Crazy Good Coconut Cookies

I love coconut. Like a whole, whole lot. These cookies are so chock full of delicious coconut goodness that it's hard not to eat them all until I burst.

Ingredients:

1/2 C Butter

1/2 C White sugar

1/2 C Brown sugar

1 Egg

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 1/4 C Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Baking soda

1 1/3 C Flaked coconut

Directions:

Put butter, sugars and vanilla in a bowl and mix until creamy. Add egg and continue mixing. Add dry ingredients and combine until well mixed.

Scoop onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

This recipe makes a flat chewy cookie. It's super yummy and makes me think of tropical warm beaches. Perfect for a cold winter's day!

Great Grandma's Chewy Gingersnaps

I'm not going to lie. These are my favorite cookies this winter. My Great-Grandma Pfeifer made my mom these cookies when she was a girl, my mom made them for me and now I make them and eat them all by myself because I love them too much to share with my children. Not really, my kids love them too!

They make a chewy cookie with a little bit of a crust on top. Did I mention that I love them. Maybe you will too. They sure make your house sell Christmassy and yummy!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C whole wheat flour

2 1/2 C white flour

1 C butter - softened

1 C sugar

1 large egg

2 T cider vinegar

1 C molasses

1/2 C milk

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3 T ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

Add sugar and butter together, mix well. Add egg, vinegar, molasses and milk and cream all wet ingredients until fluffy.

Sift dry ingredients together. Then add to wet ingredients.

Chill for at least an hour. Scoop balls of dough out and roll in sugar before putting on ungreased cookie sheet. Cook 11 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on racks or brown paper bag. Enjoy!

A few recipe notes...

The last batch I made, I did not have any whole wheat flour, ground ginger or ground cloves. I made them anyway. So I used 5 cups of white flour instead of the whole wheat and white flour combination listed above. Instead of ground ginger, I took my wrasp and grated about 1 tsp of fresh ginger. Instead of ground cloves, I used 1/2 tsp of allspice. They turned out delicious.

When my mom would make them, she would first grease her cookie sheets, then put the dough balls on the directly on the them. She would take a glass that had a pretty cut pattern and dip it in sugar and then squish the balls down with the sugar coated glass. These made for pretty cookies, but I think my way makes for more chewy cookies. If you flatten them first they will be more crunchy. So if you are a fan of crunchy cookies smash them first. If you are like me and like them to be chewy with a crunchy surface just roll the balls in sugar and put directly on an ungreased cookie sheet prior to baking. You don't need to grease your cookie sheet as the sugar will help them not stick.

Also, if you would like a molasses cookie instead of a gingersnap, just leave out the ginger and they are still divine!

The most important thing?

Eat lots of them. Dip them in milk and enjoy!

Maybe tomorrow I'll share Ben's favorite cookie this year; Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie.

Merry Christmas!

Knights, Ben and Baseball

Ben & Ben's show is going to be airing on National Geographic Channel in under 30 days; November 15th to be exact! Nat Geo has started an advertising campaign and we are going to start seeing ads pop up. We saw one behind home plate in the 5th World Series game last night. It was so exciting. It's getting to be a reality!!

So I was looking through some old photos and found this shot of my handsome husband. He hates when I post photos of him, but I'm rebelling and posting it anyway. He's so cute! I'm so proud of him. He is a really great husband and a fantastic father to our babies. I hit the jackpot the day he walked into my life! I love this guy!

Yellow

Mag's favorite color is yellow. He wanted to paint his bike yellow so he went ahead with that project (with my blessing). Then when he was done, he decided he didn't want a brown doggie, he wanted a yellow doggie. Next he decided he wanted to be yellow too. It was a very yellow day!

Mr. Waffles; Our New Family Member

So we got a dog. It just happened. Kind of by default. He had three previous homes and they just didn't work out. We were going to take care of him for a few weeks before we brought him to California to a new home but now he's staying here in Utah with us. He's an adorable and sweet little dachshund and we have named him Mr. Waffles. He's kind of warry of strangers and is afraid of basketballs but for the most part he's quiet and good. We're still working on housebreaking him. He'll get it soon.

This is my very first dog experience. Ever. It's a bit different than a cat. That's for sure!

Eva Marie LOVES to hold his leash. Loves, loves, love it.

This is one of my favorite things about a dog.

A Year Gone By

Eva Marie and Miles turned one! How did time fly by so fast? Here are a ton of photos from the birthday fiesta.We finally gave up on whacking the pinata and just let the kids tear it apart. They loved it!

Uly and his loot!

Eva Marie is eating the gum drop out the center of this sombrero cookie. The cookies were a hit. I love that in my family the licorice flavored gum drop cookies were the most popular!

The recipe is one that I really liked. It's my new favorite sugar cookie recipe. I have made it a few times since the birthday party.

Cake is good on a plate so why wouldn't the plate be tasty too?

Birthday cake!!!!! Eva Marie learned a new cake eating tactic from Miles.
Perhaps she feels threatened? Your cake is safe, baby. It is all for you!

Eva Marie's first experience with a lollypop. She loved it.

Such a handsome little guy! It's so fun that these little ones share a birthday.

Fruit Salad... Yummy! Yummy!

Decorations...

Baby + Dirt = True Love

Eva Marie loves playing in the dirt. She squishes it. She smells it. She tastes it. She rubs it on things. She loves dirt.

I Love Sewing

I think I need to print this out and hang in my sewing area. I made it using a vintage sewing machine and the 2011 Pantone palette for women's fashion. It might be a good reminder.

If anyone wants a copy you can download a pdf here




Addendum:
Here is a knitting version for you, Cutzi. :)
I am having trouble with how it looks in Google Docs. The heart looks mottled to me which I can't understand because it doesn't look mottled on my computer. If you download it and it does look mottled to you, I can email you a copy that shouldn't look like that.

A New Year

I have really been so bad at blogging lately, it is not even funny! I pretty much gave up on MomShots. It ran its course. I'm kind of sad about it but I have way more pressing things on my brain.

My latest photography related project is a photo a day for a year. I did really well for the month of January and am excited to keep going. The goal is to help me learn to be more creative and be better at photography in general. It has been fun. Some days I have a harder time than others but I really see the benefit of keeping up with this massive project.

I am blogging each entry on the Active Artist Network. Which in itself is fun because it makes me feel like an actual artist instead of a person who just pretends to be, which is what I have always told people when they asked me if I was an artist. I like that.

The kids are growing so much. Ulysses just turned 7. We went to Pirate Island Pizza and had a little party with the McPhersons. It was fun and Uly enjoyed it. That's the important thing.


Ben's been really busy. They sold the Knights of Mayhem show to the National Geographic Channel and shooting is starting this week, I believe. He's not doing the shooting so he can work on other projects. There are other projects in the works and we are hoping and praying that something starts sending some cash our way because we are out of it again. That's the way of self employment, for now.

Ben and I are working hard on counting calories and exercising. We really want to make 2011 the year we lose our weight and get back in shape. It has been fun. Plus we are seeing progress. Ben's lost about 17 pounds and I, 16 since we first started. That's encouraging.

We had a houseful at Christmas and after. That was wonderful. We really miss living near our family. It is always fantastic when they visit. It's always much too short.

That's what is happening for now. Good stuff. Normal stuff. Not very eventful and that's good.

Here are a few photos from the past month or so.

Eva Marie and Great Grandma. They are both in their jammies and I'm sure Frannie would not like me to post this online because of that but I think it is just so sweet. I hope she'll forgive me if she ever sees it.



We have been spending a lot of time going out into the desert and going shooting. It is a favorite family pasttime and one that I am sure will continue to be a favorite for the rest of our lives. That's hard to avoid when you have four boys in your family! Here is Uly shooting the .22, which he is getting very good at. The whole using the sites to aim clicked last time we went and he shot five targets right in a row. That's my boy!




Mag dressed as a robot.



Uly & Gar sticking out their tongues and touching their noses.



Gar & Mag hugging. When Uly is at school, Gar & Mag can either be the best of friends... most days.



Ben & Gar. Dad's phone is the coolest. Aren't they handsome?



My favorite little pirate.



Eva Marie and her favorite toys.



More brotherly love; Ulysses & Garland.




Lavender licking Space Dust aka Cheeto cheese off her face.



Well that's about it. Of course there are a million more photos just dying to be put online but they probably won't ever see the light of day. That's what happens when momma is a photo taking fool!