Oh, baby! Gotta love oatmeal

Allow me to introduce my babies. Yup, I raise llamas. The black one is Sebastian - he's the best llama in the whole world. I started training him from day one when he was born at my next door neighbor's house, and we entered llama shows and parades together. For my tenth birthday surprise! My dad bought me Sebastian for my birthday! Almost eight years later, I still love him. (My dad too) On the left is Jericho. He's such a sweetie :)

Speaking of babies, I'm in the middle of knitting my third baby blanket. I adapted them from a basic pattern I found. Here's what I knit:

Baby Blanket

1. Cast on 108 stitches onto circular needles
2. Knit four rows
3. Knit four stitches, P10, K10, P10, K10, P10,
K10, P10, K10, P10, K10, K4.
4. Repeat step 3 for 10 rows.
5. Knit four stitches, K10, P10, K10, P10, K10,
P10, K10, P10, K10, P10, K4
6. Repeat step 5 for 10 rows.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 until it is as big as you want it! (I do 5 repetitions of each, creating 10 rows of boxes)
8. Knit four rows
9. Cast off

For lack of a real baby, Nikko volunteered to model my second baby blanket. They really turn out cute!




Well today I've been busy baking oatmeal cookies! Huzzah for oatmeal! My first batch were oatmeal raisin chocolate chip. I made them really small so they're little two-bites. But they're really tasty!

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 ts. vanilla
1-1/2 c. flour
1 ts. baking soda
1 ts. cinnamon
1/2 ts. salt
3 c. uncooked oatmeal
1 c. raisins
1/2 chocolate chips (or more)

1. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy
2. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
3. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
4. stir in oats, raisins, and chocolate chips; mix well
5. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
6. Bake 10-12 minutes (or until golden brown) at 350 degrees.
7. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.

Monster Cookies

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 pound (2 1/4 cups) brown sugar
1 1/2 pounds Skippy* creamy peanut butter
6 eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
4 teaspoons baking soda
10 cups regular oatmeal
1 pound M&M’s candies
12 ounces chocolate chips

1. Combine first 7 ingredients.
2. Mix very well.
3. Add M&M’s and chocolate chips.
4. Add oatmeal 1 cup at a time.
5. Store in refrigerator for several hours.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on size of the cookie.
7. Dough freezes well and keeps well in refrigerator.

Note: I found Skippy to be the peanut butter of choice. Others seem to have too much oil.

I made these monsters MONSTER cookies! They're really big! For all of you in CF, you'll be able to find them at Barn Happy soon :)

ice ice baby...

Yay for snow days!!! We've got a TON of ice and snow, and so school is already canceled for tomorrow! Since I'm a senior I don't have to make up snow days at the end of the year (yayness!) So this weekend Ryan and Mallory came over and and got "snowed in" and we've hibernated together all weekend. Sooo much fun. We got into the dress-up box from the crawl space which resulted in the following picture:
I think I'll predict my identity if you can't figure out which one I am.




We also made a WONDERFUL rhubarb cake. It tastes so good you would never guess how easy it is to make! I chopped up this rhubarb I got from my neighbor's garden last fall and kept it in the freezer already measured out and everything-- It makes a great mid-winter treat. Here's the recipe:

Rhubarb Cake

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk mixed with 1 tsp soda
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix sugar, shortening and egg
2. Add flour, salt, vanilla and milk mixture. Mix well.
3. Stir in Rhubarb.
4. Pour into 9 X 13 pan. Top with sugar mixture.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.



On Saturday Dad braved the icy roads to go get lunch at Applebees... when he got home we realized that they had given us the wrong order! They told us to keep it and come get our own food, so we ended up with a feast! Here's me n ryan n mallory trying out somebody's pizza... it was really good! We also got a few salads and a steak. We thought about returning the steak and asking for it medium rare! =P


Well tonight I had a little fun with photoshop... dad came and asked who it was in the photo... took him a little bit to recognize me! Haha... well here's the finished product.