The Simple Woman's Daybook

Yesterday I was over at The Ranch Wife Chronicles and Robyn had done something called "The Simple Woman's Daybook". It's a blog hop where you get a set of questions and answer them. You then go back to their page and post your name and a link to your blog so others can check it out. It sounded kind of fun so I thought I would give it a shot.
 
The questions for December are:

 

Outside my window...SNOW!!!! We haven't had snow in 310 days according to the weather man. But it is nasty and blowing!!

I am thinking...that this is enough winter for this year. Sure we might end up with a White Christmas but I'm ready for spring and summer :)

I am thankful... That I made it home from work safely! I stayed an extra hour and waited until It was bright enough to see out.

In the kitchen...Christmas cookies galore!! I have been baking up a storm. I plan on taking cookies around to my friends and neighbors tomorrow.

I am wearing... My scrubs still. But I will definitely be putting on something warm soon.

I am creating... Cookies!!! That’s all I’ve made the past few days it seems like around 17 dozen!!

I am going...To my great aunts house this Sunday for Christmas with my dad’s family and am really excited to see my cousins!!

I am wondering... When the snow is going to stop blowing!!!

I am reading...The Diary of A Farmer's Wife a diary of a woman written from 1796-1797. I highly recommend it. It is about the day to day life of her and her husband’s farm in England.

I am hoping...That I pass all of my college classes next semester since they are all online!!

I am looking forward to...Christmas Eve service at church being surrounded by our friends and lots of singing!!!

I am learning....Nothing!! I am on Christmas break from college so I am giving my brain a break!

Around the house...It will soon be filled with the wonderful aroma of cookies baking.

I am pondering...what tomorrow is going to bring. Can't wait to see how some people react to the "end" of the world :) I have a feeling everything will be ok and we will

A favorite quote for today... "Be what you want to be not what others want to see."

One of my favorite things...Blogging, I have enjoyed making my blog even if not many people read it. But mostly I enjoy reading other peoples blogs. I love learning about them and their unique ways of life.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....Christmas on Sunday with part of my family then Christmas Eve service and work.

A peek into my day... I worked last night but didn't get home until 7:30 am, pretty soon I will try and venture outside because I need to go out and do chores and make sure the cows have water, then I'm going to be baking some more cookies, then if it's even safe to leave i have a work meeting to go to. Luckily I have the night off so I plan on sleeping until I can’t sleep no more!!

This is the view from my kitchen. Nice and snowy!

Christmas Cookies!

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day baking around 15 dozen Christmas cookies to give to my neighbors, bosses, and friends. I decided to try some new recipes this year and give each person a variety of cookies.

The first cookie that I made are called Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are a chocolate lovers dream!!

 

The ingredients are:

2/3 cup butter softened

½ cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 package 3.9oz instant chocolate pudding mix
3 tablespoons water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 package mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugars until blended. Beat in eggs. Beat in pudding mix and water. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Roll into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 9-11 minutes or until set and edges are firm. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Make 8 dozen. (I know that's a lot but good amount if your giving them away!!)

 

 

The second cookie I had made once before but I found the recipe on Pinterest and they probably the best sugar cookies I've ever eaten. They are soft, moist, and just delicious!! They are called Amish Sugar Cookies.

 

The ingredients are:

1 cup butter flavored shortening
2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch of salt
1 cup buttermilk
Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and 2 cups sugar until smooth. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in separate bowl; stir into mixture alternately with buttermilk until well blended. Place big heaping spoon fulls(be careful the get bigger so if you want big use the big heaping spoon fulls) onto prepared cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle with sprinkles if desired.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, until edges begin to turn golden brown. Remove from baking sheet to cool on wire rack. When cool, store in an airtight container.

Make about 2-4 dozen depending on size you make them.

 

 

The third cookie I made are called Holiday Melting Moments. They are a little chocolate cookie with a touch of peppermint. They really do just melt in your mouth!!

 

The ingredients are:

Cookies:

1 Cup butter (don’t use Margarine)
1 egg yolk
1 cup plus 2 tablespoon flour
½ cup corn starch
½ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
12 teaspoon salt

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon butter or margarine softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 teaspoons milk
2 candy canes finely crushed/ or Andie's Peppermint baking chips (that's what I used and were amazing)

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat 1 cup butter and egg yolk with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in remaining cookie ingredients. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm. (only took about 30 min for me)
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. On ungreased baking sheet, place balls about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set but not brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
4. In small bowl, mix all frosting ingredients except candy canes with spoon until smooth and spreadable. Frost cookies; sprinkle with candy canes.

Makes 3 dozen. 80 calories per cookie :(

Stay tuned for a couple more recipes hopefully to be made by Friday!

Faces of Agriculture

Check out my Post on Faces of Agriculture about my bees!!

Faces of Agriculture: Missouri Beekeeping with Erin Mullins

The BEST no bake cookies!

This recipe is a very special recipe to me. It is my personal favorite cookie. Now I have tried many different chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies but this one so far has been the best. The recipe is from a cookbook from my mom's hometown church. I had the pleasure of getting to know the lady who provided the recipe, Doris Jean Woodward, and her husband really well. When I would go up and spend a week with my grandmother during the summer we would go and eat senior meals and play the card game Rook with them. Doris Jean played the piano and organ at the church my mom grew up in and even played organ at my parents wedding.

This is the cookbook from my mom's hometown church.

 

Before I was able to cook in the kitchen on my own my mom would make these cookies. I always got really excited when I smelled that wonderful chocolate smell coming from the kitchen. Then by the time I joined 4H and old enough to learn I asked my mom to teach me how to make them. Those cookies were the first thing I took to our County 4H Achievement day. They got a blue ribbon and got picked to go to the Missouri State Fair. One day when we were visiting my grandma I made sure I let Doris Jean know that I made her wonderful cookies and they got sent to State. Today I have the recipe memorized and if I'm in a pinch I can whip them up in about 15 min. I hope one day to pass the recipe down to my kids.

Here is the Recipe:

In a 2 quart sauce pan mix together the following:
2 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk

Add:
1 stick of butter/margarine cut up into slices so it melts easier

Put pan on stove at high heat to boil the mixture. Once the mixture starts to boil let it boil for 1 minute EXACTLY.

 After the minute is up remove from heat and Mix in the following:

1 teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 cups Peanut Butter (we use chunky the nuts add a little more texture but it's ok with smooth)
3-4 cups of oatmeal ( start out just doing 1 cup at a time until it thickens up but don't add to much or you will dry out your cookies so take it SLOW)

Once the mixture is combined take and spoon out about 1-2 tablespoon (your preference on size) on to a cookie sheet covered in wax paper or the counter covered in wax paper. Let cool and Enjoy!!

 Makes about 2 dozen depending on size
Takes 20-30 min

The finished product!

Greeting Cards



This week  I made 2 different greeting cards. The first one I hot glued buttons to look like ornaments. Then I drew on the strings and the bow. It took about 15 minutes to make.

 

 

The second card I made I took Christmas scrap booking paper and cut little strips to make a Christmas tree. I then glued a star button to the top. This took a little bit longer about 30 min since I had to cut out the strips of paper.

 

 

 

Also I wanted to include this picture. My little owl ornament that I made for last weeks paper made the FRONT page!!!! I was super excited. It's not like it's a very big paper but still the front page!

 

 

 

 

Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ecmullins/

Ornaments

For this weeks Pinterest project I made 2 different Christmas ornaments. The first ornament I made was a little stuffed felt owl. I bought about 10 different colors of felt and have just been playing around with the color combinations. They aren't very hard to make and are so stinking cute.

The next ornament that I made was a snowman ornament made out of a clear glass ball ornament filled with marshmallows. In the instructions said to use big marshmallows but I found some little tiny ones and thought they looked better. I used paint for the nose and little tiny buttons for the eyes and mouth. It took about 20 minutes, if that, to make. 

 

 

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I got to spend a little time with both sides of my family. I did alot of traveling on my own and didn't get lost, pulled over, or hit any deer!! I first visited my Grandma and Aunt Wednesday afternoon then spent the night in Iowa with my cousins who I haven't seen since May. Finally for Thanksgiving day I drove to some other cousins from Missouri for the big meal. The food was great and a good time was had by all!

 

 

 





Tis the Season!

Here are some of the Christmas projects that I have been working on the past week. The Christmas Tree, Santa Wreath and candle holder were inspired from Pinterest and are what I've been working on for the news paper. It was fun to actually make something that I pin on Pinterest most of the time they just get pinned and that's it.

 

 

 

 

Last week for my college speech class I had to give a process speech which is basically a demonstration. I did flower arranging. It was something I've always enjoyed and had done several times for 4H and for fun so it was a really easy topic to do.

 



Cows, Crafts, and Charlotte's Web

Yesterday started out with my dad and I and our corgi duke loading our little herd of cattle to the vet for their annual preg check and vaccinations. Now some info on our little herd, it consists of 1 normal size crossbred Angus cow (bought to be a girlfriend to our bull after selling all his women last December), her 9 month old little heifer calf, 1 lowline cow and her 6 month old bull calf, 1 lowline heifer, and a lowline bull. Now the lowline cattle are basically a smaller version of the normal Angus cattle. A mature cow will be only 650-950lbs while a mature bull will weigh 950-1100lbs. They are easy calving, docile, and are very feed efficient. They are perfect for someone with a small acreage that can’t hold very many large cattle. We ended up having 2 out of the 3 girls bred and one very unhappy little bull calf. While we were there he got his tattoo put in his ear and let’s just say he didn’t take it well.

"Normal Sized" Cow (mom to the one below)

 

Little Heifer Getting vaccinations

When I got done with the vet my mom and I went to a couple craft stores to do some shopping for some of my current projects. I was asked earlier this week to do a project, with our local newspaper, about using the website Pinterest to help with Christmas. Over the next 5 weeks I will be trying out different craft projects and recipes and writing up a little report on if they turned out or if they were duds. I’m kind of excited to do it because it is really getting me in the Christmas mood. The first week is Christmas decorations. I have already made this candle holder and I plan on making a Christmas tree out of a tomato cage and a wreath that looks like Santa’s Beard. So it should be interesting to see if they turn out the way they are supposed to.

I ended the day by going to a dinner theater at my old high school and watch my sister and her drama club’s production of Charlotte’s Web. They did a great job. Then I had to go to work. (I work from 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. at a nursing home not too far from my house). All in all it was a pretty fun and successful day but I feel I could sleep for a whole month straight.

 

The Sheep, the Goose, Wilbur, Templeton, and Charlotte

 

The Whole Cast

                                                                                         

Introduction

 
Hello everyone, for those of you who read this that don't know me my name is Erin Mullins and I live on a small farm in northwest Missouri. I am a very old soul who was born 200 years too late. I love history and learning about the way people lived back in the "good ole days" and wishing I could have lived there myself. I have many hobbies and interests that fall into a wide range of categories. I love beekeeping, the rodeo/ranching lifestyle, farm animals, cooking, crafting, reading, listening t0 many types of music, being an advocate for agriculture, and many other things that I’m sure will come up in my posts. I may not have the most interesting life yet but you can bet that I’m sure trying to make one that is! I am a girl with many many dreams and goals for my life. Some are rather weird and unique but they really do map out who I want to be.

The reasons I’m doing this blog are first for my friends and family to keep up with what is going on in my life, second an opportunity for other people to have a chance to learn about things they don't know about through my posts, and the third and final reason is to have a place where I write about joys I’m having on a particular day or to vent on what things are troubling me. I don't know if many people will end up reading this but oh well I’m not here to become famous it's just something I’ve always wanted to do. I follow a few bloggers who really have some inspirational posts that really get a person to thinking and If i can inspire someone or spark an interest to something new that’s wonderful. Please feel free to let me know if you like what I’m saying by commenting because that lets me know that someone is actually reading my blog. Or if you have questions please feel free to ask and I will answer as best as I can! Bare with me for a while while I learn the ropes on this blogging thing. I am super excited to start this new adventure and I hope you enjoy it!

 Erin