Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Cookie Compost

Diapers hanging out to dry.

At William's request, we made gingerbread cookies last night for our Family Home Evening treat, except that we made cinnamon cookies instead. He only thought they were gingerbread - the difference? The cinnamon cookies were easy and sweet so that they didn't require any icing like gingerbread does. Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2-3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup ground cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Combine flour and cinnamon; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate one hour. Roll out and cut as usual. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

The kids love to help me bake and things usually go well, except I made the mistake of leaving William in charge of working the speed of the mixer. Kitchen Aids can spin VERY fast.

But the baking must go on...

The kids are expert cooking cutters - they did an excellent job with little help.


They turned out yummy; we had ducks, hearts, and little men.

Even Rose enjoyed them. She stole this one out of her daddy's hand.

Having been born in October in Illinois, baby girl has not spent a lot of time out doors. The weather has been beautiful lately, so I took her out for a little photo shoot. She was sporting a little dress I whipped up for her out of some leftover fabric a few weeks back. It's still a little too big - it's meant for this summer. Problem was, she was so interested in the grass, that I couldn't get her to look up - and the lighting was weird.

First feel of grass (and a wild violet)

Humoring mom.

I LOVE baby backs! She looked so tiny sitting there.

A little smile - so cute!

William loves Tuesday mornings, because that means cookies for breakfast! He usually helps himself to a few before we can stop him. There's not much cuter than a little man, running around the house in dinosaur pajamas with a little belly poking out and bed-head. I will miss this when he grows up.



I have wanted a compost pile since we moved into our house, but we just didn't know how or where. We still don't, but we're not going to let that stop us. I started making a pile on our side yard, but Ryan wasn't too thrilled with the pile of garbage as he called it, so he made a phone call last night and went and picked me up a free barrel and then some hardware. And voila - a compost bin. I have loaded it up with leaves (raked from the lawn of the empty house behind ours), some grass clippings, kitchen scraps, egg shells, manure and a few twigs. Despite having read a book from the library on this, I still don't know what I'm doing. Oh well, that's how we learn, right?
Thanks Ryan - I love it!

4 comments:

Jennifer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jennifer said...

(Sorry, had a few typo problems.)

I've also been looking into the best way to compost this year, but haven't actually done anything. Where did you get your barrel? And did you buy worms for it? I was researching worms the other day and found some rather disgusting worm photos on the internet. And I wasn't too chipper about paying 35 bucks plus shipping for worms.

So... we still have no compost bin, because I can't decide how I'm going to go about it.

Molly said...

I just can't say enough about your pictures of the kids. They are just too darn cute!!! You are a brave woman to let the three year old be in charge of the mixer.

Cookie compost sounds really gross, too. The cookies look good, the compost is awesome, but cookie compost? Yuck.

Sandy said...

Susan,

You are a wonder --cut out cookies, diapers on the line, all kinds of sewing projects, painted rocks, and compost! Ryan did a super job on the compost bin. I saw similar ones at Costco for well over $100. Way to go! I am excited to hear how it goes!