100 years and 4 recipes

This weekend I had the pleasure of participating in a Centennial Celebration for my parent's home.


Built in 1911, the house has been through two World Wars, the Great Depression, numerous presidents, countless droughts, snowfalls, and ice storms, seen several owners and countless guests.

Sounds cliche, but oh if walls could talk.


It seemed fitting to throw open the doors when the house was dressed up in its Christmas best and celebrate the history and the blessing.


Although I only lived there for a couple of years and a couple of more summers, my parents have been there for 15 years now, so it is very much like home to me.


I was glad to help out in any way I could in preparing for the big day, and a lot of my part turned out to be cookie baking.

Which is kind of scary considering the kitchen disasters I created just a week before over Christmas, but we won't go there.


I decided on 4 varieties of cookies, and each was a big success!  

Orange Slice Cookies are a new favorite of ours.  I added about a 1/3 c shredded coconut to the batter with the orange slice pieces.  A pair of greased kitchen shears works pretty well for cutting the candy into bits, then coat the pieces with powdered sugar to separate them.


Per the request of the Lady of the House, I made sure to keep these Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies small.  Actually, she wanted all the cookies small, but I followed through best on these.  They were such cute little things!!  And I think these win the prize for best tasting after a few days.  Alone they won't last that long, but with the 12-14 dozen we had (all together) there were some leftovers. :)


These Snickerdoodles are simple and a classic, and also work well in a just-bigger-than-bite-size version.
(Just be sure to shorten cooking time on anything you make small.)


Rounding out our selection (ha - pardon the pun... these are shaped into balls) were Christmas Casserole Cookies.  Packed with goodies like dates and walnuts, this is such a fun recipe because you bake your batter before shaping your cookie, then stir it all up into one big mess right out of the oven.  After it has cooled some THEN you shape it into balls. 


Thanks again to everyone who came to the Open House, and for your kind compliments on the house and the cookies. :)  It was truly an honor to be a part of that day!


To read more about the house and see pictures (coming soon!) you can visit Mom's Blog.