Rainy Day Fun

This is our 4th day without wheels and our 2nd rainy day. Entertaining the 14 to 18 month old set can be tricky on days like today. If you are stumped today, here is Sister Mary 4's top five boredom busters: 1. Pearler beads (those plastic things you put on forms and melt with your iron), 2. button box (string them on elastic thread with girls and make letters with your boys), 3. baking, 4. stamping (my kids love my SU robot set), and 5. finally library day. Don't forget the books on CD for when the screen time has been used up.

We opted for baking. I figured at some point everyone in my house would be happy. So who knew that Buck would get in on the baking action. I am so glad, especially as this recipe calls for some by hand stirring. Two Bits got busy supervising while he did a couple of those math pages from school. Half Buck kept little Mite and Cents busy for some of the time. But of course, Mite had to come back for a couple visits, especially after he heard the word cookie. This is my favorite cookie recipe and it is that Mrs. Fields one with all the rumors about it. You know: someone supposedly asked how much they were paying for the recipe and was told $4 and then was charged $400 or something. So she shared it all around. Wonder what she could have done with it if she had a blog way back then. This recipe was one of the first to go into that brand spanking new recipe box with the cute little strawberry cards when I was a newlywed. Anyway, here is the recipe:

Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Cookies - Serves 2 chubbies (it says so, right on my card and then it has my best friend and my name on it). Cream together: 2 C butter, 2 C Sugar, 2 C brown sugar. Add 4 eggs and 2 tsp vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl mix together: 4 C flour, 5 C oatmeal, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp baking soda. Then mix both bowls together. By hand works best. Add 24 ounces of chocolate chips and 1 finely grated Hersey bar (optional) and 3 C chopped nuts (I use about a cup as I don't like nuts THAT much). Place golf ball sized cookies on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Now you know that is waaaaay too many cookies for any two best friends. So here is what I do. I place several big spoonfuls on wax paper and roll them up. Then I put the wax paper rolls into a zip lock bag and freeze them. Now I can take out enough dough for a couple trays of warm, fresh baked cookies on another day. Then I bake up a whole mess of them. It is good thing I did because, Mite stole one off the tray before it went into the oven. Then he somehow got back to the cooling racks for two more! I'm telling you they are getting more rambunctious as we go on down the line. Here is my little thief.