Being Thankful FIRST……

   Every year we host a Fall Bonfire Party for our Sunday school class.  Our class is growing, and with that blessing, comes the trouble of finding a place to host 50 of us.  We are officially outnumbered, 2o adults and close to 30 kids when we are together!!!! 🙂  This year we invited the Young Married Class down the hall to join us, what a fun bunch!

  I was sad to realize, that I didn’t get very many photos, too dark and too busy playing hostess I guess, but here are a few… (Drea, I used a few of yours too)

Notice that there very aren’t many of Ty above?  That is because he was out in the side yard PACING, waiting for his preschool teacher to show up.  (She is a great family friend and part of our class.)  The rest of his evening was spent GLUED to her side! He asked permission to go play a bit at one point, but came right back.  He seemed to feel very responsible for her well-being, even asking her how her husband was doing at home these days. LOL 🙂  My little stud muffin!

The shed

To the friend who left a bag FULL of goodies left on our kitchen counter!  What a blessing to have those needs met!  THANK YOU!!!!!

    Soooo, on to the next subject at hand:

Does it drive anyone else crazy that there are Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas signs going up everywhere already? 

Can’t we just be THANKFUL first???????

 

  Can’t we just enjoy our pumpkin recipes, fall décor and Thanksgiving feasts?  I mean don’t get me wrong, day after Thanksgiving, I’m putting the Christmas tree up with the best of them, but it just seems that since Thanksgiving isn’t the major money-maker that Christmas is, it gets skipped in the stores between the hype of Halloween with it’s expensive candy, and next…..Christmas sales, long lines and mad dashes to get “the best deal”. 

  Kinda disappointing, but a true sign of the times to be sure: 

More Greedy Gimmies & sales quotas, less quiet thanksgiving as we count the blessing we already have, rather than making the list of things we want.

  If this year of financial discipline has taught me anything, it’s to be content with the things I have, and be oh-so grateful for the things we are blessed to receive. 

  Ok, stepping off my soap box now to share a delicious cookie recipe from a 4 little Ferguson’s reader.  This is quite the hodge podge post today, isn’t it?!

  Diane says, “These are a new Fall favorite cookie at my house!  Let me warn you, they are addictive……you can’t stop at just one!Bursting with flavor and your house smells AMAZING from start to finish, these cookies are a must try, and a keeper in my kitchen.”

  Thanks for the recipe, Diane!  I agree with her above statements, I made these for a school function, and they are seriously delicious!!   I LOVED how soft and chewy they were!!!!

  Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cups Butter, Room Temperature
• 1 cup Sugar, Plus More For Rolling Cookies
• ½ cups Pumpkin
• ¼ cups Molasses
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 2-⅓ cups Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1-½ teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 1 teaspoon Cloves
• ½ teaspoons Salt

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth. Add the pumpkin, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract, mix until well combined.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined. Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. The dough can be chilled for 2-3 days.

3. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° F. Place sugar in a small bowl. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough in sugar until well coated and place on prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until cookies look cracked and set at the edges. The cookies will still be soft. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a 2-3 minutes after removing them from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  YUM!

Enjoy these cookies, and please, take time to enjoy this time of year and BE THANKFUL!!!!!!!!!!  Not looking forward, not looking back, just here today.

  I am thankful for this time of year, a warm home, for yummy fall goodies, thankful for my family and faith in a God who loves me and calls me by name, and thankful for you coming to see me each day!  🙂

“If you only had today, the things you said “Thank you” for yesterday, what would you have left?”

~T

P.S.  I have a VERY special treat for you tomorrow!  A guest is coming to see us for the next 3 days, and she is showing us the Art of Freezer Cooking!  Remember my Cousin, Cassie from Laugher and Lattes?  She was my very first guest post, so this will be the 2nd “Cousin Feature Post” here at 4 little Ferguson’s with another Cousin of mine, Christy! 

What can I say, I have COOL cousins!!!  🙂 

Julie, are you up next?!?!?!

If Fall Were A Cookie…..

If Fall were a cookie, it would taste like these:

OH MY STINKIN’ WORD people, both of these cookies are SOOO good!

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Sugar Icing

Ingredients

• 2 cups Shortening
• 2 cups Sugar
• 2 cans (15 Oz Each) Pumpkin
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1-½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 8 Tablespoons Milk
• 2 cups Powdered Sugar
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar

Cream shortening, white sugar & pumpkin. Add eggs and mix well. Sift together the baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
Drop from spoon to cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350*.

To making frosting:
Cook butter, milk and brown sugar until dissolved. Cool and add powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread over warm cookies.

Makes 4 or so dozen depending on your cookie spoon size.

This next cookie recipe was passed on to me by my friend, Nicole.  After several comments regarding this recipe, it has come to my attention that they originated here. 

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 10 packages (.74 Oz Each) Apple Cider Drink Mix
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 3 cups Flour
• 14 ounces, weight Package Of Caramel Squares

Preparation Instructions

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
With your mixer cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.
Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. (I had to add a teeny bit more flour to make the dough less sticky) Mix until just combined.
Refrigerate for about an hour. It makes the dough SO much easier to work with.
When you are ready to bake, unwrap your caramels, and preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment. (You really need the parchment!).
Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut.
Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets 2 inches apart.
Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Please don’t over-bake! Once the cookies are done, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment or on a rack.)

Makes roughly 4 dozen.

 Go.  Bake.  You know you want to!  (You can thank me later.)

Click on the titles for easy printing.

Happy Cookie Baking!

~T  🙂

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