recipe rescue

Monday night I had another baking episode. I was trying to find and make a recipe for cookies that would be gluten free and not require special flour that we don't have. I was thinking along the lines of oatmeal and corn starch, so I googled and found a recipe called Brazilian Corn Starch Cookies, which go well with coffee. It calls for the following:

2 cups cornstarch

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

Form into balls and bake at 375 degrees for about 7 minutes (paraphrase of instructions).

Simple enough, right? Well, I followed the recipe and they turned out great. . . . if you wanted to taste what a sand dollar would taste like as a cookie! They were very flat and hard/gritty/crumbly. I added some oatmeal in hopes that it would "do something," and then I realized that I used cornmeal instead of corn starch - two whole cups! My mom helped me to find a fix by adding milk to make something more like sweet cornbread muffins (I poured them into mini muffin pans), and they aren't half bad. I like them anyway - whether or not others do is another question.

So I hope you enjoyed my little baking episode. Angela tells me that I need to write these things down. I'm not so sure they are that great (my recipe alterations), but they can make a good story now and then.

Oh, and I was very pleased to rediscover the secret to my chocolate chip cookies - I always use a certain recipe and trade the optional 1/2 cup of nuts for oatmeal. However, the past several months they have not been turning out and it's boggled me, especially because I actually do follow the recipe each time (minus the one change). It turns out that I needed to double the amount of oatmeal, which I probably did all the time and then somehow switched back to the amount called for in the recipe (for the nuts). Yay! I am happy that I can be confident in my cookie recipe again...that is, if we have normal flour and butter in the house (not bread flour or cholesterol free "butter!"). I have my recipe back...just in time for cookies to go out of style with winter. Oh well. :-)

Winnie the Horse Gentler

This is a horse series that I really like. It's called. "Winnie the horse

Gentler." By Dandi Daley Mackll. There is also another series she wrote called, "Horsefeathers" that I like.

Here are the "Winnie the horse Gentler" books:

"TV Show"/Poem!

Here is a "TV Show" that Melanie Millen and I did. I hope to do more of these. We MIGHT!!! do more, or not. It's called, "We Put Your Pets First."

Here it is:

And here is a poem I wrote, and put in a book:

Feather Pen

By: Margaret Sensenig

Screech scratch

Twirl twine

Loopidy loop

Curly cube

Dip, drip.

Opps!

I made a splat!

Crazy Dress Day!

A couple weeks ago, my school (J. E. Fritz) had a crazy dress day! It was a fun day because not only did we dress up weird, but 6th grade got to watch the movie Up. And I must give my sister Joy a spacial thanks for helping me pix out the outfit. Here are some pictures (that my Mom took) of what I wore to school that day.

Here they are, enjoy:

spring is here

The weather has been so nice, and our family was able to work outside yesterday - the first day of spring and free Rita's! Dad and the girls were around during the day to work outside, but Erin was working at Sharp Shopper and Vinson went to Go Saturday, an outreach with our church. We planted a few seeds, did some weeding, and pruned and picked up sticks. Dad was able to burn a lot of brush, use our new-to-us riding mower for the first time, clean out the gutters, put the chimney cap back on, pull out an old invisible fence cable, and do other such things. It was nice to be outside during the day and get fresh air and sun, although my shoulders did get sun burnt (which happens very easily for me, especially in spring).

Here is a shot from Cori Bitterman's bridal shower this afternoon. The girls from Sola (our young adult ministry) organized the shower and brought the food/desserts. I have enjoyed going to bridal showers in our church with my mom since before I was even a teenager, and it's even more special for me now because it is my close friends who we are gathering around to encourage as they enter into marriage.

Both of these events, working in the yard and celebrating Cori's upcoming marriage, are evidences of God's grace and faithfulness. Spring is a wonderful time to celebrate new beginnings and praise God for his mercy that is new every morning.

iMovie fun with the Plank kids

I spent some time with the Plank kids this weekend. Macbooks are quite the babysitting tool. We could have spent all day on Photo Booth, iMovie, and GarageBand! However, we were more well-rounded than that, and I only exposed them to iMovie this time (not even mentioning the special features and backgrounds).

Here's a clip from today (mostly so I can show Kelly, Doug, and Brenda).

It's interesting how a camera influences behavior. They were quite amusing, especially when we were on Skype with Kelly (who is in Spain!).

Mixie

Here are some pictures I found of our old cat Mixie, and a toy mouse.

Exceedingly Blessed

Yesterday I turned 23 years old. And yesterday I was overwhelmed with God's kindness to me. He gave me much joy and humility in my day, and that was such a blessing. I loved that my birthday fell on a Sunday this year, because that's the best day of the week! Joy was so sweet to come with me in the morning and keep me company, as I have a few responsibilities before the service.

My mom is amazing. She knew so well how to care for me and bless me on my birthday. She contacted a couple of my girl friends and asked them to get a few others to surprise me by taking me out for lunch. She also threw me a card shower. I was surprised by both, and I actually didn't know the card shower was planned until today (although I wondered at the amount of cards I got). She is so sweet. I couldn't ask for a better mom. Steve Heitland announced my birthday before he started his sermon and told people to be sure someone took me out to lunch and/or dinner (very thoughtful of him and unexpected, as well as quite amusing...it kinda makes me laugh!). My mom watched me like a hawk after the meeting to make sure that I didn't leave or let anyone else snag me for lunch, because I did not know what they had planned!