Cookie Time

I went to the liquor store this morning.

I know. I'm a teetotaler (spelled correctly, per Wikipedia, here; I always thought it was spelled teatotaler). So what was I doing in the liquor store?

As I mentioned, recently, on one of my posts, my mother is half French and half Scottish. But, surprisingly, it is the Scottish side of her family that has, for generations, made these waffle-like cookies, and called them French cookies. One of the important ingredients is a splash of Brandy. We've tried making them without the Brandy, and they just aren't the same. 

I remember my Great Aunt Agnes making these cookies when I was little. And after we moved to Alaska, she faithfully sent a box of them through the mail to us each Christmas. By the time they arrived, they were usually all broken up, but they still tasted delicious.

When Aunt Agnes made them, she used an old, HEAVY cast iron iron that had to sit atop a stove to get hot. It only held one cookie at a time, as I recall, and she had to cook each one for awhile on one side and then turn the iron over and finish them off on the other side. When Dan and I moved back to Oregon, and my parents followed us there a few years later, Mom would borrow that heavy iron from Aunt Agnes or mom's cousin, Margaret, at Christmas time so she could carry on the French cookie tradition. 

In later years, both Mom and I discovered an electric iron that holds two cookies at a time, and makes the job so much easier. (Mom tried a couple electric irons before she found one that made the cookies thin, like we like them.) So, today I bought the Brandy, heated up the iron, and made French cookies. I'll probably take most of them to Carlsbad at Christmas, but will use some at the Cocoa & Cookie party we're hosting at our house next week.

Finished!

Yesterday we put the finishing touches on the dollhouse. Other than a big red bow and a tag that says, "Merry Christmas Clara," it's done!

This house was assembled from a kit made by Real Good Toys, of Vermont. It ended up taking two months and a week to complete. We worked on it almost every day, some days a lot, some days not so much. We really, really enjoyed assembling it. Dan even says he'd like to do another one, now that he knows more about the process. 

The most difficult and time consuming part was shingling the roofs. On all of the corners, and all of the edges around the dormers, the shingles had to be cut precisely, one at a time. Dan used a little saw for most of that, and then he ran the cut edge over a piece of sandpaper to smooth it before gluing it to the roof. In the end, I re-dyed all of those edges, to make them match the rest of the shingles.

Our first attempt at shingling was a failure. The instructions suggested using Liquid Nails, and specifically said no water-based adhesives. I bought Liquid Nails, and Dan started putting the shingles on, but it was a disaster! The shingles were curling and wouldn't stick to the roof. Finally we realized that the glue WAS water-based. Apparently Liquid Nails comes in more than one variety - whoops! We had to remove all of those original shingles and start fresh with Quick Grip glue (from Michael's), which worked well, except that it was hard to keep it from running down the steep sides of the roof. We re-used some of those first shingles, because we were worried that, because of our faux pas, we'd be short. But we weren't. We were happy with how the wooden shingles took the dye, some of them dark, others lighter. It gave the roof a nice, textured appearance.

52 in 2013 - #39 Theme of the Week: Friendship/Love

Tuesday evening the ladies of Avenue T Church of Christ got together for a Christmas party. My friend, Wynn, in this first picture, was the party organizer, and she did a great job. We had a lot of fun and laughed until our sides hurt. 

No one had to prepare food, which was a nice break for us all. Instead we just pitched in $5 each, and Wynn picked up deli sandwich trays from Subway. 

We sang some Christmas carols, did a goofy Twelve Days of Christmas production, had a fun ornament exchange, and cheered on a couple teams of women who competed in a snowwoman building contest. We agreed that both teams were winners:

I took a group photo at the end, and then Wynn took a second one with me in it. Later, at home, I used my Photoshop magic to combine the two shots into one with both of us in it (don't examine it too closely!).

Look What Came to My Door

I had just taken a pain pill, and was watching Dan put the final shingle on the dollhouse, when the doorbell rang. Oh . . . the pain pill was because I had oral surgery this morning to do the tooth implant in my lower jaw (see previous post here).

When I answered the door, there was a delivery man with this vase of flowers. I was puzzled, and looked at Dan, who shook his head and said he hadn't sent them. Upon opening the little card, I was flabbergasted  to learn that the flowers came from my dentist and my oral surgeon. The note read: "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to care for you. With best wishes from Dr. Crowson & Dr. Leland."

What a thoughtful thing for them to do! I realize that the cost of this procedure is high, and that they can well afford to send flowers. But the fact that they choose to do such a kind thing for their patients really impresses me and makes me glad to be in their care.