Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I have made a lot of cookies in my life. Honestly, they're one of my favorite things to make. They have been, since I was a kid using my Mom's Sunbeam mixer to make chocolate chip treats. (We'd make oatmeal raisin - on occasion - for my Dad, but chocolate chip was the Moore girls' favorite.)

I've made hundreds of cookies for bridal showers and baby showers. I've made cookies and stuck them two-by-two like Noah's Ark in plastic bags and stashed them in the freezer until it was time to grab a few for meals in the field. I've made them for church dinners and PTO soup suppers and a jillion other reasons.

So cookies were the dessert of choice when we were talking about what to serve for Brent's and Susan's rehearsal dinner. With the venue some 5 hours away from home, we decided to have the meal itself catered. But a cookie table for dessert was a way I could still make it personal for them, their friends and family.

Last summer, I made a big assortment of cookies for a bridal shower at church. I used some of my favorites from that baking marathon. But I also tried to think of others in my vast repertoire.  

I used to make Peanut Butter Cup cookies using a cake mix for the cookie part. They were easy - and tasty - but I wanted a homemade dough for this special event. I found a recipe on a blog, Two Peas and Their Pod. 

And it didn't disappoint. Well, it didn't disappoint for anyone but Randy. I rarely make peanut butter "stuff" unless I'm taking it somewhere else, since it's not Randy's favorite.

If you don't have similar aversions, I highly recommend the recipe. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

From Two Peas and Their Pod blog

40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk (at room temperature)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. This recipe makes about 40 cookies, so if you have two muffin pans, grease them both. This will speed up the process. (I didn't have 24-cup mini muffin pans, but I had multiple 12-cup pans. If you have them, prepare enough of them to make about 40 cookies.)

 

Place the unwrapped peanut butter cups in the freezer until you are ready to use them. 

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugars, and peanut butter together until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk until well mixed. Add the flour mixture; mix until just combined.

 

Roll the cookie dough into balls, 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. (I used a cookie scoop.) The dough will be a little sticky; if it is too sticky, you can chill it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Place each ball into prepared muffin pans.

 

Bake for 8-10 minutes; don't overbake. Remove from oven. The centers will collapse a little. Remove the peanut butter cups from the oven and press a peanut butter cup into each cookie. Place the pan in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes so the cookies can cool. This will keep the peanut butter cups from melting and it will make the easier to remove from the pan.

 

When the cookies are completely cool, remove them from the pan and place on a cooling rack.

The recipe author suggested using smooth peanut butter, so I did. (I usually prefer chunky). They said it makes it easier to remove the cookies from the pan. 

 

All We Are Is Dust In the Wind

 

If you look up quotes about wind, writers wax poetically about it (as poets are wont to do). 

 

"The winds with wonder whist,

Smoothly the waters kist,

Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean..."

- John Milton, 'On The Morning Of Christ's Nativity', 1629

But quotes about the wind among farmers this winter and spring would likely to be censored for a curse word or two. 

Wind has been the topic of conversation at coffee shops, on Facebook, at church and anywhere else people gather. Observations about the violent winds can even be muttered to yourself. (Not that I'd know anything about that.)

On December 15, we had a terrible windstorm.

Photo taken from my dining room window, December 15, 2021. You couldn't see our north driveway.

From my front door, December 15, 2021. You couldn't even see the road.

 It turned the landscape into a reenactment of the Dust Bowl Days here on the Central Plains.

This was the dirt that swirled in through my front door. It was everywhere. I truly was afraid that the mighty old trees around our house would come toppling down on me. Thankfully, that didn't happen. But the replanted wheat across the road gave up its noble fight for life as the wind exerted a powerful death knell.

Photo taken on May 8, 2022

These are not the beautiful wheat photos you want to post on your blog or Facebook page. It's not what you want to drive by as you travel to and from anywhere. But the photos are reality in one of our wheat fields, just across the road from our house. Randy had to replant it last October because of some untimely rain. And then the spigot turned off, and we didn't get hardly any moisture in snow or rain this winter. The small wheat just couldn't hold on during that December 15 windstorm - or any of the other "red flag warning" days since.

 

Randy chiseled where it was blowing. He tried to roll out some hay bales. And while it helped a little, it's still been blowing on windy days. Unfortunately, December 15 wasn't the only day with excessive wind. Maybe I don't remember the specific days. (I think I'm going to remember December 15 for awhile.) But there were plenty of people - including me - complaining about the wind. During the last week in April, my weather radio siren went off, advising me of a wind warning. That was a first, too.

An article in The Topeka Capital-Journal last week confirmed what we on the Central Plains already knew: It's been an unusually windy winter and early spring.  

Here's the graph that accompanied the article:

 

Reporter Tim Hrenchir interviewed Chad Omitt, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service Office in Topeka. Omitt said the state had never seen more than 25 high wind warnings in any calendar year since it began tracking the data in 2006. Kansas has already seen 30 such warnings this year, according to data The Capital-Journal acquired from Iowa State University’s Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

Omitt said Kansas sees an average of about 11 high wind warnings per calendar year and had already seen more than twice that amount in less than four months of 2022. (And that evidently doesn't even count December 15, since it occurred in the 2021 calendar year.)

The weather service issues a high wind warning when it expects sustained winds of 40 mph or more for an hour or more and/or wind gusts of 58 mph or more for any duration. Such winds bring an increased danger for wildfires, power outages and damage from debris. (Not to mention what it does to farm ground.)

A key reason it’s been so windy this year across the region is because a very active and strong jet stream or storm track has been focused over the central Rockies into the central plains, which causes very strong areas of low pressure to form near the surface, Omitt told The Capital-Journal.

Since March, he said, that jet stream has caused numerous strong low pressure systems to develop just east of the Rocky Mountains, then head east across the region.

“When that occurs, we have very strong winds out of the south or southwest to the east or southeast of the low pressure system,” Omitt said, “and then as the low center moves away, winds become west or northwest and often tend to be nearly as strong.”

A similar phenomenon is occurring in Iowa, which is seeing a close-to-record number of wind advisories, The Des Moines Register reported.

It attributed the high number of advisories, at least in part, to Iowa’s having seen many storms this year coming out of the south, only to be followed by winds coming from the northwest, with the mixing of winds tending to increase wind gusts. Here in Central Kansas, we can relate to that!

The weather service issues a wind advisory when it expects sustained winds of 31to 39 mph for an hour or more and/or wind gusts of 46 to 57 mph for any duration.

 

I'm hoping the sun soon sets on this stint of excessive high winds! 

We did get some timely rains last week - a total of 1.5 inches during a couple of different days. The moisture prompted the wheat to head out. The next several days of unseasonably high temperatures won't do it any favors. But, at least, the moisture during heading helped give it a chance.

Photo taken May 8, 2022, after 1.5" of rain the week before.

 

May Flowers Without the April Showers

April showers bring May flowers.

But what happens if you don't get April showers? My lilacs decided to bloom anyway.

While my backyard lilacs have overcome the lack of moisture, our wheat crop is a different story. We did get a half inch of rain on Monday. The weather forecasters were saying that our area could receive 1.5 to 2 inches Wednesday and today. So far, that hasn't happened. 

The little bit of moisture has seemed to prod the wheat to begin to head out. It's a little late this year. For the week ending May 1, Kansas winter wheat jointed was 67%, behind 81% last year and 75% for the five-year average. The wheat headed was 10%, near 11% last year, and behind 17% average, according to USDA/NASS. In our area, I think it's further behind than that, but that's what the survey says.

We'll see what happens. My local correspondent at the Joan's Cafe says that more than one farmer has pulled out his crop insurance contract to see the terms. (Said correspondent has done the same.)

But, in the meantime, I'll enjoy my lilacs. They've been a favorite since childhood.

They're favorites for the bees ...

... and the butterflies, too.

The lilacs and spirea are familiar signs of spring.  

No wonder they are made-to-order for May Day!

I must admit the lack of rain has me worried. Unless we get appreciable rain today, I don't think the drought monitor map is going to improve. We are firmly in the "red" now (extreme drought).

But then I get reminders in things like email devotionals that remind me that God even cares about the flowers that are here today - and gone tomorrow.

Today’s Scripture

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 

--Matthew 5: 27-29 (NIV)

Prayer for the Week

Thank you, God, for sun and showers.
Thank you for each lovely flower.
Thank you for each stately tree.
Though all these, you speak to me.
—A Gardener’s Prayer

(I'm not a gardener, but I like the prayer anyway.)

 

Looking on the Bright Side

April 21, 2022

We live in an instant gratification society. Information is literally at our fingertips. Wonder about something? Google it, and seconds later, the answer appears on your phone screen (or, at least, AN answer pops up on the screen.)

Forget those old cliches about stopping to smell the roses: We want to be down the road and on to the next thing at 55 MPH (or maybe faster). 

I was on my way home from meeting with three high school classmates. It was a beautiful spring evening at the park, and I was filled up from a brown bag supper and a healthy serving of good conversation.

But when I turned on to the Zenith Road, my way home was blocked by a train. And it was just sitting there. It was one of those days when I hadn't gotten my Wordle puzzle earlier in the day, so I had let it sit and marinate, so to speak. I hadn't taken time to come back to it, so I pulled out my phone and started contemplating five-letter words. 

But then, I noticed another five-letter word happening to my left: SHINE. The sunset was creating a free LIGHT show outside my driver's side window. The sunsets in recent days hadn't been anything spectacular. So this LIGHT show was a special TREAT. (I may have still been looking for five-letter words, at least subconsciously.)

I backed up, then pulled forward, then backed up again. (It was the Zenith Road, so there was no one behind me.)

I tried to position the beam of light through a gap in the elevator. It wasn't particularly successful, but it passed the time.

I drove down the lane for different angles. You can get a lot of different angles in 30 minutes, in case you were wondering. 

A string of locomotives eventually headed west, departing just like an old western movie cowboy into the sunset.

 

Surely this would be the end of my wait, I thought. I drove back to the Zenith Road. And then the locomotives came back toward me. And there it - and I - sat.

My camera's "eye" saw things more "pink" than my phone camera.

I finally decided it was time to drive a mile east and hope the train didn't stretch that far. (It was close, but the crossing was clear.)

The next day, my friend, Diana, posted a photo she had taken on her drive home, too, and I commented, along with posting a picture I'd taken from my spot at Zenith. She said, "We were hoping you would get the sun going down! It was a big red ball - beautiful! But the dang elevator was in your way!'

Diana's sunset photo posted to Facebook, taken from a car window

Yes, but it was beautiful from my angle, too. And I have a particular affinity for the Zenith elevator, since it's been such an integral part of our farming journey.

I know that trains aren't supposed to block a road for that long. I could get all "huffy" about it. But why let it ruin my good mood? It kind of went along with an email devotional I had saved:

A Time to Think

Flowers grow out of dark moments. 

 –Sister Mary Corita Kent, artist and educator

A Time to Act

Change your thoughts and change your life.

A Time to Pray

Dear God, help me always to see beyond my fears (and frustrations) to the beauty of Your creation.

It seems like a good philosophy for life.

 

FarmHouse: A Hundred Years (Plus)

 

School kindergarteners usually celebrate 100 DAYS of school. To a kindergartener, 100 days seems like a really long time, especially when they have to help Mama glue 100 pompoms to a t-shirt (or some other commemorative effort).

Celebrating 100 YEARS doesn't often happen in this disposable, fast food society.  However, Randy and I were happy to be a part of celebrating 100 years of FarmHouse fraternity last weekend in Manhattan. Just like with many big events, the centennial was delayed from 2021, due to Covid. But it didn't seem to affect the crowd: More than 400 members, spouses, FarmHouse staff and guests attended the Kansas State FarmHouse Centennial Celebration, April 22-23, 2022. The guys gathered for a panorama shot after the banquet.

Photo by Photographer Cody Cramer

Our keynote speaker for the evening banquet was a FarmHouse alum, Randy Linville.  He owns his own consulting firm now and is a former CEO of the Scoular Grain Co. 

Randy Linville photo by Cody Cramer

In his remarks, he talked about how unusual it is to reach the 100-year mark as an organization.  For example, some of the hottest major brands today are also relatively young: Apple debuted in 1976, Amazon was launched in 1995, and Google didn’t fully hatch until 1998. Who knows whether they will be around to celebrate 100? My crystal ball is as cloudy as usual today. 

Actually, the percentage of U.S. companies that make it to the 100-year mark is such a small number, there is no clear go-to source for accurate data on the topic. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that only 36 percent of companies last 10 years and about 21 percent survive to see their 20^th anniversary. Beyond that, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that only about 12 percent of companies are older than 26 years.

My research found this: The prevailing theory, though unconfirmed, is that only about a half a percent (0.5%) of all companies have what it takes to last 100 years. This means that centennial organizations truly do have lots to celebrate. They’re so rare it’s difficult to calculate just how rare they are. 

Linville mentioned a few of them, like Coca Cola, Boeing and Harley-Davidson. I found a few more as I researched: J.C. Penney, UPS, L.L. Bean, Kraft, Kellogg's, Equifax (founded in 1889 under the name, Retail Credit Company) and Target (founded in 1902 as Goodfellow Dry Goods). 

Information from https://www.yahoo.com/video/100-old-companies-still-business-170025835.html.

So, FarmHouse fraternity is among rarefied air. However, Linville made another observation. Lasting power is also more prevalent in rural areas with "rural" values. More than a few of the FH alumni in that hotel banquet room are part of Century Farms, including Randy and me with a farm established in 1900. (For the record, there are lots of engineers, doctors, scientists, business CEOs, teachers, pilots and a myriad of other professions, too.)

I've spent some time thinking about the 100-year mark since then, and I realize that we are personally connected to several organizations which have already celebrated their centennials. These particular ones also have their roots in agriculture or rural areas:

• Kansas 4-H program, 1906 (National 4-H program, 1902) 
• Kanza Cooperative, (Iuka Co-op established 1915, a predecessor to Kanza. The Iuka Co-op is where I trucked wheat as a high school driver on my family's Pratt County farm.)
• Kansas Farm Bureau, established 1919
• Kansas Master Farmers and Master Farm Homemakers, established 1927 

And a special person in our life also celebrated 100 years, my Grandpa Shelby Neelly, who was born in 1904 and celebrated his 100th birthday in 2004.

 

Grandpa Neelly on his 100th birthday in 2004 with the great-grandkids:
Front row: Abby, Paige, Grandpa, Jill and Madison.
Back row: Blake, Brian and Brent.

 

 

Shelby Neelly was also a K-State football player.

Grandpa Neelly is also the reason for my personal connection to FarmHouse. And, in a roundabout way, I suppose he's responsible for my meeting Randy in the first place. While Little Sister groups are no longer "politically correct," they were a part of the college experience back in the 1970s. At FH, you had to have a connection to a FH man to be a Little Sister. That wasn't a prerequisite for a lot of fraternities, but it was FH's tradition. Grandpa Neelly definitely encouraged his granddaughters to explore that opportunity.

Yes, this photo of the FarmHouse Little Sisters is old enough to be yellowed. (A few years ago, my friend and fellow Little Sister, Shari, sent this photo to me via Facebook Messenger, and we attempted to identify all those pictured. We didn't do too badly in our efforts.)

Several of us gathered Saturday night for a photo after the banquet.

My sister, Lisa, was in a different room, but a couple of Little Sisters found her afterwards.

Cindy, Shari & Lisa

 

Anyway, Grandpa Neelly wasn't one of the Founding Fathers. But as part of the Pledge Class of 1927, he was certainly an early member. And he was proud of his affiliation with FarmHouse - from that beginning in 1927 until the day he died. 

Both Lisa and I married FarmHouse guys. My brother, Kent, and his son, Brian, were FH men. Lisa's husband, Kyle, was a FH guy, as was their son, Blake. Blake served as finance manager for a rebuilding/renovation project at the Kansas State University chapter house, which was also celebrated on Saturday. Our son-in-law, Eric - as well as his dad, uncle and Eric's two brothers - are FH alums. 

Even though Grandpa's been gone for years, it still seemed a little like he was part of the special day. Lisa snapped a photo of the Study Room at the chapter house, which was named in Grandpa's honor. 

Grandpa would have loved the centennial event.

 

Randy and his friend, Rex, who is a high school classmate as well as a FH brother, certainly did! We all got to visit with friends we hadn't seen in years.

 

Randy's name was on a plaque for the scholarship room. We took a photo - just in case people wouldn't believe it. He says it wouldn't have been a surprise for my name to be on a scholarship plaque. However, he says his inclusion on a plaque for grades is worth commemorating.

One of my favorite parts of the night was the guys singing together near the end. Since Randy and I weren't dating in college, I didn't ever get to hear "A FarmHouse Girl" sung to me for a pinning or an engagement.

Photos by Gina Dreher Photography, Wichita

But one of my (many) favorite moments from Jill's and Eric's wedding was when the FH guys at the reception surrounded Jill with a serenade. It never gets old to hear that harmony at the end. It gives me goosebumps every time!

 

What a perfect way to end a fun day celebrating FarmHouse fraternity, family and friendship! 

 

 

A FarmHouse Girl song.MOV from Kim Fritzemeier on Vimeo.