Sugar Cookies

When ever I read a bloggers recipe post I tend to get annoyed that I have to scroll to the bottom to get the recipe so I am not going to do that. This is the recipe I used for sugar cookies for cookie cutters.

3/4 Cup Butter (1.5 sticks)
1 Cup Sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon (tsp) Vanilla
2.5 Cups flour
1 tsp baking POWDER
1 tsp salt

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in sift ingredients. Chill dough for at least 2 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough in sections to about 1/8 thickness. cut with a cookie cutter. place on ungreased baking sheet and bake 6-8 minutes. be careful not to over bake.

We all know the recipe is not what it seems so here is what I did to make the star wars cookies look this awesome.

I didn't sift the dry ingredients I just stirred them together. No other reason than my 3 year old was helping me and I wanted to prevent  a colossal mess! I waited until the butter was room temperature before creaming. Part of this was convince because we ran out of sugar so I just left the butter out while the hubby (mike) went and got some :) I creamed the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a kitchen aid until smooth. Then, I (ok my 3 year old) slowly, like very slowly, added the dry ingredients. once it was fully combined I then lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper and placed the dough in clumps all over the sheet so it would cool better. I dusted some flour on top and stuck it in the fridge for 2 hours.

Now that was the easy part. Making the cookies took me two hours! It was a double batch and a huge mess!!! I did these for Mike's work so he helpe dme clean up :) The cookie cutters were a Storm Trooper, Darth Vader, Yoder, and Boba Fett

They had this nice spring press on the back to make the impressions really stick into the dough. These are great cookie cutters!

Once the dough so cooled put the clumps on a floured surface. With the flour, don't be stingy with it. you can use PLENTY and it won't ruin the integrity of the dough. I separated the dough into handfuls and worked flour into them until they didn't stick to my hand anymore.

I greased a baking sheet. Using a baggy like this really helps with the mess.

I then floured the baking sheet by sprinkling flour on it and then banging it around so it was coated.

I took one clump of dough and smooched it on the baking sheet and used a glass to roll it out. Our rolling pin is too large and wouldn't let me get the dough really thin. So I search my kitchen and found a glass worked really well!

I put two dough clumps on a cookie sheet and rolled them out CRAZY thin. Honestly I think the thinner the better for sugar cookies.

By the way the cookie sheets I used are from pampered chef. I LOVE THEM!

                                                               I floured each cookie cutter.

Then stamped them all over the dough. Flouring the cookie cutter in between each stamp. Because of all the intricate designs on these the flouring was necessary or else the cookie stuck to it.

Once that was done I used a fork to left all the unstamped dough up. If the cookie sheet was floured and greased right then this was easy.
This method is amazing because then the cookies don't get distorted in the transfer from where you rolled to the cookie sheet.

Bake these cookie at 6 minutes first. They are over done if they get brown at all. They should not be difficul to remove at all. In fact mien slid around as I took them out of the oven. If yours don't slide  so easily then I suggest more shortening, flour, or a better cookie sheet. Those are the three varaible I have had to adjust in the past.

These are cookie that are fully cooked and ready to be iced (if you want to) personally I was not about to take on the tedious task of frosting these characters. So the cookies should turn out white and not the yellow the dough started with.

Mike liked these a lot. and he is a sugar cookie snob. So if you have kids and are picky on sugar cookies then try this. Each child could have their own cookie sheet which should help with the mess. ;)

Good luck and let me know if you tried this method and how it turned out!

Saving, serving and witnessing!

This is what couponing is all about!

I went to the walgreens on bittersweet and lincolnway and worked with Merisha a wonderful manager that helped me learn the wonderful ways of walgreens and how to get the best deals. I was able to share my faith through why I was couponing and it was obvious that she was not of the same faith but wasn't short with me when I spoke of serving for Christ. 
The awesome deal was the cough and cold is free with the rr you get, but if you have rr to use that is not cough and cold it is a money maker. Same thing with blistex. If you see they are out, ask, she said they aren't putting them all on the shelf at once. Tom products are .99 with rr and coupon from this weeks ss I believe. The colgate sensitive pro relief toothbrush is 1.25 with rr and coupon from last weeks ss. Also herbal essence shampoo 2/$3 with rr and ss coupon from last week. All in all I spent $4 for 17 products! Couponing was a blessing tonight and we will have children's meds for the DC! Last time I looked we did not have any children's or infants and if I am correct we have 3+ infants in the church family that are teething. :) have a blessed week everyone!

Rainy Days

the risotto last night was awesome. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/05/risotto-primavera/  It really did take rhythm and dance to make like Ree said. the recipe said to add a cup of the summering broth at a time, Wait for it to absorb and add another. while the waiting part really didn't take that long. you have to keep stirring it or it will stick to the bottom. (btw i didn't use a dutch over) so i would add broth, stir, put the left over veggies in a baggie, stir, put them in the frig, stir, get the paper towels to clean the counter, add more broth stir, wipe the counter, stir, put the recycling away, stir and so on. It really was a dance! Once i realized this i started laughing, making risotto is fun! and the box the rice came in allows for two really big meals out of it.

so coupons this week is not what i would like. i have a feeling I'm not doing this to its full potential and that makes me kind of sad because i spent a couple hours yesterday trying to get everything in order. I have to shop this week for food for our household. so i have a list of things we need and was praying to have coupons for those things. nada :( mike and i both need shampoo and conditioner and ziltch on that front. handsoap, kitchen cleaner-nothing. at least i found something on butter and cheese but on http://www.coupondiva.com/ they did a kroger match-up with parkay butter and i can't find that coupon.... sigh.  target has kraft cheese on sale but i wish i could find a manufacturer's coupon too.  I did find some good deal though, baby wipes for free! woot for that! cereal is big this week good ol' kellogs! like a $1 a box so I'm excited. i know we will probably bring some of that for out big camping trip in July. tomorrow is the day I'm going out, i have to hit up target kroger, then probably martins. martins last to pick up any things i didn't have on my target and kroger match-up list that i have on my shopping list. martins has a goo
d reward program for corningware and gas so they keep my loyalty.

that is anotherr thing we are going camping for 5 days in July. that's a lot of days when you have a baby! I'm in charge of lunches and snack so i am trying to save coupons and get deals on all of that stuff now. and laundry we are defiantly going to have to do that while their. diapers will probably have to be disposables 5 days and so far i barley have enough clothies for 1 day.

so the cloth diapers is going ok, her butt gets a little red when i use them but i think its the detergent and my lil girls sensitive skin thank you liz for posting you needed more rockin green because i checked it out and i think i may order some sample to see if that does the trick. i am still open to suggestions if anyone has any!

ok so i have been writing this for about 2 hours. lol the life of a mom. i have so many things i want to do this summer and i have a daily to do list of house work, studying, and excising. some how i never get it all done in a day.

well megan is asleep and i praise the lord she feel asleep in the swing today. she is a bit difficult when it comes to naps she tend to be particular as to where she falls asleep so everyday is a guessing game and yesterday she wanted mamas arms and Sundays are usually my day to get things done so I'm glad for the situation today. well time to put her in her crib.

<3
Bren

Pioneer woman

So this is recipe number three!
I have made e chilled coffee, pesto pasta, and currently simmering is the risotto primavera.
The coffee is amazing. I think I fell in love all over again. I used the condensed sweetened milk some caramel creamer and some jerseys chocolate. It's so fantastic. The pesto pasta I made last night with the addition of sausage. It was pretty good. Now I have to confess I didn't make the pesto I had some already made pesto sauce in the frig that I have been trying to find an excuse to use. Now the risotto. I can already tell I made a TON but hats ok I need lunch food anyway. :) I am also serving it with meatloaf (mikes fathers day request) the meatloaf recipe is grandma wilkies. Egg, Italian bread crumbs, g. Beef, g. Pork,a meatloaf spice pack ( the cheap one ) and of course bacon. Mike is in love with bacon. Seriously. Oh and BBQ sauce. No ketchup, BBQ sauce instead. It's a lot of food for the two of us but we like left overs :) we we will see how it turns out.

Pocket diapers

Thank you Emma!!!!
So I made pocket diapers this weekend. I made 3 so far and each time i get better at sewing them. The elastic is what gets me, darn that stuff.

So what I did was I got a pattern from http://www.ottobredesign.com/en/print/pdf/vaippa_en.pdf and cut it out onto plastic. I used the smaller design given and it fits Megan well with room to grow even. The velcro i just used one row not two. And the elastic line I extended a 1/4 inch on each side. the directions I used were from Emma's fb pin that was http://www.thethriftymama.com/2009/02/make-cloth-pocket-diaper.html but i altered some directions to fit the needs of Megan.

First, I cut out the pattern and made sure the stretchy part of the fabric went width wise. Also I had to make tabs on the part of the pocket so I could sew it over the elastic. That was not in the pattern.

Second, I sewed the soft velcro on the outside of the PLU fabric, not shiny side. The first time i did this i instinctivly put pins in and you dont' want to do that with PLU.

Third, Sewed the elastic on the inside of the PLU and fleece and folded the tabbed part over and sewed that. For the elastic it measured about 4.5 inches unstreached. I had to do a very wide zig zag, the largest setting my machine (my mom's machine really ;)  ) could go.

Fourth, sewing the two pieces together. Measure twice, sew once. because i didn't use pins i had to trust my measurments and just keep lining them up next to each other as i went. Also i had to keep remembering to put the the outside fabrics facing each other. i kept marking and I and O on the fabric with my fabric pen to remind myself which was which :)

Fifth, add the elastic to the PLU side. it is about 6.5 inch unstreached.
after this turn the diaper inside right and i always double checked everything giving it a good tug to make sure it is durable.

 Sixth, Add the velcro to the arms. i did a square around all the velcro pieces to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. This is pretty much it and went fast about a hour to make one with some baby distractions.

I did add this at the end to help with leakage. I know once she is on solids this won't be so important but i foudn with the first diaper i needed something extra. With the second diaper i tried this and it worked well. i just sewed on the inside seam of the elastic to create a little channel. to be honest i was think of pads when i was tring to figure out how to solve the leaking issue :) this worked well when i tried it on megan but if you have any otehr ideas please let me know.


and that's it! i don't have a picture of her wearing it becuase she is sleep at the moment but rest assured i will have one up soon :)

and again thank you Emm she gave the link and everything for this so this wouldnot be possible without her!
:)

If you are slightly inspried then get matterials this week. The no pill fleece and PLU are on sale at jo ann fabrics this week!  a yard and a half will make about 6 diapers if you plan your pattern out well. About $20 of fabric for 6 pocket diapers and the company pocket diapers you can't get two for that price!
http://www.amazon.com/bumGenius-One-Size-Pocket-Diaper-Artist/dp/B004DDDGLA my example :) bum genius $19.95 for one -_- craziness!

Megan

She is 6 weeks old and 9 lbs! I love my tiny bean. I want her to stay little as long as possible. Some facts about Megan and who she is. She is a terribly sloppy eater. She spit up and drools a lot. She has daddy's eyes and lip and mommys nose. She is loosing her hair but just around the side right now so I joke we could just give her a comb over. She smiles in her sleep and is slowly smiling more awake. She is absolutely breath taking when she smiles. She is a talker making lots of little noises and coos. She cries when hungry or in pain. She is very alert always checking out her environment. When she stars to wake up she makes the cutest faces and stretches. She loves baths, kicking and smiling when in them. She likes spending time in the bouncer looking out the window and being held by daddy while he plays video games. Her feet are huge! She is wearing 3 month socks and they are still small. She likes to stare at fry but doesn't like it when he licks her. Fry likes to lick and play with her feet when she kicks. She will eat easily from a bottle but is more comfortable and relaxed when she breast feeds. This makes me feel so loved! Overall this girl knows what she wants and will tell you. Her different cries are so obvious. She is very loved and spoiled :)

Delivery TMI WARNING part 3

JUST LETTING YOU KNOW I GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT THE DELIVERY SO PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THE GRAPHIC DETAILS ABOUT WHAT I WENT THROUGH. I know some people want to read this, and this was very therapeutic for me so pease skip if you like, it won't hurt my feelings.


Before I start I want to talk about time and how when in labor it feels different. I knew I good aMount of time was passing because I went through 3 nurses but I didn't actually know the time until my last nurse, Mona, had me turn to my back so she could help me with my cervix. Then I saw it. 7:30am. Oh I was mad. I exclaimed seriously I have been at this for over 12 hours! SERIOUSLY! and at this point I hadn't seen my doctor yet. So I knew I still had a bit to go.

So Mona had me flip to my back because only a little but my cervix on the right side was not over her head yet. So in the next couple of contractions Mona pushed it back. Don't cringe. It didn't hurt. It actually felt good because in was getting to where my body wanted to push and pushing on the cervix hurt a lot more than having her move it.

Well I kept pushing, and pushing. Mona and krystal kept telling me how good I was pushing but I felt no progress. Ok I lied I felt the progress of hemorrhoids. I knew it would happen but I never thought I would feel them. Ugh *shivers* and to think people go through this every time they have a kid. I know when and if we talk about a second it's going to be a long conversation and though out. Anyway the doctor came in at about 9:30 am. He saw how exhausted I was and that my contractions were 2-4 minutes apart. Ayes that's correct I'm at the pushing stage and my contractions are still carrying in time. Ugh my body just didn't get the idea! So he gave me a look about pitocen. I knew I wasn't progressing and I wanted to, and avoid a c section so I said yes. He asked me once more to be sure and mike gave me a look too. It was nice to have everyone stop and look at me like are you sure. So I have pitocen hooked up and it didn't work...... No change in my contractions. What did work was the side effect at 10 am megans heart rate started to drop every time I had a contraction so the doc came in and we got things underway. First he said her head was too low so this was vaginal. That was a relief to me, I really wanted to avoid surgery at all costs. Well because my cervix and her head we're not working together he asked for the vacuum. That took a couple of minutes to get to the room. And at the same time he asked the resident on duty that day to join him.

Ok this is how I knew I was in the weeds. Two doctors. Crap.

So he attached the vacuum to here tiny little head and I would push like I've nev pushed in my life. These next 30 minutes I pushed every contraction like it was the last. What annoyed me was the doctor kept repeating that. I'm thinking in my head 'what you think I'm not giving it my all?' the vacuum part was the most heart breaking for me because i could hear every time it popped off her head. 4 times toal and every time I cringed because I knew it wasn't working, she wasn't moving, she was in distress, and I was tired. So many emotions. Sigh. So after that he brought out the scissors. WORST SOUND I THE WORLD snip, snip, snip, snip. That's when I stopped listening. Too many snips. Then we tried again. No go. So finally he said forceps. Ugh. But at this point I knew she needed to come out and I wanted her out so badly. This part was kind of humorous because the nurses looked at each other and asked if they even had any. Yes that's correct If the hospital even had any. Lol (this part was told to me by krystal) it took a coue of minutes for a nurse (Danielle) to run, literally. And get them. So she comes in and he places the forceps and he says ok next big contraction. So we waited, and waited,and waited. Ugh stupid body. That last contraction took forever to come, but when it did I felt the pressure change when her head was out. Oddly enough he didn't really use the forceps on her head it was more on me, to part the red sea if you will. I didn't really notice any pain I was just so focused on pushing. When he finally delivered the rest of her it was such a relielf on my body but the. I felt the pain of everythingnthat just happened. I waited for mike to cut the cord and have her placed on my chest. With all the pain and the fact I just spent 39 weeks and 17 long hours to get her I wanted to see her. She was a great distraction while they (yes both doctors) repaired me. Lol. It did come to a point of pain while stitching me that I hated it, but I had to ask that she be removed from me so I could focus on what was going on. Out of everything that happened this part sucked the most. Thankfully krystal was there to help me through it while mike was with Megan. I knew this recovery was going to suck even more when the doc kept askig for suture kits, three more to be exact. That's when I asked how many stitches. He looked up at me and said I don't think you should know. And kept working. After that ordeal was over he the. Said ok the placenta. Ugh I forgot about this part and by this time the adrernalin was wearing off so I actually had to focus more o delivery this than Megan! I did ask to see the placenta and the resident explained the parts to me. It was really cool! Her little home!! Lol.

All in all I'm glad it went like it did. It could have been so much worse. So I was in labor from when my water broke for 17 hours. I total it was about a week I was in total labor, from early to delivery. I remember it got to the point I had to stop work on Tuesday, and she was born at 10:33 on Friday. Ugh. But she is totally worth it!

Lastly the one thing I wasn't prepared for I any way was my recovery. And I will probably blog about this later.