COOKIE SWAP TODAY!!!

Time to start swapping!

I had hoped to make each of these recipes, but I had a few extra things fall into my lap this week, so it didn't happen. Every year, as long as I can remember, we have had Peanut Butter Fudge and Heavenly Fudge Bars at Christmas time. One note on the Heavenly Fudge Bars: this is probably the one recipe that I make sure to buy quality, name-brand ingredients.

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE

2 C sugar
2/3 C milk
1 C chunky peanut butter
1 (16-oz) package chocolate chips
1/2 pint jar marshmallow creme
1 tsp vanilla

Butter sides of heavy 2-qt saucepan. In it, combine sugar and milk. Heat till sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a boil. Then cook to soft-ball stage. Remove from heat; add remaining ingredients and stir till blended. Pour into buttered 9x9x2 inch pan. Score in squares while warm, cut when firm.

HEAVENLY FUDGE BARS

1/3 C shortening
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
3/4 C flour
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C chopped walnuts
20 marshmallows

Cream shortening and add sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Sift flour, soda, salt, and cocoa together and add to creamed mixture. Mix well and stir in walnuts and vanilla. Spread in 8x11 inch pan. Bake at 350 degree oven for about 20 min. Remove from oven and cover with marshmallows. Place in oven 5 minutes. Remove from oven and spread marshmallows out to cover cookies. Cool, then frost with this frosting:
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C water
2 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 C powdered sugar
Place brown sugar, water, and cocoa in sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Add butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir well and pour over top of marshmallow layer on cookies.

Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Virtual Cookie Swap

I'm always looking for a few new cookie recipes around the holidays. This usually means spending a few hours looking at recipe after recipe, and coming up with very little. So this year, I've decided to host a Virtual Cookie Swap.

Date: Friday, December 4 - 6, 2009
Where: Right here!
How: Mr. Linky will be at the bottom of my post that day - all you have to do is add your link!
Spread the Word: Please feel free to add my cookie swap button to your blog, linking back to this post. The more the merrier!

How strongly are you opposed to grand theft auto?

So, the sis-in-laws and I took my niece to see the movie Friday night. We weren't too interested in seeing the flick, but figured Jadyn would probably need her mom and 3 aunts to protect her from the crazies. Um, yeah. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! We went to the 7:10 showing, and arrived around 6pm. We had to wait a little to get in, since the previous showing wasn't quite over, yet. By 6:30, the theatre was packed, and the employees were trying to find seats for people! New Moon was sooooo much better than Twilight. KStew's acting hasn't improved, but it's not as noticable in this one. I'm already looking forward to Eclipse!

One down, how many to go?

Have you ever felt like you have the worst luck ever? That's the way I feel sometimes. My laptop, with all those promised pictures, is currently being fixed, but I should have it back by the end of the week.

In the meantime, I'll share with you what we're giving my in-laws and my parents for Christmas.

The original plan was to use a black frame with a double white matting. That would have been insanely expensive, so I was thrilled when I found a couple of frames at Gordman's for $15-$17 that had the right number of spaces! I found the letters at Hobby Lobby when the unfinished wood items were 50% off, so they were only $1 each, and the photos were developed at Wal-Mart. The total cost for both gifts was less than $50!

If your mom and dad are like mine, and my in-laws, and are running out of room to put all those fantastic knick-knacks, I recommend doing something like this. Every year, we plan to retake photos so there are always updated photos of the grandkids.

I really like the way they turned out, so I even picked up another frame yesterday to make one for us!

Thoughts and Prayers

My heart goes out to all those affected by the shooting at Fort Hood yesterday.

A friend posted the following on her facebook page...

"Praying for the Fort Hood Families tonight. That's my brothers base but don't worry...he's safe and sound in Iraq right now."

Another friend's sister had left the place where the shootings occurred around 1pm. The shootings started around 1:30.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Fort Hood community and families.

Grrr.

So, I've been trying to upload pics to Blogger for the past two days, and I'm not having any luck. I don't know if it's Blogger or my internet company (we've lost the net completely for a couple of hours both yesterday and today). I'll keep trying, and will get those promised pics up as soon as I can!