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.