Quick Recipe...

Just a quick one while I am back between trips. Florida was great, next Colorado.

Made these Gooey Butter Cookies for the first time for a 4th of July BBQ and they were a big hit. If you are familiar with Gooey Butter Cake (a St. Louis favorite) you will love these cookies. If you've never had Gooey Butter Cake then you are in for a real treat. Very rich and buttery. Enjoy!

Gooey Butter Cookies

(you can substitute chocolate cake mix for yellow if you want Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies)

8 ounces cream cheese (1 package)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 18.5-ounce package yellow cake mix
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Add cake mix, and stir until well blended. Roll into 1" balls and then roll the balls in the powdered sugar. Place 1 inch apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes. Remove from baking sheets to cool completely on wire racks. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Hurray for Summer!

I've been laying very low for the past few months. Getting things in order to go back to grad school in the fall and studying French for the translation test that they just don't seem to want to let me get out of, oh well.

But, on to more exciting things. Our trip to Florida is just around the corner and I can't wait. Why is packing for the trip so exciting but unpacking when you get home such a bore? I guess there's only laundry to do when you get home and no anticipation of the great trip ahead.

As for my Etsy shop, I have been doing very little there. I've closed up shop for a bit while we are away but when I reopen on July 6th I plan to continue the 40% off sale through the summer. My mind has been abuzz with new book ideas that I hope to present later in the fall, just in time for the holidays. It's amazing how, even when you want to, your creative mind just won't shut off. The ideas just keep coming.

Oh, and I also have a bunch of new recipes I want to share. Some of them are good for you but most of them are the gooey chocolatey kind. YUM!

Wishing everyone a wonderful summer and I will see you soon.

Everything 40% Off

It's official! I've decided to put everything in my Etsy shop on sale. It's a necessity to maintain my sanity.

Lots of good things have been happening lately; I'm going back to grad school, I'm in my first art exhibition this spring, and oh! and my birthday is coming up!

With all the work school and the exhibition are going to take I have decided to put book binding on hold for awhile. I definitely plan to be back though. I want to clear out my shop while I am busy with other things so I can come back after the first of the year with all new book designs. New designs are already in the works!

So have fun shopping and don't forget, it's never too early to buy for the holidays!

decklededgebindery.etsy.com

(sale does not include custom orders)

Let's Start with Something Yummy!

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I last blogged. I wish I could say it was due to a busy schedule but it is mostly due to a lack of motivation and just a hint of laziness.

So, let's start out with something fun and yummy. Way back on January 15th I hosted my book club and this Strawberry Shortcake was our dessert. It was so unbelievably easy to make that I have added it to my collection of "quick and easy" recipes. After I made it I realized it is probably more of a summer dessert but we toughed it out and ate it all anyway!

In the hope that spring and summer weather will soon be a daily happening, and not just a cruel tease every now and then, I am posting the recipe so we can all get ready for summer celebrations and outdoor parties. ENJOY!

Strawberry Shortcake
1 cup milk, divided
¼ cup sour cream
3 tbsp. sugar
2 ¼ cups dry all-purpose baking mix for biscuits (I used Bisquick)
1 pkg. (4-serving size) instant vanilla pudding and pie filling mix
1 tub (8 oz.) whipped topping (Cool Whip)
4 cups sliced strawberries 1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 425F.

Mix ½ cup milk, sour cream and 3 tbsp sugar in large bowl with wire whisk. Stir in baking mix until blended. Spread evenly into greased 9-inch round cake pan. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove and let cool completely on wire rack. Meanwhile, combine dry pudding mix and remaining ½ cup milk; blend well. Gently stir in half of whipped topping until well blended. In a separate bowl mix strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar; set aside. Slice cake in half horizontally to make two layers. Place bottom of cake on serving plate. Spread pudding mixture evenly over bottom layer (saving a large spoonful of pudding mix); evenly layer half of strawberries on pudding layer; put leftover large spoonful of pudding mixture in center of strawberry layer; place top cake layer on top, press down gently. Spread top with remaining whipped topping and top with remaining strawberries.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

See you on '09!

Are You Ready?

I've said it before, but this time I really mean it, "I'M DONE!" No, really, I'm done! Maybe if I say it often enough I'll start believing it myself.

I think I have finally placed the last online order, found and wrapped the last present, done the last of the decorating and now the only thing left to do is make dinner on Christmas.

I took the lazy way out this year. Instead of opening all the boxes in storage we decorated with the first three boxes I pulled out of the stack. It's presentable and all the ornaments on the tree are handmade so I feel like we are being homey and traditional, when really we are just being lazy.

Oh, I do need to bake but I don't consider that work since I enjoy it. Glad so many of you like the recipe in the last post. It's sooooo easy and I promise everyone will love them.

OK, show me your decorating. I need ideas for next year!

Time to Bake!

I love this time of year! Nobody questions excessive amounts of baking and massive consumption of cookies.

I'm afraid baking and cookies are two of my weaknesses. Every year I get out the sugar and baking sheets and bake like a person possessed.

I try several new recipes each year but there are always old standards. Chocolate Kiss Cookies are one of the cookies I make every year. They look like little snowballs when they are done. These cookies are so easy and just melt in your mouth, so ENJOY!



Chocolate Kiss Cookies
2 cups flour
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts, (optional, your choice, I like walnuts)
bag of Hersey's Chocolate Kisses
powdered sugar

* preheat oven to 350 F
* Mix flour, butter , sugar and vanilla until well blended.
* Mix in chopped nuts ( I use my hands, it gets them mixed in well) .
* Chill dough for 1 hour (Sometimes I cheat and don't chill the dough. Chilling makes it easier to handle though)
* Flatten about a tablespoon of dough into a pancake, place chocolate kiss in the center, roll dough around kiss so the kiss is totally covered.
* Bake 10-12 minutes until bottoms are golden brown. ( these cookies don't spread so they can be placed close together on the cookie sheet)
* Let cool completely. (Be sure cookies are totally cool or the powdered sugar will melt when you roll them and you will have goopy cookies. Believe me, I've done it)
* Roll in powdered sugar.
*Eat, eat, enjoy!

For the Holidays

Just finished a necklace for the holidays. Now I have to make excuses to wear it - every day! I love sparkly things. This one has over 200 beads, eek! I can hardly stand the sparkliness!

Yes, on top of my crafting problem I have a bead problem. Since I can't afford diamonds and sapphires I have a teensy tinsy problem laying off the beads.

I rarely make things for myself but this one's a keeper. Kind of an early Christmas gift to myself.

What nice thing have you done for yourself lately? Come on, you deserve it!

Closet Explosion

If I turn around (and I'm trying really hard not to) it looks like the closet has thrown-up all over my room. Normally my room is pretty neat but the closet has been in desperate need of a weeding out for some time now. Why I get the urge to do these things at 8:30 at night I'll never know. It would be much more convenient if the urge to clean would strike in the morning, but nooooo, I had to be a night person.

Anyway, the main reason for the clean out is to get back to work on the 35 boxes of family photos I have to organize. That's them stacked in the closet. All together, the 35 boxes, stray photos and over-sized photos, I have somewhere around 30,000 photos. They date from the 1880s to today and I can't for the life of me figure out the best way to preserve them. They can't all go in books because they'd take up every shelf in the house but I hate to leave them in boxes.

Any suggestions?!!! Please!
What do you do with your photos?

Now on to the Next Holiday

Has everyone come out of their turkey/stuffing/pie coma yet? The name Thanksgiving should be changed to The Eating Holiday. Even Christmas is not as bad as Thanksgiving when it comes to eating. It's the only time of year when eating an enormous meal and then slipping into a coma in front of the TV is an acceptable activity. Can you imagine doing that on, say, March 16th or June 5th? Your family would think you were nuts.

Now that The Eating Holiday is over my thoughts have turned to the next holiday. In our house we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. It's when St. Nicholas fills the kid's stockings with little gifts. Kind of a pre-Christmas. We wouldn't want to strain anything by jumping right into full blown Christmas.

Stocking stuffers are always a big dilemma for me. I want to find fun little things that don't break the bank but that also aren't a lot of junk that gets broken, tossed aside or lost in the first five minutes. Since I have girls Polly Pockets are a big hit in the stockings, but I think by now we own every Polly ever made. So I went online and looked around for some ideas. I ran across these lists on Craft Central Station & Graceful Kate Designs and thought they had some good ideas. They got my brain thinking in some new ways and I think I have my stocking stuffer list all ready.

By the way, when my sister and I were little a couple of things St. Nick always brought was Scotch tape and paper hole reinforcers - among other things. Don't ask me why? My family is a bit odd that way, but we loved these sticky presents and to this day I can't look at paper hole reinforcers without having happy childhood memories. See, now I'm a bit odd that way too and my husband thinks it's hilarious that we got office supplies for Christmas!

Happy
Thanksgiving!

gobble, gobble, gobble

We Gave in to the Hype

Back in October (I posted about this back then) my book club was looking for something to read that was sort of Halloweenish, so someone suggested Twilight. Not all four books, just the first one. Well, we became slightly obsessed and most of us read all four books.

Now, I will be the first to admit that these books are, by no stretch of the imagination, fine literature. They are far from it. But they were GREAT as far as pop-lit is concerned. They contained every possible plot point that would appeal to tween girls (ok, and 40 year old moms) . Beautiful damsel, hunky guy/vampire, forbidden love, evil forces trying to keep damsel and hunk apart, a conflict with another hunk/werewolf, a wedding, totally understanding parents (HA!), I could go on and on.

So, now the movie comes out and of course we need to make a night of it. There were nine of us who went. By the time the movie started the theatre was packed. The 40 year old moms may have been in the minority but boys/men were in even shorter supply. I think there were about six in our showing.

This movie made $7 million in midnight showings alone and is on track to be the second highest grossing opening weekend EVER! Hard to believe when the movie only cost $30 million to make and is not what I would classify as Academy Award winning material

Here's how the movie played out:
lights dim - screeching girls
Edward (main vampire) comes on the screen - screeching girls
Hot, longing looks from two main characters - screeching girls
shirtless, bad vampire comes on screen - screeching girls
teaser kissing scene (nothing actually happens) - screeching girls
BIG kiss - theatre explodes, girl behind us says (Yah, baby! about 400 times)
big fight scene - dead silence
good vampires prevail - screeching girls
prom scene and final kiss - theatre explodes again, and this time one of the girls sitting behind us is literally sobbing.

The movie may not have been a milestone in cinematic film making but we sure had fun and I would like to say a special thank you to all of the screeching girls who were in the theatre with us. You were part of what made it so fun.

So now we can all go home and forget about Twilight for a while. That is until the next book, New Moon, is made into a movie. Those studio execs are no fools, they saw the box-office returns for Twilight and announced yesterday that New Moon is a GO!