Poor things - I know there's not much to eat out in that dried up garden!

Then about lunch time I see they are back in the neighbor's yard trying to find some lunch. I'm ready to make them some sandwiches and take them outside. Do you think deer like peanut butter and jelly? That's about all I have because I have to go grocery shopping tonight.

Now I'm trying to photograph all this at a distance. Hoo Boy - this looks pretty bad! You can't tell, but there's like about 6 deer out there. Another neighbor we have keeps a deer feeder, but I'm guessing it needs to be refilled.  The deer are running through our back orchard all the time. Each time I see them though I get excited. It doesn't get old. They're so much bigger up close then you expect them to be (some of you know because they've jumped out in front of your vehicle)!

So if you're feeling bad today, be happy you're not a deer looking for lunch!

One of my favorites - you're learning without knowing it! BONUS! (plus, how flipping cute is this video? I want to move to this happy land).

From Gabby's childhood . . .

Okay - Keep warm!

Ingredients

* 1 3/4 cups cake flour
* 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
* 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
* 1/2 tsp. baking soda
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 3 large eggs
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* 1 cup milk
* 1 1/2 cups vanilla frosting
* Shredded coconut (optional)
* 2 black licorice drops
* 1 large orange gumdrop
* Red shoestring licorice
* Red fruit leather
* 3 starlight mints
* 3 small gumdrops
* 2 sticks chocolate licorice

*Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two ovenproof glass bowls, one slightly larger than the other. (Note: For our cake, we used one bowl with a 1-liter capacity and 6-inch diameter and the other with a 1 1/2-liter capacity and 7-inch diameter.)

*To make the cake, mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Sift the ingredients onto waxed paper and return to the bowl.

*In a separate bowl, blend the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.

*Alternately, add the flour mixture and the milk to the batter in thirds, combining well after each addition. Fill the bowls about two thirds full. Bake the smaller cake for about 50 minutes and the larger cake for about 65 minutes.

*When done, the surface will spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. Cool in the bowls for 10 minutes. Then invert onto a large, rectangular platter (about 17 by 12 inches) so the cakes resemble a snowman. Cool completely.

*Ice the cakes with the vanilla frosting, then sprinkle with shredded coconut, if desired. Add licorice drop eyes, insert an orange gumdrop nose and fashion a broad smile with shoestring licorice.

*For the scarf, cut two 2-inch-wide strips of fruit leather, notch the ends and wrap around the neck of the snowman. For the buttons, use starlight mints topped with gumdrops. Finish off the snowman with two chocolate licorice arms. Serves 10 to 12.

You've heard of bats in your belfry right? Well have you heard of chickens in your laundry room? Well, that's what I have right now, and let me tell you I'm getting pretty tired of it! I told you that we had hens sitting on eggs and that one batch of eggs hatched - well that was exciting and everything - then we had a couple more eggs hatch but the hen wasn't taking care of the chicks and we lost some chicks. It was very stressful! It was really too cold for the hens to be hatching chicks - plus the cold forced all the chickens to be literally "cooped up" together and I think that was also a factor in losing a couple of the chicks. After  losing a couple chicks we finally went out and gathered up all the eggs that the hens were setting on, as well as the chicks, and brought them into the laundry room. We candled the eggs and put the ones we thought were fertile under a heat lamp. I know you're supposed to have an incubator but I was just going to try it the old fashioned way and if they didn't hatch, well, they didn't hatch.  Lo, and behold we've had eggs hatch in our primitive little set up!

And now, I am ready for the chicks to go back out to the coop.  They are cute when they're little, but then they start to go through that ugly stage and they start to smell pretty bad. It's also been a task to have to keep an eye on the eggs - they have to be turned three times a day. Luckily, the due date for the eggs has passed and the ones that didn't hatch are gone! It was pretty miraculous to watch a chick peck it's way out of an egg shell, I have to say, but next time any eggs hatch around here I want it to be during warm weather where the mama hen can raise her own babies. I've most certainly learned a lot from this experience!

We've ended up with seven chicks and right now they are in all stages of growth. The two largest ones are funny - one of them is a rooster (sigh) and he's already jumping up on the tops of the boxes and gates that we have him in. He looks so cute and funny perched there, trying to be all impressive and tough. The other ones are still too little to tell what they are. The smallest one was hatched on January 2nd. We thought he was going to die. Seriously, his little head just flopped around and when you put him down he would roll over and go "belly up". When I went to bed that night, I was sure that I would wake up and he would be dead.  Nathaniel had put a little crucifix next to the chicks - it has a Saint Benedict's medal in it, and in the morning the chick was up and looking like he could take on the world. It was astounding. We decided that we should name the little guy "Benechick,"  (yes, we are pretty crazy around here if you hadn't already surmised that).

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1 tablespoon canola oil
* 1-1/2 cups water
* 1 can (10-1/2 ounces) condensed beef consomme, undiluted
* 1/2 cup sherry or reduced-sodium beef broth
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
* 2 medium carrots, chopped

* 1 large potato, peeled and chopped

Directions

* Place flour in a large resealable plastic bag; add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat.
* In a large saucepan coated with cooking spray, cook beef and onion in oil over medium-high heat until beef is browned on all sides. Stir in the water, consomme, sherry or broth, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.
* Stir in the carrots,  potato, and whatever other veggies you want to add.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until meat and vegetables are tender.

*Feel free to add whatever veggies your family likes - corn, peas, turnips - every time I make stew it's different!

Click on image to download.

Ingredients
* 1/4 cup baking cocoa
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 cup boiling water
* Dash ground cloves or nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3 cups milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* Whipped cream
* Whole cinnamon sticks

Directions
* Combine cocoa and sugar in small saucepan; stir in water. Bring to boil; reduce heat and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
* Add cloves, cinnamon and milk. Simmer 5 minutes (do not boil). Whisk in vanilla. Pour hot chocolate into mugs; top with whipped cream. Use cinnamon sticks for stirrers - mix will settle to the bottom if not stirred before drinking.

Stay Warm!

I usually make them for Christmas. They're good, but they never taste as good to me as my grandma's did. I guess it was that little pinch of love she put in or something that made them taste extra special good.  You should try to make them for your family this Christmas and see what they think of them.  You can decorate them if you like, we've just always eaten them plain, but they look a lot like gingerbread so you could cut them into fancy shapes and frost them or sprinkle them with sugar - whatever makes you happy!

My grandma's recipe was pretty brief. She left off incidentals like temperature of the oven and how long to bake them,  I mean, hello! If you know what you're doing in the kitchen you don't need information like that! For the rest of us, we've just had to experiment to see what works.  When you make them, don't forget to put in that extra pinch of love!

Grandma Peterson’s Molasses Cookies

·1 Cup Sugar
·4 Cups Flour
·1 Cup Molasses
·1 Teaspoon Ginger
·1 Cup Shortening
·1 1/2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
·1 Cup cold Coffee
·1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
·1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Mix together wet ingredients in large bowl (this is very messy), until well blended.  Add dry ingredients, dough will be pretty wet.

I put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to help the dough firm up a little.  When you go to roll it out, you may need to work a little flour into the dough so that you can work with it better.

Roll out dough onto floured surface until about 1/2 inch thick and cut into shapes, cook in a 350 degree oven for about 8 minutes

This one hen has been sitting - obviously for about 21 days! - and I had calculated that from when she started sitting, the eggs should hatch sometime around the first of December. She did a really great job sitting, but you just never know how these things are going to work out. The chickens we have now we bought from a hatchery so I wasn't sure how doing it the old fashioned way was all going to play out.

Last night when my nephew and I went out to feed them and shut them in the coop for the night, I saw that the hen was sitting on the floor and not in the little "box" that she's been in. Nathaniel said he heard some "peeping" so we tried to lift up her wing and she wasn't too happy about it, but we saw that she had two baby chicks underneath! One little yellow one and one little dark colored one.  We have chickens that are reddish/golden and some that are black and white speckled. I figured she was sitting on some of the other hens eggs, so seeing the different colored one proved that theory.

Halfway through her "sitting" period, the old roost where the chickens have been laying their eggs sort of started to lean, and it looked like it was going to collapse. I got freaked out because I didn't want the thing to fall down and crush all the eggs that this poor hen had been working so hard to hatch. My brother came by that night and used his handyman magic to fix the roost and make it sturdy again. The little red hen didn't move while he was doing this work. I was amazed by that. She's such a good mom! He said when he was working, he slipped his hand under her to feel the eggs and he thought there was a handful underneath.  He and my dad were warning me that she might be setting on eggs that weren't good, I guess they were trying to warn me not to get my hopes up. We do have three roosters though, who are quite diligent in their job, so I felt pretty confident on that end of things.

Anyway, I came back to the house to tell Gabby and call my parents to tell them the good news. Gabby got the camera and we went back out to try to get a photo of the little cuties. I put on my gloves and gently lifted the hen completely off the ground. She didn't seem to mind, I think she could sense that we weren't there to hurt her or her chicks, plus I think she's pretty proud of her little babies. When I lifted her up, I was suprised to see there were FOUR little chicks underneath her! They are so incredibly tiny and so CUTE! Think about how big an egg is, and that's about how big these little guys are. I know they grow really quickly, so I was glad we got this photo. We didn't want to take too many and bother them. Plus, it's COLD outside and I didn't want them to catch a little chill!

This morning I went out to let the chickens out and when I went in to check on the little red hen, she was still setting in the same place, then I saw a little chick face peek out over her fluffy wing - two little eyes were curiously looking around, wondering what was going on in the big world. Then another little head poked out - it just made me laugh to see their bright little eyes. Welcome to the world little chicks! Now stay close to your mom so you don't get cold!

I think these decorations look great plain - they have that "rustic" feel, or you could decorate them to the hilt with glitter and paint, or use royal icing to make them look like storybook gingerbread decorations. Here is the basic recipe, and I've included a royal icing recipe - it dries hard and will last!

CINNAMON DOUGH ORNAMENTS

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon
* 1 cup applesauce
* 1/4 cup white school glue (like Elmer's)
* Plastic wrap
* Rolling pin
* Wax paper
* Cookie cutters or a knife
* Ribbon or yarn for hanging
* Straw

1. Mix cinnamon, applesauce, and glue together in a bowl. The dough should be as thick as cookie dough. Add a bit of water if the dough is too stiff.
2. Remove from bowl and knead until everything is mixed together well. Return dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about 30 minutes.
3. Knead again to make sure the dough is smooth. Flatten or roll the dough between waxed paper until it's roughly 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick.
4. With a cookie cutter, cut out desired shapes. Use a straw to punch a hole for the ribbon.
5. Carefully transfer the cookies to a piece of wax paper. They will take a couple of days to dry. You can speed up the drying by setting the ornaments in a 200 - 250 degree oven until dry. Just keep a close eye and don't let them burn!

ROYAL ICING

* 3 ounces egg whites (or 3 Tbsp. meringue powder plus 6 Tbsp. water)
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 4 cups powdered sugar

1. In large bowl the egg whites (or meringue powder and water) and vanilla and beat until frothy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny.
3. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired.
4. Transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty ziploc bag and pipe as desired.

Here's a wreath that you could make - just use hot glue!

Or a nice garland - add oranges, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves for a "scentsational" decoration

Here's one of those "gifts in jar" that are really popular around Christmas - I think it would be adorable to tie one of these cinnamon decorations to the lid as a gift tag.

I also saw this photo, now I'm not crazy about the actual arrangement, but it gave me the idea that you could use these cinnamon ornaments in a flower or plant arrangement - hot glue the ornament to a stake and insert.  This photo is cute because you could make a small arrangement in a large measuring cup, add some measuring spoons and maybe a hot pad, and a recipe for apple cinnamon crisp and VOILA - adorable gift for a neighbor! (Don't forget to add your cinnamon decoration gift tag!)

Lastly, don't forget the glitter, which really, makes everything much better. If you come up with some more ideas on how to use these, I'd love to hear them!