Welcome....Here's a glimpse of our happenings!

The verses that have REALLY spoken to me (Sarah) lately....



"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25



Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9



From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Acts 17:26-28



May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14



So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. Deuteronomy 5:32-33



God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 (The Message)

About the Friesen's....

We are Marc, Sarah, Luke, and Kate Friesen. We were married June 5, 2004. We have one son, born July 21, 2008, named Luke Andrew -- now 4 years old. We also have a daughter named Kate Christine -- born June 6, 2012. Marc is working at Cessna as a Senior Accountant, and Sarah stays home full-time with Luke. Sarah also gets to work very part-time at home for Graber Backhoe -- an excavation company AND VERY part-time at our church. We LOVE being a part of Grace Community Church here in Newton, KS. We lead a Community Life Group of other wonderful couples. Marc thoroughly enjoys long-distance running and Taekwondo. Sarah thoroughly enjoys walking -- especially when the weather is nice to take Luke and/or out in the stroller. Thanks for reading our blog!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Year's Day....

Probably 4 years ago or so, my friend, Andrea, and I started what has become a tradition of making New Year's Cookies together.

In case you don't know what a New Year's Cookie is....well, I couldn't find a whole lot about the origin of them online -- If anybody knows of a good website that tells about the origin, please leave me a comment.

But, I would venture to say that many folks around this area we live in know what a New Year's Cookie is...But, if you don't, please don't feel bad.

It's a Mennonite tradition. They're like donuts -- fried and everything.

Though my family most definitely has Mennonite background, New Year's Cookies are one thing my mom did not make. Andrea also comes from a Mennonite background, though you'll have to ask her if her mom made them!

Marc's mom, however, did make them. And, I use her recipe. Isn't this classy? Her recipe, for me, is written on a piece of Newton Hospital scratch paper. Yes, I wrote this -- not Marc's mom.



But, in case you can't see this recipe in the photo, here's the recipe.

2 Cups Milk
3 Eggs, Beaten
1/4 C. Sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Cups raisins, rinsed off
3 Tbsp. Yeast, dissolved in 1/4 C. Water
4-5 Cups Flour

Warm the milk to lukewarm in microwave. Add remaining ingredients to milk, and mix well. Let rise to double in bulk. Drop into deep fat by spoonfuls an fry until brown. After cooling a bit, roll each cookie in sugar.

That's the recipe Andrea and I have used, and they've always turned out well. However, on researching this treat, I did find some other recipes. Click HERE for another one.

So, getting started -- here's Andrea mixing the dough.



After letting the dough rise, we heated up the fryer and began putting spoonfuls in the grease. Nope, nobody ever said these were necessarily healthy.



And -- in the fryer....



Andrea and I have a real knack of letting our New Year's Cookies turn out in weird shapes. Marc's mom's are pretty much always better looking. But, I personally don't care. They taste all the same :)



After cooling a bit, they just merely need to be rolled in sugar.



Now, let me explain why there are two distinct plates of cookies. Andrea and I don't care much for the raisins -- though we both said we would eat them if all of them had raisins. But, since we're making them, we make half of the batch without raisins. The other half with raisins goes 100% to Marc and Andrea's husband, Collin.

I know, I know -- we're weird like that.

Now, what did everybody else do while we were making cookies.

Well, Marin (Andrea and Collin's youngest daughter) hung out on Collin's lap -- mainly sleeping. I'm not totally convinced this had to have been comfortable, but Marin sure didn't mind.



And, just for fun -- Collin and Marc had to have a photo of Marin with the Pepsi can. When Collin and Andrea's older daughter, Ava, was around 5 months old, Andrea took a photo of Ava with the a Pepsi can. Being the lover of Pepsi that Marc is, Marc has always held onto that photo...So, another one had to be taken.



Luke played on the floor and had a great time chasing Ava around -- even though Ava is by far faster than Luke at this point in time.



Ava played with some of Luke's toys, colored, and then, had Marc read to her -- several books!







Also, since it was New Year's Day, of course football was on....So, Collin and Marc did watch the Rose Bowl for a bit.



Thanks Andrea! We'll have to do it again on January 1, 2011!

And, as a side note -- Luke was VERY sad to see Ava leave after we were done with the cookies. In fact, I've never seen him so sad to see somebody leave. Ava -- you'll have to come back and play!

*****

And, for my thankfulness today -- I chose #297 -- The tide coming in....



Marc and I talked about the ocean today in the context of being thankful for it. Marc and I have had the opportunity to see the ocean (Atlantic and Pacific) several times in our marriage -- as well as when we were both children.

We both agree that we're thankful we do not live by the ocean. "What???? That's crazy," you might say. Well, we're thankful because that way, we don't take it for granted. We really appreciate it and are thankful for it when we do visit an ocean.

That photo, by the way, was also taken in Hawaii (I hope you're not sick of Hawaii photos). It's of Hanauma Bay -- on the island of Oahu. It's an extremely touristy location, but it does have some decent shallow water snorkeling. So, we did spend a day there -- with all of the people. In fact, even though it's not the greatest photo, if you look closely, you can see MANY people on the beach.

2 comments:

rentz said...

Funny, your recipe cards look like mine--any piece of paper I can get my hands on! : )

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I decided to check for a post from you today -- my grandma used that same recipe and for the life of me I have NOT been able to figure out where I might have laid that piece of paper all those months ago! My ancestors were Mennonite, also, so I have loads of their recipes... on that fancy miscellaneous paper, too, LOL! But I had never tried making grandma's New Year's cookies... now you have the recipe on your blog I can copy it and do that!

I'm totally in line with you and Andrea... I will make a plain batch for me, and a batch with raisins for my husband! ;-)

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