Christmas Cookie Bakeathon Tradition ~ Baking & Giving

Our yearly Christmas Cookie Bakeathon Day arrived sunny and warm -- not very Christmasy at all. But the fresh baked aromas soon got us all in the Christmas mood.  When we took a break for fresh cookies and milk the mood was complete.

We don't make fancy Christmas Cookies, we just use our family's recipes handed down thru the generations.  Like Aunt Marian's chocolate cookies, Great Grandpa's soft sugar cookies and Grandma's peanut butter cookies.  We

Christmas Cookie Bakeathon Preparation

Each year our family bakes hundreds, if not thousands, of Christmas cookies. We share them with almost everyone we see during the holidays:  clerks from our favorite stores, delivery personnel from Fed Ex, UPS and more, everyone at my husband's place of employment, elderly friends, family, church friends and so on!  We have learned to prepare ahead of time, so when the baking day comes, we can quickly, well, not quickly, maybe efficiently get them all baked and packed.

We use plastic storage bags and measure all the ingredients possible, dividing the wet from the dry.  A copy of the recipe is stapled to one of the bags and they

A Note From Mom ~ Elizabeth Nurturing, Not Blogging

Elizabeth began this blog because she loves to nurture thru food.  Her care of her family and especially her elderly grandmother has taken her time these past few years and she has not been able to keep up her blog.

I am working on typing up our family recipes for her and decided I would post them here on her blog.  They will not have step by step instructions like when she posts, but I will be posting the recipe cards I am making for her.  They will

Grandmama's Cube Steak - The Story

When I think of Grandmama’s cooking, the first thing that comes to mind is her Cube Steak.  Others in the family certainly made it, but in my mind, it was

Sugar Cookies - The Story

This Sugar Cookie Recipe came to my family from my great grandfather. I unfortunately, never had the privilege to know him in person, but the stories are legend. He was a great tease and loved to laugh with a hearty cackle. He was a dairy farmer who called the square dances at the local grange.

When his health forced him to retire early, he did all the cooking for his wife who then had

Party Sub Sandwiches - The Story

Our family takes our sports very, very seriously. Being from Ohio, we take our Ohio State Buckeyes very, very seriously, and we live and breath football during the

Grandpa R's Applesauce - The Story

This is a tradition I remember from my childhood on up – helping my grandparents in the kitchen.  They always let me help.  They always tried to teach me how to do what they were doing – even when I was so young, they had to repeat the instructions from the beginning every time.

Eventually, I started to remember their recipes and methods, but what I remembered far more clearly was the time they spent with me, letting my little