Grandma would be proud

I did my trial run of making rosette cookies yesterday. My grandma would have been proud! Since I don't have an electric skillet where I can dial into the 375 degrees, I had to test and adjust a bit. The first several I made, the oil was too hot. After a few tweaks I got it to just the right temp. It would go faster to have more than one iron, but they were fun to make. I much more enjoyed making these than sugar cookies, which never turn out for me. The sugar cookies always just flatten out and don't keep the cookie cutter shape. While they taste fine, they just end up looking like a blob of sort of a tree or a snowman.

The sad part with my mom's memory is that she has also lost most of her long term memories. I was talking to her on the phone telling her I was making these rosette cookies that grandma used to make and she had no idea what they were or remembered she used to make them. I so wish I had my grandma's rosette iron set. At the time my grandma was going into nursing home care and my mom was getting rid/selling her things, I just didn't think of some things I now wish I had, like her recipe box and rosette irons. I was just too busy and had too much going on at the time, to remember some of these things. I used to have a flour sifter but not sure what happened to it over the years. It would have been good to have one to sift the powdered sugar a little finer over the cookies. I think I'll order one from Walmart or Target. These light and flaky pastry type cookies are delicious and melt in your mouth. I don't plan to give my neighbor gifts until next weekend, so I will make another batch (or even half batch) next weekend, so they are fresh as can be.

The white chocolate bark is yummy too. That is kept refrigerated, so it should be good next weekend, still. If not, I have enough ingredients left to make a small batch that would be enough to put in the 2 boxes. I plan to put together a box for our retired friend, too. He's been busy now snowplowing the roads, but when he is plowing he goes by our house later afternoon/early eve to start his shift and dh can text him to stop so he can take him out the box of goodies. He always honks when he goes by, LOL.

One of our projects still to do on this house is our master bedroom closets. At first dh was going to do them. He kept putting it off. (mostly because he really doesn't know how to do it). And we want them to look nice and not cheap. Then lumber prices went through the roof. We put it off. So, we sat down yesterday afternoon and designed out what we would want on this closet system website. ok........that's not going to happen any time soon. It was almost $10,000 to do both closets! I was thinking about half that and then we'd only do one closet at a time, LOL. Now, I can do half of one closet, haha.

It pretty much snowed all day yesterday, but just warm enough that it was very wet and never stuck to the pavement. Then it cooled down some overnight and we got a couple inches that stuck. DH just went out to plow and it started snowing again. The temps are supposed to get to 37 today, so seems like he should just let it melt on it's own, but he won't, LOL. Oh well, gives him something to do and get a little exercise.

Mr. Neighbor used to always get out and plow very early, so his wife would have a plowed driveway to get out of on her way to work. So, far this winter he has not done that, LOL. No news on our new neighbors to be. Haven't seen them out here in a couple weeks. Their house in their other state is still for sale, almost 3 months now. Might be priced a bit too high, is my guess. It's also in a rural low populated part of the state, so probably typically takes longer to sell homes there.

DH took the batteries off the gate and took them in the shop to recharge and then leave overnight and see if they lost power overnight (which is what seems to happen when they are out at the gate). They stayed charged, so he doesn't think it's the batteries causing the issue. One of the extra long extension cords he ordered arrives today, but the other one (he needs 2) is still in transit. He can't try out having the gate operate on electricity until he gets both extension cords. If they work, he's just going to run them along the base of the fence line and then over to the side of the house, where there is an outlet he can plug into.