Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookie Recipe

I've kept myself quite busy today!  Ran errands, stopped at a garage sale (will share those treasures tomorrow), been doing laundry and made some cookies:



Here's the recipe:

CHOCOLATE ORANGE SHORTBREAD COOKIES

1 pound salted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
grated rind of 1 medium orange
4 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
1 bag mini Chocolate chips.

Mix butter & powdered sugar together.  Add vanilla & orange rind.  Add cocoa powder.  Add flour 1 cup at a time.  Add mini chips.  Mix well.

Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet (I use Parchment Paper on my baking sheets).  Press with a glass dipped in sugar.  Add pretty sprinkles.  Press again with glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until done. 

Heaven help me!  These just melt in your mouth!

In other news, I've been stitching on a few small Crazy Quilt blocks.  These 2 are ready for sewing together:



And this is what I'm stitching on now:



These will be 6 inch ornaments. 

Finally for today, I thought I'd share my mom's latest projects with you:







These are crayon tinted, embroidered and beaded! 

Tomorrow we have a nice Flea Market to go to.  Oh, how I love my flea markets!  Scott & I will pick mom up around 8 am and we'll head up there in hopes of finding some nice vintage treasures. 

See ya tomorrow!

Busy Day

I didn't intend for it to be that way.  It just sort of happened.  I woke up and decided that making cookies would be fun!  And it was!  I was only going to do Cherry Almond Shortbread with Chocolate Chips but once that was done mixing and in the oven, my Kitchenaid was still screaming at me!  So I made a batch of Coconut Shortbread.  Whoa!  These are quite yummy!  I just got back from taking some to my neighbor to thank him for shoveling my driveway for me:



My house still smells good!

I then spent some time photographing our latest creations:



I finished this up yesterday.  I am absolutely planning on making one for myself.  And I think I know what the theme will be!  HINT:  I just ordered the Marie Antoinette magazine from Somerset Studio this morning!  Oh, and the movie is so incredibly beautiful!  I'm so glad I bought that!

Anyway, another of my latest creations are these little Feather Tags:



Aren't they pretty?  I usually do paper craft things when I'm at mom's.  She has the most awesome workspace down in her basement!  I'll have to get a photo of our craft space next time I'm there.

Anyway, mom made these pretty tags:



I'm so impressed with these.  Mom recycled some package material that she received with something she ordered.  It's some really neat stuff and mom saved it for crafts.  My mother has always been into the "Green" thing.  That's where I learned it from!

Well, I'm out of steam for now.  I have a couple little packages to put together for shipping and then I'm off to stitch on this some more:



I expect to finish this up tonight or tomorrow.  I may take another little break before starting Block #7.  We'll see what I do.

Have a great evening everyone!

QUICK EDIT:   I wanted to mention Sheila's blog.  She stitched up my "January" Biscornu of the Month.  I wanted you to see the stitched piece as well as Sheila's stitching which is quite lovely!

Cookies For The Retirement Center

Yesterday, mom & I took Chooch, the therapy dog, over to the retirement center:



Mom adopted Chooch when she was about 2 years old. Mom's previous dog, Benjamin, who was also a therapy dog had passed away. Once mom had Chooch, mom trained her and had her certified as a therapy dog. Chooch just turned 10 years old 2 weeks ago.

Chooch is the sweetest, most lovely and gentle dog you would ever want to meet. So every other week, mom and I take Chooch over to the retirement center where Chooch is so loved and adored by the residents.

For each holiday, mom and I bake cookies and make up little cookie bags to give to the residents. We each make 3 different kinds for a total of 6:



Here is our basket of cookie bags:



And finally, we make little tags for them, with glitter (of course!):



We don't get too carried away with the tags. Just something to make the bags look pretty. It's really nice to give a bit of holiday sunshine to the residents. Some have little or no family. Some are a bit withdrawn or not totally on the planet (I know that feeling!) and some are just plain lonely. But they see Chooch and we had them a bag of cookies, and they smile.

I just got home from WalMart. I usually go on Friday but decided to do it today instead. I may be crazy but I'm not that crazy! I have a few dishes to wash up and then I'll head over to mom's. I promised I'd help make her Molasses Raisin Muffins for Thanksgiving. My mom is visually impaired so I promised I would watch the oven for her so they don't burn. These muffins are incredibly good so I'm going to see if mom will share her recipe with me and then I'll share it here. It'll be later this week.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'll be making Applesauce with Cranberries tomorrow to take to mom's on Thursday. I'm hearing news that I've started an "applesauce making trend"! Baking it in the oven is really the way to go! Anyway, so I've never made applesauce with cranberries before. I'll let you know how it turns out!

I'm wanting to do some stitching but I have trouble sitting still. I seem to need to move around. Then, by 5 pm, I'm exhausted and need to go to bed. Once I get comfy cozy in my bed, restless leg syndrome sets in! That'll drive a person nuts! It's caused by the medication. If anyone has suggestion for me to get rid of it, I'm open to them! I usually have to get up and walk around for awhile. And I do take a bath before I go to bed which is supposed help and was helping until the last dosage increase.

Anyway, speaking of laying on the bed, thought you would enjoy seeing this photo of my Simba:



He pushes my stitched pillow/cushion out of his way and curls up with my teddy bear. I could love to be a cat in my next life and live with someone like me!