The Smell of Cookies Wafting Through the Air ...

Let me just say that my husband loves the smell of cookies when he walks in that door after a day at work...





Today it's going to be *Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies*, the recipe being from Epicurious.

Recipe

I have to put a good word in for my wonderful Kitchen Aid Mixer :).





(Thank you Great Aunt Claire!) I had always thought it would be easier to get a bowl out and use a hand-held mixer... but then I discovered why everyone loves a Kitchen Aid so much--- you don't have to stand there doing the work- it does it for you (pardon my slang but--- DUH....).





The ingredients were basic--- nothing fancy here :). Everything went smoothly... it just took quite a while to bake all the cookies- I have a very small oven and I can only get 8 cookies on my one and only baking sheet.

The cookies were described as being soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside. I discovered this to be true- when the cookies were fresh from the oven. Though, over time they ended up crunchy all the way through. I was hoping for a Peanut Butter Cookie that stayed gooey... Good thing Andrew will eat anytyhing that's made out of sugar and peanut butter :).

The end result:

Scrumdiddleeumpcious

Christmas Cookies I made in 2006... Can't wait till this holiday season! :)

















I'm still taking ideas for a good cookie business name! :)

ChristmasTime Brainstormers

For some reason, I've lately been stuck on searching out good Christmas ideas: recipes, decoration ideas, candy crafts., etc. Here are some brainstorming photos I found:



I'd love to find a recipe for making soft peppermint candy trees, such as these. The garland is rather cute, too. (What do you think about the grass green backdrop?! :) I love it <3)>

Circus Sticks would be cute in a glass jar.

Peppermints, Peppermints, and More Peppermints....

I'd definitely say that this a MerryMags style hat! :)

I'd love to add the English tradition of Christmas Crackers to our own Christmas.



I grew up with sugared candy garland just like this. I was devestated, to say the least, when I found out that my family had cleared out old Christmas decorations and this one went :(.... My first married Christmas, though, I bought up about 6 packages of this though! Gotta keep it in stock :).



Color :).

The Start of Something New

Welcome to MerryMags Homemaking! This is the start of something new for me. I've recently become a full-time homemaker... and with no children in our family, I've got plenty of time to spare. I came to the realization that I should seek to put that extra time to use... So now you have MerryMags Homemaking: My Journey Into the Art of Creating a Happy Nest.

I considered just having one large blog to contain my daily posts and also those simply relating to homemaking... then I decided I'd like a blog dedicated to the art of creating that happy nest :).

Warning: This blog will most likely be an unorganized smorgasbord :)...

Hopefully eveyone that visits "my little spot on the web" will be able to take away something happy and useful from MerryMags Homemaking.

Enjoy!