Grandma's Recipes Part 2

Here's the Cheddar Dollar recipe I got from my grandma over Thanksgiving. The second recipe I tried from my grandma's stash was No Roll Sugar cookies. I told my students I would bake for them for Christmas and figured these would be fairly easy and delicious. I was right...so easy and so yummy!

Grandma's No Roll Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
colored or granulated sugar (tip for making your own colored sugar is below)

Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, almond, and egg; mix well. Add flour and soda in increments. Shape by teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll balls in colored or granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies. (I used a drinking glass with a flat bottom.) Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees.

After mixing everything, roll into teaspoon sized balls, and roll in the sugar

Flatten the cookies and bake

Creating your own sugar

The store only had green sugar, probably due to Christmastime and their stash was well picked over. I knew I needed red sugar too, so I decided to make my own. All you need is sugar and food coloring.

I put some sugar in a bag, add a few drops of your desired color, close the bag, and shake until it is well blended. I did this in a few steps until I was satisfied with the brightness of the red. Note: make it brighter than you think you want it. It will fade as it dries.

Once I was happy with the color, I dumped it into a bowl and stirred it every 20-30 minutes to prevent it from clumping.

Other notes: 1) Do this the day before. 2) I actually liked how my homemade sugar stuck to the dough better than the store bought sugar.

Even experienced bakers make mistakes... 

I forgot the baking soda in the last batch I made. The cookies didn't rise, but they were still yummy. The kids still ate them, but they were smaller and tasted more like shortbread cookies than sugar cookies. OOPS!

Grandma's Recipes Part 1

Over Thanksgiving break, I was able to spend some sweet time chattin it up with my gram! She turned 91 this year, so I've been learning to treasure every moment. She would tell me stories of baking/cooking when they lived in Peru. She couldn't always get the ingredients in a recipe, so she had to improvise. A different time, and I love hearing her talk about it.

While we were talking, I asked for some of her recipes, and she got her box out to let me look through them. Here is one of the recipes I tried for Christmas presents this year. The other recipe is for No Roll Sugar Cookies. Enjoy!


Cheddar Dollars

8 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 stick of unsalted butter (room temp)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix the cheese, butter, and flour very thoroughly. It should stick together like dough. Season the dough with the salt and cayenne pepper. Roll the dough into a long sausage shape about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap the roll in aluminum foil and chill for at least 2 hours.

To bake the dollars, cut the roll into slices 1/8 of an inch thick, spread them onto a cookie sheet and put them into a 350 degree oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they turn pale gold. Never let them brown.

You can bake the whole batch and store the dollars in a tight container, or you can keep the uncooked roll in the refrigerator, slice it off as you need it and serve the dollars hot.



Making the dough

I had so many issues with this...doing the wrong thing, forgetting ingredients, etc, but by the third attempt I had it figured out. Hopefully this will help you!

As you're mixing the dough start at a slow speed to blend it together and increase the speed on your mixer to get it to a doughy substance. You don't want it crumbly. Batch 2 was crumbly and definitely still tasted a little floury.

Once you have the dough well mixed, add the salt and cayenne pepper. The cayenne can really be however much you want to make it spicy. I kept adding until I was satisfied, but my 1/4 tsp. is a good estimate.



Rolling and Baking

Roll the dough into a sausage shape 1 inch in diameter.

Wrap it in aluminum foil and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Cut it into 1/8 inch slices (or as thin as you can cut them). The thinner you cut them, the more you make.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. (The one at the bottom got a little too thin...it happens)

THEN EAT UP!! I definitely ate most of the second batch on my own faster than I would like to admit. They are delicious especially if you like cheese-its!

Here's the original that I had to go off of. LOVE old books!

This recipe caused all sorts of grief because I didn't have a lot to go off of based on the recipe my grandma gave me. I need explicit instructions when I am trying new recipes. Hopefully my better directions helped you out. Either way the recipe book was cool! Enjoy!!

Football Cookies

Being in band for almost half my life has given me the opportunity to attend MANY football games. At first, I loved it because we got to play and dance in the stands, and it's what all my friends did. It took many years for me to actually understand what was happening on the field. Now, you can find my mother and me on Saturdays yelling and screaming at the TV, while my father and brother sleep on the couch.  Thankfully this fall I actually got to go to 3 college football games [more than ever since graduation], and I got to tailgate for the first time!

Since I had the pleasure of hangalangin with some friends before the game, it gave me a fantastic reason to bake football cookies!!

I found the original recipe here, but of course made some changes. 

For the dough, you need 1 box of Devil's Food Cake, 2/3 cup of butter, and 2 eggs, then mix it all together. For the first batch, I used sugar free cake mix, and for the second batch, I used regular cake mix. The batches looked, baked and tasted very different so I took some pictures for you.

Sugar free cookie dough

To make them look like footballs, shape them into pointed little worms. (Sugar Free)

 For either batch, bake them at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes.

After I took them out of the oven (Sugar Free)

After I took them out of the oven (Non Sugar Free)

Sugar free on the left, Non sugar free on the right

To add the laces, I could have used a homemade cream cheese icing in my fancy icing bags, but it was late and that was too much work. SO...I used a plastic bag, filled it with Pillsbury Cream Cheese icing, cut the corner off, and iced away.

Final product!

Let the record show, I came home with 0 cookies. 

Chocolate Cookie Recipe: 

1 box of Devil's Food Cake Mix (sugar free or non sugar free)

2/3 cup butter 

2 eggs 

Cream Cheese frosting

Mix it all together. Roll into balls [or footballs]!

 Bake at  350 for 10-12 Mins.

Why would anyone want to be a class sponsor?

A very good question. Why would you willingly choose to do something that you knew you wouldn't get paid for (in fact, your money disappears faster), you wouldn't get many high praises, and you spend a lot of extra hours working?

When I said yes to being Class of 2015 sponsor, I was thinking, "Amy…she's organized. I can totally work with her!" :) What I didn't realize was that I was taking on a huge role. Not just in the things we have had to plan, but a huge role in the lives of my juniors.

The past few months have been the hardest and busiest months since I started working at NHS. Many things have gotten easier now that I am in year 4, but the unknowns of class sponsor business have taken their toll on me. Car washes, concession stands, tattoo sales, movie night, recycling…it's been a lot, and I don't think I realized that it would be this much.

The other thing I didn't realize is how much better I would get to know the little friends. They love to talk and share and goof off with me because they know I am a safe person with whom they can do that.  They come and hang out in my room…sometimes more often than I would like. I've done a lot of silly things with them like play "ninja" and take a million dumb pictures that might end up in the yearbook.

Even though we have a really good time, I've watched them grow in just a couple of months. The difference between the first car wash in June to movie night in November was crazy. First we've had a lot more kids get involved--YAY!. The kids that have come to everything knew exactly what needed to be done and did it. I didn't have to give them much instruction except for minor things. In June, I would tell them to do stuff, and they would be slow to get up to do it. In November, I said, "We have customers," and they jumped up to help. They're not perfect, but they're kids, and it's been fun to watch them grow and mature in a short time.

Things I've learned

• Work with someone who compliments you well. 
• Get to know the custodians. They will help when you least expect them to.
• Have tough expectations from the beginning, and the kids will rise to the occasion.
• Be willing to try new fundraisers/events that haven't been done before. I wasn't, but despite my negative attitude, Movie Night turned out far better than I could have imagined.
• Don't be afraid to ask your friends for help. They will.
• Make lots of lists…otherwise you will forget something. (Maybe that's just me, but I don't think so.)
• Kids are kids. Let them be kids, but help them grow up too.

Getting back to my question: Why would anyone want to be a class sponsor?

My answer: The kids. This probably wouldn't have been my answer a few months ago, but it definitely is now.

Answer #2: I teach a rough class. Most of my babies are low, unmotivated and hate math and school. I'm in the process of changing that attitude, but it doesn't happen overnight.  It's tough to teach them when you are trying to overcome so many obstacles. It can be frustrating. Getting to be a class sponsor forces me out of my daily teaching world and into a world where kids want to succeed, go to college, and participate in school activities. It's something that I needed to be reminded of. So, this is also a great reason to be a class sponsor. It's exhausting but so encouraging and rewarding.

If you are considering this or any other sponsor/coach position, consider your time, family, sanity, and work load. All of those things have taken a mega hit this year since I started #sponsorlife.

Answered Prayers

Confession: I am not a consistent journaler.

I wish I was. I love going back and looking at what I thought was important at that particular time in my life. It's usually kind of entertaining.

Last night, I was really convicted about the lack of time I have been spending with Christ and instead spending it with Facebook and Twitter or TV. Anything that is mindless and won't challenge me in any way. So I came home from Bible study and went directly to my journal to listen and write to the Lord and spend some time worshipping.

I ended up finding an old journal where I kept prayer requests from my junior year of college. I came across my prayers from October of 2009. They were interesting, convicting, and encouraging to say the least.

First, I prayed for where my future was headed for the next year and a half (which would have gotten me through graduation + some). It was really fun to see how the Lord led me through that time period which contained so much more than I could have ever imagined on the day those requests were written. Through that next year and a half I went through ups and downs with my parents as I decided to apply for a mission trip they didn't support, ended up on a different mission trip to El Salvador (a trip they did support), got diagnosed with diabetes, graduated, found and started my first teaching job, and was later laid off from that job. Crazy time period in my life, but the Lord's faithfulness was unimaginable.

Next, I prayed for a boyfriend/husband. That's still being prayed for.

After that, I prayed for the mission trip to Turkey that I felt the Lord calling me to. What I didn't know at the time was the Lord just wanted me to follow Him no matter where it lead, even if my parents did not support me. I followed. Ultimately though, God was leading me to El Salvador, where the strengths He had cultivated were used so much more fully.

Further down, I prayed for Him to calm my fears about teaching. I thought this was funny now that I am almost at the completed 3 years mark. There's still fears, failures, and growths...every day.

Lastly, I prayed for the continuous desire to fill my life with distractions. Clearly this is still an issue and probably will be for the rest of my life. I have this disease that prohibits me from saying no, which means my life gets busy, crazy, and sometimes unmanageable. Then, when I get home, I have no energy left for the really important things, so I mindlessly stare at the TV or computer screen. I guess this one is still being prayed for too.

I just thought it was fun to come across the Lord's great faithfulness in answered prayers.

• Sometimes the answer is no like the trip to Turkey. I was glad that was a no. El Salvador was where I was supposed to be. Not a single doubt in my mind about that. 
• Sometimes the answer is wait for God's timing. I am definitely still allowing Him to help me find contentment in the waiting. 
• And sometimes the answer is YES. He will take care of me and watch over my future because he knows the wonderful and rough things that are coming, and He is going to lead me through no matter how light or dark it may seem at the time.

Something about last night showed me how much I needed to be reminded of God's glory, perfection, omniscience, and power and to praise Him for those things DAILY.


Here's a verse that meant a lot to me during the time period in which these requests were written:

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.