Try It Tuesday - Butter-Flavored Brickle Drizzles

Recently, my daughter-who-no-longer-wants-to-be-mentioned-by-name brought home an old cookbook, "365 Favorite Brand Name Cookie Recipes."  In the spirit of autumn, we chose recipe #95, Butter-Flavored Brickle Drizzles.  It wasn't clear when this cookbook was written, but I would guess the 1980s.  There's no gluten-free, fat-free, "healthy" ingredients involved here.  I am writing the recipe exactly as it appears in the book, including references to things like "shortening"

Ingredients:

1 BUTTER FLAVOR CRISCO Stick or
1 cup BUTTER FLAVOR CRISCO all-vegetable shortening (this was the brand name part)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups quick-cooking oats uncooked
1 cup almond brickle chips (Heath Bar chips)

Drizzle:  1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheet with shortening

Combine shortening, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large bowl.  Stir until well blended and creamy.  Stir in condensed milk and vanilla.  Mix well.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl.  Stir into creamed mixture and stir in oats.

Shape dough into 1" balls.  Press tops into brickle chips.  Place, brickle side up on cookie sheet, 2" apart

Bake for 9-10 minutes until set but not brownd.  Remove to wire rack and cool.

For drizzle, place chocolate chips in resealable ziploc bag.  Microwave at medium (50%).  Knead bag after 1 minute.  Repeat until smooth.  (You can also do this by dipping the bag into hot water until the chocolate melts).  Cut tip of plastic bag and squeeze out chocolate in drizzles on the cookies.

These are really tasty cookies.  They are thin and crunchy and the combination of oatmeal and brickle chips reminds me of cold autumn days with the sweetness of pralines.  We didn't get to the drizzle, but they were good without them too.

A crunchy treat on an autumn kinda day.

cindy

I've Been Booed! Free Printables

Over the weekend I noticed something on our front porch.  It wasn't a mail package, but a cute Halloween box full of Halloween goodies!  Attached to the box was a small sign saying "You've Been Booed!"  Inside the box was lots of candy, Halloween stuff (eyeball salt and pepper shakers, a solar dancing pumpkin, a growing zombie, cookie cutters, a kitchen towel - you get the idea).  I wish I could say I had a picture of the box, but my kids (and me) tore it apart looking for all the goodies.  How fun!

Turns out, this is the idea of Tricia at Nola Mommy from 2011.  It's a fun way to get to know your neighbors - even if it is a bit anonymously - and a fun activity for your kids who are either too young to trick or treat or can't in the neighborhood.  This is like the reverse trick or treat!  Here is the original "You've Been Booed" sign along with the complete instructions and free printables from Nola Mommy:

Instructions on How to Boo your Neighbor by Tricia L.

We couldn't wait to put our own "boo baskets" together for two of our neighbors.  It wasn't very expensive - we used some cool metal pails we've had for a while for containers and then added little items from the Dollar Store and Target.  It was fun to find ring pop eyeballs and bloody vampire teeth.  The dish towels from Target are a cute addition too!  Here's what our finished products look like, all ready for "booing":

Don't these pumpkins look like little waiters?

I really love this idea, but I can't take credit for starting it in my neighborhood.  Some nice anonymous neighbor did that!  These would be great for a lot of holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day.  The possibilities are endless and you can never get too much community going on, especially when you live in an area where neighbors don't tend to know each other.

Don't forget to check out the full directions at Nola Mommy and happy booing!

cindy

Kitties - Blanca and LuLu

Earlier this year I wrote about Mackenzie's new cat, Lulu.  Lulu is all settled in now.  She's such a pretty cat and very sweet - from a distance.

She has a great relationship with our dogs (sometimes I think she thinks she IS a dog), and she definitely loves us from that distance.  Please don't touch me.  She loves when we feed her, when we play with her and when she can follow us around like a dog.  She is also pretty good at coming when you call her.

My husband likes Lulu, but misses the cuddly cats we had before the kids were born.  Lulu will never be the "I-love-to-sit-in-your-lap-and-sleep-next-to-your-head-at-night" kind of cat.  So when he heard of a lovable, guaranteed kissable cat who needed a new home, he volunteered.  This was HUGE - the idea that we would bring a fourth animal into the house, especially coming from Kent, was crazy.  (Mackenzie and I would be cat ladies if allowed.)  Enter Blanca:

Blanca is so different from Lulu.  She's an Oriental, so her body is longer and sleeker, she's a talker and she's a lover.  She does give genuine kisses, but she does stay on the move.  You can see her here drinking from the faucet - Lulu wouldn't get caught dead near water.  And yes, she is pure white (hence the name).

At first we were very nervous about introducing our little kitty ladies, but it turns out they have something in common - they BOTH think they are dogs.  They sniff each other (both noses and butts) and there is no hissing or growling involved.  There are a few swipes, but they are getting playful more than aggressive.  What may be even more remarkable is that they both are very comfortable with the dogs.  (I guess that shouldn't be surprising from cats that act like dogs.)

The other thing we've noticed is that each cat is getting to be a little more like the other.  Unfortunately, the small improvements we've seen with Lulu being close to us have come at the expense of Blanca becoming a little more distant.  We're still looking for the happy medium.

So now we are a family of 8 and the pets are close to outnumbering the humans.  I don't think we'll let that happen - we need to get the 8 we have comfortable under one roof.

cindy