The 'Wrong-Jar' Peanut Butter Cookie recipe

We’re rather picky about our peanut butter in this house.  It has to be the natural, no-sugar-added kind.  I know other households are equally as fussy .  For my Mom, only the icing-sugar-added kind belongs in her kitchen.    The other week I bought the WRONG kind – which we only realized once the jar was opened and spread on the morning toast. 

 Here’s a cookie recipe that uses up any wayward peanut butter you may encounter.  The cookies have a great peanut butter flavour.   Since the peanut butter was already sweetened, I used slightly less sugar than what I listed below.  Adjust sugar to your preference.   This is a large recipe making just under 100 cookies but you can cut the recipe in half if you prefer.  I tend to make large cookie batches because they disappear too quickly in this household.   If fast disappearing cookies signifies a good taste rating then this recipe rates quite high!

1 ½ cups margarine

1 jar peanut butter (500 g jar,  minus a few tablespoons for above toast!)

1.5 cup white sugar

1.5 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups flour

1 ½ tsp baking power

½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

Cream margarine and peanut butter, add the sugar, eggs and vanilla, mixing until well blended.  Then stir in the dry ingredients.     Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheets.  Press down with a fork.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  You might want to chill the dough.  I didn’t bother and the dough balls shaped quite well.

Spooked in the Spooking

A friend and her five-year-old daughter started the tradition of 'ghosting' in our neighbourhood and it was our turn to return the favour.

       You put together a hand-decorated bag with a few treats and a picture of a ghost for them to hang on the door so others know they've been 'Ghosted'.   You creep up to someone's house in the dark, ring the bell and then run real fast before they see you.
       My six-year-old and I put together our bag and head over in the dark.  Since these folks have two big, German-Shepherd cross dogs, I'd phoned the Mom ahead of time.  While she would be out that evening, she was leaving her husband a note to keep the dogs inside around 7 pm.   It's a nice, crisp, evening.  We come in through the front gate.   J was very excited to do a 'ghosting' but she was NOT going to walk up the front steps to place the bag by the door and ring the bell.  I told her to wait at the side of the house -- the front yard is too long for us to get out of the gate without them seeing us.  I would join her there. I said we'd wait there until after they'd got their package and then head out the gate when they were back in the house.
      J hides at the side of the house, I go up the step, put the bag down and ring the door bell.  Suddenly there is loud, VERY loud barking from the back of the house and it is clear the barking is coming to the front.  I race down the stairs, the youngest big dog's coming up beside J and we RUN!  Down the walkway, out the gate, down the street until we finally get to the corner.  We stop to catch our breath.  And we laugh.
      We were so scared at the barking that we had kept running out the yard to not get caught.  But the truth was, when the dog saw it was us, he seemed to recognize us, stopped and trotted up the front steps to see what we'd left at the door.  We had no reason to be scared but he did his watch-dog job well by scaring us off!  At least his owners still got their treats.
     "Boo" or "Ghost" your neighbours is a lot of fun.  Here's a link over to Skip to my Lou's Blog.  Cindy has a beautiful bag you can make for the neighbour or a simplified paper version you can print off.  Thank you, Cindy.  
    

Thanks for the feedback!

Received very helpful feedback through the Mothers Opposed to Boredom facebook page on yesterday's query about Mom's preferences for baby sleep sacks. Thank you! Looks like 40 per cent like sleeves, 60 per cent prefer sleeveless. So I'll work at the two options with very soft, warm fabric (of course!) and a two-way zip.

What would you like in a baby sleep sack?

 Long-sleeve sleep sack for 12 to 15 lb. child

What's the best baby sleep sack for you and your child?  Do you prefer a sleeveless one or one with sleeves?

Tell me about your most favourite sleep sack for your baby and what you'd buy in the future or would recommend to a friend or relative.

I would like to design sleep sacks that fit a mother's needs and concerns for their baby and toddler.

As I've looked at some sites that offer baby sleep sacks, all are sleeveless.  There seems to be some concern that if a baby slips down inside the sleep sack as they sleep, they will still get fresh air coming through the armholes.  One site raised the concern that there is a 'possible' link between carbon monoxide and SIDS.

Interesting.  Because the long-sleeve ones I make are sized to gently fit at the child's neck so they can't slip down within the sack.  As a Mom, I ditched the sleeveless ones for my daughter in the winter.   Living in the Calgary area near the mountains, our nights get cold and I wanted her arms to also be warm.   She stayed warm and safe.

A new Grandma of a preemie boy told me her grandson has a sleep sack but he slips down inside it.  Yes, he would -- because he was in a sleep sack for an 8 to 12 pound baby and not one for his 5.5 lbs.    You want a sleep sack that will fit at the child's neck and I can make that.

That said, however, what kind of baby sleep sack would YOU buy?    Would you prefer sleeveless?

So looking forward to hearing your comments, insights and preferences.  Thank you for reading.

Dog's trail of disaster

Six-year-old daughter brought home a book called Cookies' Week.    She chuckles as she reads the simple lines about the cat that on Monday jumped into the toilet and got water all over, on Tuesday knocked over a plant and got dirt everywhere, etc, etc.
      I suggested we could also write a book like that about our one-year-old dog.  On Monday, Gracie chewed the dongle that connects Shelley's laptop to a projector ($40 replacement).  On Tuesday, Gracie chewed the corner of Shelley's leather Wesley Bible.  On Wednesday, Gracie ate horse droppings quickly followed by deer droppings found further on the path.   On Thursday, Shelley bought worm treatment at the drugstore and didn't correct the pharmacist when he thought the pills were for a child.  (Later, Gracie skillfully drops pill piece on floor whilst enjoying the cheese that had carefully encased it!)  On Friday, Gracie convinced older dog Sneaker to wrestle in the house, knocking over lamp, breaking light bulb and bending lampshade (Dog wrestling in house is forever outlawed).   On Saturday, Shelley discovered that lamp had likely knocked over camera and it now has smashed view finder, making photo taking impossible. (Sigh!)
      How can one 10-lb dog cause such trouble?!!  Of course, not all of these happened in one week --  just the horse and deer droppings, lamp and camera!   It's a challenge trying to do an online shop and not be able to take pictures!  Fortunately, eldest son lent me his Nikon Coolpix and I was trying it out this weekend.  Thank you, Eric!
     At the end of the day, she's always a loving, cute, caring little dog.  Who is also mischievous and rather expensive!