Delicious & Easy Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I have been taking advantage of much needed opportunities to rest before baby's arrival, and so have been sleeping in, rather than blogging.  But, I wanted to share a delicious peanut butter cookie recipe that I made yesterday, and several times before.  They are so good and so simple...the hardest part is not eating 5 at once!  I found the recipe in my Taste of Home magazine.

Enjoy!


Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Drizzle:
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon shortening
1 package (13 ounces) miniature peanut butter cups

Directions

In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1-1/4-in. balls. Press a miniature peanut butter cup into each; reshape balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

For drizzle, in a microwave, melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and shortening; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Yield: about 3 dozen.

Hearts for Home This Week

Last week, I joined in with Cherished Hearts at Home for the weekly Hearts for Home link up, and I'm joining in again.  First of all, I was pleased to accomplish much off last weeks list.  As you see above, I made my fudge--and ate it, too! It makes so much I was able to send that plateful to my husband's coworkers to enjoy.

About three out of five days, I got an early start...at the end of the week I lost motivation and energy...for those of you who don't know, I am quite far along in pregnancy.

We went to the pumpkin patch, see the pictures here.  It was a gray day, nice and cool, and since people thought it might rain that day, it was much less crowded. We had a lovely time.

We read and snuggled on the cloudy days, particularly Laura Ingalls' Little House in the Big Woods...which has to be the best snuggling book ever.  We were inspired to make pancake men...

And, lastly, we had our Daddy Day...emailed pictures of our pumpkin patch visit, called him several times, made him some loving cards...

This week, I want to:

1. Take advantage of my "nesting" urge to organize the kitchen and kid's armoire.  We have already gone through all the children's clothes, and all our books...eliminating and decluttering.  It feels great.
2. Make mini-books with the children...they enjoy looking through them for months afterwards.  My oldest wants to make one about owls today. She keeps saying Twoowhittoohoo!
3. Really enjoy the family dynamics as they are right now, before the new baby changes things up.  I saw a comment about this by Gae (Cherished Hearts at Home), and I realized I have been wanting to hurry this pregnancy, and could make better use of it by appreciating the way things are now.
4. Spend some good time in biblestudy...again, while things are still quiet.

I'm sure there is plenty more I need to do, but that is all I can think of right now...I hope you are having a great week too!

Remember to Notice All the Good Behaviour!

Marjorie and Lettice Wormald, by Arthur Hughes

I found this poem in a book of childhood verses I have, and it struck a chord with me. I notice that there are days when my kids are playing wonderfully together for 30-45 minutes, but at the end of that time, trouble happens.  It can become a bad habit to notice the five minutes of trouble, and not praise the half-hour of kind and happy play.  This is something I have been trying to change lately. Here's the poem, from a child's point of view.

If Mother Knew

(From " In This Our World", Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

If mother knew the way I felt, 
And I 'm sure a mother should, 

She wouldn't make it quite so hard
For a person to be good!

I want to do the way she says;

I try to all day long; 

And then she just skips all the right,

And pounces on the wrong!

A dozen times I do a thing,
And one time I forget;

And then she looks at me and asks
If I can't remember yet? 

She 'll tell me to do something,
And I 'll really start to go;

But she 'll keep right on telling it
As if I didn't know. 

Till it seems as if I couldn't —
It makes me kind of wild;

And then she says she never saw
Such a disobliging child.

I go to bed all sorry,

And say my prayers, and cry,

And mean next day to be so good,
I just can't wait to try. 

And I get up next morning,
And mean to do just right;

But mother's sure to scold me
About something, before night 

I wonder if she really thinks
A child could go so far,

As to be perfect all the time
As the grown up people are 

If she only knew I tried to, 
And I 'm sure a mother should, 

She wouldn't make it quite so hard
For a person to be good!

Wordless Wednesday - Pumpkin Patch Prettiness

Hearts for Home

Today I want to join in with Gae at Cherished Hearts at Home.  Here are her words about her weekly link-up:

"In today’s busy and aggressive society mothers at home are not given much encouragement to be committed to their role in being home.

In my weekly 'Hearts for Home' post I am encouraging myself and others to commit to thinking about what 4-6 things we can do each week to bring our thoughts, prayers and actions to keeping our 'Hearts for Home'."

So my list for the remainder of the week is as follows:

1. Get started on my mornings earlier, and keep plugging along...in other words, make the most of the morning time.  I did yesterday, and everything went that much smoother!
2. Read to the children a lot this week; it's a cooler, grayer week, perfect for snuggling up with books.
3. Have a "Daddy Day"...in which we email pictures of what's going on in our day, call him more frequently, greet him with a treat or craft for him when he gets home...make him feel special and involved.
4. Get to a pumpkin patch to add to the children's pleasant fall memories.
5. Make fudge for me for the family.  :-)
6. Don't get on the computer too much!  (Which means I must go now!)

How are you keeping your hearts for home?
 

12 New Things - Flaky, Fluffy Biscuits!

Here's my September update for the 12 New Things Challenge that I joined up with. For those who haven't heard about it yet, Sarah Mae at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee started this to encourage herself and others to learn new skills. For August, I started doll quilts for my daughters.  I have now finished one of them.... 

I still have to finish the second with my older daughter, but since we are doing it together, it takes longer. Here is the link for the original 12 new things post.

And here is a link to August's post about the doll quilts. 

And now, onto September's New Thing....I decided to go with making flaky biscuits for the first time.  I used the recipe and instructions that I found here.  And it worked! They were tasty, and flaky, and fluffy.  The only thing I would change next time would be to add a bit of butter flavoring, and to keep them a little taller when I roll them.  By the way, I didn't use the food processor as the recipe states, but just hand mixed it.  We had these the first night, hot and buttered, along with beef stew.  The next morning, before we headed off to the local mountains to pick apples, we had them with an apple topping and caramel sauce I made.  Mmmm, what a breakfast!

Check back in with me next month, and I might have started or completed my next skill: A fall dress....The pattern and fabric are in the picture below. 

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to!  Visit Sarah Mae's latest 12 Things post, and everyone else linking up here.