Flowers are the Keepers of Our Joy

We all go through phases, and right now I’m in the phase of throwing things out. Amvets knows to call me–do I have anything for them? Yes, boxloads! This didn’t stop me, however, from buying this singing wren at an antique store last Tuesday, or the little vase and the plaque, each for a quarter, at a recent garage sale. Flowers are the Keepers of Our Joy . . . love it! So I put everything together in a tableau, along with some rain-dewed roses and a sprig of catmint.

If I don’t bake anything for a while, I get weird withdrawal symptoms . . . must, bake, something. So I found a nice little recipe for cookies made with M&M® mini baking bits. They looked cute and colorful. Only problem, my local grocery store didn’t have mini bits. But I did find some M&M® pretzel bits, and they looked just as cute and colorful, so I used them. These cookies are tender and buttery, with pockets of pretzel-y crispiness. The pretzel bits are big, so the the cookies are lumpy. So don’t bother using a cookie scoop–just roll them as best you can into balls.

M&M’S® Pretzel Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
9.90 oz. bag of M&M® pretzel bits
handful of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl. cream together softened butter and sugars, until evenly combined. Mix in egg and vanilla until fluffy. Combine flour, baking soda and salt, and stir into butter mixture. Then add the pretzel bits and chocolate chips. Form into balls (about a tablespoon of dough) and place onto parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Bake for about 13 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown.

Baking notes: I through in the chocolate chips just to amp up the chocolate a bit. Also, I overbaked one batch by a few minutes, and they were still crispy and good.

Meanwhile, it has rained, and the irises and roses have posed for their portraits, shimmering with raindrops and looking even more beautiful than usual. Flowers are the keepers of our joy.

Mystery Cat

Lastly, we have missed out dear cat Moose so much that yesterday we went back to the Anderson Animal Shelter and immediately met our new cat. I call him Mister Kitty, but we are mulling over other names. Meanwhile, he has vanished. Cats do this, so I’m not alarmed, but he is a big cat, almost as big as a Jersey cow. So an absolutely enormous cat is here, somewhere, and we are waiting for him to emerge. It will be exciting when he finally appears! Fran