Hey, look! A real post!

Aye Aye Aye, it's been a while since I've actually posted something that isn't either a recipe or something to do with the 30 day challenge :) 

I've been under the weather for the last several days. I guess there's some sort of bug that's making it's way through the base..so I suppose it was only a matter of time where it got me. So, for the most part, I've been trying...I say, "TRYING" to take it easy since everything feels like it takes 10x more energy to accomplish. 

We finally got some snow! It actually started snowing earlier this week, so sorry for just now posting some sort of picture of it. There have been some pretty big snow storms mauling England and have steadily made their way to here, but nothing as severe as to what they've been dealing with. I think I've gotten the hang of driving in snow..at least on my street since there's a nice, thick layer of ice to drive on, lol

 My side mirror:

The backyard:

Due to the snow and everything, I got around to dragging the Christmas tree from the garage and got it all set up and decorated. I found some really cool aluminum poinsettia ornaments while I was at the BX, so I figured those would look pretty cool on the tree. I'm sittin' here and actually staring at my anorexic tree and thinking about all the places I've managed to see since we've been in Europe. For every place that I go to, I pick up a cool little vintage glass ornament (except Poland, that's an actual Polish pottery piece). As of now, I have a beer stein for Belgium, a tea cup for England, a coo coo clock for Germany, a pottery bell from Poland, a church tower for the town we live in and I'm working on finding either the Eiffel Tower or a croissant for France. 

My favorite little ornament...chunky lil sheepy :)

Eric and I are heading to an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party tomorrow, so I figured I'd make some of my Grandma's "Cream Cheese Cookies" . I absolutely LOVE these lil cookies..and so do a lot of other people. I try to switch up the icing by using different flavors (orange, lemon, almond, or coconut) ...they taste great even plain! My only real complaint about making these is that you (usually) use a Cookie  Press. Sometimes it's your friend, sometimes it's not. Your batter can't be too thick or too soft...and if you use stoneware, it has to be COLD (as in running cold water over it once it's cooled down a bit) to impress the dough onto it. I looked like a cookie factory earlier since I was using four different stoneware pieces to keep the flow of little tree's going.

Ingredients

I tend to double this recipe! So if you want a good amount of cookies, double all of the ingredients)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups Self Rising flour

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.If you have seasoned Stoneware, you won't need to worry about greasing.  

In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended (I tend to sift the flour into the batter so it insures no clumps). Drop dough by spoonfuls or use a cookie press to place onto prepared cookie sheets.  

Bake for 15 minutes (no more, no less) in preheated oven. Cookies will look pale (that's normal!). 

Ingredients for Icing:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of milk
• 1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon of flavoring (lemon juice, orange juice, almond extract or coconut extract. Or, nothing at all). 

I HIGHLY recommend you use FRESH squeezed lemon juice (you can even buy it in those little bottles that look like lemons), get oranges and squeeze 'em out (I use a Citrus Press)...I haven't tried processed orange juice that you buy in the carton, then again, I can't drink that stuff, lol. Try not to get any pulp in the icing..it'll give a weird texture I don't think you'll want.. Oh, and I say fresh is better than the orange / lemon extract cause the extract stuff makes the icing taste "chemical-y". I tend to "paint" on the frosting on with a silicone basting brush. Oh, and you can add more "flavoring" as you plug along depending on how thick / runny you want the icing :)