100 year old Amish sugar cookie recipe, Christmas sarifice, Gift of the magi, social and economic obligations, air fresheners

Ok....So, I'm done with my three day silent temper fit over xmas.  Now I'm ready to grudgingly co-operate with the social an economic obligations of the season.  I have too. In a sacrificial  gesture worthy of the magi, Jimmy brought in scented candles and cinnamon pine cones.  He said maybe the traditional holiday stinks  would get me in the mood. To let you know what a magnanimous gesture this was on his part...... Jimmy hates scented candles , air fresheners and  that sort of thing.  After his sacrifice I had to bend just a little bit, so I hunted through all of my obscure cook books to find just the right cookie recipe.  My father gave me an Amish cook book  many years ago and I found the following recipe for soft sugar cookies.   It is a large recipe so if you need to make  a huge amount of cookies for some reason this is a great one to use.  The cookies? ...they are melt in your mouth yummy.   The only problem with the recipe is that it did not give an exact temp for them, it said 12 minutes at 350-400 degrees. It took three cookie sheets to get it right. 350 degrees  at 8 minutes was the  sweet spot.  Don't wait for the cookies to brown  they will be all dried out. Even if they don't look done, remove at 8 minutes.

100 year old Amish  sugar cookie recipe

1 pound butter
3 cups  sugar
4 well beaten eggs
8 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
4 tsp baking powder
2 cups heavy cream
1 tbsn vanilla

Cream together butter,sugar,eggs and vanilla. Then add your cream slowly.  Then add all other ingredients. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick and  cut  desired shape.  Bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.  Do not over bake as this will dry out your cookies. You may need to experiment with the temp a bit as each oven differs.  

Lazy sunday, Purple and blue cookies, How could you do something so appalling? Flour sack cookie recipe, Seattle sand bagging

Rainy, floody, western wa.  So, what do you do when everyone around you is sandbagging their driveways?  Why..... make sugar cookies in your pajamas, of course.   That was yesterday..... We never changed out of our pajamas. Jimmy might have moved all of about 6 minutes between 9 am and 5 p.m. yesterday...How do I know this? Because every move he made disturbed my semi-dozing state.  I rousted myself  at about 3 o'clock  to go make cookies. But only because I wanted a cookie and for NO OTHER REASON.  In a fine nose snubbing of the holiday, I  made the frosting for them baby blue and purple!  Cuz I'm an artist and  they are MY cookies and  I can paint them any color I want.  Anyway.... no stirring could be found in the Frankie and Jimmy household  until 5 pm when the hyperactive neighbors showed up.  These enterprising folk were up and dressed and out of their house by the crack of noon for some frenzied xmas shopping. When we slowmo answered the manic  tapping of the door.... There they stood, appalled at the scene before them. Unwashed and undressed, sitting in a bed of cookie crumbs is how they found us.(shamelessly grinning from ear to ear no less) .  Waving her arms frantically the neighbor lady chirped "You haven't done ANYTHING all day?" I replied ..."I made cookies....want one?".  And then all hell broke loose..  OH MY GOD THEY ARE PURPLE AND BLUE!  THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RED AND GREEN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?!!!!!!!!
And then she started to cry......ok..... not really, but she did look disappointed and in an admonishing tone of voice said "you are such a grinch."
I verbalized no response because the only thought in my head was  "really?... It....it .. took you five years to figure that out?". 
I heave a heavy sigh here and hold the delightful image of the laziest Sunday in recent history.....Hoping it will be enough to get me through all the crap I have to get done today.
And just an FYI  for those who care. The recipe I used for the sugar cookies? .... I got off the back of the flour bag.  How lazy is that?

Xbox 360 Kinect as anti-aging device, xbox Kinect infrared, Infrared antiaging, infrared for plants. Amazing and fun wrinkle cure, Playing Kinect naked

Dear Microsoft....You are about to owe me one big-ass commission. 
Dear Ladies .... Get ready for the easiest and most fun anti-aging routine you have ever experienced.
Dear plant lovers...... get ready for your indoor plants to go full on jungle on you.

What am I talking about?    The infrared light used in xbox 360 kinect to track your movements.  Back when I was in the medical field we used infrared light for everything from wound healing to mood alteration to wrinkle cure.  There are many expensive  infrared light therapies on the market right now for anti-aging. The optimum word being expensive. They are expensive because they work.  They also take some patience to sit around doing nothing for  a half an hour a day,  so most normal folks, with lives,  who spring the whopper price eventually peter off in their usage. Do the research ladies.... you will see what I mean.  Wanna look younger and feel better? Soak up some infrared rays.

Plants need NIR for healthy  growth.  Indoor plants usually require some kind of  infrared lighting to maintain health and vigor  (too much and they will go into blooming mode, not enough and they get spindly).  This is a common and well known fact.

Stay with me....I'm getting to the point.

The Kinect floods the play space with  NIR. The infrared light is used to track our movements.  Its what makes the machine work. Knowing what I do about infrared...... from my medical days.... when Jimmy told me how the Kinect works and showed me  night vision goggle shots of the infrared rays shooting around the room.  I wondered if there would be unforeseen  (or at least unmarketed)  advantages of using the  game device.  So , I kept quiet for a month.........     Ladies...2 days ago my daughter said  "Are you using a new face cream ? 'Cause the creases around your mouth are going away"  What?" I squealed, and ran to the mirror to see for myself. Sure enough...she's right.  ( I trust her because she did not addend with a request for a loan from the bank of  mom&dad)  And an extra perk?  Those almost jowly things  on my chin are getting smaller.   I am usually covered from head to toe in clothing (not modesty... I get cold)....only my arms  and head are exposed. Even the skin on my hands and arms look better.  Now , maybe its just from playing the thing everyday and getting a lot of exercise, but I will keep watching.  If I keep seeing these results, I don't care how cold I am.... I will be playing the thing naked!

On to plants my Dieffenbachia,  which sits next to the sofa started crying about a week ago.  Dieffenbachias only cry when they are very, very, happy.  There are  also 6 brand new leaves forming......not bad considering it only grew 4 over the last year.  I will be  bringing in some new house plants and making sure they are in the NIR area. 

Between my morning  tai chi with  the fitness game and Jimmy   bowling with the neighborhood guys, We have been  exposed to the Infrared for a minimum of  2 hours a day  for the last month..  I  will keep you posted  on living in infrared light.   This bears watching. If anyone else has a Kinect and has noticed any of the above  please let me know......