Grade4 Social Studies Project, Mom Assistance Required.

OK I was sitting here wondering oh wondering what you'd like to read, or what I'd like to post so here it is... ShortBreads.
AJ's School project this month was assigned with a preview in December. They asked them to include a recipe that reflected our ancestral back ground. A food that is used during holidays or special events. Christmas is a special even. They didn't have to send the food, but my boy AJ? he loves to bake with me, and show off his baking skills. He listens the most and has the most interest in doing it the way I would.  The others? they like to "improvise" or suggest other ways of doing it.

(sorry it's kind of blurry, imagine you ate it already)

This recipe comes from my Mom's Christmas cooking book (read:scribbler full of hand written recipes that she's narrated over the phone to me various times). I have this one written on the back of an envelope, that a friend Lauren sent me in 2001 for Christmas. We met as a Baby group. Our Babies? AJ and her J are now 8! so we continue to email, and get Christmas cards YAY!! and compete in the ever popular game of Lexulous on FB (I know it's a huge tangent but I do that)
The envelope is very loved, and full of splotches of fat from the butter, or even dried on Shortbread splatter, but it's perfect. I keep it inside my Christmas cook book that I also love and use the most for the holidays.
So with out further a due <---- really does it spell like that?)
"The envelope please...:
1lb of Butter (2 cups, or 454g) ah I know you are sooooooo impressed right?)
1tsp of vanilla*

1 Cup of icing sugar (confectioners sugar/powdered sugar, it all depends where you live what you call it)
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 Cup of cornstarch, (I know? who knew that those boxes with the rooster had more then 1cup in them, but they do.)
2inches of salt.
<--uncooked on tray
ok get out your huge mixer, yep the more power the better (insert toolman argh argh argh here, it's power tools for in home bakers)
Cream together the Butter, as fluffy as you can make it, keep it going... yep fluffy, creamy, whip it... whip it good..oops tangent
Then the vanilla, the 1 cup of icing sugar, keep whipping.
Now put that baby on FULL speed whip, put in the mixture of salt, cornstarch and flour about 1/2 cup at a time. Wipe down your shirt it's probablly full of flour if you put the mix in while the beaters are still spinning. when you get to about the last cup of flour mix? make sure the sides of the bowl are scraped down and everything is together, and add in the rest, wait wait wait, yep it looks like either good or crumbly, if it's gooey? you are about done, and then 1TBSP at a time-ish roll all the dough into balls. Our last batch made 57cookies. I think someone may have rolled them a bit bigger  in hopes he could get the bigger cookies for himself? maybe. Bake these at 350 for 20-25minutes. They will look done at about 18minutes and you can take them out but they will crumble. Keep watching. I suspect it's a "feel" thing. I wonder though how my ancestors did it without a 350F setting? I have seen other shortbread recipes made completely differently so I can't say these would be an original recipe, more of a work in progress? in 100+years, Im sure someone will come up with something different.
The cookies are then either thumb printed or pressed. We press them with a angel press I got from my mother one Christmas in my stocking. I love that press. We took a picture of the press, sent in the cookies in and picture of AJ mixing and pressing his cookies. He received an A+ for his work.

*I use that artificial vanilla and it's fine, and keeps longer, and no one is off swigging it, another tangent.... I had a babysitter that told me she worked in a store  as a teen and had to monitor which customers were buying how much vanilla extract, I totally sucked up that story at 12yrsold, my Mom had 5 kids, I went to school she watched the babies, yes i was responsible...just couldn't be at school and home babysitting too.

Thank Yous and Friday Fill-ins

Today I'm posting in a HUGE thank you to my Hubbie. He worked hard, he swore loud, he sliced his finger, and yes yes yes I now have my desktop working again. There will be rewards. I'll bake. Speaking of Baking.

AJ and I did our baking on Tuesday night for his project. The cookies turned out wonderful, we ate the the extra 27. The whole batch made 57 cookies. I'm sure I could have got the other 3 if I had been helped less in the Shaping department but many times I had to remind myself that this was not my project. I'm not being graded, AJ will be. What's funny about all this? at his age? or if it had been my project, I would have just done enough to get by. I likes to do that too, very much my child?

Today MJ is watching a DVD again, that I won! yes I won something, I won a DVD set of Charlie Brown's Christmas. I was expecting 1 disc, there were 3 in my Mail box. I'd like to thank Chez Rougie for these lovely DVD's. She's a great read. Right now we're working our way through The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Great classics!!! Thank you again Rougeneck, now I've got lots of blogging time today, MJ will be sucked in for atleast an hour. I can type/read/post a lot in an hour.

I'll also add in some Friday Fill-ins! seems I missed last Friday's? I remember doing the Beatles the week before, so here we go last weeks? Fill-ins This friday.



1. The lesson I learned yesterday was ___even if you the mom are working hard on a project, you can only achieve as much as the child is willing to put into it for his own grade. Mom isn't being graded, really__________.
2. __The island, over Christmas vacation is was_______ where friends and family meet. (Great Time BTW)
3. All these years _are shorter then I ever thought "all these years" would be? it's true, wasn't I just 19 and meeting my hubbie. The time goes fast________.
4. ___The kitchen was a disastor__________ when I arrived.
5. The truth is __I made the mess in the kitchen, walked away and had to go back____________.
6. __He wore Triple Dark Stone washed jeans, a purple labatts T-shirt and flowing locks of blonde hair ______ is what I remember most from that day.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _having my 3 boys home without homework____, tomorrow my plans include _convincing everyone after bowling and lunch that we should go outdoor skating, I will of course had to find the skates for all and see if they fit, if not it may include a trip to the second hand stores. Maybe there will be more drop offs as people look for more things to sell off so they can send money vs stuffs to Haiti____ and Sunday, I want to _get to my priorities set up. FB doesn't do mass, no there isn't an application or game for that____!

Random Tuesday Thoughts, death off a desktop?

Tuesday is here again and you know the drill go see Keely she'll get you an official badge and you can plop that on your blog and get to spewing forth your random stuffs.

This week my computer shut itself off. Yep typing away/clicking away at my silly FB games annd suddenly? I wasn't. I may or may not be diagnosed as death by dust. So that really meants it's time ot clean the back of my CPU more and uh dust my livingroom.

We took the boys sliding this weekend. It's a rerun really of last year,  accept the people that were at the hill were walking up the slide path and sliding down the walk way? uh yeah okayyyyyyyy...

I took MJ off for a walk after he got frustrated that his sled wasn't going fast enough. Any faster and he'd seriously need that bike helmet i had tied to his head. What? don't even ask me why the older two didn't have their helmets on? The baby is the last genetic chance I've got for world domination.. I mean he's my baby!

It was nice enough


DAMN  touch mouse, damn you, it almost deleted all those paragraphs. Thanks be to keyboards for the undo buttons.

Yes the weather was nice enough sunday, I didn't really need to wear the longjohns, pants and skipants. I wonder if anyone would have noticed if I skipped the pants? and just the skipants? Hubbie tried to killhimself I'm sure and went over one bump so hard he stopped to by meds and a hot water bottle on the way home. oops~!

Tea is done. brb

Ok, now it's morning, ok so maybe it's noon, I did some important things. I did over 1hour on the wiifit plus lastnight. I also did research on our clan for AJ's homework. Anyone have a good clip of anyone doing the Highland Fling? or perhaps some Scottish Step dancing? anyone??????//
come on help a mom kid out?

So far we are baking scottish shortbread cause I didn't want to squick the kids in his class out with Haggis and I think they might turn their noses up to porridge or oatcakes? I know I didn't like them.

TJ? and homework are having a big falling out. I blame last year's no homework policy. He goes down there to his bedroom and I sayy do your MMR,  music, Math and Reading? I didn't even hear the drums this week? He also has this "I'm too good to have to practice"' attitude? What???? oh wait I may have had that attitude too whe I was the same age? Maybe that's why I can't go and do the Highland Fling on Youtube for AJ's project submission. Bend and stretch up..... CUT!!!!!!

So TJ's bedroom? still a flurry of crap, his bathroom? ACK! and his homework? crazy. Today he has judo, seems he can finally remember his Gee? (sp?)

OK sorry this turned into Random Tuesday complaints, but well it's been a MOM kind of week.

BTW has anyone seen my bedroom floor. What do yo mean he learns by example?

Best Blog Comments, You leave the best comments

Good morning, yes I'm still kicking it here. It's been a while since I posted anything new here. Life is on the go, I've been sucked into FB, I'm been sucked into reading you all and trying to comment. Speaking of Comments, I'd like to Thanks Debbie over at JustBreath/Skysofblue 
For sending me this award. I love to comment I'm sure you've all noticed? I like to read and feel like I'm having a grand old conversation and tea with my friends.
I'd like to pass this one on to some of the following bloggers. I value every commenters. You're all so nice and friendly, friendly enough that some of you already have this award.  oh this hard, it's hard to single you all out, if you have commented in the last 5 years and I haven't mentioned you, please take the award as well.
Casey down there in a littler cooler then usual Southern USA and her Half as Good as You
Sprite's Keeper she'll keep you spinning
Brandy  and Grayson (cause I can't not include him) over at You don't Know
Karen over at If I could escape  who I'm stalking watching closely because she has 3 boys too, and I might learn something.
And Kooky over at Hi Kooky 
And many more loyal commenters. Comments make my day/(or week if I'm lax on posting)

Friday Fill-ins, back to routine?

1. There are places _I go, like my son's bedroom, that I wish I had never ever tried to go. That room is seriously stuffed with stuff. Yes I know I was not a neat teen either but he's not even a teen, I can't imagine what teendom will bring____.
2. __I can't see as winter will be over soon but once it is I hope spring will_______ blow those clouds away.
3. Standing in the __livingroom looking out at that blanket of snow can be either rewarding or chilling, it's cold out there________.
4. _____The state of the guest bathroom(used and maintained by boy?)________ oh boy.
5. He went out tiger hunting ___and came back with a blanket full of fluzzies___________.
6. ___Nothing I've done lately will keep_____ my mind from wandering .
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _time with my 2 youngest boys, hubbie is taking the older one out skiing____, tomorrow my plans include __Bowling, picking up a few things forgotten on the grocerylist,finding spaces for Christmas boxes of ornaments, they must be multiplying?___ and Sunday, I want to ___Get back to our usually routine, church, sundayschool, curling and baking for the weeks lunches__!

Randome Tuesday Thoughts 2010 is Looking Pretty Kyoot

Welcome to Tuesday and Keely's Random Tuesday Thoughts. GO there get a badge and just write. I like this because I have a tendency to go all over when writing.

Kids start school back tomorrow. YAY!!! Go me, I think my house needs a spa day! I'll get the tree down and the decorations. I was thinking of having a nice dinner for old Christmas, I'll see if I still feel like it after the demolition.

The tree is getting in the way of my wiitime. I did 3/4 days this year as of lastnight. I will go again today. Santa brought wiifit plus, so I have to get better at my skateboard moves. my kids of course were laughing, and rolling their eyes at me, but hey I'm #1, 2 and 3 right now, so :PPPPPPPPPPP  on them! we are not going to discuss the word the wii used to discribe my stats. :(. I'll save that for a HASAY post... when I can face the music. speaking of music, I'm getting better at marching with a band.


The one thing I hate about the Christmas demolition is the way the house looks after, naked! I'm going to have to resort to using hearts on everything? or would that be too girly for this house of Menstuffs?

My Christmas tree was already manned up, with a trainset beside it that all the boys (all including the BIG one I married) playing with it daily! I can still hear the engine going around the track in my head, around and around and around.  They called it soothing? I called it repetitive and it makes me a bit crazy. It did look nice but that was it. We can't put the "village" trees up because the cat will eat them.

Seems Santa thought the cat should get gifts too this year. She got a new bed. It's softer than my bed, but do you think she will move off my bed? noooooooo spoiled! totally spoiled

TEA! the tea crisis is now over, the inlaws and Santa brought me a Kettle, (2 kettles one each and I don't dare return any)and then I went to visit the family on the island and my sister bought me a teapot, with some nice raspberry and Holiday teas, and thennnnnnnnnnn I opened another bag and there were two candy cane mugs. I don't even want to put them away they are just so darn kyoot! so today I've got my tea on! YAY!

Abandon Chair will be replaced this year by Hemi Orange BBQ as the our snow measure. Saturday's Hemi orange BBQ measure was... and then it rained and it all got heavy but didn't melt.  So it's till at the same level. The divit in the snow is the path I forged New Year's Eve to the BBQ so that I could BBQ steaks for New Years Eve Supper.

 It looks like I've cropped the pic down to a slim figure but those are the sides of the patio door. 


The price of Steak that week? Almost nothing, and the taste of BBQ steak while the world around you looks white? yummy! I had the manditory New Year's Salad with it. :P

So that's my Random Tuesday Thoughts for this week, come back next week, I'm sure I'll be back, go visit some other Random Tuesday Bloggers too, go to Keely's and click along, it's a great way to find some Random new stuffs to read or see.

Friday Fill-ins, Welcome 2010

And...here we go! Happy New Year!



1. Last night _____I played WiifitPlus with my middle son, while his older brother and Dad watched Harry Potter, and my youngest son slept away the last hours of 2009. I really enjoyed a good solid "family" night with my kids vs getting toast, or toasted among strangers at a dance, or freezing my ta tas off Down town________.
2. ___I hope every bit of happiness for everyone, along with some successes for______ this year.
3. The funniest thing __that happened was AJ and I trying to land on that boat, while wearing a chicken suit. Wii, you are funny________.
4. ____Today I haven't gotten out of my pjs, well I did but I got into a new pair right after, it's a Holiday_________...so where do we go from here?  (probably bed?)
5. He said ___Kiss me___________; she said ____Kiss me__________.
6. ____AJ lost his glasses and he thinks that we will look for them ____ and it's up to us to find it. (We didn't! we put him to work, not my stuffs, he's old enough to find them)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _BBQ steak on my BBQ, I had to shovel a path yesterday, today I'll reshovel some of it, __oh and putting in my first 2010day of wiifitplus__, tomorrow my plans include __sleeping in a bit, wiifitplus day2, finding the bottom of the hampers, and getting my Christmas card list ready for December, I'll have to start early and actually send some this year,___ and Sunday, I want to _get to church, I may go alone just to refresh my soul, while on the Island last week, my poor Soul had to compete with an Asthma Attack (Poinsettas 6 vs Hubbie 0), and a almost 5yrold licking the pew, so I deserve to suck in some Gospel in peace this week____!