cool, crisp, apple weather.....

has put us in the mood to.......

decorate for halloween

nibbling mice, bats hanging from lights....

rats and spiders everywhere.........

masked faces and.........

hungry crows.........

spooky paintings......

signs of witchcraft.......

scary......

we've brought out our favorite 

halloween stories......

and made our traditional autumn spiced cookies.........

inspired from a recipe we found on

Remembrance Press

www.remembrancepress.com

ingredients:

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

food colorings in assorted colors

3-inch leaf-shaped cookie cutters

wooden skewers

makes about 4 dozen cookies

in a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat sugar, butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.  beat in egg and vanilla until combined.  in a medium bowl, using a whisk, combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, cloves, nutmeg and salt.  add to cream cheese mixture; stir until a dough forms.  divide dough into 4 equal parts.  knead food colorings into dough to tint each piece a different autumn color.  shape each piece of dough into a disk; wrap each disk separately in plastic wrap.  freeze dough until slightly firm, about 15 minutes.

preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. using your hands, divide each color dough into several small pieces.  gather about one-quarter of dough pieces from each color dough and press together to form a multicolored disk, being careful not to combine colors completely.  continue pressing the pieces of dough together to form 4 multicolored disks.  wrap 3 dough disks separately in plastic wrap; chill until ready to use.  

on a lightly floured surface, roll remaining dough to a 1/4 inch thickness.  using a 3-inch leaf-shaped cookie cutter, cut out leaf shapes, re-rolling scraps for additional cookies.  transfer cut outs to ungreased baking sheets.  using a wooden skewer, draw "veins" on leaves.  bake cookies until edges just start to brown, 7 - 9 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool.  continue rolling, cutting and baking remaining dough.

we love nicole's adorable autumn haircut........

 

it's still warm enough for yesterday's international walk/bike to school day...

it is too far to walk, but it's not too far to bike

gabi, sidney and dad darrell biked all the way to school
(thanks darrell, i owe you)

off they go!  45 minutes to school.......