A Mason Jar Recipe, a Cool Food Website, and Ramblings

Hi There!

 

You are either up to your eyeballs in alligators still prepping and preening and fretting and fussing to get everything done for Christmas and you'll never see this post, or you are taking a break, or you are calling it quits, game over, good enough, and you're putting your feet up and blog-hopping.  Hello!

 

Food Matters

 

I wrapped the last present yesterday, the cards are sent, and I actually got some baking done for the neighbors!  (Truth be told, I baked several times in the last week, but Mister has eaten all the treats as fast as I can bake them!  Not counting the twenty two I had to eat strictly in the interest of poison prevention science.) 

 

I wanted to find a recipe to make up some cute mason jars and I came across Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies In a Jar.  Here is one of my cute finished quart jars.

 

Since that recipe only makes 18-24 cookies, I went to find a website with a full-size recipe because I flunked math.  Well, girl, I have to share the remarkable website where I found my recipe!  It's called Beth's Favorite Recipes and oh my chowder and crumpets, she is quite the proliftic cook!!  You'll want to visit!

 

So here are my "Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies."

 

Seriously, Hootycreek!  Not named by me, it already existed.  I don't know where it came from, although it probably has some meaning.  If I didn't already want to talk about other things today, you know I would make up an exciting background history!  They are sooo yummo!  You can click on the link above to get the recipe.

 

~~~

 

Help Out If You Can

 

I've been working on cards for children to send to Amber's Damask Love "Drawn Together" love-raiser mentioned in my post here.  Some may feel that sending cards is just a burden to the town, because the cards all have to be surveiled.  The Drawn Together program will amass the cards and Amber will take care of sending them to Newtown in a large package. I was really moved by the underlying idea Amber had when she formulated her Drawn Together program. 

This program is not about sending sympathy cards to the families of the slain children (which, please, can be nothing more than a blessing to them).  This program is about the surviving children of the town~the other elementary school children who went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and survived the massacre, but whose friends were killed.  If there is enough participation, the program will reach out to other impacted children in the surrounding Newtown school districts.  All of these surviving children will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives.  It cannot be a burden to send cards and art kits to these children to help them articulate their feelings and to let them know that they are special, too, and that they are in our thoughts and prayers as they struggle in the months to come.  IMHO.

Here are a couple of the cards I've made so far.  I'm making four of each card.

 

 

I think some little girls like froggies, but I am going to make a few non-froggie ones as well.

~~~
 

Helping Our Package Employees (HOPE)

 

Besides baking, and making cards, and other random acts of kindness, I am starting an international program of HOPE to help our package delivery personnel.  Over the years, I have become more and more aware of a need for a fund-raiser to supply our Postal, UPS, and Fed-Ex workers with sports equipment.  Day-in and night-out, these hardworking people move our packages so that they arrive safely at our homes or places of business.  These workers spend their breaks on loading docks or in windowless rooms in the backs of buildings.  As such, is it any wonder that they recourse to using our packages as sports projectiles as a way to blow off steam and get some exercise?  To wit:

 

 

Whoot can blame them?  Please click on this stink to send money or new or used hard balls, soft balls, soccer balls, footballs, foosballs, and yarn balls.  Your support is appreciated!  Your fragile purchases will henceforth arrive in tacked. 

 

As time and volunteers allow, there are future plans for a subchapter to be formed focusing on "Front Door Accuracy," in the hope that you will no longer have to dive into the nettle bushes to retrieve your packages.  We will be looking for experts in DRT (Doorknob-Recognition Therapy) as evidence is wide-spread that all doors have some kind of doorknob / handle.  It is unclear in the medical community why delivery persons are lacking this normally innate knowledge and eyeball-focus recognition.  I will provide further updates in the new year and, again, thank you for your support.

~~~

 

Madge

 

Our friend Madge never fails to rock the "What It IS, Man" humor!  And I'd like to thank my friend, Sandee, from In The Hills of North Carolina for posting this funny, which I have lifted to share with you in the event you didn't see it at her place:

 

 

Of course, IRL, Christmas is not weird when we pause to remember the true meaning.

~~~

 

Okee-doodle, poodle!  That's quite enough ranting and rambling for today.  I'm going to go finish off my kid cards on this rainy day and be thankful that the Mayans got it wrong!!  They got it so wrong, I just looked out the window to find a faint rainbow arcing from sill to sill.  Awwwwww.

 

I hope you, in whatever level of chaos you are in, will enjoy your day.  No, seriously, enjoy your day!

 

As always, thank you for stopping by to visit. Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!