Small Bakers

Another freezing morning in Central Florida, bbrrr.
A great way to warm up? Turn on the oven and bake!
Moon thoroughly enjoys cooking. He gets out all the ingredients, measures, pours, mixes, even spoons the first batch of cookies onto the tray. Then he's gone! (the cleaning fairy is coming to do the rest ;).

Our first project was Ginger Drop cookies, my favorite! Moon found out he doesn't care for raw molasses or even  cookies with molasses in them. Then we had to scratch up some oatmeal cookies!
The ginger drops came out fabulous...yummy. Below is the recipe I use, given to me years ago by a co-worker.

Ginger Drops

Ingredients

3/4 c butter                                                          

2 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c molasses

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tbs. hot water

4 c flour

2 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

pre heated oven to 350

Mix: butter, sugar, eggs, and molasses beat until creamy

Add: baking soda and hot water, beat well

Next combine dry ingredients, mix well (dough will be thick)

Chill dough (an hour), roll into teaspoon size balls, dip in sugar, flatten slightly on ungreased cookie sheet

Bake 7-8 minutes for a soft chewy cookie, 9-10 minutes for a crunchy cookie.

Easy enough for a three year old with little help from mom ;)

*Favorite thing about these cookies, the dough is very firm after just an hour of chilling, even older toddlers can roll it in their palms, dip it in sugar and flatten it on the cookie sheet without making a huge mess!

Riding

The weather was finally perfect this past weekend! So the trailer was hooked up, horses loaded and a riding we went! The hay burners (an Arab and an Arab/App cross) went back to work, yea! Truth be told they were as happy as us for a change of scenery. Living in central Florida we are privileged to have access to many many different trails to ride on. Here is a list of our favorites.

Withlacoochee State Forest Citrus Tract -(I grew up riding in this forest :)
Many locations with easy access, even for big rigs, and horse water. Barefoot horses will have an easy ride here.
http://fl-dof.com/state_forests/withlacoochee_recreation.html

Two Mile Prairie (really it's an 8.9 mile loop)
Easy access and horse water. Beautiful shady trails, deep sand.
http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/areas/twomile.html

Ross Prairie Trail Head
Easy access, horse water.
A more difficult trail, rocky, steep hills but well worth it, scenic.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/guide/regions/crossflorida/trails/sr200_cr484.htm

These trails we have used over and over again and never tire of riding them, even in the summer heat :)

The Sewing Room

One year now I've had this wonderful new space off the back of the house! It was/is designed to be a play room for the kids, it also leads into Moon's room/bath(every boy should have their own space :)

The sewing room has now taken over! Now the kids still have half, O.K. it's a small half, but it is still theirs. Mag's piano sits in one corner, Moon's toys dominate the the other corner.

After a year of 'stuff' coming into the sewing corner this is what we had.

EEKK A MESS!

The tubs under the table are full of fabric, the clear stackables full of notions!

Monday I made it to Ikea, need I say more?


Where the stackables were!

New 'cutting table' with storage underneath!

Mother came to play with new setup!