I spent my day in the kitchen. I baked Amish Sugar Cookies, Oatmeal Scotchies (for E) and a cherry pie. I absolutely love this pie pan! It does such wonderful things for the crust on any pie I have baked in it! Being cast iron, it is heavy, but that is most likely why it crisps them so well.

Oatmeal Scotchies are E's all-time favorite cooky! I wanted to add some chopped nuts, maybe some golden raisins too. But he says "why mess with perfection?" Since I made them sepecially for him, I restrained myself!

E went to his workplace this morning to hang a couple of fluorescent light fixtures. I rarely have a weekend day to myself, so I made the most of this one! It was so windy outside, but so warm at 69 degrees! Love this short sleeve weather!!

Merry Christmas!

What a beautiful day today was! Sun shining! Crisp and clear! 35 degrees! After a rainy yesterday, it was so nice!

I have had the last two weeks off because my little guys have been in Texas visiting their mother. I actually enjoyed cleaning the horses' stalls early in the day, and giving them an extra slice of hay for lunch. Something I can't do when I am at work all day. When it was 25 degrees and freezing rain was falling, they were glad to go in their stalls during the middle of the day!

I baked Amish Sugar Cookies, which E ate most of! I gave the horse shoer a sackful of them when he was finished with trimming the horses feet last Friday. And the satellite guy was here to trouble shoot our satelite dish, and I gave him a sackful also. Told them Merry Christmas and their both their faces lit up with anticipation! Glad I could make their work day a bit brighter!

Today we went and spent the day with the grandboys and ate a wonderful lunch. It was a lovely day.

My birds were having a hissy fit this morning! It was 9 degrees and they wanted breakfast, but someone was sitting on their dining room table! He wouldn't scare away by clapping your hands so E finally threw a boot at him and he ran under the porch and finally left the birds alone. He is one of our cats, one of the two kittens that showed up last July 4th, with their momma. He is a pest, getting under your feet, in the way as you try to walk! but if he gets my birds, I don't know what I will do with him!

I stopped in the local St. Marks Mission store one day this week and bought a bread machine cookbook for 25 cents. I made a Potato Bread recipe that was perfect! It was well worth the quarter I paid for the book and there are at least a dozen more that I want to try too!
Here is the Potato Bread recipe:
2/3 cup potato water
2 1/2 tablespoons of margarine or butter (no need to melt butter or margarine first)
1/2 egg (use either one yolk, one egg white, or two tablespoons of egg substitute)
1/3 cup mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour ( had to add about 2 tablespoons extra, once it started kneading as it was too sticky. Flours are different, humidity makes a difference too).
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Boil 1-2 peeled potatoes. Save water to use in bread. Mash potatoes without butter or milk and cool to lukewarm.

Put in bread machine pan according to your machines specifications. Mine requires the liquids first, with flour, then yeast last.

We had the grandsons last weekend. We picked them up from on our way home from our Thanksgiving Day dinner at Lebanon with E's dad and assorted family members. The boys are 8 and 4 years old in October. Since we don't have an extra bedroom, one slept on the couch and the other one on the cot in the living room. They stayed an extra night so they could both have a turn sleeping on the cot! E had that week off from work, so he was here with them when I had to work on Friday. He made them waffles for breakfast which they loved. I had to work on Friday so I brought my little guys (3 year old twin boys) home to spend the day at our house. We made M&M cookies, while the 8 year old helped E take care of the animals, get the eggs and split some firewood with the log splitter. Try making scratch cookies with lots of little hands all wanting to help! They all got to stir and put in ingredients, and of course eat raw dough and M&M's! They had a ball! On Saturday we took them to Wonder Lab in Bloomtown. They didn't want to leave, but we had to meet their Mom, who met us half way and picked them up.
It sure was a whole new experience to have little ones in our house. It was noisy but fun, when it is usually so quiet here. We will surely have them again! Their Mom says 'you can have them any time!'