Thoughts and stories, by Pal

By Dennis Weaver  · July 6, 2016  13 Tips for Perfect Cookies Thirteen Tips for Perfect Cookies Sometimes it’s the little things, attention to detail, that makes cookies better. Here are thirteen ways that you can make your cookies perfect. Use great ingredients.  Your cookies won’t be better than your ingredients and grocery stores usually compete on cost. Mediocre chocolate chips mean mediocre cookies. Pay attention to expiration dates . Fresh flour or fresh cinnamon is better. If cinnamon has been sitting in your cupboard for three years, throw it out. Measure carefully . Baking is precision. Check your measuring cups and spoons to be sure they are accurate. Chances are good they are not. Use a kitchen scale to check your measures. One cup of water should weigh eight ounces. Pay attention to temperature . Cream your sugar with firm butter; don’t let it melt. If your butter and sugar mixture is soft, your cookies won’t be ...

If you like recipes, these sound interesting and fun to make and eat! 10 Lettuce Free Salads You'll Make All Summer Long! from  Huffington Post Who says a good salad must have greens? These crowd-pleasing salads are packed with nutritious and tasty ingredients — from fresh corn to quinoa to avocado — and they’re 100% lettuce-free. Get ready to discover your new summer staples! 1. Black Bean, Corn & Avocado Salad with Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette AKA “veggie crack,” this black bean and corn salad is one of my most popular recipes — and it doubles as a dip. The vinaigrette is similar to the smoky-sweet salad dressing served at  Chipotle .  GET THE RECIPE 2. Grilled Asparagus & Feta Salad This is the kind of wholly satisfying salad that makes you wonder if you might possibly be a very happy vegetarian. Don’t forget the warm crusty bread for mopping up all the lemon-scented olive oil and feta.  GET THE RECIPE ...

Thanksgivings past, and "The Suet Pudding Story" My father, Orson Pratt Miles, (no relation to Orson Pratt of early Church history.) had problems with eating, after World War I, and couldn't eat spicy or rich food, often eating food like baby food.  After the War his nerves and stomach.were very bad.  He said he had been poisoned by German sauerkraut while in the War.     But we did have good food, with the trimmings on Thanksgiving.  Often he would invite some lonely person to Thanksgiving Dinner.  That has become a family tradition that we have tried to follow, (but not as well as he did!)  Often we had our mother Ruth's sister and her husband, Adelia and Earnest Tobler, plus Ruth's mother Levinah, to dinner, and we children would usually go to an afternoon "matinee".  Movies in those days were all "G" and usually on Thanksgiving, and often on Christmas, that was the afternoon entertainment for the children.  I still don't feel the tr...