Taste Testing Tuesday With Christmas Cookies

Things are a bit crazy around our house this year with a lot of things going on. So here is a repeat of a special Taste Testing Tuesday from last year. 🙂 And if you are worried about someone stealing your Christmas cookies, I’ve heard that certain elves can be bribed to guard them for you. 😉

It’s time to rev up your taste buds! Yep, it’s Taste Testing Tuesday once again. And I’m betting today’s taste test will be your all time favorite! What are we testing? Christmas Cookies!!! A special thank you goes out to my daughter, Megan, for sharing some pictures with me of some of the Christmas cookies they made at their house this week. 🙂 Here are some suggestions for yummy cookies you can make and test out:

#1.) Peanut Butter Blossoms. Oohh these are soooo yummy! A peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss added on top. Drooooooling…

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#2.) Rice Krispies Treats Christmas Trees. These are made just like the original Rice Krispies Treats recipe on the cereal box plus some green sugar and sprinkles added. Then cut them into triangles and you’re done!

#3.) Molasses Crinkles – This is one of my favorite cookies. I remember making them with my mom when I was a little girl. 🙂

#4.) Sour Cream Cookies – I was looking for the recipe that my Grandma used to make for us and these are similar but not quite the same. The recipe calls for adding a frosting glaze to these while they are still hot but I went with sprinkles instead to cut down on the amount of sugar.

#5.) Cut-Out Butter Cookies – Ok, this has to be my all-time favorite cookie! (Molasses Crinkles are a close 2nd.) This is another recipe I made with my mom when I was little. Well, and even after I got “big”. And then I made them with our kids and now our daughter made this batch with her kids. 🙂

I have to admit that decorated cut-out cookies get my vote for at least LOOKING the best! 😉

#6.) Russian Teacakes – This cookie is one of my hubby’s favorite cookies. They rank pretty high with me too. I make them with finely ground pecans but you can use other nuts instead. They are rolled in powdered sugar which helps to make them especially tasty.

#7.) Peanut Butter Cookies – Another one of our favorites! Ok, yes, there seems to be a pattern developing here, doesn’t there? I have a lot of favorite cookies! Haha! One of my jobs when I was little and helping my mom make these was to make the criss-cross pattern on each cookie. I always thought that was pretty cool. 😉

So what is your favorite Christmas cookie? Do you make Christmas cookies at your house? Maybe you buy some from a store? What is your all-time favorite cookie that you would ask for if you could have any cookie in the world? I hope you have a great Christmas cookie Taste Testing Tuesday at your house! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday #61 Teddy Grahams

I’m finally back with another Taste Testing Tuesday! This week we’re looking at Teddy Grahams snacks. These are little graham crackers made in the shape of Teddy Bears. 🙂 Very cute and quite yummy! I only have 2 flavors to use for my taste test due to being in quarantine for weeks because of my hubby and I catching Covid-19 at different times. (I haven’t been to a store since October 15th!) Teddy Grahams come in a few more flavors so check your grocery stores to see what is available near you.

As you can see, the flavors used for our taste test were Honey and Chocolate. You might want to use some cupcake liners to serve your Teddy Grahams in.

These snacks are so cute! Can you see the two different poses the teddy bears are in? Here’s a close up of the Honey flavor.

Here are the chocolate ones.

I know Teddy Grahams also come in at least Chocolatey Chip and Cinnamon so be sure to keep an eye out for those flavors too.

The boxes of the Teddy Grahams also have some fun ideas on the back of the boxes.

And it looks like there are more discovery ideas at the Teddy YouTube Channel. 😉 (I haven’t seen it myself yet.)

Which flavor is your favorite? I think I like the Honey flavor best! 🙂 I hope you can have some fun with a Taste Test of Teddy Grahams snacks!

Let’s Make Pictures With Dried Beans, Lentils or Seeds

This is a fun and easy activity that your kids may have done in school. We did it way back in the dark ages when I was in school. 😉 All you need is a piece of paper, some dried beans, lentils, seeds, rice, etc and some glue. A pair of tweezers and/or a toothpick might come in handy. I used some leftover lentils and rice mixture I had from making a batch of soup.

I suggest you choose the size of your pieces according to the age of the kids making a picture. For instance, the size I used is easily bumped out of position so you have to be careful and take your time. Larger beans for younger kids might be a good idea.

All you do is arrange the dried items in a pattern to make a picture and glue them in place. It can be a “real” item or just a pattern that the kids enjoy making. Start by pouring out a few of your dried items onto the area where you are working so you can get a hold of the individual pieces.

I decided to make some flowers. Here’s how I arranged the lentils to start a flower.

Then I made 4 flowers, switching the colors of lentils for some of them.

Next I added some stems and a few leaves.

Finally I added some rice at the bottom to be grass.

After everything has been glued down and the glue has had time to dry, you can write some words on your picture if you would like to. These would make adorable gifts for the kids to make and give at Christmas time. Putting it in a frame would make it even nicer. I hope you’ll have fun creating pictures! 🙂

Fun With Perspective – What Am I?

Looking at things from different perspectives can be a little hard to explain to a child. But here is a way that might help them understand that things look differently depending on how you look at them. And it can be a lot of fun! It’s also a good reminder to us adults, that the way kids see things is different from the way adults see them. Sit down on the floor in your in kitchen and take a look around. Can you see what is on top of the countertop? Do the doors on your cupboards look bigger? What if you need a drink of water, but the faucet is waaaaay above your head? I think you understand what I’m talking about. 😉 So let’s have some fun with the perspective of being really close up to something when you can’t see the whole thing and compare it to the perspective of seeing the whole object. See if your kids (and you!) can guess what each close up picture is before you scroll on to the answer that reveals what you’re looking at. Here we go!

#1.) What is this?

Answer: A quite ripe banana!

#2.) What is this? (Could it be a mountain side with waterfalls?)

Answer: It’s a piece of a dead tree!

#3.) What is this?

Answer: Half an orange!

#4.) What is this?

Answer: A small tomato!

#5.) What is this?

Answer: Salt from the salt shaker!

#6.) What is this?

Answer: Coffee grounds!

#7.) What is this?

Answer: A taco shell!

#8.) What is this? (Is it craters on the moon?)

Answer: A slice of white bread!

#9.) What is this?

Answer: A Ritz cracker!

#10.) What is this?

Answer: A slice of swiss cheese!

#11.) What is this?

Answer: It’s Rusty’s nose! Rusty is our dog. 🙂

Did you guess some of them right or did we fool you? You can use your camera on your cell phone for taking pictures to have handy to entertain the kids when you need a little something more! I hope you enjoyed our little game today! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #8

Hello and a happy Tuesday to you! It’s a GREAT Tuesday for us because 4 of our grandchildren are here staying with us and we are having a super-duper time being together! 🙂 They helped me with this Taste Testing Tuesday but we were having so much fun I forgot to take very many pictures. Oops! So Taste Testing Tuesday #8 is all about tasting different kinds of cheese. We have 6 kinds to try out…Colby, Smoked Swiss, Smoked Cheddar, Swiss, Muenster and American.

We started out with me drawing in the faces on the chart for what we each thought of each kind of cheese. Halfway through the kids took over drawing their own faces to express their thoughts so things got even funnier. 😉

Now for some cheesy grins! 😉 Little Miss said she liked ALL of the cheese.

This guy was not too impressed with smoked cheeses but Muenster was a definite YES! Although when his brother tried to give him Muenster with chocolate powder on it, that was a strong NO!

Middle brother liked some of the cheese, but some he could easily leave alone.

This guy was a good sport and let his Grandma talk him into participating. 😉 His favorite is Swiss.

We hope you’ll take a Taste Testing Tuesday Cheese test too! (Wow, that’s a mouthful!) Thanks for stopping by!