Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 pkg. (13 ounces or about 36)
miniature peanut butter cups

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in egg and
vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; gradually add to mixture and
mix well. Cover and refrigerate one hour. Roll into 1 1/4 inch balls.
Press a cup into each; reshape balls. Place 2 inches apart on
ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

For drizzle:
Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in double broiler, then add
1 T peanut butter and
1 t shortening until smooth.
Drizzle over cooled cookies.

Cookie Exchange

Polvorones de Canele
(Mexican Cinnamon Cookies)

Ingredients

* 1 cup butter
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and
butter until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour, salt, and 1/2
teaspoon of cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture to form a stiff
dough. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Mix together 1 cup confectioners'
sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; roll balls in cinnamon mixture.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in preheated oven, or until nicely
browned. Cool cookies on wire racks.

Good Friday

The boys are on Spring Break this week. We didn't really have a staycation (don't you have to actually go places to do that?!) But staying home day after day has been really nice. A couple of sweet neighbor boys came for a couple of the days and caught frogs and salamanders in our pond. Just boys being boys. Those are the kind of Spring and Summer days I remember from my childhood. You know; bike riding, running around in the sunshine, kicking back with the dog, relaxing with a book. Sometimes in our video-game, movie-watching, "entertain me" culture, it's easy to forget the simple things in life. I'm so glad one of the boys accidentally destroyed the Playstation 2 years ago. I don't know if the great outdoors would have the appeal that it does now with such a tempting distraction.

I'm happily plugging away learning all I can about my new business venture. I'm an independent meal planning consultant with Homemade Gourmet. www.homemadegourmet/BWMcNeely
I haven't received my food kit yet, but I'm waiting for it to arrive. It's supposed to get here April 14th, but I've scheduled my Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting for April 16th! Just under the wire! I'm praying it gets here today :) Of course, UPS will have to drive up into these mountains, and it seems like it takes 4 extra days to get all the way across America. (Homemade Gourmet is a Texas-based company)

I've been having lots of fun on Facebook, so that's why I haven't posted here. Hopefully, I'll get back to blogging. Anyone out there?!

Welcome 2009

Where does the time go? We are in the midst of a snow fiesta. We feel totally unprepared, without the right tools or knowledge. Thank the Lord for neighbors! One has plowed our driveway a couple of times, and one came and got the van unstuck last night. (We missed the gravel path initially, so we got stuck in the snow/mud). This Texas gal can't get over how the snow has literally stayed for over 3 weeks now. Apparently this is an unusual phenomenon for this area too.

Zucchini Festival

Hopefully, I'll remember to take the camera to the festival and get some pictures of all the zucchini potluck dishes that are coming! Jonathan and I will be performing some Johnny Cash, Elvis, and Patsy Cline today. It's a 20 minute set, but most of the golden oldie songs are so short, we can get in at least 8-10! Jim will hopefully join us on a couple of songs; but he likes to do our acapella songs (ok, the computer won't let me spell that any way, so sorry if it's misspelled:)
The boys are LOVING school! Their teachers are exquisite and everyone is so friendly. I'll probably be helping out with the PTO. In fact, I might actually be the President or Vice-President :) I'm pretty good at delegating.

I'm praying for all of my Texas friends and family who are under flood watches and evacuations. JW (James) didn't have classes on Friday at Texas Tech because of all of the water. (He said 2 1/2 feet on campus!)

It's been so incredibly sunny here for DAYS, I even forgot what rain feels like. Strange, isn't it?!

Blessings on your day!

Here's a picture of Jim and his friend Liege on a hike when they went on the Men's Retreat from our church. AWESOME!
The Retreat I just went on was at Cedar Springs and it was wonderful and refreshing.
Somewhere in my earlier posts are pictures of Cedar Springs, I think :) Well, off to Coffee and Conversation!

September Already!

Wow. Has it really been 5 months since my last post? We had lots of visitors over the summer. It was a wonderful, busy time! I guess the latest news is that Jim went to start the riding lawnmower and it exploded and caught on fire. The image of him trying to douse the flames with the cat's water has kept me in stitches for almost a week. We went out that day and got a fabulous Husqvarna since it was a John Deere that blew up. Actually, Husqvarna has quite a good reputation, even amongst the Lowe's employees.
Come see our lawn; it looks great!