Fun Cookie Dough!

I know it has been FOREVER since I've posted a blog here... I am almost ashamed. We've been weathering a stormy, busy time in our lives but we are coming through it all shining! I do really enjoy blogging though and hope that I will get back on track with it!

Tonight we had fun with the Joe Corbi's "Colorful Cookie Dough" that we recently bought from Caleb's school for a fundraiser. At about $14 it's a little pricey, but we have enough left for at least one more round of fun. The kids (and the big kids) used the red, green, blue, and yellow dough to make all kinds of fun shapes from Christmas trees to the letter "B" for Blake and "C" for "Caleb." It was very play-doh like and we really had a hoot!

Blake even got in on the action!

The containers from Corbi's.

The finished products... an elf, a heart, a sun, a cross, a flower, a snake... and so on.

If you get the opportunity to buy Joe Corbi's cookie dough, this product is a lot of fun!

Pumpkin Cookie Recipe

Pumpkin Cookie Recipe (From about.com)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup milk

Sifted Confectioners' sugar for dusting

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. Stir in pumpkin puree'. In another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg (I used a fork). Stir flour mixture into the creamed mixture along with the milk. Blend thoroughly, but don't over beat. Drop cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes at 375 degrees.

The cookies came out extremely moist and soft, almost like mini pumpkin cakes. Very tasty!

Easy Dip

Easy Dip (Thanks Cindy!)

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 jar of salsa
Shredded cheddar

Spread cream cheese in the bottom of a pie plate (I softened it in the microwave to make it spread easier). Pour salsa over top of cream cheese. Sprinkle shredded cheddar on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy with crackers or nacho chips!

Baugher's Apple Farm & Apple Dip

Yesterday we took a trip to Baugher's Farm in Westminster. I have heard several people say how awesome it is, so I wanted to see it for myself! It took just under an hour to get there and was definitely worth the drive. You take a hayride through the farm to the apple orchard and then pick your own apples! The boys really enjoyed walking through the orchard and picking apples. We got a little bit picking crazy though and wound up picking a peck of apples!

They also have a market, moonbounce, face painting, live music, a petting zoo and several other farm activities. There is also currently a hayride to pick your own pumpkin from the field, but we decided to wait for that. I worry that buying a pumpkin this early would mean that it would be mush by Halloween night. Their website is: http://www.baughers.com/ The apples were 99 cents a pound and the hayride was $1 a person, but they didn't charge us for Blake.

After visiting Baugher's farm we checked out their restaurant which we also highly recommend. It is very family friendly, affordable and dee to the licious!

Blake helping Daddy pick a Golden Delicious apple.

Daddy and the boys in the apple orchard.

With the plethora of apples in our kitchen I am now looking for inventive ways to use them! Today I made a caramel apple dip for the football game. It was easy and tasty! Here is the recipe if you'd like to give it a try!

Caramel Apple Dip (Taken from examiner.com)

Ingredients

8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup of brown sugar, preferably light

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 jar of your favorite caramel

1/2 cup of Heath english toffee bits (usually with baking items, I bought the milk chocolate kind and used more than the 1/2 cup it called for)

6-8 Apples for dipping

1. Blend cream cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth. Spread in the bottom of a pie plate.

2. Cover with caramel (I microwaved it for a few seconds so that it was pourable).

3. Sprinkle Heath bits on top.

4. Eat!

Strawberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies & Cookie Dough Scoopers!

I tried this recipe for Strawberry White Chocolate Chip cookies from Shawna's blog Nuts to You (http://shawnahenry.blogspot.com/). I love strawberries and I love anything with white chocolate, so it seemed like the perfect combination. It was extremely simple. There are only 4 ingredients and it took less than 5 minutes to get them in the oven. Blakey and Caleb love them and so do I!
Strawberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 box of strawberry cake mix
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Mix ingredients, scoop onto cookie sheets (I only use airbake sheets when baking cookies), bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Super easy!
On a random side note, do you know that there is such a thing as a cookie dough scooper? My mother in law got me one for my birthday several years ago and I LOVE it! It makes the process of putting cookie dough on a cookie sheet quick and precise. All of the cookies wind up being the same size. Before the kitchen doo dad I had problems with my cookies being different sizes! :)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Last night we went to the Ironbirds game in Aberdeen, MD. I honestly was exhausted and kind of grumpy about going... boy am I ashamed now! As most of you know the Aberdeen Ironbirds are owned by the legendary Cal Ripken Jr. For those of you that are not from MD (I know there are a few people reading this from out of state) he is our hometown hero. According to the staff at the stadium, Cal usually only attends one game a year. Last night happened to be that game! From what I've heard he rarely signs autographs/take pictures, but last night was one of those rare moments! After participating in the opening ceremonies of a special event (the Little League World Series) he happily signed autographs and took pictures with kids.

He even posed for a priceless picture with Caleb!

A few minutes later he began walking through the stadium. As he got near our section I yelled, "Cal, would you take a picture with the baby?" He actually turned around! He then said jokingly, "Do you realize how long it has been since I've held a baby?" He grabbed the baby up and let me take a picture! He even held him for a few moments as the crowd said "Aw!"

I've heard gossip that he can be mean, etc. but that was NOT my experience at all. He is wonderful with kids! It seems like his life's purpose at this point is helping kids play baseball. I think he gets agitated with people that are trying to make money off him, and really who can blame him?

The rest of the evening was a little hectic... the kids usually go to bed at 7:30 and the game didn't even start until 7:35! By 8:30 the kids were nuts! Caleb spent most of his evening on Traci's lap (my brother's girlfriend), I told Sean that he has some serious competition! I'm so glad we went!

Instant Answer to Prayer

I have recently grown VERY worried about Blake. He's 18 months old, wasn't walking, and wasn't saying as many words as I thought he should be. I was ready to discuss it with the pediatrician at next week's checkup to see if I should look into getting him special services. This was a hard realization for me to make and accept. I am ultra sensitive about him because of the issues he had during pregnancy and the holes that still remain in his skull as a result of these issues.

I did the best thing I could think of when I came to this realization last week and I prayed hard! Out of nowhere, in the last 24-48 hours he has been saying a ton of new words (go, stop, bad, whoa, uh oh). Then tonight I nearly lost it when he went from my boy that would only crawl or walk around holding furniture to a boy that could run! While we were at the library he just took off! I was so happy I almost cried! What is even better is that I had my digital camera on me to catch the moment! You can watch the video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAPK14Keq3Q

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!