From My Kitchen: Molasses Cookies

These cookies were a staple at our house when I was growing up. We had them year round, but I think they are perfect for these cooler fall days.

Beware: This recipe makes a ton. As in ten dozen cookies. Did I mention I was one of eight kids? My mom made 10-12 dozen cookies at least once a week, and she couldn't keep the cookie jar full. If you aren't feeding a crowd, these cookies freeze really well.

I make these cookie chewy, though they are equally delicious if they are a little crunchy. The trick to keeping them chewy is to add just enough flour to make the dough stiff enough to roll into balls. And, of course, be careful not to overbake the cookies. I stick to the recommended 8 minutes, or even a minute less.

Here's the recipe:

Molasses Cookies
2 1/4 C. Crisco shortening
3 C. brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 C. molasses
6 3/4 - 7 3/4 C. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
6 tsp. soda
1 1/2 tsp. cloves
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. ginger

Cream the shortening and the sugar. Add eggs and beat until smooth and creamy. Mix in molasses, salt, soda, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. Add the flour one cup at a time, beating thoroughly to incorporate. You may not need all of the flour. Add flour until your dough is stiff enough to be rolled into balls.

You can chill the dough for 15 minutes if it's a little soft. Roll the dough into balls. Roll the balls in sugar and place on baking sheets and flatten. My mom had a nifty little cookie press, but you can use the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. I have a glass with a pretty star on the bottom that I use. Or you can always smash  the balls in a crisscross pattern with a fork.

Serve these soft, chewy molasses cookies with a glass of apple cider and you've got the perfect fall treat!

Enjoy!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

The Minivan Mama

When we bought the world's sexiest minivan I had no idea the effect it would have on other drivers.

Specifically, drivers under 26 and men. Especially men under 26.

Most of them can't stand to have a minivan pass them. Ever.

I've seen 18-year-olds driving falling-apart Hondas that are older than they are floor it in a desperate attempt to avoid eating my dust. And you should see the effort they put in once they see that I have a triple stroller strapped to the back. NASCAR's got nothing on these guys!

But the guy in the SmartCar? C'mon, buddy! You bought half a car. What did you expect? In most countries they call that thing a rickshaw.

I might drive a minivan, but at least my vehicle came with an engine.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Things My Triplets Taught Me: It's Not About The Money

When we were preparing for the triplets' birth, we knew we were in for some major expenses. But we are practical people. And cheap. Some things were non-negotiable. We didn't have a vehicle large enough for everyone. And we didn't have a triple stroller. Or enough high chairs. And then there were diaper costs looming large. Not to mention the loss of my income and potential health care costs. Just thinking about it almost overwhelms me now, more than two years later! 

So we bargain shopped. We borrowed baby equipment from friends. We searched out secondhand clothes and cribs.

Which brings me to our nursery. This is no room from the pages of Pottery Barn. It's not perfectly coordinated. None of the cribs match. There's nary a crib skirt in sight. You could call it eclectic. Or you could call it inexpensive, which it was.

If we had all the money in the world I might have turned out an adorable, coordinated room full of expensive cribs. But we don't. And we HAD to buy a van and a triple stroller, so we had to pinch some pennies. Plus I'm just really practical. And cheap.

I did the whole expensive crib (it's the cherry convertible one in the picture below), coordinated nursery thing for Amelia. Her favorite part is the $30 secondhand rocking chair, because that's where we spend some quiet time together before bed. Heaven knows Amelia never slept in her crib enough for us to get our money's worth out of it!

I must confess I folded up the boys' blankets neatly for this photo.

Usually they get tossed over the edge any old which way.

When we found out we were expecting triplets, I figured the transportation was mission critical, and the cute nursery was nice but not necessary. I still tell expectant parents of multiples to put their money in transportation -- especially strollers -- not in their nursery which no one will really see and the kids will never remember. A good stroller is worth its weight in gold!

We were lucky enough to score three cribs and two changing tables on Craig's List. Someone was closing a home daycare center. When Jeff showed up and said we were thrilled to find it because we were expecting triplets, she sold it all to him for the bargain price of $100. We did have to buy three crib mattresses and two changing table pads to go with it, but our investment in furniture was pretty minor. Nothing matched, and I considered having it all painted white, but then decided that it just didn't matter.

I had wonderful helpers who repainted an old dresser and applied some peel and stick wall paper border to the drawer fronts to create a cute chest of drawers. And my sister bought us a bargain rocking chair at a thrift store.

The jungle theme was inspired by some cute monkey fabric I found for the curtains. Perhaps subconsciously I knew I was having three boys who would climb like monkeys?

Even though it's not perfectly coordinated and it would never make the pages of Pottery Barn or Land of Nod, our nursery still turned out cute and functional. It didn't break the bank, and you know what? The boys don't know any differently, nor do they care.

This is the room where they get rockabyes before bedtime. It the place where we have pre-bedtime parties with their big sister and sit on the floor to read books. It is the place where the boys fall asleep after partying in their cribs, and where they wake up to chat with their brothers before we come in smiling to greet them every morning. It is home to their blankies and lovies.

Despite the mismatched cribs and secondhand furniture, the boys' room is both comfortable and comforting. That is what is important. That is what they will remember.

And that didn't cost a dime.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Sweat Equity

Whew! The big kids' clothing sale is over. I thought I was tired Thursday night, but that was nothing compared to Saturday.

This year I helped worked at the sale so I could bring home 100% of my sales instead of 80%. My shift started at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, but I left the house at 6:15 so I could help a triplet-dad-to-be shop early at 7 a.m. My shift was 10:30 to finish, and finish was a loooong ways from 10:30 a.m.

The sale ended at noon, but then the volunteers had to sort through all the clothes that were left and organize them by seller number so consigners could pick them up. There were 171 consigners and not nearly enough volunteers. It took three hours to get everything off the racks and sorted into piles.

And that was just the clothes. Another group of volunteers sorted through all the toys and equipment.

When that was done we had to disassemble the racks and tables, load them on trucks, bag up the donations and load those and generally make it look like we'd never been there. It was a TON of work.

After sorting through thousands of items of clothes I came home never wanting to look at another piece of children's clothing again. Unfortunately, since I live with a number of small children who don't do laundry yet (slackers!) I have had to look at and handle a lot of kids' clothes in the past 24 hours.

I figure I sold about 75% of what I took to the sale. I am very happy with that. And Jeff and I got some great bargains on toys and a few clothes. The boys didn't need much thanks to hand-me-downs. I have to wait a couple weeks for my check, and since we didn't spend much I'm hoping to make a little money this time around.

Although breaking even wouldn't be bad either.

I haven't decided yet if getting an additional 20% is really worth all that time and effort. I'll decide that when I get my check!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Zzzzz...

I would blog, but I'm worn out.

We've spent every evening for more than a week getting everything ready for the upcoming kids' clothing and equipment sale. We are done. Yay!

It's all packed up and ready to be dropped off tomorrow. Here's hoping we don't have to bring much of it home.

So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to follow this guy's lead:

Can you see the Sleeping Giant? The slope on the left is his chest, and the large peak is his nose. He rests eternally in the mountains near Helena, MT.

I envy him.

Night all!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Wordful Wednesday: Flamingos and Chocolate Nachos

My sister Mary was looking for a place for us to eat out while we were visiting for Girls' Weekend. She had a choice of good steakhouses and nice Italian places, but wanted to try something new.

So she asked around for a recommendation.

One of her employees told her that we just had to try the Flamingo, and we had to get the chocolate nachos.

It was a ways out of town, but Marlene highly recommended it, and Mary was sold on the idea of chocolate nachos, so off we went down Montana's backroads. Mary hadn't asked any questions about the place, so we speculated it was probably a typical all-American restaurant with burgers, pasta chicken etc...

We did not expect this:

No, your eyes do not deceive you. That's a shack and an old school bus painted pink. Also known as the Flamingo Restaurant and Lounge.

Just to clarify, here's the restaurant:

And here's the lounge:

Ha! We laughed and laughed. It was definitely not what we were expecting, but it sure was a lot of fun.

You've got to admit, the lounge is pretty cool, really, though it was full of spiderwebs and hot, so we opted for the fresh-air seating instead. Doesn't this pink Quonset hut just scream atmosphere?

 I'd say the joke was on us, but the food was fantastic, and it definitely was all-American. And those chocolate nachos? So good that the only picture I got was after we'd eaten half of the basket.

These were seriously good. Warm, crunchy flour tortilla chips sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, drizzled with chocolate and served with vanilla ice cream for dipping. Yum!

In the end the Flamingo got a good laugh and thumbs up all the way around.

Play along with Wordful Wednesday at:

© Trippin' Mama 2010

My Second Career: Retail Management

I'd love to tell you that it's all the fun we've been having that's been keeping me from posting lately. Sadly, that's not true.

Yes, I did enjoy a few hours away with some fellow triplet mommies on Sunday. And we managed to successfully navigate Amelia's first Sunday school class, the nursery for the boys (Sam only cried half the time this time around), and church for Jeff, Amelia and me. But much of the rest of the weekend and last week and this week had revolved around the kids' clothes.

I had no idea how much time managing my kids' clothes was going to take!

There's a local kids' stuff sale coming up, and I'm selling so we don't wind up buried in piles of children's clothes, so that's been my motivation.

First I went through drawers and closets to weed out what no longer fits. Then the boys had a little style show so I could see if their snow pants and winter coats from last year still fit. Alex wanted to keep his snow pants on. Whatever. It was 75 degrees in the house, but he was happy. Sweaty, but happy.

Then I went through bins and Spacebags of clothes in the next sizes up that I had sorted and stored previously.

Then I pulled out things that I set aside in the spring to sell at the fall sale because they are seasonal.

Then there's all the hanging, tagging, sorting by size, pricing... My living room looks like Wal-Mart right now, minus all of the odd people.

But I had a great sale when I did this in the spring. Because the kids don't need much in the way of clothes this time around I'm hoping to make a little money instead of just breaking even. Jeff and I will be looking for birthday and Christmas presents though, so that might offset the earnings a bit.

Surely managing the closets of four little people who are outgrowing things at an alarming rate gives me some kind of skill to add to my resume, right?

The sale is this Saturday, so if you need me before then just look under the nearest pile of clothes.

© Trippin' Mama 2010