Day 59: Give Homemade Presents

The day before we left to Arizona my boys and I made some homemade cinnamon ornaments to bring to Arizona to give as gifts this year. It was a simple recipe and they turned out so cute and smell just wonderful. My boys love helping me bake and this was just like making cookies, except there were no beaters to lick afterwards :) After mixing the dough you roll it out just like sugar cookies and my boys had fun choosing what shapes to make and cutting them out! When we got home yesterday from our trip our oldest son Keston was able to deliver some of the ornaments we made to our neighbors too to share a little Holiday love for our Good Human Act. Here is a recipe we based our ornaments off of, and our adjustments, from McCormick 

Cinnamon Ornaments

Makes 12 to 15 ornaments.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 2 1/2 hours or 1 to 2 days drying time

3/4 cup applesauce (we used 1 cup)
1 bottle (4.12 ounces) Cinnamon (we used 1 cup, plus a little more) 

(we added some nutmeg, some ground cloves and a few drops of doTERRA's Holiday Joy Oil too)

Supplies needed:Cookie cutters
Drinking straw
Colorful ribbon

Rolling Pin

1. Preheat oven to 200°F. Mix applesauce and cinnamon in small bowl until a smooth ball of dough is formed. (You may need use your hands to incorporate all of the cinnamon.) Using about 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll dough to 1/4-inch to 1/3-inch thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap. Peel off top sheet of plastic wrap. (We just sprinkled a little cinnamon on the counter and rolled out the whole ball of dough without plastic wrap) Cut dough into desired shapes with 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters. Make a hole at top of ornament with drinking straw or skewer. Place ornaments on baking sheet. 

2. Bake 2 1/2 hours. (Our oven cooks hot so we cooked for 2 hours at 175 degrees) Cool ornaments on wire rack. (Or, to dry ornaments at room temperature, carefully place them on wire rack. Let stand 1 to 2 days or until thoroughly dry, turning occasionally.)


3. Insert ribbon through holes and tie to hang. Decorate with opaque paint markers, found in arts and crafts stores, if desired.

Our Cinnamon Ornaments

Day 20: Bake for a Cause

 I can't believe it has already been 20 days! That has absolutely flown by! For today's Good Human Act, I baked, which is a little rough on me since I just started a 100 day training program to prep for a Spartan Race in February. But I did good and only ate 1 mini muffin so I could stay on track :) It is always nice to have someone to give some treats away to after you bake, so they are not all sitting around the house begging you to eat them. Anyway, a very nice lady I know  has a sick mother and her mom's place of work is having a Craft/Bake Sale starting tomorrow and going through the weekend. Her work is donating a percentage of all profits from the sale to her, they are having a raffle where 100% of the profits will go to her and anything her daughter brings to sell she also gets to keep all of the profits. So, I baked some Pumpkin Stuesel Muffins for her to sell and help her mom out. I used a recipe from my sister's Aunt in Law for pumpkin bread and changed it to muffins and added a struesel topping, turned out really good so I will share the recipe.

Pumpkin Steusel Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin tins with paper liners. (I also made 12 mini muffins with the batter.)

Sift Together:

• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 11/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves

Add to that:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
• 2/3 cups vegetable oil
• 2/3 cups water

Put batter in prepared pan. Top with Streusel Topping. Recipe Follows.

Streusel Topping:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup uncooked oats
• 4 tablespoons melted butter

Mix ingredients with a fork until combined. Sprinkle a bit onto each uncooked muffin.

Cook for approximately 20-25 minutes until tooth pick comes out clean.  Let cool 5 minutes. Remove from pans.

Day 7: Make a New Friend

Sometimes as we get older it seems it is harder to make new friends. It is comfortable to just hang with family or with people we have known for ages. But think of how many amazing people we are missing out on getting to know. How much we could grow as people with what others have to offer us. How much better the world could be if everyone was a little bit friendlier. I find it really difficult to put myself out there and meet new people, I would definitely not say I am shy, just very guarded, I guess. So for today,  I am taking a lesson from my kindergarten son who loves meeting new people and playing with new friends.

My son can't stop talking about a few of his friends from school, and at a recent family parade and potluck his school had I was able to meet a couple of the mom's of those kids. They were so easy to talk to and seemed just as excited as I was to meet the mom's of their kids playmates. So, this week all our kids have off for Fall Break and it just seemed natural to have them over for a playdate. It went fantastic! The kids and their siblings had a wonderful time and in 3 hours, with 9 kids, there was not one fight or tantrum (a couple accidental owies :), but nothing that a brownie couldn't quickly fix). My boys loved having them over and I thoroughly enjoyed talking and getting to know 2 new, what I hope to call, friends. We can't wait to do another playdate!!

As another side act we had some extra brownies, since I made 2 batches, so my big boys ran some over to our older next door neighbors! They loved doing a "special delivery". And the brownie recipe is so delicious and easy I will post it!

Simplest Homemade Fudgy Brownies

recipe from GoodLifeEats

Ingredients:

12 tablespoons Salted Butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 - 1 teaspoon pure vanilla, orange, or peppermint extract, optional

3 large eggs

1 cup flour

A heaping 1/2 cup chocolate chunks, optional 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8 or 9x9 square baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Set a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat and melt the butter. Next, add the granulated sugar and your choice extract. Stir well. Remove pan from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl and whisk in with the eggs until well combined. Stir in the flour and chocolate chunks, but do not beat.

Pour batter into the previously prepared baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes. Cool completely, on a wire rack.

Remove parchment paper (with brownies) from the pan. Peel away the parchment paper and cut the brownies into serving size pieces and store in an airtight container.