Molasses Spice Cookies

Ginger snaps are by far, my favorite cookie!  Yes, I'm serious.  I could eat an entire box of them by myself (and have!).  I don't know what it is about them...the crunch, the molasses or the spicy ginger flavor?  That said, I think these molasses cookies are pretty awesome.  They're soft, sugary and spicy.  I finally broke down and bought some molasses and decided to make these cookies....and they smell AMAZING!

I combined two recipes that to come up with the one I ended up using.  They turned out pretty darn good, if you ask me, and weren't hard at all to make.  Plus, they smell like Christmas and are awesome with a cup of coffee.  The perfect fall cookie....

2 1/2 cups flour                                           1/4 teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons cinnamon                                 3/4 cup butter 3 teaspoons ginger                                        1 egg 3/4 teaspoons ground cloves                          1 cup brown sugar dash allspice                                               1/4 cup molasses dash nutmeg                                                 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/4 cup white sugar for dipping Mix together all dry ingredients; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar. Gradually beat in egg, vanilla and molasses. Stir in dry ingredients. Refrigerate dough for about 30 minutes until firm enough to roll into walnut-sized balls. Roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375º for about 10 minutes (I like them a little underdone). Squish while still warm, preferably with something that will make an interesting pattern (I tried a fork, but found the spatula to be the easiest. A meat tenderizer would look cool). ENJOY!!

Cake mix cookies

Where should I start.....?  It's Monday.  I finally got both kids down for a nap and decided to make some lunch.  Leftover eggplant parmesan (made with eggplant from the farmer's market this weekend).  I need to add that we have a crazy, powerful stove!  It's electric and probably as old as I am, but I swear it was the equivalent to those "boil water in just 90 seconds" fancy stoves you see commercials now.  This thing heats up SO fast.  Sooooo, I placed the eggplant in the skillet and put it on the burner on "high" (my first mistake), I sat down to check my email (second mistake) and looked up to see smoke pouring out of the skillet!  The whole kitchen was filled with smoke (note to self: test fire alarms).  The eggplant was fried.  Black on one side.  I was so looking forward to eating that for lunch that I scraped off what I could and ate it anyway (don't want to think about all the carcinogens I just ingested).

I should have taken the eggplant as a sign and stopped cooking, but nope, I decided to make cookies.  I accidently bought two boxes of Jiffy yellow cake mix instead of corn bread mix the other day.  I've made recipes out of cake mix before, so decided to look up some ideas on Allrecipes (my fave).  I decided to make these cookies and add chocolate chips (Ghirardelli, of course!).  BUT, adding to my awesome day of cooking, I forgot to add the eggs and baking powder!  Just cake mix, oil, vanilla and chocolate chips.  Needless to say, they were a little dry and crumbly, but actually taste pretty good (guess you can't go wrong with cake mix).  We'll see how dinner goes tonight..... I think I need a nap.

ETA: Mr. Moe thought these were "perfect, just the way there are."  Maybe he was just being nice  or maybe he was telling the truth...he's a sucker for chocolate chip cookies.

21 days

I pseudo-joined a gym.  Yes, that's possible when they offer a 21 day FREE trial.  I have absolutely no intentions of joining this gym, but I'm super excited about using their elliptical for three weeks.  I have a strange obsession with elliptical machines.  I LOVE them!  After years of running (or at least trying to), three half-marathons, countless shin splints, blisters and new shoes, I've finally found my true love.  45 minutes on the elliptical, a nice cool-down, stretching and strength training and I'm a happy girl!  It's probably a better use of our money to save the membership dues and simply buy our own machine, but that's not financially possible right now, so I'm mooching off a free offer...and loving it.  To make the most of these 21 days, I plan to go every day, but Sunday (I'll be at church, of course).  So far, so good and now that I've put it in writing, I have to hold myself to it!

First post!

Woo hoo!  My very first post on my new....all ME blog!  Can't tell you how excited I am to be starting this blog.  I've been thinking about it for a couple weeks now....what will it look like, what will I write about, who will actually read it....?  So here it is.  What do you think?  (I'm not crazy about the background, so may change that).

I currently keep up our family blog, but use it as more of a baby book to record milestones and memories.  Lately, I've been craving my own outlet.  A place to say what's on my mind, to think out loud.  A place to share crafty goodness and a place to call my own.

SO, who am I?  I'm a mother, a wife, a woman, a sister, a daughter, and a friend and deep down I'm "a free spirit with a creative soul."  I love being creative!  I always have.  Even as a kid, art was always my favorite subject.  As an adult I find it harder to make time for creative adventures, so this is my attempt to do so!  My plan is to share a craft project and tutorial on a weekly basis, along with sharing my thoughts, ideas and maybe even some recipes.  That's the plan, as of now, but with two kids I realize life may get in the way.

My family and I have just uprooted ourselves and moved from Missouri to Alabama so my husband can pursue his dream job.  We have two kids.  Elliot, who just turned 2 and Harper who is barely over three months.  They are amazing children, which I'm sure you'll hear all about every now and then on here.  Though I know we made the right decision for our family, we are ten hours away from family and know no one here.  Good thing I'm an extrovert!

Feel free to follow me on this adventure and maybe pick up a couple crafty ideas or two.  Celebrate with a craft night (oh, how I miss craft nights) or a yummy recipe for friends.  As always, thanks for reading!

~Andrea