Judy's Garage Sale Cookies

This is what the turkey's did while we worked at the Yard Sale; caused trouble!

(this is my chocolate hen, isn't she pretty?)

Picture courtesy of Teri, again.

Good morning!!!  Hope your week is going well; mine is just flying by!  Here it is already Thursday and I am just posting the recipe for my brilliant new cookie recipe, that I discovered last weekend.  Doesn't my modesty just blow you away sometimes?  No, really, this is a good one.  Tried and tested by the entire neighborhood; and truly loved by all.

As you all know we had our Garage/Yard sale last weekend to recycle some household goods, but even better to get some new shoes for my baby...Yes, tires for my truck!  We are leaving for Texas possibly this evening, but for sure tomorrow morning to deliver llamas and we were running on slicks.  Nothing like cutting it close, the Jeute way, of course, but I got my new shoes yesterday and we got a heck of a deal on used tires for $100.  So look around people when you shop for tires, because retail is NOT the way to go for tires, Baby.  Try a savings of over $500 and not much tread is missing from these tires, again we got really lucky with this deal, but we really shopped around!

As a matter of fact, while I waited for my tires, I snacked on the last of the delicious cookies.  Since they have oatmeal in them, I figured they were good enough for a snack food (as good as any of those snack crap items that put in wrappers these days) and packed 'em up to go!  Oh, and thanks Mom and Dad for the dried cherries, I raided them from your pantry when I got your mail the other day....couldn't resist...they were just too tempting.  But for most readers you can just get them at Costco or dehydrate them yourself; also you could substitute any dried fruit I would imagine, but the tangy taste of the cherry really added a nice flavor!

And by the way, we didn't make ANY money at all at the bake sale because some of our first customers were the local deputies, and were we really supposed to charge the badges for their cookies and lemonade?  And then of course we had to give a taste to our neighbors who just popped by to say hello and take some pictures....!!!

Judy's Garage Sale Cookies:

1 cup soft margarine
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (I would imagine regular would work just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 generous cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 350*.  Beat together margarine and sugars until creamy and then add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl, adding oats last; then mix cherries into this dry mixture and coat them well.  Combine wet and dry mix, don't over-beat.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden, not golden brown or they will dry out too much in my opinion.  Cool on cookie sheet for a minute or so and then move to wire rack.  Makes about 4 dozen.  You can also make this into a bar cookie in a 13x9 (also ungreased) I would think and bake it for 30-35 minutes.  Enjoy!

Please excuse this interruption to your regulary scheduled post:

 Meridian Trail

Good Morning Rebels!!!  I'm oh so busy getting ready for a garage sale; yes you read that correctly folks a garage sale in October!  We still have beautiful leaves, warm weather expected for the weekend and I have a ton of things that need to get cleaned out of this ranch house.  Garage sales are a great way of recycling and I am saving up for my tires so it is fun to have a goal in mind.  I also have a neighbor who would like to share the work; even better-a multi-family garage sale.

So, if you are a local, and you are going to be around this weekend...pop on by.  We are going to have all sorts of fun with my neighbors crafty stuff, the llamas and turkeys of course, baked goods at my daughter's lemonade stand, the garage sale....and as they say on the facebook page...The Royal Ranch driveway is the funnest driveway around!!!! 

Juggling...

 Cookie Day 2010

This has been a week of juggling for me.  I had decided that I really want to try to get back to living life as normally as I could, you know try to act as if I didn't just have back surgery.  It has been long enough it feels to me.  But in the process, my beloved blog has fallen a bit behind!

I have been juggling many emotions as well.  See, our community lost one of its teenagers last week; one that I used to teach when he was just a bitty boy at MOPS.  He was a runner and trained by running past our ranch practically daily and he and my dog Gigi had a game; she'd run straight at him barking like the monstrous pit bull she thinks she is, and he'd run straight back at her!  I always worried, and apologized, but he'd just smile as if he too had enjoyed the game.  My heart and prayers go out to his family and friends....

Yesterday was my daughter's Christmas party, and yes, that is what I still call it.  I was the room mother so I was crazy with preparations.  We played Heads Up 7-Up, Christmas Style (filled bags with goodies instead of touching thumbs) and had a great time.  But before the party, my daughter was awarded the SOAR award!  That stands for Scholarly, Organized, Accepting and Respectful because she is an exemplary example of an eagle is what her teacher said at the award ceremony; I almost lost it.  He said that all students should work to be like her because she shows those traits day in and out, no matter who is watching....

I have an old friend who is really going through a rough time right now, don't know if I can help or not.  Could put myself in a pot of you know what if I do, so that's not really an option.  I don't like feeling powerless....

Last weekend was Cookie Day!  Boy, were we productive, but it took me a day or so to recover.  Tom and Isabella delivered all of the beautiful plates to our neighbors on Sunday and lo and behold if we haven't been getting wonderful Christmas surprises left on our porch all week!  It has been so fun!!!!  One morning, I went to the mailbox, pulled out a fistfull of cards, one of which had a $25 gift card and a big package from an old friend.  That very same morning while I was in the shower another neighbor dropped wonderful homemade jams and stuff off for our eating pleasure!  Christmas spirit is alive and well in our neighborhood.....

So, as I said, it has been a week of many ups and downs, and every which ways.  But you all have been in my thoughts, just not on my keyboard.  I would love to hear about your juggling acts this time of season too, believe me, I know I'm not alone out there....'Tis the season!  Here is to hoping your Christmas is a wonderful one and that you spend it with someone you love. 

Sweetened Condensed Milk (Homemade!)

Photo courtesy of ifood.tv

You know that ooey, gooey can of milk that you always have on your shelf for those extra rich baked goods...that is until you need it?  Well, I needed mine yesterday, and lo and behold, my son donated it to the canned food drive.  So what is a savvy baker to do?  Google it of course.  And I came up with a great second choice because I always have powdered milk on hand, doesn't everybody?

So here goes, it's easier than pie...

1/2 cup hot water

1 T. butter

1 cup powdered milk

1 cup sugar

Place all ingredients in blender and mix well.  I must admit, that I thought I could get away with saving myself from washing the blender and just mixing this by hand.  Big mistake.  I had lumps and an exhausted arm, so use the blender and then this can be stored in an airtight container in your fridge or freezer.  By the by, my lumps baked out perfectly in the toffee chip bars that I made, so it worked out fine, but it still would have been worth washing the darn blender!

What the heck day is it anyway?

Poor Tom knows, it's go back to work day for him.  But that does explain why I have been a little messed up on my days.  When Tom is off work, plus the kids being out of school, there is just no way I can keep track of what day of the week it is.  When I last left you I wished you a good Sunday on Friday, but it worked out just as well, because I wasn't able to get back on until just now, so anyway, I hope you had a good Sunday.

We sure did, we got a lot of work done around the ranch, but more on that tomorrow (once again, I have amazed myself in my recycling and money saving endeavors and want to save it for a Tuesday when I write for GreenSpot-On), today I need to keep my promise to my dedicated readers.  I told you that I would share some photos from our Royal Llama Adventure from Saturday and here they are:

This is how the morning starts out, me in the kitchen.

Our first snack break.

Practicing knots?

Bonding.

"The bowl" at Mt. Logan

Having fun skippin' rocks at "the bowl"!

He's always climbing something.

(Tom)

Finally, food!!!  A quick side note here, although I take paper napkins, we use cloth to wrap the silverware in.  Then I can use the dirty ones to put in between the dirty plates on the way down.  I came home with four paper napkins in my trash bag and only recyclable water bottles and soda cans, that's it, no other trash was created from this picnic.

Look at the size of this mushroom!

We all had a wonderful time and the rain held off until we got to the gate (in our cars), it couldn't have been any better timing!

Royal Llama Adventures, LLC

 Royal Llama Adventure photo from 2005

I was worried that I needed to get right to work this morning and not post, but I realized that I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.  I of course would never even kill one bird, but you probably have already gathered that by now-ha!  We have a family coming for a llama adventure tomorrow and so today is the day that I will prepare for said adventure.  Instead of making my lists on paper, I will share my prep work here with you, my dedicated readers, which gives you an insight into our adventures and will help me prepare for our big day.

Our guests are a family of four.  Two adults and two teen boys, the teen boys have me a tiny perplexed as I hope that our hike in interesting enough for them.  I am hoping that like most teens they will bring their ipods or whatever to tune out Tom and I droning on and on about the cool history of the area, and the B52 plane crash that ended with one of the flight crew hiking out to The Royal Ranch.  See, I have been telling you we are steeped in history, but is it enough for teens?

So, back to me preparations.  I need to go over all of the food.  Lunch will consist of Royal Chicken Salad, homemade potato salad, cut up fruit, chocolate covered strawberries (always a huge hit on the trail) and chocolate chip cookies Royale (notice a theme here?).  We will also provide multiple snacks throughout the hike, like fresh watermelon, pineapple and nuts.  And oh lord, don't forget the water, I even bought bottled water, which I hate to do, but guests don't like to use our old yucky reusable water bottles!

So, the day has passed by, before I was able to get this post published, but once my family and critters start rising, the day gets busy, but I still wanted to share the work of the day.  I started with the potato salad.  While the potatoes boiled I pulled anything I might need out of the freezer, including the banana bread I will serve at one of the snack stops.  

I then moved on to my cookies and discovered that I was out of brown sugar, which led me to our new favorite cookie, Chocolate Chip Royale.  It is really quite simple, just follow the directions for chocolate chip cookies on the Nestle Toll House package, except use all white sugar, add 2 Tablespoons cocoa and 1 teaspoon dried orange zest.

Chocolate covered strawberries are  a breeze, look fancy and make a big impression on guests.  I made those with leftover chocolate chips and just a touch of vegetable oil.  One of the fantastic things about hiking with llamas is being able to take this type of thing.  I will even pack real plates and silverware for our guests.  It makes for a fun picnic, we have plenty of room, and it is very green and environmentally friendly; and with the gentle gait of the llamas, you could take the fine china!

I used the BBQ for the chicken for the Royal chicken salad.  Keeps the kitchen a little cleaner, and I threw on a few extra and called it dinner as well.  My momma didn't raise a dummy, if I'm going to be in the kitchen all day, I;m going to have a meal for my family, and a container of each item for the kids for tomorrow while we are gone.

Tom worked on getting the packs and various bins that I will use to pack the food in together, and the llamas, well, they just ate and enjoyed a little bit of dryer weather.  They will do their part tomorrow, as for me, I will get to enjoy the feast I made along with my guests while sharing the wonder of this spectacular area.  I will try to take lots of pics and post them when we get back.  Have a great Sunday.

A Christmas Poem

Twas the morning after Christmas,

And all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring,

Not even a mouse.

I arose with a groan,

Thinking about the mess,

I'd better get up, I said with a moan.

Every surface covered in gifts,

The piles are so tall,

They look like drifts.

My house is full of people,

And as for the trash,

It's as big as a steeple!

I made way too many pies,

I'm sure they're going straight to my thighs.

It was a wondrous day,

Spending time with our families,

But today I need to give the house a  cleaning,

In a very big way!

Cookie Day, Part 2

Good Morning!  I promised you all a follow up post about cookie day and here it is.  I'm not going to spend much time telling you what a great family tradition this is, because I have some great recipes to share.  But, it is a great day filled with time to catch up with the ones you love and get all of your Christmas baking done at once.  I really love the fact that we have such a large variety on the plate when we deliver them to our friends and neighbors.  My Mom is always the hostess, and each of us three girls brings ingredients for two types of cookies; meaning we end up with a minimum of eight kinds of cookies!
We usually do all of our all time favorites, and then sneak in some that may not be quite as fancy as Christmas cookies, but they are ones that everyone likes.  For example we did Chocolate Chip and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip; easy and quick to get through our baking lines, these are the ones that I really enjoy!  My Mom and sister, Kelly, both had different takes on a cookie that had craisins and white chocolate in them, and they are both delicious.  Hopefully they will keep those recipes for next year.

One of the funnest things for the kids this year was an idea Kelly brought to the table (I just kill myself-ha!), she brought the small pretzels and three kinds of candies (rolos, m&m's and kisses), the kids put one piece of chocolate (either rolo or kiss) on each pretzel and put it in the oven for just a couple of minutes.  Remove and place an m&m on top of each kiss and a pecan on top of the rolos.  These are really cute, taste great and the kids did a great job with them and felt like they were really contributing to Cookie Day, which they were; these were a great filler for the plates of cookies.  So, without further ado, I'll get to my very favorite recipes:

Peanut Blossoms
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. peanut butter
1.2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Cream together the butter and peanut butter, add sugars and mix.  Add egg and vanilla and mix again.  Blend into mixed dry ingredients until combined.  Shape into balls and roll in sugar.  Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375* for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and place a kiss or star in center and press down just until the cookie cracks.  Bake another 2 or 3 minutes until edges of cookies are brown.  Makes 3 dozen.

Meltaway Dreams (I think this is the entire family's favorite!)
1 cube softened butter
1 cube softened margarine (do not melt)
1/3 c. powdered sugar
3/4 c. corn starch
1 c. flour
Frosting
1 small package cream cheese, softened
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter, margarine and sugar.  Add rest of ingredients one at a time, and blend well.  Drop from teaspoon on to greased cookie sheet and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Bake at 350* for 10 to 15 minutes on top shelf of oven.  To make frosting: sift sugar into cheese a little at a time, add vanilla.  We use food coloring for red and green and put the frosting in a bag, clip the corner and go for it!  Makes 50-60 small cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip

1 3/4 c. oil

2 cups sugar

1 16 0z. can pumpkin (My Mom already had pumpkin, or I would have used my frozen, but if you do, bring down the moist ingredients a bit and add extra spices!

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

4 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. salt

1 bag chocolate chips

Cream oil and sugar.  Add pumpkin eggs, and vanilla, beat well.  Stir together dry ingredients and add to batter.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop in rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350* for 12-15 minutes.  Cool on rack.  Makes 7 dozen.

So, go make some cookies while you're making your miracle today!

It's Cookie Day

Good Morning, and happy weekend to you all!  My family has a great tradition; each year we get together and have what we call "Cookie Day".  My two sisters and I head "home" to Mom and Dad's for the day taking as many of the kids as we can pull together at one time.  Each of us brings ingredients for two kinds of our favorite cookies, so we end up with a great variety of the all time family favorites.
But, as usual I am running late, so I will try to post some pics and possibly even some recipes later.  Who knows, you may get a two for one deal out of this.  Really, I just wanted to share the idea because it is a great way to get all of your Christmas baking done while having a great visit with your friends or family!
Make a miracle today!

Sharing The Love

Good Morning! Last week I was at my favorite little gas station/convenience store, and I couldn't help but bust out laughing. They had these rejected bananas on the counter that they were trying to sell. I chuckled and told the gals that those looked like banana bread makings, not a lunch item. They said none of them bake, and of course I do, so they happily dumped the basket of bananas into a bag, and handed them over. This got me thinking....

So, Sunday when I already had all of my baking stuff out for my pumpkin pie and bread, I decided to pull those bananas out of the freezer and make that too. The free bananas were enough for five loaves of bread, which meant that I had plenty to share. I took the first loaf to the nice gals who had given me the bananas, and the second one went to one of our very favorite people here in town.

There is a lady at our local hardware store who knows everything about everything. I mean this gal can take any obscure old broken piece of hardware, and build you a new piece right before your very eyes; all the while trying to save you a buck. She spends her days off volunteering at the local library. And, do you know what she said when I told her that Tom and I thought she did her job so well, and how much we appreciate her expertise? She said "Oh, we all do our jobs well, I can't wait to share this with the guys."

My next stop was my favorite feed store. In a small town like this, and with as much ranch feed as we go through, we have become close friends with the owners. They are great people, but above all, they are huge horse lovers. Last week they lost one of their favorite horses, very unexpectedly, and they were absolutely crushed. I'm not sure if banana bread makes that much difference in a situation like that, but it was worth a shot.

I had to pop in to the propane company to make a payment, so what the heck. We have worked with these guys for close to twenty years, and Tom went to high school them, so the pie that I took them, handily right at lunch time (no I didn't do this part on purpose), brought a smile to their hungry faces. Actually, I teased them, that theirs was only a bribe to not charge me interest from Friday to Monday-LOL!

Well, I couldn't help but try it out, you know, to make sure it was okay to take around town, so we kept one loaf. Now I have one in the freezer for the next person who pops into mind. I had a wonderful day, and I hope I made each of those special friends' day just a little bit better. From one act of random kindness, by the receiving of free bananas, to a town full of workers and business owners who know how much we appreciate them. Maybe I should hit the other two businesses next week-Just Kidding!

Have a miracle of a day!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins...

How to turn these:

Into this:



Good Morning! Like many of you, I'm sure, I have pumpkins that I refuse to not use every last bit of. So, I'd like to share some pumpkin recycling ideas with you. Being the terrible Mom that I am, I waited until after my local store only had very small pumpkins, so I started out with 4 small pumpkins, which is about the same amount I got last year from one medium pumpkin. Start by washing the pumpkins, scrape out the remainder of the innards that didn't get removed when carving, and cut them into pieces and place on a cookie sheet like this:


Bake them in a 350* oven for about an hour. I heard on the Rachel Ray show yesterday, to put the skins up, and I will try it next time, but this method has worked great for me so far. They will come out looking like this:



Let them cool for a while, and peel them. It is easiest to break the piece in half and peel from the middle out, I have found. Keep the peels for the wildlife (or chickens in my case) and put the pumpkin in a bowl. I have tried quite a few ways of mashing the pumpkin, and found my good old fashioned hand mixer did the job best. I have not tried a large food processor, because I don't have one, but my small one didn't work. The pumpkin should come out like this:

To make the crust:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup lard or 1 cup shortening (I used lard because that's what I had for suet making)

1 tsp. vinegar

milk (for consistency)

Place all of the ingredients, except for milk into a mixing bowl, adding it only a little bit at a time, just until it is the right consistency. Combine with hands, it is much more fun that way, and separate into two balls, now you have a spare crust in the freezer also. I put the one that I am going to roll right away in the fridge for a little while before I roll it out, they just seem to need time to "rest". Generously flour your rolling surface and roll 'til you think it's right, we like ours a little thicker, and this is what it looked like:

To make the filling:
Take about 1/4 of your pumpkin, and freeze the rest (you should have three pkgs for the freezer).

Cream together pumpkin, 4 eggs and 1 3/4 cups sugar.

Add:

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp ginger

Mix well together with pumpkin/sugar mix.

Heat 1 cup of milk and add 1 T. (not tsp.) butter to milk and mix with pie filling.

Pour into crust and bake at 375* for 30-40 minutes, when center of pie is firm, it is done.

Let cool, and top with one small container of whipped topping.

Now, a few other pumpkin recycling ideas. As we all know pumpkin seeds can be roasted by covering with spices (we use garlic salt, pepper and chili pepper) and roasting at 400* for fifteen to thirty minutes. One very good thing I found with the small pumpkins is that their seeds are much more tender. If you don't like pumpkin seeds, still wash and dry them and put them out for the wildlife, they will really appreciate sharing in the Halloween leftovers. This is what ours looked like, and they were delicious.

But, the funniest part of the story is the pumpkin bread I made the same day as this pie. Everything looked beautiful, I put them in the oven and ran to do other things. Well, I could tell that they were done by smell, and was a little surprised the timer had not gone off, but I went to check them anyway. The middle had fallen so badly that my loaves of bread looked like huge pumpkin canyons! This has never happened to me before, so I was quite flustered and for the life of me I couldn't figured out what I had done differently. The next night (Monday) I went to go make dinner, and when I came back into the kitchen to see if the oven was preheated, it was on FIRE!!!! Our element was literally throwing flames as high as the ceiling of the oven! Luckily as soon as I turned off the oven the flames went out, but I got the giggles so badly I couldn't hardly talk; here I'd been beating myself up over three messed up loaves of pumpkin bread, when I'm darn lucky I didn't burn down the house!

Have a miracle of a day!
P.S. Aren't you proud of me for remembering to take pictures? And, no I'm not showing you my failed loaves-ha!!!!

Royal Ranch's Breakfast Bread/Muffins

This is the bread/muffins that I make for the Royal Roost. Depending on how many guests are coming, and for how many days they are staying determines whether I will send a loaf of bread or muffins. Our B&B is a little different, as we try to keep things very private for our guests. Since it is not located here on the ranch, I leave the breakfasts up at the cabin upon check in so that guests can just reheat and eat whenever the hunger strikes them. I have already given you the recipe to my breakfast burritos, a favorite of our guests, and now I would like to share my bread recipe. It is one that I created myself as a breakfast dessert. Don't all meals deserve a little dessert?

For three loaves or 36 muffins you will need:

4 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2tsp. baking powder

1tsp.salt

2 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1-2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

fruit (1 can; save the juice, or frozen, or fresh diced, I have tried a lot of flavors, but the kids' fav is peach! I think the guests like pineapple best.)

chocolate, about 2 cups (whatever is cheap, diced if large pieces, I buy choc chips when on sale)

1 cup milk (add this at the end for consistency only if you don't have juice from fruit)

I will start this recipe out with an apology, because I am not one to cook much with recipes, but this one is worth tweaking a bit in your own kitchen to your own tastes. Mix the dry ingredients and set aside. In a mixing bowl cream together sugars with butter and add vanilla to taste. Add eggs, one at a time until well blended and slowly start adding dry mixture. Add the fruit and chocolate, this is where your sixth "baking sense" comes in, if it is still pretty thick, add some milk a little at a time until it is the consistency that you like. Spoon into three greased bread pans or muffin tins and sprinkle with a cinnamon/sugar/brown sugar mix. The breads should take about 40-45 minutes and the muffins 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. These freeze beautifully and are a great gift for neighbors and friends who are needing a pick-em-up too!