll down and it's the 4th recipe on the page. Mine looked like theirs only in the center square. I'll show you a picture.

                  Mine was a flop in looks but not in flavor.

Chocolate Cake?

My all time favorite cake recipe is from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can. There is nothing better. My sister is the one who told me she made it and really liked it. I had never tried it before and Hershey's Cocoa is a staple in my pantry and always has been. Anyway it is so moist and very easy to make. I had doubts at first because you add 1 cup of boiling water to the batter and the batter is so thin, but it made the best chocolate cake I have ever had! It was so good I do not need to make frosting for it. Let me tell you it really works when you need a chocolate fix too. Well I've been in the mood for a vanilla cake and vanilla milk for a couple weeks now

( that is another story) and I usually make a Hot Milk cake recipe but decided to try the Hershey's recipe without the chocolate to see if it is just as good as the chocolate recipe! It worked! I substituted flour for the cocoa and followed the rest of the recipe exactly. The result was great! Although I have a can of cream cheese frosting standing by, the cake is good without it.

Here's the recipe.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake Altered

2 cups sugar         

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour              

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda                      

1 teaspoon salt                  

2 eggs

1 cup milk            

1/2 cup coconut oil          

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan or 2 nine inch round pans  and I would guess a 13x9 pan would work too, although I have not tried it.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, add eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in boiling water(batter will be very thin). Pour into pans and bake 30-35 mins. until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely before frosting.