Welcome

Welcome Friends!! This little blog is for all my friends and family that have requested I share my recipes and other homemaking ideas… As most of you know, we moved onto a 64 acre farm about two years ago… we still have our Family Nights, but now many of us live up here on the farm: Mom and Dad live with Lanny and I, Paula built her house in one of the existing barns, Robbie and Molly built inside the big barn by us… You can check it all out on our blog the Johnson Gap Chronicles… Anyway, I am still fermenting and brewing all over my kitchen, but our Tuesday night dinners are not as large as they used to be. All the grands except 2 are grown, have jobs, live in other cities, and with the recent Covid insanity (and our daughter-in-laws heart transplant) James and Tasha are not out much lately. We just move on and look forward to better days. Thanks for peeking in… check back now and then and I promise to add new recipes and ideas as I am inspired :-) God bless!!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Cookies Anytime!

You just never know when the craving for a warm, fresh, "right out of the oven" chocolate chip cookie will hit you. Usually it hits us when we are ready to snuggle down on the couch to watch a movie....I could keep cookies in a jar, but we want it fresh and hot. I certainly don't want to get up and whip up a batch of cookies right then. So....I make them up ahead of time and freeze them.

Fresh, warm cookies any time we want them!

I use my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (which I will give you at the end), whip up the batch, drop and shape them on a cookie sheet, freeze, and store them in a ziplock freezer bag. Then when we want a cookie or two I can take out as many as we want and bake them in a 350 oven and we are in cookie heaven!





So, here's what you do....whip up your cookies dough, drop by spoonful on a cookie sheet...they can be close together because you aren't baking them :-) Slide the sheet into the freezer and leave it for a couple hours until the dough is frozen solid. Take 'em out, dump 'em in a gallon sized freezer bag and store 'em in the freezer. I am sure they will last months there, but we have never had them there long enough to test that. When you want cookies just take out as many as you want, put them on a cookie sheet at least an inch apart and bake at 350 for 12 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown.

Here is the recipe I use and it makes the most delicious chocolate chip cookies on the planet! I use organic ingredients when possible. You could add walnuts if you like.

1 cup Buttersoftened
1 cup White Sugar (I use raw)
1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
2 cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips 
             (you can use one cup if you want to cut down on the calories)


Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Add baking soda to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts if desired. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans. Bake or freeze for later.

3. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 12 to 14 minutes, or until edges are nicely browned.

The recipe above is 7000 calories. You can divide by the number of cookies you make if you are keeping track of your calories. I usually get about 50 to 55 cookies from this recipe so the cookies are 130 to 140 calories each. Not too bad. If you use only one cup of chocolate chips the total is 5880 so you can get your per cookie value down to 110 or so. Up to you. Either way, they are delicious and well worth the calories!

Family Night Photos

For the latest Family Night photos you can check out our website link:
Family Night Photo Albums


I'm Back....

It's been a while since I posted anything new, and I apologize for that.

It's been a crazy year. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January of 2016 and that caused a hiccup or two.  I had a bilateral mastectomy, no reconstruction and decided against any other treatment. I am happy to report that I am doing very well. Lanny and I try to walk every day (weather permitting) which makes our two pups very happy....not to mention that I've lost around 40 pounds and feel better than I have in years.

We didn't skip a beat with "Family Night". We continue to gather every Tuesday for food, fun and fellowship...it's just the highlight of my week!

I hope you will check back regularly as I plan to devote a little more time to this page. I do have a few new dishes to share and some ideas that have been rattling around in my head.