Month: January 2007

This recipe was inspired by one I saw in Bon Appetit. The original recipe made 80 (mine makes more like 20) and I changed it in some other small ways. They turned out fabulous:

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter (1/4 c.) at room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar (plus more to roll the cookies in for later)
1/4 tbsp. vanilla extract
dash salt
1/3 c. shelled pistachios (the recipe says to chop these, but I didn’t because I knew they would get broken up a little when added to the mix in my KitchenAid – even the ones that didn’t get broken were just fine – they aren’t too big)
1/4 c. craisins
.825 of a cup of cake flour (I just estimated what that would look like in my measuring cup)
.415 of a cup of regular, all-purpose flour (again, I just estimated what that would look like in my measuring cup)

Directions:
First, I preheated the oven to 350* and prepared two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Since these don’t spread out when they cook, I really could have put all 20 cookies on one sheet, though.

I added the stick of butter and 1/4 c. powdered sugar to my KitchenAid and let that mix until it was nice and fluffy. Next, I added the vanilla and salt, then the pistachios and cherries.

Once that was all incorporated, I added both flours and let that mix just until it was all worked in – not long at all.

Next, I took a spoon and placed the cookies onto the baking sheets. If you want to make them into their traditional shape, you can form them into football shapes.

They went into the oven for about 18 minutes. The original recipe says to check them at 16 minutes, but mine were still under-done on the bottoms so I had to wait a couple of minutes. This is how they looked when they came out (and I put them all on one cookie sheet at that point to cool):

Once they were cool (about ten minutes), I rolled them in powdered sugar that I had put into a bowl.

They were really, really good!

I’ve posted before about Magnolia Pearl – it’s Robin Brown’s shop of her bags and clothes that…well…you just have to see. These are “I’m queen of the world” clothes, not “going to the store” clothes. Soooo feminine and frilly and luxe.

She’s featured in the January issue of Country Living in an article about tea staining, which I’ve been interested in trying for a while now. What I’d like to do is find some lovely but quite-used white linens at an antique shop or estate sale and try it. Something I haven’t seen before is that the article in CL says that if you want a really dark stain, to soak the fabric in water that has a capful of fabric softener added to it before doing the tea process. Hmmm…

I keep going back to the Magnolia Pearl website to see how Robin decorates her home. Ohmystars. Yes. Love it.

I was going through some of my older pictures to put up on Flickr, and found this one of the Big Red Dog in Northport, Alabama:

Isn’t it great!? It’s by metalwork artist Steve Davis, who owns SunHeart Metalworks.

Once I uploaded the pic to Flickr, I added it to the group, “Big Things – Big Kitsch and Big Tacky, Big Strange & Big Weird” which is really fun (and I love the giant jackalope in South Dakota that someone just added!).

The other pics I have in that group are:

The giant buffalo at the Tupelo Buffalo Park in Tupelo, MS:

The Rooster El Camino at Ms. Billie’s in Irvington, Alabama (this is my favorite!):

This alligator in Lake Charles, Louisiana:

The Tale of Two Cities Pelican in Pensacola, Florida:

This catfish in Belzoni, Mississippi:

Tin Man with Heart at Jim Bird’s in Forkland, Alabama (my other favorite):

The Pike County Cattlemen and Cattlewomen Bull Sculpture in Pike County, Alabama:

A giant cow at the State Farmer’s Market in Montgomery, Alabama:

A big chair in Thomasville, North Carolina:

…and this rooster made out of car bumpers at ArtWurks in Brundidge, Alabama:

I need to find our picture of the “Big Texan” at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas and add it, too!

Today, Av and I went to Huntsville and Decatur, Alabama.

While we were in Decatur, we stopped in for a few minutes at the archives building there on Bank Street. I didn’t take any pictures (if you have a purse, they ask you to leave it in a locker in the building foyer) but wish I could have, because the building used to be a bank and inside there is a *huge* safe that’s so big you could practically drive a car in! After we finished looking through some microfilm, we drove through the Bank Street Historic District there, where some of the most beautiful homes are.

It was overcast so the pictures aren’t as bright as I wish, but the houses still came out amazing:

I love the blue and green colors together on this home – so different:

…and all the detailing:

The owner of this home has a collection going on in their side yard:

Beautiful:

This was the only home of this style that we saw:

…this one’s really unique:

This is the Carnegie Visual Arts Center there:

…and this is St. Luke’s Episcopal – sooo pretty:

In March of last year, Av and I visited Burnt Corn, Alabama when we were on a trip to Monroeville. One of the wonderful things about Burnt Corn (besides the name) is the general store here, which has been in business since 1908 – and was the post office here until 1997, when the USPS closed it. Postal service in Burnt Corn has been going on since 1817, two years before Alabama became a state. All the pictures below are from our trip in March 2006.

This is the store – someone left me a message on my Flickr pic page that the store is closing, so Av and I decided to visit it one last time on our way to the beach:

We talked to the owner, who brought up the time that Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote came in the store together, and we talked about how they grew up together for a time in Monroeville, and all sorts of other things about the two of them. We also talked for a long time with a very nice man who we made friends with, and who gave us instructions to his house nearby so we could visit him the next time we were there.

The store is closing January 15th, so if you’d like to visit a 99-year-old store…

This is the Brantley Store in Burnt Corn – isn’t the Coca-Cola sign *great*!?

This is the old hardware store:

This is the Burnt Corn Methodist Church:

One of the other stops we made on our trip back in March was to see the Old Scotland Church in Old Scotland, Alabama. It’s down a long dirt road – I love this picture because it shows how pretty the soil is here, with the church in the distance:

The church was built in 1837, and the area was settled by Scottish/Irish families who thought the land reminded them of ‘the old country’.

OHmygosh – we did the *most* fun thing yesterday! Every year, the Flora-Bama (which is a beloved beach bar right on the Alabama-Florida line) hosts a “Polar Bear Dip” where several hundred people get into their bathing suits (or costumes!) and run all together into the Gulf at noon on New Year’s day! Guess who was one of them!?

Av!
He’s the one below with his arms in the air:

Okay, the water wasn’t really *that* cold (61*), but it was soooo much fun!

Once everybody starts coming back out of the water, we all went back up to the Flora-Bama:

…where they served everyone that participated a free beer plus a plate of New Year food:

I think Av plans on making this an annual tradition! Fun!