Graham Crackers and Frosting

Okay the fact of the matter is - if you did not have Graham Crackers and Frosting as a child you were (officially) deprived. Yes, DEPRIVED. Find yourself a good therapist, work through your issues and start making up for lost time by having some now. It is as simple as making frosting (see the Vanilla Bean Frosting below) and spreading it between two crackers. If you prefer (and I do) you can chill them in the refrigerator and they firm up. Delicious. Kids love Graham Crackers and Frosting because they are so simple to make that they can help out, but I assure you - the kids are not the only ones who will like eating them!

Breaking Ground

Come what may I have started planting the garden! The beets (oh thank you God for beets) have gone in and so have the lettuces and peas. The weather is a fickle friend these days so let us hope I have timed it right.

Soft Buttermilk Sugar Cookies with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Don't hate me for using so much white sugar everyone, I promise not to do it too often! These are delightfully light and at the same time super sweet and buttery. Enjoy.

Soft Buttermilk Sugar Cookies
1/2 c. softened butter
1 c. white sugar (I used organic)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup buttermilk (or yogurt, or sour cream)
3 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the butter with the sugar until the sugar is completely incorporated. Add your egg and blend very well - until the mixture lightens in color. Add your buttermilk, mix well. Scrape down bowl and mix again.
In a separate bowl combine your flour, baking soda and salt, mix well or sift together. Add your dry ingredients to your wet and mix until incorporated. Don't overdo it or your cookies will be tough.
Roll dough out to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out into desired shapes. Place on greased cookie sheet or silicone mat and bake at 350 for 8-11 minutes (depending on size). When done the bottom of the cookie should have just barely started to brown.

Vanilla Bean Frosting
1 softened cube of butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 -3 T. milk
pinch of salt
1 t. vanilla bean paste
1/2 t. almond extract

Cream your butter and 1 c. of powdered sugar. Mix until it is an even, smooth paste. Add the extract, vanilla bean paste and 1 T. of milk. Mix well and alternate with the rest of the milk and powdered sugar until you have your desired thickness. Spread on cooled cookies (or any number of other baked items).

more, no more, coffee

As if it is not humiliating enough to have an addiction to coffee now I am tackling my addiction to drive-thru coffee. Oh the indulgence of buying myself something nice, the feeling that I belong in the demographic of people that can afford daily drive-thru lattes, the excellent customer service.... "Hi there Jammy! What are you up to today?" it's like they are my best friends. I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home and if it were simply about the caffeine, well, this would be another story would it not? I mean we all know that if there were no caffeine, my house would never be cleaned, my children would never make it all the way to the dentist and we would eat a lot of fast food...so thank you for caffeine. But this drive-thru thing is a sad, sorry, (not to mention expensive) problemo and I need an escape route.

welcome to our crazy world

Jazzy and I come from a family of 10 - that's right 10. 5 girls 3 boys and 2 parents. I must tell you we are not particularly sane people, as you may well figure out, and we are obsessed with food. Thankfully our 2 parents blessed us with good metabolisms so we are still fairly slender girls. Thus far.