Sorry!

Did anyone try the recipe for the oatmeal cookies in the post below? Well, I did. I didn't cook them before I made the post but here are a couple reviews on the cookies:

Shane- "Maybe you could find another recipe?"
Tyra (my 6 year old niece)- "They aren't that gross." LOL

So, although my process of freezing cookies is still good, that recipe is not! Tyra told me that her cousin makes a really good egg free oatmeal cookie so I will get the recipe from her. In the mean time, don't make those cookies! Lol, but feel free to google for recipes that don't require eggs.

In the past few weeks I have made a couple discoveries: 1) Cookie dough can be frozen in balls to bake as needed and 2) you don't need to use eggs to make cookies! These were very exciting things to learn! Shane likes to have cookies at night and he usually asks for them after the kids are in bed. However, William's room is right next to the kitchen and because I am afraid my mixer will wake him up I can't make cookies that late at night. But my problem is solved! I now cook 3-4 batches at one time in the morning. I freeze them into balls then put them in a ziploc bag once they are already frozen! On the bag I write the baking instructions for the cookies. Now I just pull out however many cookies Shane wants and bake them. No mess everytime we want cookies! So exciting! In addition to this, I have been googling and reading reviews on egg free recipes for just about everything. Eggs are too expensive to use for baking all the time!

So far, I have only tried banana cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies. All the recipes are egg free and freeze well. I will post the oatmeal cookies recipe below and if I can find the source for the chocolate chip recipe I will do that, too.

Here are my cookies freezing. The one in the middle is gluten free and it is missing some cookies because I ate them :-) Because it is an egg free recipe they are safe to eat raw! Yum!

My cookies in the bag with instructions already on it

And here is the oatmeal cookies recipe found at food.com. I made a double batch and did not use the pecans. Instead I put chocolate chips in half and raisins in the other half of the dough.

Oatmeal cookies

1 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup flour

1/4 cup boiling water

3 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup pecans

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1

Preheat oven to 375F.

2

Mix first six ingredients thoroughly.

3

Stir in nuts and chips.

4

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet.

5

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

My Jennifer

Due to recent request, here are a few photos of my baby girl. She is sooo sweet and I am so in love with her. When I found out I was pregnant a year ago I thought to myself  "how can I ever love some one the way  I love William?" It is pretty easy to find more love to give to another child. Jennifer brings so much happiness to our days with her little smiles and giggling. 

I made her this pumpkin hat for her first Thanksgiving (which was yesterday)

BBQ Caribou Pizza Cups

Last month Shane's brother gave us a caribou. There is sooo much meat it fills both our regular freezer and the deep freezer. Because of this, we don't plan on buying any other meat for a while. So I have been trying to think of new ways to use the caribou so we don't just have fried caribou and rice every night. Tonight I made BBQ Caribou Pizza Cups. It's sort of a combination of a couple recipes we have tried in the past year or so.

First, I cut up some caribou into small cube-like pieces and started frying that. When it was fully cooked I added some BBQ sauce into it. I used Tony Roma's because that's what Shane likes.

Then I started mixing together the pizza dough (recipe posted below). Lately I have been making everything from scratch. It's way cheaper and usually tastes a lot better. And for those of you who may be wondering, this is not a gluten free recipe but could easily be made gluten free by just using gluten free flour. Anyway, back to the recipe...William loves helping me mix the dough. We like to use our hands...it's more fun and it mixes things up better.

Once the dough was nice and stretchy (somewhat but hardly sticky) I broke it in half. Then broke each half in half. Then broke each half of the half into thirds...got that? That will give you 12 pieces of dough all the same size. I rolled them into balls then patted them flat and put them in the muffin pan.

Then I filled my pizza cups with the yummy BBQ caribou and topped with some shredded cheese. I only had cheddar but I bet mozzarella would have tasted really good, too.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes (give or take depending on your oven).

I didn't taste them because they are gluten but Shane and William liked them. Let me know if you try them and if you like it!!!

Pizza dough recipe found at Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan. Top as desired.
2. Bake at 375 degrees C (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Sorry it's been so long!

I know, I need to post more often. This past month has been very busy. I am now babysitting 4 kids plus my own. Jennifer is the youngest and the oldest is 2 1/2. This makes for very very busy days! I am really enjoying it, though. William likes it, too. He just loves waking up to friends in the living room playing!

I saw snowflakes this morning! Just a few, but it is still a sign that winter is almost here! I am so glad for that. I like summer and I like fall but I don't care for the transition from fall to winter. Cold and wet. I will be glad when it is cold and snowy. That is so much cleaner :-)

My Sunday school class quoted then sang John 3:16 as a special in church last night. I had no idea what a blessing that would be to me and to everyone else! It was so awesome to see those kids up there (some from unsaved homes) quoting Scripture and doing a really good job. On top of that, some of the kids' parents came to church...parents who don't come to church normally. That was an extra blessing! William and his friend, Jolena, are practicing to sing their first special in a couple weeks. They will sing and sign "Jesus Loves Me". They know the signs better than the words to the song but that's ok.. They just need a little more practice. I will try to remember to record that so I can share it with you all. It is so special and such a blessing to see little ones serving the Lord through song.

Alright, I will end this post with a few pictures from the past few weeks. If anyone has something they would like me to update more on please let me know. It is hard for me to think of things that readers would want to hear about. SO please feel free to comment with suggestions!!!

We are in the process of potty training William

Enjoying the nice fall weather last week

William, Jolena, Bianca, and Jennifer