Kolacky Day

Last Friday, the women in my family got together for our annual "kolacky day," where we make massive amounts of tiny Polish cookies for our family gatherings.

Cookie filling: prune & apricot are the traditional flavors, thankfully other flavors were added over the years, because otherwise I would never eat kolacky.  ;)

 My mom & aunts rolling dough 

 Gramma filling cookies

 One of my finished sheets of kolacky. I am a kolacky-filling machine!

Recipe for Kolacky(makes 12 doz.)

Dough: 8oz cream cheese

2 sticks margarine or butter

2 1/2 cups flour

dash of salt

Filling: prune, apricot, almond, strawberry, or cherry pie filling, we use Solo brand.

Cream together cheese, margarine & salt. Add flour and work into a dough.

Wrap in wax paper & refrigerate overnight.

Roll dough to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 2 1/2 inch squares(or use diamond cookie cutter).

Place 1/2 tsp. of filling in center of squares and fold over two opposite corners. Press corners together so they don't pop open while baking. 

Bake at 425ºF for 5-7 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they won't burn. Let cool.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  {Family kolacky motto: "Powdered sugar hides a lot."}

{The cookies can be assembled and frozen until ready to bake, just make sure they are on wax paper so they don't stick together.}

40 before 41

Hmm. I just noticed that the last time I wrote on this blog was the beginning of October. {sigh} 

*Anyway*... I turned 40 this year, and had decided to do a "39 before 40" bucket list, since 40 is a milestone birthday. Well, as bad of a blogger I am, I am worse at to-do lists...I didn't finish.  Not a single thing. 

So I decided to try again this year. I also decided to make the items simpler and more attainable, such as "write one blog post a week." {......Umm....}

I *did* manage to complete two of the items on the list over this past month, the first was going to my cousin's Halloween party, and I convinced my sister to go with me. I recycled my Fourth Doctor costume from last year, and she went as a killer nurse. 

I also reconnected with a friend that I hadn't spoken to in possibly a year. I was cruising around in Target, and came across this DVD set that made me think of her, so I sent her a picture:

We ended up having a text conversation, which was a little awkward, but was really great. So, in the spirit of successful completion of THE LIST, here are some of my "40 before 41" goals:

1. Write one blog post a week.

2. Eat at five new restaurants.

3. Visit one state I've never been to before.

4. Learn how to knit.

5. Sew something wearable.

6-9. Spend a day at each of the following: the Field Museum, the Shedd, the Art Institute, and the Museum of Science & Industry.

10. Discover how to make chicken & dumplings the way my grandmother made them.

11. Go to a drive-in movie.

12. Clean up my iTune library.

13. Read two new books a month.

14. Watch 1 new movie a week.

15. Purge & organize.

16. Take Tai Chi at the park district.

17. Lose 50lbs. {Trust me, it's there.}

18. Figure out eyeliner. It's about time.

{I realize that this is only about half of the actual list, but these are the ones I'm comfortable sharing with the universe.}