Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy 40th birthday, that is.

And to all you 39-year-olds who are in the shoes I wore yesterday and nearly every day since my birthday last year, the "I can hardly bear that I have to be 40 on my next birthday" shoes, well,

I'm happy to say that being 40 is absolutely lovely.

In fact, this may have been my best birthday ever. My day was filled with my family, my friends, delicious birthday treats, delightful presents, and the creation of happy, happy memories .

What blessings! What a joyful day!

And what a blessing to be 40, to be old enough to take last year's shoes off and fling them far behind me, to get to see that by turning 40 I have all the happiness I had before plus all of today's happiness too. A longer life with more happiness than before, that's what I have today. It's better. And because I just went through it I don't merely think so, I know so.

What a surprising and wonderful thing to learn! Now that I'm forty I really am old enough to know better.

The Joy of Marriage

I promise that the chocolate raspberry torte tutorial is coming soon! Right now, though, I am elbow deep in paper preparing folders for our church's marriage preparation program. This is a ministry I really like participating in, because the engaged couples bring so much joy and anticipation with them to each session. Also, because the program gives me a chance to reflect on my own marriage and how much joy the vocation of marriage brings to me. I feel so profoundly blessed to have been called to the married state and to motherhood and I love to have the opportunity to share with engaged couples about the wonderful blessing marriage is.

Talking about marriage, looking over our wedding photos, reminiscing about our wedding and dreaming about what the future of our marriage may hold, these are some of the activities of the week for my DH and me. We had a beautiful visit this weekend with the dear priest who performed our wedding ceremony. He is my uncle and very special to us both. He is also gravely ill, so I ask any one reading this blog today to join me in saying a prayer for him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all safe trips if you are travelling, delicious feasts when you are feasting, and many many hands to help with the dishes if you are cooking!

Chocolate Raspberry Cake-Part One

Tonight we're having a dessert pot-luck for the parents in my younger son's class. Our contribution is a chocolate raspberry torte from my all-time hands-down favorite cookbook, Cold Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase. Our other contribution is a clean, welcoming house to host the party. Now, the party starts in 2 hours and we still need to dust and clean a few bathrooms, so I'll teach you all how to make the cake tomorrow.

I'd like to say I've been cleaning all day, but that wouldn't be true. I've been grocery shopping and running kids around to lessons and other places. Instead, I'm happy to announce-(all right, I guess I need to use a more honest verb) I'm happy to brag-that my husband has been cleaning all day. Maybe I could take to calling hime Mr. Clean? Our house is pretty sparkly right now. Talk about a blessing!

And (bonus!) I guess since I'm married to him I get to be Mrs. Clean, without so much as lifting a dustpan!

TGIF

Friday night's here! That's what I'm grateful for right now. A loooong week, many night meetings, kids waking up in the middle of the night, an unexpected trip to the doctor for (blessedly) minor injury, glow bowling today with the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades (this involves music, disco balls, black lights, bowling and pizza all amalgamated into in one dizzying tween fiesta), all capped off with a Cub Scout pack meeting tonight. Whew! Just typing it makes me tired.

(And, truth be told, very, very grateful for this young and energetic crowd I run around with) : )

Rainy Day Blessing

Morning started out with the sky blue, the ground wet, the air warm and damp. It kind of tricked me into doubting the weather forecast which predicted wild rain. By the time my Thursday morning mothers' rosary group had gathered though, the clouds rolled in and darkened the sky. Rain began to pour down and it lasted all afternoon.

Normally I only like sunny mild days, but every fall I find myself happy for "November weather" if I have nowhere I have to go and if the weather has been pretty nice for a while. A grey stormy day, a pot of carrot orange soup on the stove for lunch, friends visiting and drinking coffee, what could be nicer? Well, I've got the answer to that one! For me, it was my children home after school, my littlest one napping on the couch next to me and the chance to watch a movie with the 3 older ones that didn't feature princesses, an explorer and her monkey, or a ballerina mouse. Yup, we watched Open Season and it was goofy, boy-pleasing fun all around. The chance to do something so cozy and simple with just my "bigs", something that had us all laughing out loud, has filled my grateful heart right to the brim with joy.

Orange You Sweet!

I have to admit, I love to bake. I don't love for my family to eat too many sweets though, so it's a balancing act. I'll bake if company is coming, for holidays, for birthdays, and for school celebrations. I bake bread several times a week. Sweets just for us are not that common, but I think we probably end up having them once or twice a month. And... today was one of those baking days!

The last time I went to the market the grocery cart sported a little picture of some yummy looking pale cream colored frosted cookies on an ad for Land O'Lakes butter. It said something about holiday baking, but not, oddly enough, the cookie's name. Since I love love love the internet, I went happily to their web site and with a little sleuthing found Lemon Meltaways. Uh oh, one of my daughters can't abide lemon.

I pondered a few substitutes. No flavor? Too bland, I feared. Maple? Well, the same daughter only likes maple syrup, not anything flavored maple. Molasses? Ginger? No, I wanted something brighter. How about orange? As in the oranges in the fridge?

Well, that sounded just right.

Here's what I came up with.
Frosted Orange Snowdrops!
(I'm naming them that because the frosting looks like a little snow peak swirled atop the cookie).
Adapted from the Land O'Lakes recipe web site.

First I got out my ingredients.


1 1/4 c, flour
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 c corn starch
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 T orange juice

Then, I made the dough. Everything went into the bowl of my KitchenAid mixer and I mixed it until a smooth, pliable dough
formed.

(And meanwhile, I emptied the dishwasher. When the dishes were away, the dough was done. See? It doesn't take forever to empty it like everyone here in my house thinks it does! : ))

Then, I formed the dough into 2 logs, each about 8"x1" and set them in the fridge to cool for about 1/2 an hour.



I preheated the oven and when it was ready I sliced the dough into 48 cookies. They were a little more square than I hoped, but they rounded out a bit in the oven.

Next, the baking. Following Land O Lakes' instructions I baked them for 10 minutes in the 350 degree F oven. When they were done, they were not brown, but were set.


After they cooled, I frosted them with this snowy icing: 3/4 c powdered sugar, 1/2 stick of butter, 1 T orange juice, all mixed in the Kitchen Aid mixer until smooth and creamy.

But, they looked kind of pale.
Tasty, but boring.
So, I sprinkled a little cinnamon and a tiny bit of grated orange zest over them, and voila! These are beautiful autumn cookies!

And, everyone really loved them.

So, I'm grateful I had such a happy afternoon baking and I'm looking forward to the blessing of an autumn evening tea and cookie dessert with my husband and kids. And I feel even more blessed if just one of you readers makes up your own batch of Frosted Orange Snowdrops to enjoy with some tea. (I bet cocoa would be great too!)