H is for Hallongrotta

When I asked Spencer to quickly put his laundry away so we could get started baking he said "Mom, can we stop doing the alphabet. I don't like it." I asked him what he like to do instead and he said "I want to do the kind of desserts where I don't have to do any work first." After I told him that he would have to put this laundry away before making any dessert, he was cheerfully back on board with the alphabet idea.

We waited until the older kids got home from school so that they could make some cookies too. With the assistance of reading siblings, the kids were able to figure everything out with almost no help from me. It was fun to see how proud they were when they figured out how many tablespoons it takes to get half a cup of shortening.

The recipe made more than 3 dozen cookies, most of which did not last long enough to be photographed. Julie now can say both hallongrotta and delicious. -L

Hallongrotta

Ingredients:

½ cup butter

½ cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups flour

Raspberry jam

Preparation:

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt. Drop by teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet. Make a thumbprint in the middle of each cookie and fill with ¼ teaspoon jam (less than you think or it will boil out of the cookie while baking and make a sticky mess instead of an appealing and delicious cookie). Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes

Recipe source: Grandma

Comments

J is for Jam

Strawberries are in season in Texas. We bought a bunch. The kids have been loving them. The best strawberries are fresh from our garden, but we only get a handful of those at a time. They are a perfect before bed snack. For recipes that involve lots sugar and plenty of cooking time we use store bought strawberries. Julie has been hopping around the house saying "strawberries" for days. She also has utterly refused to wear clothes. She screams and shouts and kicks and thrashes while I get her dressed and then immediately removes all of her clothing as soon as she can. I've decided this is not a battle I'm willing to fight, so she spends most of the day in just a diaper. (I am willing to fight with her to keep a diaper on. I hate cleaning the carpet.) But when I said it was time to get out the strawberries and make jam she ran into the kitchen, grabbed her apron, and said "Put it on Mom." I did not make her ask twice. In addition to convincing Julie to ge...

L is for Lemonade

Isaac had to work hard to get all the lemons squeezed, but it was totally worth it. It was good lemonade. We are so ready for summer! Maybe if we make enough Lemonade we can pretend it's not cold and rainy. -H ---------------- I have a citrus juicer, but it's the kind that you have to squeeze, and neither Julie nor Spencer have big enough hands to really use it. Luckily a friend let us borrow her electric juicer. With the assistance of electricity, making lemonade was a lot of fun. Since simple syrup doesn't require very precise measurements, we let Julie do that part by herself. -L Printable recipe here

G is for Galette Aux Fruits

During my first years as a public school teacher I became a firm believer in the powers of the full moon. I have not converted to the full complement of astrology, but I do believe that the phases of the moon are extremely relevant to children's behavior. One colleague suggested to me that perhaps we were trying to educate werewolves. The students always display their most ridiculous, defiant, and disruptive behavior during the full moon. I checked lunar calendars twice last week to see if it was a full moon. It wasn't. I take little comfort in the fact that my children are not werewolves. This is not the place to recite all of Spencer's escapades over the last week, but he was in a lot of trouble for most of the time. We tried to make our dessert on Wednesday like we usually do. Then we tried to make it on Thursday. Then I gave up on having Spencer do it with us, and Julie and I started the Galette Friday morning. Then Spencer was left home with a babysitter to prese...

ABCDessert

Search This Blog