A Christmas poem
I just wanted to share this holiday poem I wrote a couple years ago. Merry Christmas, Kwanza, Hannuka, Yule, whatever.
| Turquoise Star
Let the sounds of the nights of December A Turquoise star shines above, ~Shawn M. J. Mann |
Baking Cookies
‘Tis that time of year again… it’s cookie night in our house, and boy, does it smell good in here. So far we have made about 3 dozen Peanut-Butter Chocolate Chip cookies (Recipe can be found here: http://www.quillspirit-cafe.com/recipes/viewrecipe.php?recipe_number=130), and now we are working on a batch of Vanishing Oatmeal cookies but instead of using raisins (My wife isn’t a fan), we substituted with 1 cup of Butterscotch chips. A sample of the cookie dough was tasty, so I think they’ll be good.
After that, I’ll probably make a batch of regular sugar cookies, and put some red and green sprinkles on em. I can’t find any of our cookie cutters, so I’ll probably just make round ones. Will have to pick some up somewhere. Plastic cutters are the best, because they don’t rust and don’t bend like the metal ones.
Too much turkey!
Wow, what a Thanksgiving! Got a bit of a turkey hangover, it will probably take me about 3 days to recover, lol.
We went to my grandma’s house as usual, and enjoyed a feast with about 25 people, including all the kids. I spent about an hour before dinner grazing on the 3 turkeys, stuffing, and relish platters, and a mountain of a plate for dinner. We had a deep fried turkey (in peanut oil… if you haven’t tried it yet, DO!), smoked turkey, and the traditional roasted turkey.
I’m going to finish my coffee and roll myself to bed. Have a good one!
Thanksgiving Eve - Pie Prep
Greetings,
My name is Shawn, and I am years behind on my blogging, so I thought I would start a new blog on my recipe site and get to it!
It is Thanksgiving Eve - 2006, and I have several pies to finish, so I can’t stay long. I’m making at least 2 pumpkin pies, an apple pie, and a cherry pie or two. (Using canned filling… who has time anymore? lol).
Here is the crust recipe I use:
- 1 & 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- Pinch of table salt
- 1/2 cup Butter flavored Crisco shortening
- cold water
In a large mixing bowl, I mix the flour and salt a bit, and add the shortening (cut into pats), and cut it in well with a fork, until it kinda looks like cornmeal. Then I add a little bit of cold water at a time, until it forms a ball in my fist without crumbling too much. Put it in a ziplock baggy (I use 1 gallon), and form it into a flat ball. That goes into the fridge until I need it.
I’ve learned that if you use too much water, the crust will turn out kind of chewy, and not flakey. 3-6 tablespoonfuls will doya fine. (Alton Brown uses a spray bottle with ice water… I’ll have to try that next time).