Thoughts for Today

It's a bitterly cold morning here in Fairbanks. No matter how long you let the car run it really doesn't get warm inside. The dog is too hot inside but lies down to protect his paws from the burning snow if we let him play outside for any length of time. He's gotten very efficient at going potty. Fortunately the forecast indicates that we will be seeing a reprieve soon, and by that I mean, it's possibly going to warm up to -20*F tomorrow. I'm taking Mia to gymnastics today, they have a cut-off temperature of -45*F and we're way warmer than that. Ten whole degrees warmer than that. So we're going to gymnastics and going to live our lives, mostly inside. Commence Christmas!!!! It's kind of nice to be stuck inside cleaning, organizing, browsing cookbooks and watching Elf. I really like this season and make it last for 2 months every year. Usually I start listening to the music in October but Jason convinced me to wait until November this year. So far in seasonal cooking adventures I have roasted an eight-pound pumpkin and pureed it for a soup (I'd never done that before and it was interesting). I also found a recipe for soft ginger snaps that turned out pretty well. This year I think the cookies I am going to focus on are chocolate dipped macaroons and Purcell Magic Cookies:

1/2 cup milk

1 cube butter

2 cups sugar

1 heap TB cocoa powder

Bring this mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute on medium heat, stirring when needed.

Take off burner and add:

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

3 cups oats ( regular oats, not quick acting)

1-2 tsp vanilla

 

Stir until thoroughly mixed, and drop on waxed paper to cool or on a greased cookie sheet. They are great frozen or stored in the fridge and they taste like a candy bar. Also they are super-fast to make and usually everyone raves about them. I really like putting the whole pan to cool right outside the door and then usually they set up instantly during the winter.

Happy Wednesday and may God bless us every one.