Emperor’s Cookies (Kaiser-plätzchen)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1 package vanilla sugar

1 pinch of salt

4 egg yolks

7 tablespoons butter

For the Icing:

Powdered sugar, vanilla sugar

Raspberry, strawberry or other red jam

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

sift the flour onto work surface and make a hole in the center. Put powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and egg yolks ins the hole and place the butter flakes on top of it. Quickly knead ingredients to form smooth dough. Cover with kitchen towel and let chill for 1 hour.

Roll out dough on a floured surface as thinly as possible. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters. If using different shapes, make sure to always cut out even numbers for each shape. use a small round cookie cutter to make a hole in the center of half the cookies. Place cookies onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 F in the preheated oven.

Let them cool down. Spread jam on cookies without hole and place the other half (cookie with hole) on top. Mix the powdered sugar and the vanilla sugar and dust the cookies.

German Crescents

Take 2-1/2 level cups flour, 1 cup of butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds. Mix sugar and almonds together and butter and flour together. Add sugar and almonds to butter and flour. Knead to a dough. Shape in small crescents and bake in moderate oven till a golden brown. while warm roll in powdered sugar.

Lebkuchen

* 1 cup honey

* 1/4 cup dark molasses

* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

* 2 tablespoons chopped candied orange peel

* 2 tablespoons chopped candied citron

* 1 cup chopped blanched almonds

* 1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

* 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* 2 teaspoons hot water

* 1 egg, beaten

* 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, stir together the honey, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until well blended. Mix in the candied orange peel, citron, almonds, brown sugar, orange and lemon zests. Stir the baking soda into the hot water, then beat into the mixture along with the egg. Gradually mix in the flour. The dough should be very stiff, you may need to knead it on the counter to get it thoroughly blended. Cover and chill overnight so the flavors can ripen. (you can leave it for up to a week and the flavor only gets better)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thickness. cut into bars about 2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto un-greased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bottoms are only starting to brown. Remove cookies to cool on wire racks. Ice them with a thin confectioners glaze while they are still warm, if you like. When cool, store in a tightly closed container. If you want soft cookies, put half an apple in the container for several days.

Pfeffernusse

INGREDIENTS

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

* 3eggs

* 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

* 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

* 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

* 1 teaspoon brandy

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt.

2. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until thick and light colored. Beat in the lemon juice. Beat in the lemon zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Stir in the hazelnuts. cover and chill for 4 hours.

3. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch. using a 1

1/2 inch round cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place 1 inch apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Cover the baking sheets with clean towels and leave undisturbed for 4 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

5. Turn the cookies over and place a drop of brandy in the center of each cookie. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly colored. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

This is a decent start. I’m hoping to be able to document some more of them so I can share them with my own family for years to come!

My wife and I have taught her all sorts of body parts, regular household items and have even started teaching her to count. Currently her highest number is three! All of this is really impressive and brings us great happiness to see her learning so easily. It makes certain things easier too since she’s able to communicate her needs and thoughts to us fairly easily. She’ll come over and say “food please” or drink please” or perhaps it’ll be “more food”. It might even be “watch Elmo!”, her new favorite show that she can never seem to get enough of!

The bad part comes when she uses the word NO! Or lets us know that she’s “done done” eating after only a couple bites of her dinner. Like the title implies, new words and the understanding of their meaning are both a blessing and a curse! Because now she can very easily let us know that she intends to not stop doing something or verbally object to nap/bed time.

Of course my Mother thinks it’s hilarious that our daughter is as strong willed as I was when I was her age. Strong willed is GOOD and so is the new vocabulary, we just have our work cut out for us even more so now. The terrible twos, with any luck won’t be so terrible as long as we can get her focusing that mind of hers!

The term sad chaos really got me thinking though. There are many kinds of chaos I imagine. Often times I feel that things are very chaotic when I have 5 kids, ranging in age from 20months to 9years old all being, well kids. Oh yeah, it’s chaos at times without a doubt! However I wouldn’t ever call this sad chaos. In fact I’d call it happy chaos! To watch them all interact with each other, having fun and laughing really brings happiness to me. Although it can turn into regular old chaotic chaos with a hint of disaster if I don’t keep a handle on it.

So that was my fun thought for the day. Even chaos can be happy!

After watching the steelers win the superbowl in 2006 they became his favorite team. Ever since he’s been adamant that he would play the game. Last year we decided it was time to make his dreams come true and enroll him into flag football. It was exactly what I had expected it would be for the most part. What I did underestimate was the amount of kids involved! Hundreds of kids and this was just ONE of the leagues in our community. I’d never seen anything like it. As I mentioned before, I grew up in Canada and the only sport that is this big is hockey, which I never played. We went to practices once a week and then had a weekly game. Practices were mainly focused on just getting the kids to stand still long enough to do a hand off correctly and run the right way. The assistant coach was non-existent so myself and another parent stepped in to help. By the end of the year we managed to actually get some points on the board a few times, but victory always eluded us. Even after losing every single game they played my stepson was never discouraged. He loved playing football and always left the field smiling.

When it came time for the 2009 season my wife and I asked him if he wanted to play. His answer was a very enthusiastic YES! This is the year he could start playing tackle. We asked him several times, are you SURE you want to play? You’re going to have to get tackled and it might hurt. That didn’t discourage him in the least. He really wants to play. So we go through the steps to get him registered to play, crossing our fingers for a team that might not lose every game! A couple days go by and I get an email from the head coach of our team with the schedule. I was shocked! Before the first game these kids will be practicing 6 days a week for 2 and half weeks straight! After that they’re down to practicing 3 days a week with a weekend game. What a difference. There’s also a huge difference in the amount of organization and the commitment from everyone involved. I decided to help out as an assistant coach so I could be involved as much as possible. I never played football but am fairly athletic so can catch on quick enough help out wherever needed. As it turns out we have one head coach and two assistants, along with myself and one or two more parents stepping in to help coordinate these rambunctious mini peewees. What really amazed me was both assistants played college football and so did one of the other parents. The head coach played through high school and has had over 5yrs of coaching experience.

“Red Right, 32 Dive on two, Break!” This is one of our plays we run. As far as football is concerned it’s a pretty easy play. Our team sets up with the Red Right formation and when the ball is snapped the quarter back hands it off to the #3 running back who then runs through the #2 hole. Nothing fancy but now take into consideration that mini peewees are in grades 3 and 4! Now I see why we need to practice so much. We’re throwing a lot at these kids. I was pretty surprised that we were teaching them this much at this level but I figured the coaches must know what they’re doing right? As it turns out they’re doing exactly what they need to be doing. This past Saturday was our first game and wouldn’t you know it? We WON! It wasn’t a blazing victory but a battle to the very end with an impressive display of defensive skills to hold back the other team right at the end.

Even after the seemingly endless days of back to back practices and the tackling drills in blistering heat, my stepson always walks off the field with a smile. He loves the game, and wants to play! He’s not the fastest nor the strongest or hardest hitting. What he does have is passion and determination. After every crushing hit or exhausting run, he’ll get right back up and jump into line eager to do it all over again. Right after a rather large impact during the Oklahoma drill where my stepson was the ball carrier, the assistant coach leans over to me and says “he is a real ball player, I love that kid!” Because he didn’t lay there in shock after getting brought down exceptionally hard by a kid who had 15lbs on him, he popped back up, tossed the ball in the coaches direction and got right back into line for another turn.

I foresee many years of assistant coaching in my future because I don’t suspect that he’s going to be hanging up the cleats anytime soon. Thankfully we found a great team in our community where he can play right up until he’s in high school! They’ve got experienced coaches and are incredibly dedicated to ensuring the kids are learning and having fun while doing it. I just hope he keeps his enthusiasm and passion! For me that’s the best part of the whole experience, knowing that it’s giving him so much joy to participate.

Steak Fajita Marinade

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 3 or more cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons  kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons Mexican oregano (regular is ok too)
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons tequila
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Combine all the ingredients with a small whisk or fork. Place the steaks in a large zip top bag or shallow dish and coat them evenly. Make sure to flip them over and stick them in the fridge for a couple hours. Turn the steaks every 30min and then take them out. Let them come to room temperature before tossing them on the hot skillet. Once you’ve seared them all off you can let them rest with tented tin foil while you saute the veggies. Don’t clean the skillet first either. This is where the extra flavor of the skillet method comes into play!

Hope you enjoy! I know we sure do