Seewalds 28: Marketing Kids as Deflection

[Knight of Ni]

I have a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that calls for melted butter. They are good out of the oven but get extremely hard and crumbly over night. 

[Carm_88]

iPhone having a fit, let’s try this picture again! Lol

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, Carm_88 said:

iPhone having a fit, let’s try this picture again! Lol

They are selling it!

[metheglyn]

22 hours ago, QuiverFullofBooks said:

You don’t melt the butter first! Did Jessa get that wrong or is it a weird recipe?

The hand-written recipe card that shows up as the third pic in the cookie-making instagram photoset doesn't mention melting the butter. It just gives the quantity in the ingredient list, and the first instruction is to cream the butter and sugar. So I think Jessa described it wrong rather than the recipe being weird.

[SapphireSlytherin]

She probably means "softened" but didn't learn that word at the SOTDRT.

[NakedKnees]

I'm not a very experienced baker, but I thought you're supposed to chill sugar cookie dough for a few hours? At least, that's what I was tought. If that step is actually unnecessary, then YAY. It's a bit of a mood-killer, haha.

[justoneoftwo]

8 minutes ago, NakedKnees said:

I'm not a very experienced baker, but I thought you're supposed to chill sugar cookie dough for a few hours? At least, that's what I was tought. If that step is actually unnecessary, then YAY. It's a bit of a mood-killer, haha.

I always chill it too, but there are recipes that don't require it.  

[Sky with diamonds]

On 11/27/2017 at 2:22 PM, Thorkim1954 said:

Yep, I thought the same thing.  The eyes do it for me.

Same. I never noticed it before.

But wow has she ever grown up. I hope in the next few years things will be better for her. I always ponder how the future will be for the younger girls.

[HarryPotterFan]

12 hours ago, Carm_88 said:

iPhone having a fit, let’s try this picture again! Lol

Such cuties. The cuteness hurts.

I think you chill sugar cookie dough if you want to make shapes? Heck if I know, any time I attempt to make sugar cookies they expand so much hey become blobs. I'd appreciate any advice on making non-blobular cookies.

[dawbs]

37 minutes ago, HarryPotterFan said:

Such cuties. The cuteness hurts.

I think you chill sugar cookie dough if you want to make shapes? Heck if I know, any time I attempt to make sugar cookies they expand so much hey become blobs. I'd appreciate any advice on making non-blobular cookies.

THe trick is that you *actually* probably don't want sugar cookies--people *say* sugar cookies, but if you're going to make shapes, they MEAN things like 'rolled butter cookies.

So....here is my MIL's secret (not secret, but famous) family recipe:


1 lb margarine (4 sticks)
5c. flour (scant)
2 c. confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp vanilla.

Preheat oven to 325, grease cookie sheet (or use parchment paper.
Mix your ingredients (can make the dough ahead and chill)
Roll out the cookies very thick, but do NOT use flour--roll out using powdered sugar instead (on the rolling pin and counter)
ANd we do mean roll the out thick.  Cut into shapes

Bake about 20 min--do NOT brown.  Bake until tops are dry, and it's done, but don't burn.
Then ice as desired (ideally, use royal icing to edge, and do the 'flood and fill' with the very basic sugar and water or sugar and milk + coloring glaze)
These are actually better a day or 3 after they've been baked, after the glaze soaks in.

 

[Marly]

As a non-American, I am unfamiliar with 'cup' as a measurement. Could someone maybe tell me how much a cup is?

[GuineaPigCourtship]

14 minutes ago, Marly said:

As a non-American, I am unfamiliar with 'cup' as a measurement. Could someone maybe tell me how much a cup is?

A cup of flour is about 120g for those who weigh ingredients.  Google says confectioners sugar is 125g per cup.

[nastyhobbitses]

6 hours ago, HarryPotterFan said:

Such cuties. The cuteness hurts.

I think you chill sugar cookie dough if you want to make shapes? Heck if I know, any time I attempt to make sugar cookies they expand so much hey become blobs. I'd appreciate any advice on making non-blobular cookies.

Definitely chill. I don't really do sugar cookies much, but I do make pies, and I'm working on stepping up my decorated crust game. Keeping my pie dough nice and chilly made rolling a little more of an arm workout, but my shapes held much better (for Thanksgiving I made one double crust that was tons of little cutout leaf shapes that I cut and scored by hand, and one single crust that was braided along the edge), and transfer to the pie plate was less fraught (since the dough held its shape and structure without tearing or going floppy). I think that probably holds true for sugar cookie dough as well (also, a little bit of my leaf crust kinda came off after baking...pie crust cookies should be more of a thing).

[nvmbr02]

6 hours ago, dawbs said:

THe trick is that you *actually* probably don't want sugar cookies--people *say* sugar cookies, but if you're going to make shapes, they MEAN things like 'rolled butter cookies.
 

Yes! We always called them cut out cookies growing up since they were the only type of cookie we made in shapes except for gingerbread at Christmas time. But I have heard many people call them sugar cookies. To me a sugar cookie is usually fluffier and maybe even slightly cakey. I like my sugar cookies plain but my kids and husband like them frosted so we make them both ways.

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, nvmbr02 said:

Yes! We always called them cut out cookies growing up since they were the only type of cookie we made in shapes except for gingerbread at Christmas time. 

My Dad always called cut out cookies "cardboard cookies". He hated them!

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

Now I want to go make Almond Cut-Out Cookies or shortbread cookies. Unfortunately, my kitchen looks like the "before" pictures Jessa posted. No dirty diapers, thank Rufus,  but pretty bad. I guess I can power clean today and bake on Monday, when the kids are back in school. Mmmm, cookies..... 

[JMO]

Did anyone see Jessa's IG story that was just anecdotes about Marcus and Meredith?  I thought that was weird.  Did she mean to do that? It was text messages from Anna on a family group text thread. 

[flycat]

4 minutes ago, JMO said:

 

 

Did anyone see Jessa's IG story that was just anecdotes about Marcus and Meredith?  I thought that was weird.  Did she mean to do that? It was text messages from Anna on a family group text thread. 

I saw that and was intrigued as to why she shared it. 

 

[12 Hungry Safety Pins]

Those jokes sound made up by adults, and not particularly funny ones. They're really trying to pave a way back into the public eye for Josh! 

[singsingsing]

Yeah, she meant to do it. Slowly attempting to rehabilitate Josh's image? Jessa, for God's sake, don't go there. Focus on your own family. Your kids are cute. Your brother sucks, leave him out of it, nobody wants to hear about him. You're pretty savvy, don't throw away your social media popularity/public image to try and help your ungrateful douchebag of a brother.

[Seculardaisy]

24 minutes ago, JMO said:

Did anyone see Jessa's IG story that was just anecdotes about Marcus and Meredith?  I thought that was weird.  Did she mean to do that? It was text messages from Anna on a family group text thread. 

I thought it was weird too. And all I could think was that those are the kinds of jokes you start telling somebody and then realize they had to be there to actually find them funny.

Also I know The Duggars say they’ve moved on and forgiven Josh and that I’m beating a dead horse here, but I can’t imagine being sexually abused and then having somebody constantly text me antecdotes that involve my abuser.

[JMO]

I also thought it was interesting that Marcus accidentally made a joke about liking "selfish" in an anecdote involving Joshly.  That gave me a moment's smirk.  The Meredith anecdote was cute.  Not HAHAHAHA but cute. 

[Georgiana]

Jessa, stop.

Josh's kids are very cute. But no one is cute enough to rehabilitate Josh's image, and that should NOT be placed on the shoulders of innocent children.

Kids are smart. Smarter than most adults would like to admit. You go down this road, it is almost certain the M kids  will pick up on some level that they are "responsible" for being cute to deflect from their father. That's a burden WAY too large to place on them, one that is nearly guaranteed to harm them and hinder their healthy growth. 

And when they fail, because they almost certainly will, either now or down the line when Josh has a scandal not even they can deflect from, the guilt may destroy them. 

JOSH can clean up his own mess. Leave these sweet kids out of it.

[Carm_88]

I noticed that as well and thought that it was interesting that she shared it as a story and not an instagram post. She can't get any comments on her stories. So it seems like a way of dipping her toe in and seeing about possibly bringing up Josh. I don't think that she should. Leave Josh where he belongs, in the shadows. He has company now...Derick.  

[VelociRapture]

56 minutes ago, JMO said:

Did anyone see Jessa's IG story that was just anecdotes about Marcus and Meredith?  I thought that was weird.  Did she mean to do that? It was text messages from Anna on a family group text thread. 

Here you go:

I took a screenshot last night and forgot about it until now. Lol!