Wednesday, December 9, 2009

My Grandma's Orange Cookies


I love my Grandma. She was a wonderful baker and always made Christmas special. In a fit of nostalgia my sister had my mother send her Grandma's recipe for Orange Cookies. No Christmas was complete for us as kids with out getting to have some of these wonderful treats.








Grandma Fern’s Orange Cookies
2 cups- white sugar
1 cup- butter, lard or Crisco
1 cup- buttermilk/sour milk
2 eggs
juice of orange (1/4 cup)
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Baking powder
4 cups of flour (enough to make a soft dough)

Put soda in buttermilk/sour milk, put baking powder in the flour

Icing
2 lbs powdered sugar, 1 stick butter melted and cooled, orange juice to make consistency to spread (juice of about 2 oranges), grated orange rind of 2 or 3 oranges

Note- to make sour milk 1 Tbsp vinegar in 1 cup of sweet milk

Bake 375 degrees for 9-10 minutes
Makes 4 dozen
I love the lack of directions. Everyone baked all the time back then. So you just knew how to make cookies. For those wanting a little more direction - Cream sugar and butter, Add egg and beat, Combined milk, oj and soda in a small bowl, Combined flour and baking powder in another small bowl, Alternately add liquid and dry ingredients to sugar, butter and eggs till soft dough forms. Chill dough for about 1 hour. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick. These are more of a soft cakey cookie. Cut out circles with a floured biscuit cutter or glass (about 2 1/2 inches each). Bake. Cool. Ice. And eat. Merry Christmas.

And the Award for Best Photographer Goes To...


I realized that I didn't give credit to our wonderful photographer.


Christy is the best! She was sooo patient working with our crazy kidlets and my ideas for photos.
This running shot is exactly like I had hoped it would be. Don't you love the energy!

Strike a Pose

Two notes at the outset.

1- Yes it's been forever since I've posted. It appears that for me Homeschooling and posting don't mix. I'll try to work on this.

2- Photo heavy post alert. For our Christmas present to the Grandparents we had our family picture taken. It had been about four years since our last family photo, and seeing as Little Miss is two (the same age Princess was in our last family photo) it was about time.

How cute are these kids? I love this photo!

Yep, that's my boys for you. Stick = sword.

I wanted to get a photo of them "sword fighting"

because this is what they are always doing.

How sweet are these two?


Ya just gotta love her smile!


I really love this pose. Check out the two bookends. Silly geese!

Together Forever!