Standiford Family

In early November I was trying to get some Christmas shopping done.  Since I was out I thought I’d just pick up one of those lotion/bath sets for all the kids’ teachers.  Easy.  Done.  Then I got home and it started bugging me that the gifts weren’t very personal.  There was little to no thought put into it.  I grabbed the ones that smelled the best.  By the way, some of them should NOT be on the market.  I pondered on the idea of what I should do for a while and came up with, what I think, is a winner.  Of course it meant me putting in hours of labor, but it was for a good cause.  I made each teacher, there’s 8, a set of eight cards.  I packaged them up with envelopes.  I suppose it would have been nice to include postage too but that’s getting a little carried away.

In the last two-ish months I have made about 100 cards.  Here they are:

Here’s the set I made:  (yes, some of them you may have seen already)

The girls took their gifts in today since it’s their last day of school this year.  They brought back thank you cards already.  They have done very little work this week since it’s the end of the semester. Kade may not get to take his in tomorrow since we are supposed to get a major winter storm with rain, ice, and snow.  Sounds fun. If he doens’t have school the gifts will just have to wait until next year.  It’s not like the cards will go bad.

Here’s the little gift tag I “had” to make to go with each set.  Darling, isn’t it?

We did our family photo shoot on Saturday.  We ended up with a decent one for the card, which will be posted later.  I had to share some of the bloopers.

Where’s Kade going?

Missing a kid.

Getting ready to pose.

Too early.

There was no funny face picture this year.  Does that mean everyone is maturing?  Hmm…

Several years ago a family lived here and went to our church.  He was a medical resident at a local hospital.  As things go in our church people come and go, regularly.  Before they moved away I had been to their house for a choral group practice.  It was around Halloween.  They had a really yummy tradition.  They had a wire “tree” by their front door and for every holiday/season they made roll out cookies to go with whatever was being celebrated.  They placed them in sandwich bags and hung them on the tree to give out to people that came over.  I love that idea but I think I would just eat them all and there would be nothing to share.  A few years ago I needed a good recipe for roll outs.  I tried a few and none of them compared to the ones that family made.  Now I only had the one cookie.  It really stayed with me.  It’s that good!  I had mentioned it to a friend who was here when that family was here and she thought someone else we knew had the recipe.  She had just moved to Utah.  Let me just say it was SO worth the long distance phone call to get the recipe.

I’ve decided to share the recipe so everyone can enjoy it.  I was just asked by a preschool mom for the recipe.  She had a pumpkin shaped one I made for Kade’s Thanksgiving feast.  I usually make a double batch because if I’m going to make them I have to make a lot.  Sometimes I do a triple batch.

Roll Out Cookies

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix the shortening, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Roll out to about 1/4″ thick and cut with cookie cutters.  Bake at 400º for 6-8 minutes.  Cool completely and frost/decorate.

Some tips:

Keep an eye on the cookies.  Pull them out of the oven before or right as they are turning golden.  You want a white cookie.  They are soft.  Soft is good.

I also bake mine on a stone so if you have one I recommend it.  I do have to bake it longer the first time around, about 8-9 minutes.

I only use Duncan Hynes’ Homestyle Vanilla Frosting.  It’s the best.

If you have a hard cookie it does soften when it’s been frosted and has sat for a while.

Sometimes I make the dough at night and don’t get around to rolling the dough until some time the next day.  Sometimes I’ll only make what I need from the dough and leave the rest in the refrigerater until I’m ready to make more.  Or until I’m craving them.

They are sweet enough to eat without frosting if you’re watching your fat intake.

Enjoy!

I just filled up the van for $24.77!  That’s amazing.  (Gas was $1.86!)  Not long ago I had to pay at least $45.  Whoever’s controlling the oil prices, keep it up.  I mean keep it low.  Now if we could just get the dairy farmers to drop the price of milk that would be great.

Last week as I was leaving and/or coming home I noticed a lot of color on a rose bush.  I had to go take a look. This is what it looked like:  four open roses and at least two buds. Here it was the first week of November, we had already had frosts in the night, and we had our first snow.  This rose bush looked better than it had in the summer.  Go figure.

Mattey was given an assignment by her teacher to collect a few leaves amonst other things and make a book.  It’s due next Monday so I thought we had better start on it.  We decided to walk around ND’s campus this afternoon so she could have a good selection of leaves.  I must say the campus is one of the more beautiful spots in the city.  We picked a great day to go.  It was in the 70’s and sunny.  The leaves are starting to change.  The air smelled fresh.  Mat got her leaves along with a few pinecones and buckeyes.

I took the camera and got a few pictures that show off the beginning of fall, and a few icons of ND.

I got this picture of the kids.  Kade’s a little fuzzy but he looked the best in it.  I’ve got to teach him to freeze.

I just had to share this recipe with everyone.  If you are a Pampered Chef person you’ve probably already had this. It is easy and oh so good.

It’s called Taffy Apple pizza.  It’s usually made with one big cookie but I like it smaller sized.

1 roll sugar cookie dough

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 8oz cream cheese (1/3 less fat is good), softened

2 Granny Smith apples (or whatever apples you like)

caramel sundae topping

1/2 cup peanuts, chopped

Spread cookie dough out on a 15″ baking stone.  (I just make regular cookies or slightly larger than normal and bake according to directions.)  Back at 350 for 18 minutes or until done.  Cool completely.  Combine cream cheese, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Spread over cookie.  Peel, core, and slice apples.  (I like to chop the apple into small pieces.)  Arrange on top of cookie.  Drizzle caramel over apple slices (pieces) and top with chopped peanuts.

Since I make the individual cookies I only prepare the ones that will get eaten and store the rest.  If you make the big cookie and don’t eat it all the first day then the cookie gets soggy.  I don’t like that.  Enjoy!

This next recipe I made this summer.  I wanted to use up some fresh blueberries but didn’t want to make a pie.  I love the Apple Crisp I make so I altered it to make a Blueberry one.  It turned out really, really good.  I’m craving it right now.  Maybe I’ll have to make it this weekend.

Blueberry Crisp

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour (if you use fresh blueberries add 1 Tablespoon more)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine, sliced or cubed

Topping:

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

oil spray

Combine the filling ingredients except the butter and put in baking dish  (8″X8″ or something a little bigger, 9″X13″ works when doubling).  Top with butter slices or cubes.  Combine the dry ingredients for the topping and then add the egg, mix well.  Put on top of the filling.  Using spray oil coat the topping until saturated.  Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until crisp is golden brown.

I served it with ice cream and oh, it is just so yummy.  If you’d like to make the apple version (sorry no picture) here’s the changes.  Peel, core, and slice 8 Johnathon apples or other cooking apples.  Place in baking dish and sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.  (I always use more.)  Topping, time, and temp. are all the same.  I’m sure I’ll be making the apple version soon too.

Today Kade and I took a little trip to Shipshewana.  (I of course forgot to bring the camera.)  We went to Yoder’s Department store to look at fabrics.  Supposedly they have 12,000 bolts of fabric.  I not sure of that number but there was a lot.  I looked at all the cottons and then made my decision.  I’m really surprised at what I bought.  I definitely wouldn’t have bought this a few years ago but it also wouldn’t have been available.  Here’s what I got:

Metro Blue Goes Green (Marcus Brothers)

Bleeker Street (Marcus Brothers)

I’m really loving the blues, greens, and browns right now.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these yet.  They will definitely be made into something beautiful.  I have a few ideas already.  I’m really considering selling stuff.  Let me know if you’re interested.

By the way, Kade was SO good.  He hid in storage cabinets under the fabric I looked at and ask “Can you see me?”.  He pushed carts around banging into things but not people.  He tapped on wood display stands and said he was making music.  My favorite thing was when he put his head in a storage cabinet and yelled “Echo!” and then waited for his echo.  I told him there was too much fabric in the room for there to be an echo.  (Yes, I think this is good.  He never ran away from me.)  He could have had the ladies in the store eating out of his hand.  That’s my boy.  I don’t mean that he takes after me but that’s his fun personality.  He also did really great on the drive.  We stopped and got him a coloring book to keep busy.  He colored for about 10 minutes total.  He loved seeing the horses, cows, and buggies.

Here’s more fabric I’m working with right now.

So fun!  It’s the Stonehill collection from JoAnn.  I’ll have pictures when I’m done sewing.  Stay tuned.

Today Kade went on his first field trip.  (The second one is next week, already.)  He’s been excited about it since last week when he turned in the permission slip.  We, yes I went with him, went apple picking.  We drove up to a small orchard just north of Niles.  This is the fourth time I’ve been there.  Kade had fun.  He was given a plastic grocery bag and let loose in the orchard.  Most of the apples were too high but we searched for low hanging ones and found some, enough for him to fill his bag.

He had to eat a golden delicious on the way home.  They are really good.  Somehow I volunteered myself to help Kade’s class make applesauce tomorrow.  There goes my alone time.  Now we’ll have to go as a family to pick so I can make applesauce.  Yum.

This year when the mailers from MSA came we asked Megan if she wanted to play soccer this fall.  She said yes but then decided she didn’t want to, she likes softball better.  Mattey said she wanted to play.  We asked her several times if she really wanted to because she tends to not finish what she started.  We told her she had to do all the practices and play all the games if we signed her up since it’s not cheap.  She agreed.  Well then Megan decided she wanted to play too.  We signed both of them up.  We heard from the coaches the end of August and practices started the first week of September.  The first games were scheduled for the 13th but since we had about 11″ of rain that weekend the games were cancelled.  Both girls played on the 20th at the same time at different fields across town.  Thankfully we only have to do that one more time.  Mickey went to Mattey’s game and Kade and I went to Megan’s.  Both girls played great.

Mickey took the camera so this week we have pictures of Mat.

I picked her up some cleats with pink on them, very girly, and tied a bow in her hair.

(I love this picture.)

She played hard.

She cheered for her team.

She was ready to defend the goal.

Her team didn’t win (0-3) but she did have a great time playing.  I can’t wait to watch her this Saturday.

Meanwhile at Megan’s game Kade and I cheered a lot.  Kade kept cheering for white although Meg’s team was wearing green.  I think he was just doing it to argue with me.  Megan made some good passes and had a lot of long drives down the field that ended up in the other team’s posession.  She did manage, in the third quarter, to score a goal.  Soon after that the coach switched up the players and she played goalie for a while.  Within a few minutes she blocked a really good attempt by the other team.  When you watch her play you can tell her mind is really in the game.  Her team ended up winning 3-0 but again it’s not about who wins.  Here’s to a good season.