My Favorite Sugar Cookies

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1/2 Cup Butter

1 1/2 Cup White Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla

1 Tsp Almond Flavoring

3 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp. Soda

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs, vanilla, almond flavoring and sour cream.  Mix thoroughly.  Measure in  separate bowl the dry ingredients.  Slowly fold in the dry ingredients into the creamed butter and sour cream mixture.  Cool dough for 2 hours.  Roll out on flour or powdered sugar to about 1/4 inch thick and cut with your favorite cookie cutters.  Bake at 425* for 4-6 minutes. Cool on wire rack or wax paper.  Ice and decorate.

I love making sugar cookies for Christmas and Easter, in fact if the mood strikes me right I love making cookies just about any time.  The best part of delicious cookies besides being made with love is the butter.  I use real dairy butter in the cookie (even sour cream) and butter and milk in the icing.  Below are my favorite recipes.  Be sure to try them out!  They are so delicious!

Mom's Favorite Cut Out Cookies

1 Cup White Sugar

1/2 Cup Shortening

1/2 Cup Butter

2 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla

1 Tsp Almond Flavoring

3 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

Cream together sugar, shortening and butter.  Add eggs and flavorings.  Slowly fold in flour and baking powder.  Cool dough for at least 2 hours.  Roll out with powder sugar or flour at about 1/4 inch thick and cut with your favorite cookie cutters.  Bake at 375* for 10 minutes.  Cool on wire rack or wax paper.  Ice and decorate.

My Favorite Icing Recipe (makes roughly enough for a double batch of sugar cookies)

1 Pound bag of Powdered Sugar

2 Tsp Vanilla

1 Tsp Almond Flavoring

1 Stick of softened Butter

Milk to add to correct texture (roughly 1/2 cup)

Put softened butter and flavorings in a large mixing bowl.  Add powdered sugar.  Pour milk a few tablespoons at a time until the correct thickness is reached for icing and blend until smooth.  Dye according to your liking. 

Easter Cookie Deliciousness

Washing Other's Feet

It's Holy Thursday and I was in church for a very beautiful mass with our area bishop.  Tonight, focusing on Pope Francis' Year of Mercy, our bishop encouraged everyone in the church to focus and pray for those that we are called to serve.  Are we serving others like Jesus served his apostles? 

Gospel Jn 13:1-15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

I couldn't help but be called to stay after mass for adoration and reflection time.  Where in my life is God calling me to serve others?  Am I do everything I can to be merciful to others and show love?  So often we forget that we may be the only love a suffering person may come in contact with.  Also so often we also forget that our suffering and pain offers us the opportunity to know and show love.  I also couldn't help but also think about the times when I turned down help from others.  Was I refusing love in my life?  Was I blocking God from washing my feet?  Are you open to the people working in your life to offer you mercy and love?   So many thoughts, many of which moved me to tears. 

I have been so blessed with people in my life that have washed my feet.  I didn't deserve to be served, I didn't feel worthy.  I am a sinner, but people have reached out regardless and washed my feet, in fact just like Jesus washed Judas' feet even though Jesus knew he was his betrayer.  How beautiful is our Christian faith to have a God who humbled himself to become a man, to serve men and then suffering a humiliating death on a cross.  With each passing year I find even more beauty in this Holy Week.  I encourage you to also reflect where you are being called to love and receive love.  Let us wash each others' feet.

The Bad Asses of Farming

“People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real bad asses”  Brene Brown, Rising Strong.   I love this quote.  I just finished this book and I love it!  This quote has got me thinking about all the bas asses I know, especially right now in farming. 

Milk prices are low, crop prices are low, and farmers are facing difficult financial times, yet again.  Seems like we “just” went through a rough patch not that long ago, basically every 3 years.  Traditionally, farmers have generations of history proving their stoic personalities.  During the Great Depression, the Farming Crisis of the 1980’s, every drought or flood, and every time the prices come down there are proud stories about how farmers tightened their boot straps once again and made it through.  As a group, farmers will be proud of how they made it through times like this, but I think they’re missing a key part of their successes.  What about the suffering and failure?  I see it happening more often, but maybe not enough: farmers being honest with themselves and others about how difficult times like now can be.  I’m not even talking about the financial woes or making the hard decisions about what is getting cut out of the budget.  I am referring to the emotional, physical, psychological, and mental stress that happens to these farm families during times like this.  I don’t think enough of us are honest about what other issues come from this intense stress and anxiety.  But to the bad asses that are honest, God bless you! 

I am blessed to have groups of great farming friends where we have a safe place to talk about the stress.  It is in these safe places that the real bad asses of farming are born.  Here, farmers, male and female alike, share their stories about how they worry.   Will they have enough money to take care of their families?  Will they have enough money to pay their employees fairly? Which employees will they have to lay-off in order to keep afloat and how will those employees’ families handle that?  Can they handle the financial stress of another expensive repair bill on a critical piece of equipment (tractor, mixer, etc.)?  How far will they fall behind on their farm payments?  They are forced to work harder and longer: who will suffer more their spouse or their children?  Can they find time to take care of themselves?  How will they find time to stay active or eat health meals?  Can they even talk to their non-farm friends about how they feel right now?  Will we continue to have a place to sell our milk and crops to?  What if consumers ask more from me and I can’t afford to make those changes? Can I pass my farm onto my sons or daughters, and if I can do I even want to?

These are heavy topics, with real and intense emotions.  Low prices are so much more than financial issues.  Low prices are just the start of a lot real problems that farm families face.  To the bad asses I know right now that are digging deep and being honest about how they feel: YOU ROCK!  God bless you for sharing your struggles and fears with us, with the consumer, and with yourselves.  You are showing so much courage in your vulnerability!  To those of you too scared to talk about it, please find a trusted friend or peer that you can vent to.  It is not healthy to keep this stuff in.  Be a bad ass and talk about your struggles and fears.  We might not be able to fix our pricing issues just yet, but we can at least know we don’t have to wade through these murky waters alone.  Stand tall! I’m cheering for you!    

Epic Winter Flashback

Today in my newsfeed there was a story from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources about the 20th anniversary of the epic winter of 1996. If you're interested in the details check out the article! That year I was 13 years old and willing to do whatever it took to have a snow day.  Snow days were a special treat in my younger years, not that it meant that I got a day off but that I got to spend the day with my dad and family.  The special treat of a snow day was helping care for our livestock (dairy cows and pigs) with my family in the inclimate weather. 
The winter of 1996 was especially wicked.  I remember the days when the temperature, not the wind chill, but the actual air temperature was lower than -25!  Not just for a date but several days.  The governor called off school for us.  Thanks Governor Arnie Carlson!  We had mountains of snow in the yard in front of our house and in the yards where the cows went out of exercise.  I remember shoveling out the drive way to house. We worked hard to shovel out the snow around the calf huts and to the pig barns.  My dad used a snow blower on the tractor to clean out the rest of the farm.  My brother and I worked with dad all day feeding the animals, bedding them all in to stay warm, thawing out water lines, and of course milking cows twice that day.  Winter is difficult for livestock farmers because the animals still need to be fed and cared for.  Epic storms of winter are where stories are made and told.  This is my story.  The air hurt my face. I remember walking into the house that night.  It was almost 10pm and the world was silent.  Snow stacked piles high, the moon shown onto the drifts and stars had a special luster.  I will always remember that night.  So beautiful and amazing.  Even in the epic winters there is so much beauty.  Cold, calm, still.  God does amazing work, even in the dead of winter.
Minnesota has a long history of this winter beauty.  Minnesota is known for its epic blizzards.  My mother tells the stories of the January blizzard of 1975. During that blizzard, my mother's family worked tirelessly to feed and care for their cows but they had an exceptionally hard time because they had no power for several days.  During this time there was no water for the cows because it takes power to pull water from the well.  My grandfather and his children had to go through extraordinary means to care for their livestock and during that storm over 15,000 head of livestock perished.  My mom's family did not lose any animals even without power.  My mom tells stories of using candles to light and heat their house as well as cooking with fire.  We have been raising livestock in the Midwest for centuries even through our epic storms.  I used to joke only the tough survive, but truthfully we innovate, we stay and we keep on working to make life better for ourselves and our livestock.  Here's to Minnesota and the rugged farmers that have lived here, currently live here and will live here.

Stopping to Take it All In

This Christmas I found myself being more reflective than I have been in the past.  I think so often, especially on livestock farms, we get so caught up in the tasks of farming and getting stuff done just to spend a little time with family during the holidays that we neglect to stop and take it all in.   I found myself noticing my nieces’ smiles, laughing with my goddaughter as she played hide and seek with Nana, and smiling when I watched my 93 year old great grandfather just watch his family around him.  I also took some time in the barn to take it all in.  I was asked by my brother to milk cows and do chores so that he could visit his in laws for Christmas.  Since I have a more flexible schedule I decided to help him out.  For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I was at my family’s farm working with my parents and sisters.  This year, more than ever before I needed to stop and take it in.  This is the last Christmas Eve and Christmas morning that I will ever milk in my great grandfather’s original barn, as in the coming months my family’s herd will be moving into a new parlor that my brother is building.  I am overjoyed at the farm’s progress but I can’t help my smile and tear up a little bit thinking about the memories in that old barn.

My favorite mornings and nights to milk are during Christmas.  I love the calm in the barn, the calm in the moonlight and star light at winter time, the calm in the morning at sunrise just as the sun shine hits the frozen Earth.  I love the gentleness of the cows as they pass into the barn, a soft nudge while I lock them into their milking stalls, and a wet kiss with their scratchy tongues as I pet their heads.  I love the smell of cows, their feed, the fresh bedding, and I even think freshly fallen Christmas snow smells.  I will always remember the years we put Christmas lights on the pasture fences, the silo pipes and the milk room, and how they made the whole farm glow in the snow.   I love the memories of working as a family to get chores done in time to make it to Grandpa’s house and the stories told by my father and mother of Christmas’s past.  I can’t help but feel connected to my past when I’m in that old barn.  I bet those walls have some amazing stories from Christmas when my dad was a little boy, or even when my grandfather was a boy!  I bet there was lots of laughter, as my dad’s family is filled with pranksters and story tellers.  I can’t even begin to imagine how much wisdom and lessons learned happened inside those walls!  The good news is that my family doesn’t plan on tearing that old barn down.  It will remain a pillar of the farm for the future.  The barn will be used for calving in fresh cows and taking care of newborns, but it won’t be the same life it had as a milking barn with a vacuum pump firing up in the morning and lights on late at night.  So as I reflect on my last Christmas milking in that barn, I can’t help but feel blessed to have an experience that only a few are blessed to have.