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Virtual Cookie Exchange – Hosted by Staci Troilo

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Miriam Hurdle 71 comments

Staci Troilo invited us to have a Virtual Cookie Exchange and share our recipes on Thursday, December 16, 2021. My recipe, along with many recipes from the friends in this blogging community will be there. Please be sure to visit her tomorrow when she shares all the goodies with you.

Staci Troilo: First Cookie Exchange

My husband used to have a sweet tooth. I don’t bake cookies for him anymore because he is watching out for the sugar intake.

During the last two visits to my daughter’s family, I made cookies for the grandkids. I made chocolate chip cookies with M&Ms on top. Autumn doesn’t have those cookies regularly. She doesn’t do many things regularly such as watching two movies in a row, only when grandma is there (I tried so hard not to be a grandma who spoils the grandkids)!

Hubby and I will be visiting the grandkids for Christmas. I wanted to make some cookies for them. I wanted to make some chewy cookies, so they’ll stay soft until we get there. These are oat, fruit, and nut cookies.

I did a variation on the ingredients. Let me talk a little about the ingredients first.

Vegetable Shortening – I used vegetable shortening instead of butter. Butter contains milk solids, fat, and water. Butter can cause steaming while baking which can dry out the cookies. Vegetable shortening is made up entirely of fat that melts at a higher temperature which gives the cookie batter more time to rise.

Egg yolks – I double the egg yolks and omit the white of each egg which tends to dry out when baking.

Brown sugar – I used all brown sugar with no white sugar. Brown sugar contains more moisture. You can use half white and half brown sugar.

Nuts – I used mostly pecan for nuts because they are softer.

Temperature – I baked in 325^o F instead of 350^oF.

Here are the photos of the baking. The recipe is below.

Oat, Fruit, and Nut Cookies Recipe

Prep: 25 minutes

Bake: 10 – 12 minutes

Stand: 1 minute

Total: 36 – 38 minutes

Servings: 36

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

½ cup vegetable shortening (or butter)

⅔ cup packed brown sugar (or half brown and half white)

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

4 egg yolks (or 2 eggs)

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup dried mixed fruit bits, dried cranberries, raisins: and dried apricots, snipping the large pieces

¾ cup chopped walnuts and pecans

Directions

Step 1 In a large mixing bowl beat vegetable shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until combined.

Step 2 Sift in flour gradually and beat with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour with a wooden spoon. Stir in oats, mixed fruit bits, and nuts.

Step 3 Roll dough by hand into balls and place them 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet.

Step 4 Bake in a 325°degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cookies stand on the cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Please visit Staci and enjoy all the yummy Christmas cookies (recipe)!

Animated Christmas Tree PNG Transparent Image | PNG Mart

.DDD

Do you bake or buy Christmas cookies? What are your favorite Christmas cookies?

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #91: Simplicity

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Miriam Hurdle 76 comments

Patti Moed invited us to focus on the theme Simplicity this week as the Coronavirus pandemic spreads and intensifies, many of us around the world are spending a lot of time at home, following governmental regulations to shelter in place.

As of April 6, 2020, California has 15,221 cases reported and 351 deaths, according to a New York Times database. The government issued the rules of wearing masks outdoor and when shopping.

We have tried our best to stay home and keep things simple. We set up a home gym with workout bench, dumbbells, and treadmill. Hubby has a manikin to practice boxing. He runs in a nearby park. I walk around a nearby lake or in the neighborhood.

1. morning walk

2. morning walk

We eat simple food with eggs, avocados, tomatoes, and fruits for breakfast, vegetables and alternate chicken and salmon for dinner. The shopping list is simple, so Hubby only goes once a week for a quick run. I rarely go to the stores.

3. breakfast

To increase physical activity, I do more gardening when weather is clear. I planted some seeds for gladiolus several years ago. They multiplied, and some flowers grew under a grapevine last year, not getting enough space and sunlight to grow. I dug them up last week and transplanted to another area to grow better.

4. flowers3

5. gardening5

My daughter has a Tinybeans.com account where she posts photos of her kids and family activities. I checked the account every day to look at the photos and videos. They give me much joy and I look forward to them every day. The daycare is closed, so Autumn stays home. She plays in the backyard, rides her balance bike or skateboard in the nearby park or on the street.

6. Autumn skateboard2

Stay safe and please share with me in the comment how you maintain simplicity yet keep your life interesting.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #91: Simplicity

SoCS November 10, 2018

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Miriam Hurdle 30 comments

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “mean(s).” Use it with or without the “s,” any way you’d like. – Linda G. Hill

* * *

My husband and I eat simple meals with fruit and vegetables plus eggs for brunch; and for dinner, have salmon instead of eggs. That means we eat basically the same thing every day.

Friday evening is our regular night out at a local steak house Cedar Creek. He orders the same thing every time – prime rib steak, 18 oz cooked medium well, French fries, green vegetables, house salad and horseradish for the steak. He makes it clear to the server that the horseradish must be fresh to a point it clears his sinuses. The same server waits on us for more than a year, so he knows exactly what my hubby wants. Sometimes the server is rotated to the patio section and we prefer to stay inside.

2018.11.10

I may eat 2 oz of meat now and then. When eating at home, a large plate of plain broccoli stir-fried with olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper serves me well. It’s hard for me to find a large portion of vegetables in American restaurants. At this restaurant, I order the Brown Derby Cobb Salad with romaine lettuce, small cubes of turkey, tomatoes, bacon, blue cheese crumble, broiled eggs and avocado.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Delicious

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Miriam Hurdle 78 comments

The theme for Tuesday Photo Challenge is Delicious!

My husband likes ultra-thin crust pizza. All the pizzas we have had in the restaurants or bought from the stores are not thin enough for him. When we visited Mercy, Will, and Autumn during Christmas, we finally went to a restaurant in Portland, Oregon that makes ultra-thin crust pizza to his liking.

Last year, He started making homemade pizza. He watched videos to get different recipes. He only gave me the ingredients of his first recipe. Since then he kept a secret for the changes he made in the subsequent attempts. By the fifth try, he considered that he had perfected his recipe for his desired thinness and taste of the crust.

As for toppings, he always wants extra cheese and extra pepperoni. Eating too much cheese upset my stomach, so my portion of the pizza was always different, depending on the vegetables available in the refrigerator. I used to like Canadian beacon, so for the first try, I asked to have a thin layer of cheese with pineapple pieces. Subsequently, when he made pizza again, I chose different vegetable toppings on my portion.

Whatever secret recipe he has, his homemade pizza is super delicious. Oh, we made blackberry pie to go with the pizza.

Pizza 2 2017.04

Pizza 3 2017.06

Pizza 4 2017.08

Frank’s Dutch Goes the Photo: Tuesday Photo Challenge – Delicious

Share Your World – October 30, 2017

Posted on October 31, 2017 by Miriam Hurdle 36 comments

Cee’s Share Your World – October 30, 2017

Where do you eat breakfast?

We basically eat breakfast at home five days a week. My husband cooks breakfast and dinner. I mean he cooks all the meals. He said I cooked for twenty-one years plus packing his lunches. He is retired now and decided to do the cooking. We eat two meals a day – brunch and dinner. Well, for health reason, he is disciplined of what he wants to eat. I gladly let him do all the cooking. On Saturday and Sunday, we have soup and salad bar for brunch at restaurants.

Home brunch

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want to have an evening with?

I have a friend who brags about having dinners with famous people. I passed the stages of admiring heroes to a point of wanting to spend an evening with them. I prefer to spend an evening with family. I also would enjoy spending an evening with longtime friends and have a heart to heart conversation.

Family game night

If you could be a tree or plant, what would you be?

I like the lilac color. If I could be a tree, I would like to be a jacaranda tree. Jacaranda tree has a thin trunk with a large canopy which provides shades. In the summer, the whole tree is covered with beautiful lilac blossom.

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

After spending three weeks to help taking care of my granddaughter, I went home for one week. My husband expressed many times that he was glad that I was home. I came back to Portland today and spend another two weeks here. The last two days he kept telling me he missed me. I appreciate that he expresses how much he loves me.