Hope every father had a nice Father’s Day yesterday. We had a quiet day, saw our son briefly in the morning before he left on a trip and then we went to church. My husband opened his presents before our son left and was pleased with presents from our daughter & s-i-l & babies, our son, and from me.
Father’s Day presents can range from anything from a shirt and tie to Kettlebells to an MP3 player. So if you forgot to get something for your dad, it’s not too late.
These cookies bring back warm memories of childhood and growing up. My mother made these often, and they were so delicious warm out of the oven. They’re like a brown sugar cookie, and kids of all ages like them.
INGREDIENTS:
Cream the eggs, brown sugar, and butter. Add the dry ingredients. Mix well. Form cookie dough into a long roll about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap well with wax paper. Chill for a few hours. Slice and bake at 350 degrees as needed. Bake 8-9 minutes for a soft cookie and 10-11 minutes for a crisper cookie.
The cool thing about this recipe is that the dough can be made a day or several days before it’s needed as long as it’s well-wrapped. If it’s going to be kept for several days, it would be good to store the dough in a large gallon size plastic bag after wrapping with wax paper.
We made an overnight trip to Austin this past weekend for State UIL Band Solo Contest. This is the third (and last) year we’ve done this. Our family tradition is to eat at Chuy’s when we’re in Austin, and so we had to eat there this time, too. Besides, we had to celebrate our son getting a score of “1” which is the highest score one can get at UIL.
Chuy’s is big on atmosphere and great food. They have awesome enchiladas, guacamole, and salsa, just to name a few items. Tortillas are made there on location at their restaurants, chicken is cooked there (not frozen or canned chicken), guacamole and salsa are freshly made…does that give you an idea about the quality of their food?
They are also known for their cool T-shirts which they sell at the check-out counter, and probably their most famous T-shirt is “Keep Austin Weird.”
Their locations have spread from Austin to other Texas cities. I looked online, and these are the Texas cities where Chuy’s is located:
* Austin (3 locations)
* Dallas
* Houston
* Round Rock
* San Antonio
* Selma
* Arlington
If you visit one of these places, try to eat at Chuy’s while you’re there. It’s a fun place to eat great Tex-Mex Food. Maybe it will become a family tradition with you, too!
NOTE: The original Chuy’s from Austin is not located in Ft. Worth. The one in Ft. Worth is “Chuys Mexican Restaurant” and Google just happens to have a link to the original Austin Chuy’s beside each Ft. Worth listing. However, I made a phone call to verify and found out those are two distinct restaurants.
If you’re in need of a gift to give for graduation, for a wedding, or for Father’s Day, then you might consider Amazon books. They have a selection for each occasion.
Our son has received a lot of nice graduation gifts recently, and two of his gifts were books. He received Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, PH.D. and another book called The Power of Attitude by Mac Anderson. Both look like excellent books!
It’s such an exciting time when a new baby is born in the family. I know first hand because our second grandson was born a little over a month ago. His older brother was born 21 months earlier. The whole family was elated and friends and relatives wanted to know the news and how much the baby weighed, what was the weight, etc. And what better way to share about the birth than with some stylish birth announcements.
This is so good and such an easy recipe with a great homemade taste! This would be perfect for Mother’s Day or any special occasion or dinner. (Someone made this for our daughter and s-i-l recently after the birth of their second baby, and we all really liked it.)
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Chocolate Chip Pie
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
½ cup margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (opt.)
1 unbaked (9-inch) pie shell
Cream the sugar, margarine and vanilla in a mixer bowl until smooth. Add the eggs, beating until blended. Stir in the flour, chocolate chips and pecans. Spoon into the pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
In case someone doesn’t know, Cinco de Mayo means “May 5” in Spanish. When I think of May 5, I think of when I used to teach school and a lot of teachers would wear Mexican dresses (two of my dresses are in the picture), we would do Cinco de Mayo activities with the students, and the Hispanic teachers there would treat the faculty and cook authentic Mexican food for lunch. The food was awesome!
If you would like to read more about the origin of Cinco de Mayo and about activities for children and the family, then visit Cinco de Mayo: Origin, Activities, & Books for Children on my site, “How to Teach Kids.”
If anyone is wondering where I am, I’m out visiting our daughter and son-in-law and helping take care of the two grandbabies, cooking some, etc. If you are a grandma, then you know what I mean when I tell you how much fun I’m having. I’m helping take care of our 20 month old grandson, Baby J, and our newborn grandson who is two weeks old. Both are adorable, but there’s something so special about a newborn baby. Their sweet little newborn sounds, cute faces they make, and the way they move their little arms are so precious. Baby J is doing and saying the cutest things, has favorite words such as “no” (lol), “uh-oh,” “mess,” “shoes,” and is presently referring to me as ‘Bobba” since grandma is hard to say. We asked him to say grandpa, and he said something like “Passa.” So I guess temporarily (?), we’re Passa and Bobba which is adorable to us.
I plan to be heading back home tomorrow. My husband jokingly told a friend that I had left him for two younger men and then explained about our two grandbabies. He’s so glad I can be out here to help, too.
These flowers are from my backyard. They are not just any flowers…the original bulbs belonged to my grandmother (my daddy’s mother) years and years ago. My grandparents lived out on the farm, and I’m told my grandmother had these flowers planted by their house.
My mother got bulbs from my grandmother’s garden, and then many years later I got some bulbs from my mother. I hope to eventually give some to our daughter to plant at her house. That would be the fourth generation. What would really be neat would be to take a picture of the grandbabies in front of these flowers that came from their great, great grandmother’s garden. That would be a special picture!
We have had such an exciting and blessed week. Our daughter and s-i-l are the proud new parents of a precious baby boy. Baby J (our 20 month old grandson) seems proud of his new baby brother and loves to point out Baby Brother’s nose, mouth, ears, hair, etc.
It is such a wonderful experience holding a newborn grandbaby, and just as much the second time around. Such an awesome blessing!
Our daughter and I had so much fun making these cupcakes a few years ago for the Easter egg hunt at church. (She was in college at the time.) We used cake mixes, canned frosting, green food coloring to dye half of the frosting green, and Easter candy. We had some cute Easter marshmallow flowers that we stuck on colored toothpicks. The flowers added dimension to the cupcakes, which needless to say, were a hit!
Our daughter just recently designed new T-shirts for Baby J (our almost 20 months old grandson) and for our soon-to-be-born Baby C. They are the cutest shirts! One shirt says “Big Brother” and the other shirt says “Little Brother.” She used CafePress.com to design the shirts, and they are just adorable.
If you have any special occasion coming up where a custom T-shirt would add to the occasion, check them out. (This is not a paid post.)