If You Give a Dieter a Cookie

I have been counting calories...which mean every pin I see on Pinterest is something that a single bite would deplete my entire calorie allowance for the day.  I finally decided I deserved a break so I made cookies.  I had seen this recipe for Blueberry White Chocolate Brown Butter cookies at Keep It Sweet Desserts.

Not being a fan of blueberries, I decided white chocolate would go great with strawberries.  I followed her recipe exactly with the exception of adding diced strawberries.  I am not going to repeat her recipe.  Visit her blog to find it.  She has lots of other diet busting treats to drool over.  Here is my version.

A word about browning butter.  I had never browned butter before.  It takes a while and it requires you to stand over the stove stirring constantly.  I have to admit I am quite lazy in the kitchen.  The whole time I was thinking, "There better be a huge difference in taste to make up for this mindless tedium."  You will be glad to know there is quite a difference in taste.  Would I do it again?  Maybe....but truth be told...a cookie is a cookie and when you want one, just about any will do.

The jadeite cup and saucer are ones I picked up at a garage sale recently.  (Really when is the last time you saw jadeite at a garage sale!  I will tell you later how I lucked into it.)  The cake plate is reproduction....you can kind of tell the difference in the color and sheen, can't you.  

Now if  I were a true blogger (as opposed to one who posts every six months!)  I would have ironed that vintage runner.  However, life is too short.  It sits on our kitchen table with a bowl of cherries on it.  Before every meal, someone bunches it up and moves it off the table so we can eat.  Therefore it is always wrinkled.  Consider it my commitment to truth in blogging. (Although I rarely eat my cookies off a cute little plate.  Usually I am standing over the counter shoving them in my mouth!)

Patty

A Gift with a Cherry on Top

Let's face it...I am a lazy blogger.  You would think with the amount of snow days we had this year, I would have been churning out posts right and left.  Nope.  I have ideas in my head and photos in my camera and even drafts at my blog site....but no posts...until I do something so cute and so easy I just have to share such as this year's administrative assistants' gifts.

I have had this pin pinned on my gifts board forever.  I love the red suckers as cherries so I decided this year's theme would be cherry.

I can't find the source for this.  It is much pinned, but each pin links to a page not found.  

If you know the source, let me know!

At an estate sale, I bought about 30 wooden baskets for $1.00.  There were tucked in a corner in the barn.  (When you go to an estate sale, you have to get out to the sheds and barns....all kinds of treasures lurk in the cobweb filled corners!)  I love their vintage wood look.  I found the gingham washcloths at Gordman's.  (I am kind of on a gingham kick right now.  I own two gingham shirts...which Kellyn says is a bit of leaning a bit too much toward the dreaded teacher clothes.)

If you are going to do a cherry theme gift basket, don't head to the store looking for cherry flavored stuff because it just isn't there.  Apparently raspberry is the flavor of the day.  There is quite a bit of strawberry too, but even though the red fit the bill, I couldn't stray from my cherry theme.  (Kellyn says I take a theme too far.)  I settled for my go-to red candy decor Cherry Sours....cheap and addicting.  I divided them among baggies and made a topper using card stock.

As soon as I decided on a cherry theme, I sent off to Michigan for our favorite cherry salsa.  Every summer we vacation in Michigan just so we can bring home jars of the stuff!  I ordered jars from Cherry Republic. If you ever find yourself along the west shores of Michigan, you have to try the stuff...sweet and hot make a powerful combination.

Lucky for me (and my grandchildren) one bag of Dum Dums yielded just enough cherry suckers for four gift baskets.  We had fun trying the mystery suckers.  Buttered popcorn was tolerable, smoked bacon was terrible and pizza was horrific.  My grandson liked them all!

A little hot glue to a homemade card and some green and white bakers twine and I was done.  Even Kellyn thought they were cute and worth obsessing about that cherry theme.

The hard part about giving gifts with a theme is that your recipients come to love them and you don't want to disappoint them.  At least I have a whole year to think of a new theme!


Patty