Pfeffernusse cookies baked today!

Today is the day that I've decided to bake up a batch of my favorite Christmas cookies! These cookies are soooo yummy with such an intricate mix of flavors. This is a very old traditional German cookie that was only made at Christmas time- and yes I only make them once a year too.  Pfeffernusse translates into pepper nuts which give you a hint of the strong spicy flavor. You actually use white pepper in these cookies along with a host of other spices. The thing about these cookies is they are just like a batch of chili or good spaghetti sauce, the flavor increases as time goes by- this is why I always make them a week or 2 before Christmas and let them sit in an airtight container. They are very soft and cakelike, and you roll them in powdered sugar once they have cooled down for an extra sweet flavor on top. You can also roll them in the powdered sugar again before serving as it tends to seep into the cookie as they sit in the container. Here is the recipe I use, and old recipe handed down from my german grandmother. Give them a try if you really like spicy cookies, and be prepared and wear awhite shirt-  dusting them in the powdered sugar is very messy!


Pfeffernusse Cookies


1 cup butter, 3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white suger

5 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg, ½ tsp white pepper

1 tsp anise extract, 1tsp ground cloves

½ cup molasses, 1 ½ cups milk

Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs. Alternate adding the dry

ingredients and liquid. Drop by a teaspoonful onto cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 10-15 minutes. Dust in powdered sugar once cookies

have cooled. These freeze or store great in an airtight container- redust in powdered sugar

before serving.

Makes 5 to 6 dozen- cut recipe in half for smaller for 2-3 dozen.

Enjoy! Anne

One stamp- Two creations!

Hello everyone! I got some new stamps a few days ago and finally found some time to ink them up and make a few projects. The vintage tag stamp is from a set by WalztingMouse Stamps, and these are the most gorgeous stamps I have ever seen- love this set and will be using it alot in future projects.
The first card is a birthday card I whipped up late last night for a friend using one of my favorite color combos- pink, black, and white. Ok- there is some gray too......I thought the pattern on the gray paper worked so well with the stamp design. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and fit in the oval space perfectly- wohoo!I stamped the snowflakes in Versmark and heat embossed with clear powder,and did the same with the border stamp along the black scalloped paper.

The tag I made stamping Brilliance coffee bean and then coming back and sponged the outer edge with Ranger distress inks (vintage photo). I stamped the snowflake in the middle of the oval with distress inks as well (antique linen) and the sentiment in a dark red. I cut out the holly and added red gems to jazz it up a bit.
So I used the same stamp in 2 different ways and for 2 different occassions. I like trying to force myself to see different ways to use the same stamp- it just becomes more versatile then.

I also thought I would share a picture of my Christmas tree -it's finally done and all decorated. The house smells so good with the natural pine scent hanging in the air. I'm not fond of this type of tree my husband brought home this year (we usually get a White pine) and I think this one is  a Scoth pine. The needles are so pokey and stiff my arms were rather beat up after decorating it. Actually I did it in 2 differents sessions as my arms almost felt like I was having  an allergic reaction the first night I started decorating (imagine poison ivy red spots all over- ouch!). My dear son Joe and I made the gingerbread garland one day, I actually did most of the work- his attention span didn't last long......typical of a 5 year old. He kept complaining of icky sticky glue fingers- gosh I thought kids loved to get sticky and gross!Not him I guess.
 Well I'm off to go finish wrapping a few more presents and clean up my house a little bit more.....it's that crazy time of year isn't it! Hope you are all getting your holiday shopping done and presents wrapped too!
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Anne

National Cupcake Day!

Well, did you know it's national cupcake day today! I saw this as I was looking over my son's hot lunch menu this morning! Who doesn't love cupcakes? Especially those that are all decorated so cute! If you find the time bake up a batch or buy yourself one at the bakery today and enjoy! YUMMMM! This one is a bit different- but I really like that gal on top. Have a cupcake kind of day friends!

Anne

Mojo Monday card week 116!

After following along over many weeks I decided to finally jump in and give it a try! I also knocked out another challenge over at ISC with this same card- Vicky challenged us to do a Valentines card in all black & white with a hint of red or pink! So I did 2 challenges in one! I used some paper I found at Michaels and the image is by Impression Impression! It was fun and a challenge to work with 3 circles! My bow ended up looking a bit upside down too- I'm no good at tying bows!

Craft show items!

Well I've done a few craft shows this Christmas season and I must say even though I didn't sell a ton of stuff I sure learned how to whip up some fun and creative items this past month or so as I was preparing. Most of the items were found on the web or at other ladies blogs- wow- so much to see and learn about once you start looking. Here are a few pictures of my booth set up at the local Catholic church sale theis past weekend. I met a very nice lady and fellow cardmaker and stamper at this show-wohoooo! I'm always looking for ladies near me that I can papercraft with! I guess she gets together at my local library on Tuesday afternoons- so I will make  apoint to go visit with her one of these days. The stand of pretty cards are ones made by my very talented cousin Mary. She lives about 30 minutes south of me and we get together often to play with inks and paper and teach each other new techniques!

My favorite ornament!

Over at ISC the weeks former queen Michelle wanted us to show some of our favorite Christmas decorations. Well it took forever to get our real tree in the house and I only decorated it a bit, but I wanted to show you all my favorite decoration which is way older than I even am. It's this plastic square cupcake, and even though it's kind of ugly I just love it! It looks like such a yummy treat- something like my other would have made for us when we were small. This cupcake has to go on it's own spot up on the tree each year- way up high just below the star, that way my dear son who is 5 can't touch mommy's fave ornamnet and wreck it. What do you think- really ugly or kind of cute?