Chocolate Chip Cookies

My parents spent Christmas with us again this year and we had SO much fun.  My daddy loves cookies and I love to make lots of them for him when he visits but I may have gone a little overboard this year.  I made 5 different types of cookies.  At least two dozen of each so we had over 120 cookies!!

One of my favorite cookies is the traditional chocolate chip cookie with pecans.  RJ and MJ also love them so I definitely had to make them for Christmas.  

Hubby and my dad aren't huge fans of the chocolate chip cookie so I made oatmeal raisin cookies for them.  I'll share that recipe later.   

One thing that I did not do for these cookies was use parchment paper on the cookie sheet.  I never used parchment paper before but I gave it a try on a different batch of cookies.  Let me say that I will never make cookies again without using parchment paper.  The cookies just slid off the paper, it was great.

I bought one of these cute holiday tins from Target to put the cookies in.  All of the cookies didn't fit in the tin, so I was able to hide some away from the boys :-0

This is one of the best cookie recipes that I have found.  The boys and I really enjoyed them.  Fortunately, we didn't have to share these with Santa since he is a big oatmeal raisin cookie guy.

Ingredients 

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Renee

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ya Ka Mein

Yakamein, (pronounced Yakameat by local New Orleanians) is a delicious meal made with beef, spaghetti, green onions and eggs.  Many locals also call the dish Old Sober because of it's reputation as a hangover cure.    

No one knows the true origin of the dish.  Some say it originated from Chinese immigrants who were brought to New Orleans to help build railroads between New Orleans and Houston.  Others say it is a version of Korean noodle soup dishes brought back to New Orleans from African American troops who fought in the Korean war.  Whichever is true, I am sure glad someone thought of it.

Since we got a taste of cold weather this weekend in Texas, MJ begged me to make ya ka mein for him.  RJ is not a huge fan, but he does love the noodles, what 4 year old wouldn't??

Not only will this dish help you recover from your hangover, it will also be a treat for your tastebuds and warm your insides on a cold night. 

For all yall who want to make this great cold-weather meal, here is the recipe:

3-4 pounds beef stew meat 
4-5 quarts of water

2 tablespoons of beef bouillon base 

1 teaspoon of Lawry's seasoned salt

2 teaspoons of Slap Ya Mama (Cajun seasoning)

1 teaspoon of onion powder

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

salt and pepper, to taste

1 pound of spaghetti noodles

one half hard boiled egg per bowl of soup

1 green onion, sliced

Soy sauce, hot sauce, to taste

Renee

Superhero Bookmarks

At one time MJ loved reading.  Unfortunately, his love of reading has 

been replaced by a love of video games.  

In one of my pinning adventures I ran across a great idea on the Crafts by Amanda blog that may help to ignite his reading again.

I know that MJ and his friends are into the Avengers, so I thought if he had Avenger bookmarks he would be excited to use them in his books.

Both of the boys really like the bookmarks.  RJ uses them as toys with his action figures.  He insisted that I take pictures of the bookmarks with the "real" Spider Man and Wolverine.   

When MJ brought them to school, he began coming home almost daily asking for certain characters for friends.  After a week of constantly making bookmarks, Hubby started joking that I had a bookmark assembly line going in our kitchen.  

Unfortunately, the bookmarks have not brought back MJ's love of reading, but they have inspired him to pull out his books again.  Fortunately, we make him read daily so he does use the bookmarks and reads whether he wants to or not :-).

Check out the Crafts by Amanda tutorial if you'd like to make your own.  I followed her tutorial for all but Wolverine and Hawkeye. I made my own versions using the Marvel book in the photos. 

Renee

Hubby Does Halloween

I am usually the one who gets excited about decorating the house for the holidays, but this year Hubby wanted to get in on the act and decorate pumpkins.  

We took RJ to the pumpkin patch one afternoon and we bought two large pumpkins.

The final result was really cute.  

Here is a picture we took at night with a candle inside.  

We bought one pumpkin that Hubby thought would look great as a ghost.  RJ was very happy to help with the painting.  

I think the ghost pumpkin came out great!!!  

Hubby did a great job with his pumpkins.

I hope he helps out with Christmas decorating also :-)

Renee

Halloween fun

RJ turned 4 this summer and he is really becoming a big boy.  So while I can still classify him as my baby I made some cute Halloween crafts using his hands and feet.  I found a great Halloween craft idea on Southern Fried Gal blog and I knew it would be a perfect afternoon project for RJ and I.  

RJ had so much fun painting each canvas. 

He especially enjoyed when I painted his hands and foot.  

He said it tickled and he laughed the entire time.

The most difficult part of this project was getting him to keep still while I pressed his hands and foot onto the canvas.  Despite working with a wiggly 4 year old, I think they came out great.  

I will always have these Halloween art prints to remind me of my little RJ.  

Renee