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Sunday, June 30, 2019

Just where do fomer cookie bloggers go?



Yes, I was a cookie blogger...in my former life.  You know...the one where you work all day and come home dead tired and mix up a batch of cookies and icing and somehow make "magic" in your kitchen, and then take pictures and blog about it?    Probably during the most trying times of my life, I spent the most time doing just that.  Now...four years after retirement,  I look back  and I wonder just how, just how...It was always the hobby, not the job.  And I LOVED it!

While I still bake the occasional cake and cookies and put up canned goods and spend time in the kitchen...I am retired from my position as special education teacher of the deaf.  Since April 1, 2015 as a matter of a fact.  So what in the world have I been doing?  I have to laugh.  Most of you, if anyone is reading this at all, really don't want to spend a whole lot of time considering that answer, I'm sure.  Now, that I have all this "time"....I really have to warn you.  Retirement does not always equal all free time.  Such a shock, I'm sure!  But that is so very true.    So while you are probably younger and more energetic than me, just know there is life after work.  It just may not look exactly like you would have thought.  Here is a brief snapshot of retired life for me.
My first recommendation for retired life...take a trip.
We visited the land of the midnight sun....Alaska-land and sea; my bucket list trip to celebrate...me! 
No baking, but ate some of the most amazing dishes and loveliest desserts and didn't have to wash the first pan.



Mission trips continued to the Philippines and yes, I did help the ladies to decorate a cookie while there.  THAT was pretty interesting and challenging!  First the temperature challenge.  It's HOT! and 2nd having all the ingredients  and 3rd having the icing  stay in semi-solid form.  But we had a GREAT time trying.  After all, what's the worst thing that can happen?  Right, you eat the evidence! 




Retirement is supposed to free up so much time.  I must laugh.  But I did find time to make this rustic wedding cake and groom tree trunk for an outdoor wedding in our own MS summer  heat.
Fun times.  No cookies, though.  Would have been so much easier to transport.  I think that's one reason why I love cookies.   But for some reason, everyone's first go-to pay-for dessert just happens to be a cake around here.  Gotta love it!



In the process of life, and since retirement age means aged parents,  we had to say goodbye to my one and only father in law.  One fine man and even though he was also diabetic.....he absolutely loved my cookies and cakes and pies.  But really, life is more than our hobbies.  It is family and love and time shared.  And OBTW....cancer is a mean thing.


To add to my retirement "freedom", I did find time to attend a photography class or two and added that to my list of things to "keep me busy".  I do absolutely love it as well,  even photographing cookies!.  But, then, this is a flower...and an inedible one at that.  But sorta pretty, huh?  Warning!  The next images were never intended to grace anyone's wall frame.



Valentine's Day rolls around every year and the opportunity to bake for a local private school fundraiser is one of  my highlights. I mean when you are working toward 100, 150 or 200 individual cookies, there's lots of room to "play" with ideas.


One thing that you can never really retire from is the work of the Lord.  I continue to stand by my pastor-husband's side and even bake church birthday cakes on  all the even-numbered months.  The deacon's wife brings for the odd months.   One way to practice skills in the cookie world is to bake for friends and family, and occasionally I get the opportunity to do that as well.

I still have a mother in law, and it is such a privilege to bake for her special days...like her 91st birthday this year!


In order to be evenly balanced (LOL) my husband took us on a phenomenal trip to Scotland and Ireland to celebrate his retirement.  and guess whose family has a monument there...IN DUBLIN?  yep...my Mother's family. We were able to see it in person and gather all sorts of information.  And I was able to come back and share the beautiful photos and images of our trip with my Mom only days before her passing.  This image shows us walking into the church where the Seagraves monument is on the wall straight ahead.  Lots of history and more than you'd want me to share here.  But suffice it to say, I was blown away.  And the English scones, the tea and the clotted cream...ohhhh yeah!!!!!


One of my special ladies to bake ....cookies.....cakes....food for was my Mom. I believe I shared many of them on my blog site.   Here we celebrated her last birthday on earth at age 90, complete with "LOTS of candles and cakes" as she requested.  She passed away shortly after we returned from my husband's retirement trip to Scotland and Ireland.



My very best friend in the world and I have been married, as I type this, for 45 years.  And even retired folks need to continue celebrating that special day.  We were gifted a bed and breakfast stay across the bay and I'm not sure how we can relax more than we do, but we find ways.   LOL   Question, who bakes your special birthday/anniversary cakes?  I thought so. 

Valentines would not be complete without cookies and cakes.  And swiss meringue buttercream!

Not a cookie this year for church, but a whole bunch of bunnies for the church kids! Aren't they adorable?

Between smocking, embroidery and quilting....it's my other hobby that I seem to have had more time for when I worked.  All those miracles and I didn't even realize it.  my my my 


Nothing fancy, but when someone has a special birthday and wants cookies, I get so excited.  Again, apparently the earth turns faster after retirement; and it certainly does not stand still.
It dawns on me that I have spent the greater part of my life looking ahead and failed miserably to enjoy the moment in front of my eyes.  We should really treasure the moments we have.  The failed cookie ideas as well as the good ones where you stand back and go "awwww", the cakes that rise and then fall, the time we spend cleaning  up after all those icing bowls and piping bags and tips and counters...yes, they are truly moments we can find joy in if we are looking.  My cookie decorating and baking and for that matter all those "fun" things I have chosen to dabble in are certainly enjoyable; but as I am nearing that seventy mark in only 4 years, I just do not believe any of those things are going to be what my mind will be focusing on.  Again, I say, your time IS important!  It is important to not forget that when you are pricing your sweet talents and even more important when you schedule your time.  Your spiritual life and your family and friends are the most valuable asset you possess. So guard it!

In closing this post, I have shared with you a number of images that span the past 4 - 5 years.  The years since my retirement. (And my husband's).  I am more convinced each day that how I spend my time and what I choose to put the main focus on is most important.   You DO realize that I spared you my every baking and traveling detail, right?  There is a part of me that wishes I would be able to do more of the "fun" stuff.  However, just being able to wash and fold clothes and cook for my family or sit beside my husband while I type a little ol' blog post (that probably very few people will read ) while he watches an old western, is priceless in its own right.  And while I don't bake and decorate every day, I DO have the opportunity to make cute/pretty things every now and then and still stay focused on the retired life which isn't quite as empty and I thought it would be.  Enjoy your work, enjoy your retirement....embrace your joy!














Friday, November 28, 2014

Ole Miss Birthday Cake

Cake for an Ole Miss Fan

It is the day after Thanksgiving as I type this.  Amongst many things to be thankful for, I am thankful for friends who ask me to bake for their friends.  How cool is that!

Birthdays come around every year, don't they?  I have a friend who has a friend who had a birthday...and is a football fan...of....well that is completely obvious...The University of  Mississippi (or as we down here say down here "Ole Miss")  Hotty Totty, goooo Rebels, and something about a colonel?  Can you tell I am not a big fan?  But I am a fan of cake.  So for a friend of a friend I baked chocolate cake layers, made homemade chocolate filling, made butter cream and cut out fondant accents.  The footballs were chocolate candies I found at the Party Store.  I just added the icing "laces".  

There is one major problem with a tier cake.  Transporting it.  This cake traveled well, but I put in a large cardboard box with clear plastic wrap over the opening and met the birthday guy 1/2 way. These were only 9" and 6" tiers so the cake was not huge; but just how can you box a cake that you have to have already put together?  And still expect it to travel well and stay moist for a few days?    


Check out the original inspiration link @
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/106538347404615607/
 My Mostly butter cream version


Well, the fella celebrated his birthday and is going to the bowl game this weekend.

I trust that the cake brought some smiles
and
that Old Miss hits a home run
or
makes the basket
or
ohhh yeah
gets the most touchdowns!


~All done the week of Thanksgiving...~
~
The week where our focus should be on giving the Lord thanks in all things...the week of turkeys and dressing and sweet potatoes and all things good to eat.
I close this post with an annonymous quote that I read today:
My Cup
The optimist says, "My cup is half full."
The pessimist says, "My cup is half empty."
The child of God says, "MY CUP runneth over!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Lavender Flower Cookies

Is it true?  Do little old ladies really like lavender?  I should know, I think I'm closing in on that little ol' age bracket.  Well maybe not quite, but definitely past the 1/2 century mark.

These lavender tinted butter cookies were made for a sweet lady who will be 75 years young this weekend.  As I edge my way with more birthdays behind me than ahead of me, I think I might agree...Lavender may become my new color.  At least tonight.




One of my go-to butter sugar cookie recipes comes from Fancy Flours.  Click here for her recipe.  



And my ALL TIME Fav Royal Icing recipe comes from another one of my favorite cookiers Ali B.  You can find it HERE.







Flowers need centers and the center of choice was a Wilton Candy Melt piped with a RI 75.  Encircling the center are sugar pearls.  

Now they are sitting on our dining table, drying and waiting to be bagged and ribbon-ed tomorrow.

Yes, I know...It IS December,but even though the cookies are not green or red or snowy they still reflect the Christmas spirit...that of giving and  life, for all good celebrations reflect the love of Christ and the new life he gives us.





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