Cooking with Grandpa

For cooking class today, we had a guest chef . . . Grandpa!!! He and Caroline made some very delicious scones. Yummm . . .

Here is the recipe :

2 cups of flour

1/3 cup plus 1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

8 Tbsp. unsalted butter (frozen and grated through the large holes of a hand grater)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup sour cream

1 large egg

In medium bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients minus the 1 tsp. of sugar.

Grate the butter into the flour mixture and use your fingers to work butter into flour mixture . . . the mixture should resemble course meal. Add raisins.

In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth. Using a fork, stir mixture and add to flour mixture.

Use your hands to press the dough against the sides of the bowl into a ball. The dough will be sticky in places and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press the dough it will come together.

On a floured surface, pat the dough into a 7-8 inch circle. Sprinkle with remaining tsp. of sugar and cut into 8 triangles. Bake on a baking stone if you have one at 400* for about 15 - 17 minutes and serve nice and warm.

Enjoy this delicious blessing!!!

A Hug From a Friend

Today I received a fun surprise in the mail from my friend, Annie. She is a HUGE Amy Grant fan and she knew that I didn't have this album in CD form yet (yes, I was still listening to my TAPE of it!) It is definitely one of my favorite Christmas albums and has been since I was in high school.

We listened to it a LOT in college during the holidays (starting in October) and it brings back many warm memories. When I thanked Annie, she said it was a "hug" sent to me in the mail. Thanks for the "hug" Annie! (I'm listening to it right now. )

Who can you "hug" today? ;) It means so much when a friend thinks of you, doesn't it?

Counting Our Blessings

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving.

We were fortunate enough to have our whole family together (picture coming soon). Our house was bustling with activity. The kids had a great time together. I was so happy that the cousins had some good quality playing time. :)

Grandpa and Grandma Eckstrom were counting their blessings :)

Diane and Colin

John and me
Steve, Rebecca, and HoustonJohn and his mom
Grandpa and Caleb
Grandpa and Caroline

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to "count our blessings", but I think it is definitely good for the soul to count a few every day. ;) Happy counting!!

The Blessing of Friendship

Last weekend, I got together with my dear friends from Taylor. We have known each other for twenty years now. (can that be?? we must have met when we were nine) We had so much fun eating out, playing games, shopping, and just being together. I love them so much . . . they are definitely a blessing to me!
back row left to right: Kristin (Wolgemuth) Fitzgerald, Carmen (Johnson) Grey, Dorie (McDougal) Thompson
front row left to right: Annie (Bergsten) Molnar, Julie (Scroggins) Meredith, and me

Beautiful Birthday Blossoms

I'm thankful for these beautiful flowers. I took this picture today, a whole week after I received them from Mike and Lori (John's brother and sister-in-law) for my birthday. I can't believe how fresh they still look! Thanks, Mike and Lori!! I love them . . .they make my day a little better every time I look at them. :)

Favorites on Fridays . . . Like Oprah's "O" List, But Not Really

Favorite Place to Buy Bread: Great Harvest Bread Company

I just LOVE this place!

I love the warm slice of bread smeared with butter they offer you when you enter the door. I love the way they have so many different kinds of bread to offer throughout the week. (it's different every day) I love knowing that there are no preservatives or "yucky stuff" in the bread that I am buying for my family. And I LOVE the way it smells in there!! :)

I am very picky about the ingredients that are in bread. I won't buy any loaf of bread with high fructose corn syrup in it and I prefer the bread to have just a few ingredients. My favorite loaves to buy are honey whole wheat and apple scrapple. I also like to buy their basil asiago (yum!) or cheddar garlic when I make soup. Their HUMONGOUS cookies are pretty good, too. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

On Monday, November 16th, it was my 39th birthday. I started celebrating on Sunday with some friends by going downtown Geneva to eat and do a little shopping. (two of my favorite things!!) When I got home, the kids and John surprised me with a little party. They made me a cake and gave me a lot of treasures that they picked out for me at Trader Joe's. (they know my love language)

On my actual birthday, we did school in the morning in our jammies and then we headed to downtown Geneva again. (I just love it there.) I took Luke and Caroline out to eat at a place called the Little Traveler and then we went to a cute little coffee shop named Grahams 318 and I bought the kids gelato. Grahams 318 is in an old house and there is seating upstairs in the "bedrooms". We sat at an antique table and looked at old World Book Encyclopedias that were on the bookshelves. How fun! Who knew?! The kids would say a word and then we would look to see if it was in the encyclopedia. We also played CandyLand and Connect Four while we were there. I truly enjoyed every minute of it. I was definitely counting my blessings. :)