"Not So Snappy" Gingersnaps

Another yummy recipe from my mother-in-law's wonderful collection of recipes. I love these cookies, because they have so much flavor. They're not hard and crunchy, but soft and yummy. That's why they're not "snappy". 

"Not So Snappy" Gingersnaps

6 Tbsp margarine

1 cup sugar

Extra sugar for rolling

1 egg - beaten

1/4 cup Molasses

2 tsp. vinegar

2 cup flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Cream the margarine and sugar. Add the egg, molasses, and vinegar - mix well. 

In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Slowly combine the wet and dry ingredients. 

Roll dough in balls, roll in sugar (if you'd like). Place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 8-12 minutes. (I cooked mine for about 9 minutes). 

Enjoy!

Baby Booties

I have always wanted to attempt making my baby little booties. There are the cutest booties all over, but I finally found a great tutorial and pattern here on Tao of Craft. My baby is 9 months old so I made the 6-12 month size, but they were huge, so I made the 3-6 month size and they were perfect. The great thing about making your own shoes is you can adjust the width or length or height as much as you want! This was the pattern I followed:

Step 1: Cut the pieces

These were all of the necessary pieces:

Cut out each of the pieces to the pattern. The 'top of the shoe', the 'sole', and the 'strap'. There are 16 total pieces. 

Top of shoe: 2 Main fabric, 2 liner fabric, 2 interfacing

Sole: 2 Outer sole fabric, 2 liner sole, 2 interfacing

Strap: 2 Main fabric, 2 interfacing 

Step 2: Top of shoe

Iron on the interfacing to the top of the shoe fabric. Trim off the excess interfacing, if any. 

Step 3: Sole

Iron on the interfacing to one of your sole pieces. Iron on the lining piece of fabric to the outer sole fabric. Trim so they are even.  

Step 4: Strap

The interfacing should only cover half of the strap. Iron on the interfacing.   

 Sew on a 3/4 inch piece of Velcro to the outside of the strap.

 Fold in half, with "pretty" sides together. Sew along the edge, leaving one of the shorter ends open. 

 Turn inside out. Iron each strap. 

 Step 5: Top of Shoe

Put the top of the shoe fabric facing up, lay the strap with the Velcro also facing up. Place the lining fabric face down. Only sew the inside "U". Do NOT sew the outer edge. 

 Press the seams. 

 Sew the heel of the shoe together. Sew the "pretty" sides together. 

 Turn inside out. Iron the entire top of the shoe. 

 Trim to make the pieces the same size. 

 Step 6: Attach the Sole

This is a tricky and tedious step. You have to pin very carefully to match the sole to the top of the shoe. Lay the top of the shoe with the lining side facing down. Place the sole on top of the shoe with the lining side facing up. 

 (This is a flipped image of the one above). Once sewn, turn inside out. 

 Step 7: Velcro

Sew on the other piece of Velcro where the strap falls. 

Step 8: Enjoy!

I'm excited to bedazzle them with little flower and cutesy things. Also, once my baby starts walking I'll probably use a lat heavy duty fabric like faux suede and a heavy canvas or heavy home decor fabric. But for now, this cute cotton works!

Scrap Quilt

 If you're like me you probably have a bunch of little scraps of fabric that you used for different sewing projects along the way. You held on to those scraps thinking, "someday I'll use this little piece for something". Well this is your something!! These are actually all of my mom's leftovers, but I made the cutest little quilt with them. 

I made a quilt for my baby last summer, and while I was purchasing the fabric that lady at the fabric store told me, "the best quilts have all coordinating fabrics with the same colors all through out all of the fabrics." Well quilt lady, I say to you, the more random the better! The less the colors go together the better. Random and non-matching is a beautiful thing.

 I pieced each square. Then sewed the rows. Then the rows together. Sewed the back, the batting and front with the "pretty" sides together. Flipped it inside out. Tied it. Then sewed a nice little 1/2 seam around the edge for a nice finished look.

The back:

Old Fashioned Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening 

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

Cream the shortening and sugar. Add in the eggs. 

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar. Mix in with the shortening, sugar and eggs. 

Chill the dough for 30-45 minutes. Then roll in:

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 400 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

Buttermilk Cinnamon Pancakes with Caramel Syrup

Buttermilk Cinnamon Pancakes
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. canola oil

In a small mixing bowl - sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
In a separate mixing bowl - whisk the buttermilk, egg, honey and oil until well combined. Mix in the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Cook on a medium-low heat on a skillet or griddle. Should be light, fluffy and golden-brown.

Caramel Syrup
1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
1/2 tsp. baking soda

On medium-high heat melt the butter in a saucepan. Mix in the sugar until it's almost dissolved and then add the milk. Stir in the vanilla and corn syrup.
Let it come to a boil and keep at a boil for 4-5 minutes or until it thickens.
Then add the baking soda to give the syrup a nice frothy texture.

Enjoy!!

Pants to Dress

My husband had some pants that were now too short, so I cut them off to make them into shorts. So with some well hemmed pieces of fabric I decided to make something for my baby girl. 

I started out with one picture ... but then I got way too excited and just kept going and no more pictures were taken until this cute little dress was all finished! I had some extra piping from some pillows I had done, and extra buttons from a headboard I made....who knew that scraps from a pair of pants, a pillow and a headboard could make a cute little dress! 

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another yummy family recipe! The applesauce accounts for a lot of the fat, so they won't leave you with that guilty regret. They're light, fluffy, and so yummy!

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup applesauce

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

Cream the shortening and sugar. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl: flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Beat in the applesauce and eggs with the shortening and sugar. Mix in the dry ingredients until well combined. Add the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. This is a very cake-like cookie, you don't want them to be under-cooked and gooey. Take them out of the oven when the edges are a nice golden-brown. Enjoy!