Lindor is 7!

My pesky, smart,  licky chocolate girl turned 7 today, hard to believe. She still has her moments of youthful exuberance but the white hairs on her chin are multiplying at a rapid rate. After having 2 litters of pups herself, her daughter Eden is now the mother of 2 litters, the A's and the J's.

Beautiful Eden

A chocolate from Eden's first litter... she looks exactly like her Grandma Lindor.

 

Amira

And the newest batch... another sweet chocolate....

Java

I'm proud of my Lindor, she's not the perfect dog but she's PERFECT to me!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

It's been really hot around here so I don't like turning the oven on too much when the air conditioning is running but there was a break in the temperatures and I was anxious to try out this new recipe.

Usually I'm a purist when it comes to cookies, either peanut butter or oatmeal but to mix the two together? NEVER! But this recipe sounded really good and you can't go wrong with peanut butter cups in anything so I gave it a shot and was not disappointed. These turned out really well.

I used a scoop to dish them out so my cookies were all nice and uniform. I found them a bit soft but that's because I had to soften my butter in the microwave. I just popped them in the fridge for a couple minutes and they were good to go.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oatmeal (small flake)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup M and M's
1 cup miniature peanut butter cups, cut into fourths

Preheat oven to 350F
Cream butter and peanut butter, add sugars, add eggs and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients. Stir in add ins.
Drop by scoops onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 -12 minutes. 

Birdbrain Inner Tube

Well, I have passed the halfway mark in my challenge to complete a card for every month in the From the Heart Monthly challenge. That means I have added 7 new digis to my library just for completing the challenge for free!

This month the image was my favourite Birdbrain and even though I left it to the VERY last minute, I think it turned out great.

Here's the images that we got to work with...

I based my card on this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch so it came together in a snap...

Love it when a plan comes together! Especially when time is a factor.

More Sunflower cards

Here are the rest of the cards. Quite a variety. Everyone at the Fundraiser got one card, pre-cut and pre-coloured, all they had to do was assemble.

They look pretty simple until you start prepping 100 of them.

Sunflower cards

I should have all the time in the world to post on my blog and I never seem to get to it. I still have a few of the cards that were handed out at the Fundraiser to show you. Thanks to Keri and Robin for coming up with a couple designs and thanks to Tammie for donating cards for the card sale. Here are a couple to show you...

Raspberry Almond Struesel Bars

I stumbled across this recipe while I was wasting time on the Internet. These squares just scream "Put the tea kettle on!" I love almond flavouring in anything and needed a big pan of treats to take to a gathering. These were a cross between a square and a pan cookie, not too sweet and super easy to make. Also, they made a large portion.

You could totally change the type of preserves that you use, blueberry would go nicely or just pick your fav.

Here's the tested recipe for you to try...

Raspberry Almond Struesel Bars

1 cup butter, soft
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tablespoons Raspberry preserves/jam

Struesel
4 Tbsp. butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350F.
Spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray.
Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs.
Add almond extract then dry ingredients. Batter will be thick.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan and swirl in the preserves.

For the struesel, in a small bowl with a pastry blender, combine ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter and preserves. Bake at 350 for 35 or so minutes.

Sweet Sunday Sketch #277

I enjoyed a leisurely day of scrapping yesterday so I was actually able to get something done besides the endless chores.
I used the Fast Food stamp set from Your Next Stamp. Thanks Nicole and based my card on the sketch provided at Sweet Sunday Sketch. I like the basic designs. I figured out when anything is asymetrical on the page it bugs me.

So here's the card. The inside says Lets Do Lunch...

The little epoxy dots in red, green and yellow (ketchup, relish, mustard) made the card. Thanks, Keri.
I stepped out of my comfort zone and made the background from a stripe and hand cut the food and popped up the burger.
Here's the sketch....