Cooking with the Grands at Christmas

Every year at Christmas time I am careful to reserve time to do some crafting with my grandkids. Sometimes we make pictures, sometimes we make ornaments for the trees, sometimes we make little gifts for various parents. This year we decided to do something for the 6 dogs in the family. By checking on Pinterest I was able to find a simple pet healthy recipe, so I assembled our materials and yesterday we baked Puppy Cookies for them all. Here is the recipe we used : http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2007/11/03/gone-to-the-dogs/ ,

It took me back to the days when my boys were preschoolers - I was a stay at home mom and I made them biscuits from scratch so often for breakfast that I began using a variety of shapes of cutters to make the meal more fun for them. The dog bone cutter was a big favorite then, and yesterday it came in handy once again.

 Mixing up mushie stuff is always thrilling for little people. The messier it looks, the more they like it!

When you start adding the dry ingredients the dough becomes very stiff, so big brother had to tackle stirring the mass into a big gob of dough. Look how intense he is on his mission! 









We also gave him the duty of rolling the dough out flat so baby sister could cut out the shapes with the cookie cutter and put them onto the cookie sheet for baking. She was so very careful!

We filled up two big cookie sheets with dog bone shapes and carefully baked them. After they cooled we counted them out and divided them equally between our four households where our 6 furry friends work so hard to take care of us. We held one out to try out on Pupman, who was anxiously waiting to get his treat when he heard the magic words: PUPPY COOKIE!

The recipe doesn't mention it but I think it's a good idea to store these in an airtight container in the fridge. When I got home to my two four footed babies I gave them each a cookie and they seemed very happy to have the treat.

Nine more days until Christmas......

knit, Swirl, SNUGGLE!!

These are some of the new designs from a book (available on Amazon.com) called
The book is a little pricey at $34.95 and the designs are very similar, with subtle differences in shaping and length to fit various bodies and still look nice. I was captivated by the elegance of the black one shown below and another that is so large you can pull the top of it over your head like a hood, who would not want to snuggle in that! We give this one a big thumbs up and hope some used copies will float to the top soon. You can see more at http://www.knitswirl.com . Happy swirling!

Tis the Season

Tis the season for cold weather, outdoor decorations, snow, and shopping for special little gifts for special little people in the family. The illustration above is a perfect example of how I viewed the world, and the holidays, for many years as I was growing up. It gave me an appreciation for whimsy that has managed to remain thru all this time. It is a gentler, kinder way of looking out at the world, a point of view that I choose gladly. That's where I am today.

I'm not doing much painting these days, it seems the Fiber Arts have taken over my life. Though I have my oils and canvases carefully stowed away at the moment, I am ready to pack up my watercolor gear and donate it to the art center, perhaps it can help some other aspiring artist to find their way.

 My art cabinet at home is now stuffed with a sizeable collection of yarn, fur and fiber. I am about to begin learning to create fiber blends via my new Strauch 'Finest' drum carder, an adventure I've been anticipating for a long time. And oh, the projects that I have in mind for the special yarns that I will spin!

Til next time......