Soft Molasses Cookies

ooey-gooey goodness

This cookie recipe has been in the family for a very long time. All of us grew up eating these cookies, usuallly with freshly made butter slathered over the top for good measure. Five generations have had the ultimate pleasure of these cookies. They were always ready for us, sitting on their own special spot of the pantry shelves. I couldn't find my great aunt's cookie cutter that she used, which was heart breaking, but one day I found a replica in the store and promptly bought it! Now the cookies taste like they should! But that's just me (and Mom).
There's a lot to this recipe and you have to put the batter together the way it's written, or they won't taste the way they should. So, to start off, here's the list of ingredients:

1 cup molasses (I use Grandma's Robust)
1/2 cup lard (or Crisco)
1/4 cup butter, melted (not margarine)
1/2 cup boiling water
     Mix together and add to:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups flour
     Blend all ingredients together well, and add 2 more cups of flour, mixing thoroughly.
     Cover and let stand in the fridge for one hour.
     Roll out 1/4" thick, use cookie cutters for shapes.
     Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

This picture shows the 4th cup of flour added:

Here the batch is almost all mixed:

Here, the batch is ready for the fridge:

The dough, at this point, as like working with clay. The last cup of flour is hard to mix in, so make sure you've got it mixed thoroughly. When making cookies, roll out the dough on a floured surface. If you don't, you won't like the consequences! Ugh. What a mess!
Besides being the best cookies on the planet, you can use them for holidays and decorate them with frosting and sprinkles. Cut the dough into squares, then put two together with a creamy spread in the center. There seems to be no ending to what you can do to them- well, besides eat them!

Here is the recipe, written by my great grandmother, that I use. Looks like a mouse decided the paper was pretty good, too!

Now it's time for a cup of coffee and some cookies (I've already had two, nice and warm from the oven).
You are going to love these. I promise!

One more time:

Toodles.

Cowland Studio

Fabric and Paint Combination

This dollar store bag has been waiting patiently for me to 'see' what was going to be on it. The poor thing has already been around the block quite a few times, but it's still in great shape. And now, it has some jewelry all its own.
It looked like this when I purchased it.

The fabric for the strip on the front flap has been hanging around for a while, too. The design was easy enough to cut- I just cut 1/2" on either side of the individual strip for hemming, which was done with the iron.
Here it is, taped in place and ready to sew:

Stuffing the bag under the sewing machine was no treat, but I've managed worse. It was at this point that further embellishment came to me.

The darker triangle on the strip is where the inspiration came for the next part. I sketched out how I wanted it to look, at the exact size that would fit neatly on the webbing, on graph paper. From there, it was transferred to a piece of cardboard, with tiny holes to mark certain lines in the design, then transferred to the web. I started with fabric paint, but the colors weren't bright enough, so out came the acrylics. As you can see, they shine quite nicely.

As I was working on the web painting, the final front design shouted out. It's the same as the small web design, only larger, and done in the same acrylic paint.

These few simple things really transformed this dollar store bag, and it holds all my junk, I mean stuff, including my computer. Here's a close up of the front:

It's amazing how something so simple can turn out so satisfying.


Toodles.

Cowland Studio