Little Pick me Up!

Been sort of depressed lately, and needed a little mood booster. With that said, when I'm feeling down I watch this. Enjoy! And with that, the Merriest of Christmases to you!

Cookie Monday!

Monday is Cookie Day here in Hagen-land. In lieu of this, I have been tweaking my classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, and testing them out on my "food critic" (yeah right!) Husband.

I have finally perfected my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, and I would love to share it with my lovely readers! Here goes!

2 1/4 All Purpose Flour 

1 tea. Baking Soda

1 tea. Salt

1/2 tea.  Ground Nutmeg (thats right suckas!)

1/2 tea. Ground Cinnamon

1 Cup Shortening

1 Cup Butter - Softened

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar - Packed

1 1/2 tea. Vanilla

2 eggs

12 oz. Baking Chips ( I like Ghiradelli 60% Cacao, but any Semi-Sweet Chips works)

Cream together the shortening, butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla.   In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add one egg at a time to the sugar mixture, and mix well. Slowly add the dry mixture to the batter, about 1/4 cup at a time, making sure it is blending well. After all the dry mixture has been combined, add the chocolate chips.

Refrigerate 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375. While oven is heating, make 1/2 in. balls of the dough, and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. The cookies should look pale in the middle, but lightly browned on the edges and bottom. Let cool for 5 min. on the cookie sheet, then place on a rack to complete cooling.

Now stack them up on your counter top and take pictures of them err ... umm I mean ... eat 3 or 4 with a nice glass of milk. So tasty!

Hello Christmas!

So, after mourning my loss of Thanksgiving for a few days, I picked myself up by the boot straps (okay, a little dramatic) and dug out the Christmas decorations.  I must admit, I feel way better!

Shaul's sis Tiffany lent us her tree this year, and I managed to scrounge up enough stuff to call it decorated. I must say that I'm freaking awesome because it only cost us $6 to decorate this tree! Everything else I made, or stripped from something else I bought ages ago (note the strands of Capice Shells - They were snipped of one of those tacky curtain rods you hang in your doorway!)

The garland I dug out of my Mom's trash last year, and the yarn hanging from it I bought last year at Unique Thrift Store in Aurora, and re-dyed it. Since its not the softest yarn, I had no plans with it, so for now it looks great with the garland! I love decorating with yarn! :) (Sorry about the cluttered kitchen shot, not my proudest moment!)

Finally, the paper trees are something I made the other day while Shaul was working and The Honey-Facer was napping. Not at all how I planned them, but I'm still relatively pleased. I don't even know what that means, I just really feel its like something grown-ups say.

Later!

I heart Thanksgiving!

Oh why is it over! 

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Shaul's family and our friends Jesse and Renee. So fun and especially tasty! (Note the pumpkin pie ... made with a real pumpkin!) Friday we headed up to the family cabin for the weekend, where Harpsicle had his first sledding experience. 

Oh Thanksgiving please come back!