Oatmeal Craisin/Chocolate Chip Cookies

Does that title have your mouth watering yet? :-)

I made a cookie jar full, 37 cookies, before lunch. We had two each after our lunch. Glenda asked for the recipe so here it is.

This recipe is from the little book 'The Quaker Oats Wholegrain Cookbook'. I've had this book since the early 80's.

The recipe is called Create-A-Cookie

1 c. butter
1 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 c. Quaker oats (quick or old-fashioned), uncooked
1 c. Craisins
1 c. chocolate chips
***
Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy;
blend in eggs and vanilla.
Add combined flour, soda, salt and cinnamon;
mix well.
Stir in oats, craisins and choc. chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet;
bake in preheated moderate (350 degree) oven) 10-12 minutes
or until light golden brown.

Makes about 5 1/2 dozen. (I probably had really full tspfuls for mine, so why I only got 36.)

Variations and any of the following:
Add 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and 1/4 tsp. cloves
Add 1 c. raisins, or craisins.
Add 1 c. chopped nuts.
Add 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate, butterscotch or peanut butter flavored chips.
Add 1/2 c. chopped dried apricots, dates, candied fruit or cherries.
Add 1 c. shredded or flaked coconut
Add 1/2 c. sunflower seeds.

These are yummy.






~ Happy Baking ~

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Another mystery flower, and odds and ends

Good morning Everyone ~ Hope you have a great day today whatever you do. I got up at 5 this morning as I just couldn't sleep any longer. I crocheted a bit, answered some emails, and read and answered blog posts. I want to get a crock-pot meal going, make coleslaw, and some oatmeal-craisin cookies. I've got clean laundry to fold and put away too. Plus I'm itchin' to be stitchin' and beading again, and I need to take pictures of things ready to sell, and upload them into my blog.

I want to thank Bernie of Bush Bernie's Garden Blog, for the name of my last mystery plant. Urena sinuata or the Burr Mallow, or Caesar Weed. Here in FL it is on the invasive plant list, so I guess I'll pull this one up and any others that I see. I don't have many, though, and have always enjoyed them when they bloom. They look like a sweet cottage type plant. They were originally brought here for a cash crop for fiber, I think. They grow lushly in moist areas, which my gardens are not, so I only have one or two at a time.

The mystery plant for today is a shrub that gets to be about 10' tall and I see these growing all over. I finally took 6 cuttings from shrubs in an empty lot the other day and potted them up, after re-cutting the ends, plus I scraped the ends up about an inch, and sprinkled them with root tone, for promoting root growth. The flowers smell like honey, to me, and are huge.



Monday morning before heading out to do our errands DH visited a curbside pile on the next street sw of us. I saw him coming in the driveway with a 3 drawer plastic storage unit. Inside one of the drawers was something lacey in a sage green color. I took it out and it is a curtain panel, made in America. I was thrilled. I was already happy over the storage unit, but the curtain was the icing on the cake. I hand washed it, and then washed the storage unit too, after we got back home and after lunch.

I measured the unit, and saw that it would fit next to my other ones in my little workspace here, so had to take out what was in that space holding my magazines, which lead to reorganizing in here and in the bedroom too yesterday. I also hung the curtain panel in the window and just love how it transforms the space. DH liked the new look as well. I've still got to cut wall paper panels for the drawer fronts, as I did in the other units. Excuse the pink and purple unit, it also was found curbside sometime ago, beggars can't be choosers. :-)







Here is a beaded parrot that DH got a week or so ago, from the same yard sale that he got my nice Mexican glazed planter from, only on the next weekend. He told me there was something for me in a room I spend a lot of time in. I thought he meant the scullery/kitchen area, so looked in there first. Then I came in here to my little space, where I do spend a lot of time, and saw it, and laughed with delight. He looks great in here. He stands about 8 1/2 inches tall. He was only $2, and DH couldn't pass him up for that price.







Guess that's it from Plum Cottage this morning.

******

Don't underestimate the therapeutic value of gardening.
It's the one area where we can all use our nascent creative talents
to make a truly satisfying work of art.

Every individual,
with thought, patience and a large portion of help from nature,
has it in them to create their own private paradise:
truly a thing of beauty
and a joy for ever.

Geoff Hamilton, Paradise Gardens

******

The above quote reminds me of Karen's post this morning over at the Quarry Garden.

It was a great read, as are all the other posts in this series.

******

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

A Skipper, a mystery plant, and more roses

Good afternoon Folks ~ I hope you are all having a lovely day today. I finally got outside and worked in and around my main garden area. It felt good, and I'm content with what was accomplished.

Below are more pictures from the past day or two. I really love this time of year for us and for the next 5 months or so. Everything does so much better than during the summer.

Click on pictures for a larger view.

First are three pictures of the Skipper butterfly that we see a lot of down here.









Now we have three pictures of a plant that is a mystery. We've called it a burdock type plant, because of the burrs that stick to us from it. I just love the cottagey look of these plants and flowers. I'm hoping someone can tell me what these are. They are hardy and self seed. They are small little blooms, maybe an inch and a half across at the most.










The next few pictures are of Louis Philippe or the Florida Cracker rose. I love it. It is very hardy and blooms almost all year long.
















Next is Pink Pet or Caldwell's Pink.










A white Impatiens.




La Marne.




Spiderwort.




Love this rose, Penelope.





***

Always remember the beauty of the garden,

for there is peace.

Author Unknown

***

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

As Thanksgiving draws near

I am thankful for so many things. The Love of God, the love that my DH and I share, our little cottage and compound, our critters. Thankful I still have my job. Thankful for the flowers and foliage growing in our gardens. Thankful that I love to cook and bake from scratch, thankful that there are threads, lace, yarns, beads waiting to be worked with into the next project. I'm thankful for each new day.

Lately I've read several blogs where some have lost spouses or other loved ones, or spouses have had strokes, or other things have happened in lives and it makes one stop and think about what is really important in this life.

It is NOT things that make our lives happy. Yes, they can give us joy for a moment, or maybe even many moments, but not true abiding joy. May we all stop and think about our lives, what is going on in them, and search for truths that will give us eternal joy. May Love fill our lives each and every day.

Here are some blooms, from roses that I am caretaker of in this life. They bring me much delight. Working in my gardens makes me think of God the Great Creator,
and I am thankful to Him.

*********

(Click on pictures for a larger view.)

Vincent Godsiff



Mm. Laurette Messimy



Dainty Bess



Old Blush



Mm. Laurette Messimy



Dainty Bess



Vincent Godsiff







*********

O come, let us sing unto the LORD:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.

Know ye that the LORD he is God:
it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are his people,
and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him,
and bless his name.

For the LORD is good;
his mercy is everlasting;
and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalms 95:1-3; 100:3-5


*********

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL