Quick Cookies

Hopefully everyone has their holiday baking well in hand.  But if you just happen to have forgotten you need to bring something to that party tonight... I'm going to share my go-to quick cookie recipes. 
I made both of these two recipes a few weeks ago when I needed to bake cookies in just a couple hours between activities.  Both recipes are five ingredients or less, and cook in just a few minutes at 350 degrees, but are delicious!

Cakemix Cookies
I first learned of these while reading the Hannah Swenson mysteries.  If you like quick, light mysteries and baking I highly recommend the series. I've made these in lemon and chocolate, next up will be red velvet and funfetti. 

1 box of cakemix (any flavor)
1 tub of whipped topping (8oz, I use coolwhip)
1 egg

I already cracked the egg here.

Beat the egg in a bowl.  Add all other ingredients and mix well in a large bowl. 

Roll into small balls (these are super sticky) and then in a bowl of powdered sugar.  Place onto a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes.  Cool and enjoy.  Makes about 4doz, depending on size.

More or Less Peanut Butter Cookies
These come from my friend Samantha's blog The Cluttered Table.  The blog is down now, but perhaps she'll start up again sometime.  They are a family recipe that she was kind enough to share with us all.

1 egg
1cup sugar
1cup peanut butter
chocolate chips (optional)
Hersey's kisses (optional)

Mix egg and sugar in a bowl.  Stir in peanut better until well blended.  Add in chocolate chips if desired.  The dough should be slightly oily, but not overly so, or sticky.

Roll with your hands into walnut size balls and place onto a cookie sheet.  Press down with a fork to create that classic peanut butter cookie look. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350degrees.  Move immediately to wax or parchment paper to cool so that they don't stick to the cookie sheet.  Place the Hershey's kiss on top while still hot.  (I use the chocolate chips but skip the kisses personally.)  Enjoy while warm or cool.

I hope these recipes help when you need a quick but yummy homemade treat.   The great thing is they bake at the same temp for about the same time.  I love it when things work our like that!

Starting new traditions

We started many new traditions this Thanksgiving! My favorite was our Thankful Tree. It is important to remind our children what Thanksgiving is all about.
Kaleigh (4 1/2 years old) loved sitting with me and talking about the things she was thankful for. As she would tell me I would write it on a leaf to be put on our tree. We then used washable paint on our big window to paint a tree (we didn't have any brown paint but she didn't seem to mind). Each person in the family was given a branch and wrote down the things/people/places they are thankful for.

On a crabby day I would bring Kaleigh and Lilly to the tree and read them the leaves. They would some times add things they were thankful for so they would be added to the tree. Attitudes would generally improve after being reminded of that the things they needed to be thankful for.

Dairy Free Thanksgiving

I have always LOVED cooking which is a good thing considering the allergies in our family. Kaleigh our oldest daughter is allergic to dairy and I am allergic to ALL nuts. Although Kaleigh's reaction to dairy has become less severe it is important for us to keep any form of dairy out of her diet. My allergy to Nuts consists of hives and blisters in my mouth...trust me NOT fun. I have seen conflicting opinions but I believe allergies run in a family. My mother is also allergic to ALL nuts and Catherine (the C in ACE sisters) is also allergic to dairy. My other two girls have not shown an signs of being allergic to dairy or nuts but it is still early days.

This Thanksgiving we had a treat of having Catherine come to visit us! This was her first time seeing Abigail (the newest member of the family) and our new house here in Arkansas.






Because now we had two people in the house that needed dairy-free food I decided to make everything dairy free for Thanksgiving. On the list of food for the feast included: Ham, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, bread rolls, cranberry sauce, brown gravy, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Each adult made a part of the meal Curtis made the pumpkin pie with the children, Catherine made the green bean casserole, and I did the rest.


Most dishes can be made dairy free with a simple substitute like milk for a milk alternative (soy milk, almond milk, or coconut milk) and/or butter for a dairy free fat (dairy free butter, oil, or Crisco).
Dairy-free Pumpkin Pie

• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 Cup White Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg or Allspice
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 15-ounce Can Pumpkin Puree
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Soymilk
• 1 Pie Shell 

Mix the sugars, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg or allspice, cloves and salt in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the sugar mixture, pumpkin, and vanilla until smooth (if you are using vanilla Soymilk do not add vanilla . Stir in Soymilk
Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for about 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
Allow the pie to cool for 2 hours.

This tastes as good as regular pumpkin pie!! 

Dairy-free Green Bean Casserole

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 8 tablespoons butter (non dairy)
• 10  mushrooms sliced
• 3 tablespoons flour 
• pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 cups of soymilk (could use chicken broth)
• 16 ounces green beans(we used fresh but could be canned or frozen)
• 1 container of French-fried onions

If using fresh green beans:

Snap ends of green beans (I never cut my green beans with a knife). Cook in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. 

In a sauce pan add oil and "butter" and heat until melted. Saute mushrooms in oil and "butter" mixture for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms darken and shrink.
Remove from heat. Add three tablespoons of flour and mix together. 

Slowly add the Soymilk, salt, and pepper. If the mixture is too thin add additional flour for a thicker.

Pour over green beans. Add half the can of french-fried onions and mix.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Sprinkle french fried onions on top and bake an additional 5-10 minutes

 Here is our feast!! Yum Yum

An ACE tradition

 When I joined the family I discovered a much loved tradition of the family...FRESH POPCORN!
This is my oldest daughter Kaleigh taking part in the family tradition.

Step one: add enough corn oil to cover the bottom of the pan

 Step two: add three popcorn kernels and wait for them to pop

Step three: (have to do this fast so no picture) add enough kernals to cover the bottom of the pot.
Step four: shake the pot as you watch the kernels pop! Take off of the heat when kernels slow down popping.
Step five: add salt to taste...YUM YUM

It is Kaleigh approved!

Black Walnuts: Part 1

Even the dogs wanted to get in on the fun.

Fall in Kentucky is full of color in the trees, crispness in the air, and black walnuts on the ground.  You see them everywhere, laying under trees, along the roadsides, and crushed by tires, turning the pavement black.

Over the last week my husband and I have been collecting these green gems with several projects in mind.  I want fabric dye, he wants wood stain.  Fortunately they are made by exactly the same process!





Tonight, we got started de-hulling.  Black walnuts have a soft outer green hull that surrounds the hard shell that protects the actual edible nut.  Removing this hull is a bit like opening an avocado.

Unhulled nuts

Removing the hull

When the green flesh is exposed to air it oxidizes and turns dark brownish-black.  This is the stuff that will give us color for dye and stain.  It's important to wear gloves unless you really want to turn your hands green!

Oxidation!

We collected all the hulls and whatever black mush we could into a bucket and put the nuts into a separate bucket for dealing with later.  We made it through two five gallon buckets, but there are two more to go.

Lots of hulls for stain and dye

The nuts still need to be washed and shelled

Once they are all done we'll add water and let the hulls soak for at least a week, while the color leeches out into the water.

Then, it's time to dye!

Every now and then you find worms. 

Garden visitor

Found this little black swallowtail caterpillar in the garden as I was trimming back the fennel plants.

Last year the caterpillars were all over my dill, but since it didn't fare well this year I thought I'd miss out on having caterpillars.  So I was thrilled to see this one.  He can share my fennel any day!

I never seem to find recipes to use all the fennel fronds we get out of the garden.  Most things call for the bulb or seeds.  Anyone have a good use for large quantities of fennel fronds?

Rust Dyeing

This week I have been trying out  a new type of dyeing.  I think it's really a bit more like batiking without the resist than dyeing, but either way it's been fun and the results are pretty cool!

Rusted fabric, how neat!.

 I came across the idea of rust dyeing thanks to a friend's facebook post,  I immediately thought, hey, that's cool and I have everything I need.  Unfortunately, as usual, this lead to me getting going and thus I have no how-to pictures.  I'm sure I'll be doing this again soon though, so I'll get pictures then.

All wrapped up.  There's a horseshoe in the middle.

The basic premise of rust dyeing is that you start with a piece of fabric, generally white or cream, but any light color should work.  Silk, wool, and cotton are best.  But I imagine most natural fibers should be fine.  I used two silk scarves since that's what I had on hand.  Soak the fabric to get it soaking wet (a 2:1 water and vinegar solution is ideal), then wrap, tie, etc it to any rusty metal.  The important thing is getting good contact between the metal and the fabric.  If you have a flat grate or something like that, lay the fabric out and place something heavy on top.

I had some old chain and a couple horseshoes around the house.  So I twisted and folded and wraped until as much of the fabric as I could manage was touching the metal.  Then, I gave it a dunking in the water/vinegar solution and set it out on the back deck.  Most instructions I found said to give it a spray, but I was too lazy to find an empty spray bottle yesterday.

It's a bit breezy outside and I didn't want the
silk to fly away overnight, so this is drying in
in the bathroom.  My husband is thrilled.

Then, just leave it alone for at least 24 hours.  Make sure it stays damp, leave it as long as you want.  A longer time = darker colors generally.  When you think it's done, unwrap, rinse in clean, cool water and hang up to dry.  Or, if you aren't happy with the way it looks, wrap it up and let it sit again.

I have one scarf I'm happy with and one that is all wrapped up again.  I read that using tannin water or other dye modifiers can get the rust spots to turn brown and black shades, I hope to try that next time around!

Who we are

Welcome!  We are the ACE sisters. We currently live in two different states, leading three very different lives.  But, we all love to craft, create, and cook.

This blog is a place for us to share our activities and ideas with each other and the world.  We hope you'll find inspiration here and join us in our adventures.