Food For Thought Friday~ Lemon Tea Cookies

Well, lets give this a shot. I have decided to do this food post every Friday, and it will probably change a bit as I go. Anyways, here's some of the thoughts I had about food today.

Last night I attended one of our wonderful enrichment activities, a crochet/knitting night. I started this beautiful quilt and have now decided it is never going to get finished so I will bag that idea. Anyways, point of me telling you this is that the lady whose home we were in offered me to try some of her cod liver oil, assuming I've been taking it everyday like I make Kenadi take it. I was surprised at the thought of me taking the stuff, and decided today to try it. I got it for Kenadi because she has terrible eczema and I'll do anything to help her arms get better. This same lady suggested cod liver oil to help hydrate her from the inside-out. It helps, but doesn't cure it. I put it in Kenadi's applesauce even though the cod liver oil is orange flavored and is supposed to not taste/smell like fish. When I smelled the bottle it smelled like orange and fish. Luckily she has no problem eating it in applesauce. I didn't think it would cover the taste enough for me, so I put 1 tsp in my yogurt, and as I ate it I tried to ignore the way my lips just slid off the spoon, how my Strawberry yogurt tasted like strawberries, orange, and a little hint of fish, and the swirl of oil in it when I looked at it. I tried to remind myself how I was hydrating myself, and giving myself all sorts of good things. Poor Kenadi. I don't know if I'll keep this up. I think I'll just leave it to her.

Here's some food that I know you'll want to eat. I brought them to a get-together where the theme was Greek food, and this was my contribution. (I found this recipe on Taste of home, where I find a LOT of my recipe's) Make sure you do this the day before since it has to refrigerate overnight. They are very easy and have a light lemon flavor. This one's for you, Allyson.

Lemon Tea Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• FILLING:
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 4-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon grated orange peel
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 drops yellow food coloring, optional

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla. Gradually add flour and mix well.
Divide dough in half and put each one in it's own plastic wrap to shape into two 14-in. rolls; reshape each roll into a 14-in. x 1-1/8-in. x 1-1/8-in. block. ( I just used my fingers to shape it) Refrigerate each block wrapped in plastic wrap overnight.
Unwrap and cut into 1/4-in. slices. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle half of the cookies with nuts, gently pressing into dough.
Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Remove to wire racks to cool.
In a small bowl, cream the butter, lemon juice and orange peel until fluffy. Gradually add confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon on bottoms of the plain cookies; place nut topped cookies over filling. Yield: about 4-1/2 dozen.

Little Randy, Little Kenadi, Little Me, Little Emma

First of all, can you guess who is who?
Randy's mom sent us a picture of him when he was, I think 1 year to 1 1/2 years old. She wanted to point out how much Kenadi looks like him. I definitely think there are lots of similarities. The picture she sent is second from the bottom. It made me curious about what I look like compared to her, and I found a few. I am surprised to see that I look a lot like her too. I thought she didn't look much like me at all. I think I was wrong, and she's a good mix. I also found a few that I thought looked a lot like Emma. So, this is who's who...

Top to bottom,

Emma, Me, Me, Me, Kenadi, Randy, and Kenadi, Randy. I think the one with me on the phone looks a lot like Emma, but I am kinda far away so it is hard to see. What do you think?

Feedback, please

Well, I'm thinking of trying new things, like a "Food for Thought Friday", or a "Tuesday's Topics", or...  (Dot Dot Dot.  Does that remind you of something? Like a movie?  Sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about, it just made me smile)  I don't know.  I love food and cooking and wouldn't mind sharing some of my latest favorites with you, so I think I'll do that anyways, but I'm wondering what you all would like to see in this blog?  Have any ideas?  Like, less pictures, more pictures, less talking, more talking, stuff you might want to hear our opinions on, stories about our pasts (like how we met, and all the cool things we've done) etc.  Anyways, I am looking for ideas because a lot of times we have a very uneventful week and I'd like something else to put on here during those down times.  Please let me know.  Maybe you don't care and just want me to keep it how it is!  Tell me that too.  Thanks!  

  Something eventful did happen this week, for Randy.  He got free tickets to go the the Lakers vs. OKC Thunder basketball game last night.  He had a lot of fun, and so did I.  I watched Shakespere's  "As You Like It" and the President speak.  I loved the movie, and I liked the speach.  Oh, back to the game.  The Thunder lost, but Randy said it was a good game and it was pretty close at one point.  I'm glad he got to go have fun, he really doesn't do that very often.

Our Winter So Far

Sorry for the randomness of this post.  It really should be multiple posts, but I kept getting detained when I was going to post.  It's probably Randy's fault or something.

A couple weeks ago we went on a hike in the "woods".  I decided to reach around and take some pictures of the girls just to see what I miss out on while I'm driving....  Emma was enjoying the taste of her jacket, and Kenadi was hiding under Emma's sling.  It turns out a lot happens while I'm driving. 

I was so happy when Kenadi (her own idea) decided to dress up like a cowboy.  She got all this together on her own, and I got to capture it.  I know many other kids probably do this all the time, but I have never gotten her to dress up even when I try to do it with her.  This was a big day for me.
You can probably see this image better if you click on it.  It is taken last week at about 2pm when we had a tornado coming our way.  Isn't it crazy how black the sky is?  It even turned on the street light.  That morning at 10 we were out playing at the park, and it was almost 70... very nice weather!  I was planning on going to the craft store after the girls woke up from their naps, but luckily they were still sleeping when the tornado came through because that craft store had part of it's roof cave in and the front doors blew out and stuff.  The weather this winter has been so weird!

This is Kenadi playing in the grass in the middle of the woods (the clearing).  I couldn't rearrange the pictures because the computer is being weird.
Of course, we can't forget Emma.  This is one of my favorite outfits on her.  She's my little doll baby, who is sick with a cold right now.  Poor thing.

Cookies!

About a year ago I decided to make some cookies. I decided to make some cookies today too, but I took pictures of it a year ago. The same things usually happen, Kenadi helps me dump ingredients in the bowl, sticks her fingers in the butter and licks them, in the sugar and licks them, helps me turn on the mixer, and licks the bowl... all the wile sneaking more dough and more dough. But this time was a little less sanitary...

Kenadi takes after me and has a huge sweet tooth. We were putting Hershey kisses in the middle and she said, "I want to eat one!" I let her eat one, and then I told her to wait until the cookies came out of the oven and she could have one in her cookie. Well, she was unwrapping them and doing really well with minding me by not eating them, and I was putting the kiss in the cookie. I picked up a couple of kisses and realized that they were a bit wet feeling, but I didn't notice enough to really think about it, so I put them in the cookies and kept doing it. Well, a bunch of cookies later, I looked at her while she was unwraping them and she would unwrap it, stick it in her mouth, swirl it around a little, take it out, and put in in my pile of kisses to go in the cookies! I give her credit for not eating them... funny, huh? I decided that Oh well, we are the only ones who will eat them, and they'll cook anyways.
I KNOW that I put myself at risk of people not trusting the food I give them anymore, but I am usually much more observant when we make cookies and I DO try to keep her fingers out of the bowl. It normally isn't this bad, I promise!!