Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies

Monday evening I found this recipe, Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies and decided spontaneously to make them.

         I would insert a picture, but the internet and I apparently aren't speaking.....


 I didn't know what lofthouse cookies were, but these looked good so I made them anyway. They are much easier and faster than a normal sugar cookie. There is no refrigerating or rolling and cutting. They are closer to making peanut butter cookies, actually.

I am a bit of an icing snob. There are a few classic kinds we use, and cream cheese icing on sugar cookies isn't anywhere close. Most times when I decide to use the called-for recipe I wish I had just used my own. This time, however, was not one of them. The cream cheese icing is pretty good. Surprise surprise.

Now, while these are really good and easy to make, they are different from classic sugar cookies, so bear in mind. :)

Rogue Heroes

     BOOK REVIEW:   Britain's Special Air Service --- or SAS --- was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young aristocrat whose aimlessness belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a World War II battlefield map and saw a protracted struggle, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite men, he could parachute behind Nazi lines and sabotage their airplanes and supplies. Defying his superiours' conventional wisdom, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. Bringing his keen eye for detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to the SAS archives to shine a light on a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy.

     MY REVIEW:   History books of this sort don't tend to interest me. But this one did. It is quite interestingly told, and the subject is an interesting one as well. I enjoyed reading about this aspect of WWII. I had never grasped just how widespread the fighting was, or the cruelty of the Nazi's.
     Off to a less-than-comforting start, the small band of men arrived at their desert headquarters to find it very sparsely furnished. A few hours and enemies later, they were much more comfortably housed. Armed with sufficient character and brilliance to pull off their mission, they merely lacked the important detail of just how to proceed. Impromptu training techniques taught by unskilled teachers included jumping off the back of moving trucks or rickety platforms, and rigorous, prolonged, nearly brutal training in desert survival. Their objective? To parachute undetected into enemy camps via the scarcely guarded desert front to wreck havoc. When finally they had completed their training and proceeded with their first attack, a violent desert storm took their success and several casualties. Eventually, it was concluded that the LRDG (desert patrol of sorts) who so effective got the men out after their sabotaging could be equally effective in driving them in, thus diminishing the use of parachutes.
   The beginning of this book was very interesting, but once the desert war ended and the small band (which grew to 100) was moved about in Italy, France, and otherwhere's, it was slightly less interesting. They divided into several different bands and their style of attack was changed to suit the enemies' awareness of them. However, as I have found with others, if I were to read the book a second time, it proves doubly informative. Especially if read within a closer time frame.
      Ben Macintyre is a "writer-at-large" for The Times in London, and others of his books include A Spy Among Friends, Operation Mincemeat, and Agent ZigZag. Benmacintyre.com will provide you with additional books and information.

    I received a copy of this book from BLOGGING FOR BOOKS per their blogger program. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Giveaway Results

And the winner is......

Dorothy!

Let me know you saw this by commenting. 

And thank you all for participating!

Fragrant Whiffs of Joy ...AND... Giveaway

This is Dorcas Smucker's brand new book! For those of you who don't know who she is, she is a Mennonite minister's wife who lives in Oregon with her husband and six adult children. Every month she writes a column for a newspaper, and after sufficient time, combines them into a book. She has such a down-to-earth style of writing. Her stories are so interesting, yet believable, and best of all---real. Not typical nonfiction where the point of the book is to expound on some great topic, but simply the story of her life and that of her family. She does a terrific job!

This is Dorcas' sixth book. Her other titles are: 

Ordinary Days,

 Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting, 

Downstairs the Queen is Knitting, 

Tea and Trouble Brewing, and 

Footprints on the Ceiling. 

(Her first three books are recently only available as a set, titled Sunlight Through Dusty Windows.)

I think I liked this book best of all, but I've been following her blog for a couple months now and know who she is a little better and I think that's what did it. I'm always amazed at how a person's life can be so interesting! But Dorcas says in this book, "Interesting things happen to those who tell it." So there you go---maybe I should write a book. 😋 

My favorite chapter in this book is where Dorcas "hacks" the printer. Determined that the black ink shall indeed print, she goes about defeating the stubborn machine. Bravo!

And if you will read the other blogs in this chain of reviews, you will find that there is a favorite chapter amoungst ALL the reviews: "The Minister's Wife".  Other favorites are chapters relating to SAD, 100-year-old fathers, and the all-encompassing theme of JOY. 

You can buy this book for $15 from Amazon by following this link: Fragrant Whiffs of Joy via Amazon. 

There is also a Kindle version floating around for $4.  

Or you can contact Dorcas herself. From her they are $12 plus $2 shipping. Her address is: 

31148 Substation Drive, 

Harrisburg, OR 97446.

Or you can email her at dorcassmucker@gmail.com. She accepts both check and paypal as forms of payment. 

There are several ladies reviewing this book now, and you can find their sites at Dorcas' blog, dorcassmucker.blogspot.com.  

And now for the fun part, the reason you read through the entire post, 😉

--THE GIVEAWAY--

Simply comment on this post (whatever you feel like-- have you read her books, do you have her books, have you been dying to have her books, do you have a cat)

And I shall enter all your names on slips of paper and draw from a hat (or cup or basket) on Wednesday, so you have until then to enter. I shall then post who has won and that person can comment with their address, etc. 

And did I mention that these books are autographed by Dorcas herself??? Because they are!!

By Way of Announcement.....

Just to let all you in cyber world know, Dorcas Smucker has a new book out, and has several ladies blogging about it this month. On Saturday, at 8:00am ( if it posts properly) I will be posting my own review of this book, Fragrant Whiffs of Joy, and offering a giveaway. So be sure to come around and enter! You have from Saturday til Wednesday to get your name in. 

To see who else is hosting a giveaway, go to Dorcas' blog: dorcassmucker.blogspot.com. 

An Unexplainable Life

     BOOK REVIEW:   Can you explain your life apart from God? Most of us live a shadow of the life we're called to. Perhaps more than any other book in the Bible, Acts shows us what life can be when lived in the power of God.
      An Unexplainable Life is an in-depth study meant to reignite a movement of the Holy Spirit in us individually and in our churches collectively.

• Verse-by-verse study of Acts 1-12, spread over ten weeks (5 lessons/week)
• Full of biblical, theological, and historical insights
• Text-based discussion questions that truly provoke thought

     Erika's love for God, His Word, and His church shines on every page. She masterfully guides us deep into the text, challenge us with Scripture as she shares how it is challenging her. 

     Engage honestly with this study, and you will be changed. Go through it with a small group, and you will come away as a powerful force. Complete it as a church, and who knows what the Lord will do? 

     MY REVIEW:   As mentioned above, this book is a devotional, written by Erica Wiggenhorn. It is based on the book of Acts, the first 12 chapters, and is divided into 10 weeks, each with a different focus. 

     To begin the day, there are a few verses of Acts to read (each lesson picks up where the last left off), and the script is based on that. Placed between Erica's thoughts are questions to answer, written in lovely blue ink so as to stand out. 

     This devotional seems to be geared toward women, but could go either way. I've done the first week, and I think I like it. I haven't gone through a lot of devotionals (especially ones like this that are more than just a page to read instead of having to read your Bible) so I don't have much to base my opinion on. I can't say I just love it, but I do like it. The lessons are longer, and take 15-20min to do, but that can change depending on how fast you go through it. As I understand it, there is a second book on the rest of Acts. 

     As to the cosmetics of the book itself, the cover has a watercolor look and feel. It is softcover, but a bit wider than your average book. The spine seems to be slightly reinforced to accommodate the constant opening-wider-to-write-in, and the headers of each lesson are also printed in watercolor, but much richer blue and regular paper feel (which is a bit odd at times if you expect watercolor feel :) And the weight of the book lends an oddly satisfying feeling as you carry it about. :) 

I received a copy of this book from MOODY PUBLISHERS per their blogger program, and was only asked to write an honest review.