Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

Oh guys, we are pretty much in the season of lemons. Eek. I am so excited. I have shared my 2014 lemon excitement already when I shared a recipe for Lemon Cheesecake Pie a few weeks ago.

Now with the sun shinning, the freshly mowed grass smell, later days, and school almost out for the Summer bring on the lemons. Bring it.

Just after my love of all things lemon, is my love of all thing Strawberry Lemonade. How can a person not love something that combines strawberries and lemons?!
 
So I kind of had to make up a cookie recipe for Strawberry Lemonade Cookies. Then I kind of had to eat half a dozen cookies.

They were that yummy.

Pretty and yummy.
 

These cookies make me happy. They are perfectly chewy with the right hints of strawberry and lemon. They are Summer in cookie form.

In fact, when I baked these up the Little Men were playing outside in the sunshine. Birds were chirping. Lawn mowers were running. My yard was full of bicycles, balls, and shoes. There was laughter and shouting.

The sounds of summer.

When the boys were done playing, the cookies were waiting for them.  They happily devoured these Strawberry Lemonade Cookies. They were a hit.

Give a try.

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies
makes about 2 dozen
 
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3.4oz strawberry Jello pudding mix, dry
zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs and the vanilla. Then mix in the lemon juice.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and strawberry pudding mix. Add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until well incorporated. Then add in the lemon zest.

Using a cookie scoop, drop scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a cookie rack.

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No Sew Father's Day "Best Pop" Banner

 

Now that the Momma's have been celebrated, the Dad's are up next for their time in the spotlight.

Here is a really easy and fast Father's Day decoration.

Like ridiculously fast. Oh and hey, it is a no sew banner. Win. Win.

A few years ago I threw The Hubs a "Best Pop" popcorn Father's Day party. One of the things I made was this popcorn bag banner.

I bought a pack of popcorn bags from my local party store and then I raided my fabric stash. Put it all together and a no-sew banner is made.

Start with a long piece of yarn. Cut up the fabric in strips. Tie the fabric on. I tied about 7 pieces on to start before I taped...yes I said taped...the first bag to the yarn.

I just repeat the taping and tying until the banner is as long as I want it.

If you want to go with the whole "Best Pop" theme, then you can add some bottled pop and a few bowls of popcorn to the party.

There ya have a fun and easy way to tell your dad he is the "Best Pop" you know.

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Homemade Cream of Chicken

Way back in the beginning of my culinary exploits as a newly wedded wife I had a very teeny tiny arsenal of recipes I made. My pantry was pretty boring and basically stocked. I used a lot of canned this and packaged that.

One of my solid gold go-to ingredients was the ever versatile , if not a wee bit boring, can of cream of chicken soup. I pretty much used it in everything.

Like I said, not so much a cooking wizard.

Now, I am not bagging on the can of cream of chicken soup. It has its place in the recipe world. I am just bagging on my own overuse of the can.

So as years went by, I tried to kick the can. Not to be mistaken with the bucket or the curb. I pretty much succeeded. The only problem: sometimes a recipe you desperately want to make calls for a can of cream of chicken soup.

What's a cook to do?

Well, she is just gonna make some cream of chicken soup from scratch. No can necessary.

You know something, the from scratch cream of chicken soup was super easy to make. Plus, it was yummier and it is WAY healthier for you.

I am pretty positive now I am going to make my cream of chicken soup from scratch from now on.

I think you should give it a try.

Then you can say you made your cream of chicken soup from scratch and I promise you will feel all June Cleaver-ish.

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

equivalent to one can of soup

2 Tablespoons flour
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium high heat. When the butter is melted, whisk in the flour and continue to whisk until the flour is smooth and bubbly. Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the chicken broth and the milk. Return to the heat and bring it to a gentle boil, whisking constantly until the soup thickens. Take off heat. Then add the salt and pepper.

Soup will thicken as it sits. Use as called for.

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Teacher Appreciation: Refreshing and DeLIGHTful Teacher Tags

I have another Teacher Appreciation Gift idea for you today. It is easy. SO easy. Plus it is really affordable.

I really wanted to have a non-sweet gift to give to our teachers. You know to accompany the totally sweet and sugary Smart Cookie Teacher Appreciation gift I also made for them. Ha.

I love these water bottles. First, because they are kind of design-tastic. I know, who loves the design of water bottles. Well, this girl. The other reason I love them, is because even though they are disposable water bottles, they can actually be reused over and over thanks to the awesome spout.

I used my love of these water bottles AND my love of Crystal Light as inspiration for this Teacher Appreciation Gift.

I made up these "refreshing" teacher tags to tie on to the water bottles.

I also added these tiny circle "deLIGHTful" teacher tags to attach a couple of packets of single serving Crystal Light.

I tied everything together with some fabric scraps and some yarn.

Bam. Just like that I have a cute and non sugary gift to give to our hard working teachers.

Download the Refreshing and DeLIGHTful tags HERE.

Have you thanked a teacher yet?

It is not too late to show your teachers some love and appreciation.

This idea and the Smart Cookie Teacher Thank You are both really easy to pull together last minute.

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Smart Cookie Teacher Appreciation {printable}

Today starts Teacher Appreciation Week. I kind of love Teachers. So I in turn kind of love Teacher Appreciation Week. In fact, this year for that whole PTO thing, I am in charge of Teacher Appreciation at our school.

Hence the drastic and crazy lack of posts. Tack on Teacher Appreciation Week to returning from a week long visit to my grandma's and blogging has taken a back seat...a really, really back seat.

But today I am back, and I am back with this fun Teacher Appreciation  printable. Just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week.

I used two of my favorite things to make this teacher gift.

My first favorite thing, mason jars. Guys I LOVE mason jars. Like a lot, a lot.

I used a cobalt blue spray paint to make the lid and rings really pop. P.S. I also really love blue, but that isn't one of the favorite things I am talking about.

My other favorite thing...PicMonkey. I talk a lot about using PicMonkey, a photo editing site. One day I need to do a whole post about how to utilize all the great tools PicMonkey has to offer. The site is magical.

I use PicMonkey to create tags, posters, invitations, photo projects, hand outs, fliers ... not to mention also editing my photos.

These Smart Cookie Teacher Appreciation Tags were made completely in PicMonkey, including that little faux Oreo.

Download the Smart Cookie Tag Printable HERE.

These tags are a little smaller than the ones I used in my photos. If you want to use a larger tag, you can right click on the image below and save the JPEG. You can make the JPEG the size you want in a Word type document.

 Print off. Cut out. Then attach it to Oreo cookies anyway you like. You can attach the tag to a jar of Oreos, a bag of Oreos, a package of Oreos (big or snack sized). Tie a ribbon around it or tape it on.

Any way you give it out, this is an easy, quick, and fun way to thank a teacher this week for Teacher Appreciation Week.

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