Happy National Homemade Cookie Day. I have been busy baking a variety of cookies for the past 2 days. I have also baked 16 dozen of cut-out sugar cookies for Halloween but they are not decorated yet. My grandchildren love when I bake them cookies.
I am always so excited and feel so honored when one of my recipes is published in a magazine. This week I received 2 magazines from Taste of Home with one of my cookie recipes in each. This is my recipe for Halloween Party Cutout Cookies. It is in the Taste of Home magazine posted above. I have not made my cookies yet for this year but here are a few from last year.
I use my recipe for decorated sugar cookies, and decorated these very simple. Some of the grandchildren helped with these.
The second magazine is a cookie swap edition and is full of great looking recipes. I will be trying several of them out this year. The cookie recipe of mine they published was actually one I created a few years ago as an after school snack for some of my grandchildren. 
This recipe only has 4 ingredients. If you like chocolate and peanut butter together, this will hit the spot.[yumprint-recipe id=’25’]
They turned out cute, co-ordinated with her other sweet 16 decorations and cake, and the guests really liked them.
Another grand-daughter was having a “Spa” themed birthday party the following week and wanted some of the cookies too. She turned “12” so I made these. 
I bought the dog cookie cutter at a kitchen store in our mall and for the other cookies I just used heart shaped and a round cookie cutter. I did not take great pictures as I did not really plan to post them but they are a cute idea so I wanted to share them.
I used my recipe for decorated sugar cookies.
Everyone around my age (62) grew up watching a show on television that transported us to a magical town called Mayberry.
It was a quaint, little old fashioned town, made up of kind, hardworking people with good morals. There was no serious crime and families were close. People were kind to their neighbors. Children showed respect to their parents and romance was not the sex scenes we now have on television. I know that for myself, I wanted to live my adult life in a place like this.
I have always loved to be in the kitchen creating recipes and cooking with the grandchildren.They know how I love to cook, bake, and enter cooking contests and I think that excitement has been passed on to them. They have been the inspiration for many of my contest recipes.
When they are small, we move a stool over to the kitchen counter or bring their small table into the kitchen. As they grow older, they have taken over the kitchen at times. They will even call me to tell me an idea they had for a recipe. See how much fun we have baking and cooking together!
This past week I have been seeing all of the Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel as well as the Hallmark Christmas Ornament Event on Saturday.
It is common now for the expectant parents to both attend a cook-out or dinner to celebrate the shower.
Last week my husband Bob (alias Grandpa Bob or Papaw Bob) turned 60 and we celebrated with a 3 day party at a lake resort we love with 80 of our closest friends and family members.
My son and his family flew in from Co, my daughter and her family came from NC, and my brother and sister-in-law came from KY.
Two and a half years ago, Bob was going thru a serious illness and we are so thankful that our prayers were answered and he beat this. I wanted to give us something positive to hold onto, so at that time I started planning this party. There were a lot of behind the scene details I had to work out and I felt like I had planned a wedding, but I am so happy with the results.
Continue reading TURNING THE BIG “60” IN STYLE-WEEKEND PARTY
