I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. I know that Monday is not a day most people look forward too. I, however, love the start of a new week. If I had to clock my hours behind an office desk I might feel a little different but I get to spend my day with the two most important people in my life and in my favorite place in the whole world (my home). Today we will be taking advantage of the warm weather with a refreshing morning swim. Living in a place where it is 100 degree's at 9am has it's advantages.

So for now to make Monday's just that much more wonderful I have an awesome cookie recipe. Dare I say one of the best I've ever made? My daughter helped me make these and she had just as much fun saying "Snickerdoodle" as she did making them. This was a great recipe for her to help me with because it involves rolling balls of dough in a cinnamon sugar mixture. She did it like a pro with a few licks of the fingers in between. I have got to go...I have a 3 & 4 year old begging me to go swimming. I hope everyone has a great Monday and a great week.

Snickerdoodles
Your Homebased Mom


1 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 C flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1 C Heath Bar Bits, optional
1 C chocolate chips, optional
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar and eggs together.  Add in vanilla or almond extract.
Mix in flour, cream of tarter, soda, salt.  Mix in Heath Bar bits and chocolate chips if desired.  Mix together sugar and cinnamon.  Form dough into balls and roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

This post is linked to Sweet As Sugar Cookies

I don't know about your kids but mine absolutely love to get out the playdough and cookie cutter and go to town. In fact, I also love to sit with them and play myself. Is it weird that I find it soothing to sit with a ball of playdough in my hands and knead it? Is it weird that I like the smell of playdough? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

I wish I could get all the money back that I've spent on playdough through the years. This is the easiest thing in the world to make and would be a fun project to do together with your kids. I've always seen recipes for playdough out there but never attempted to make any until last week when I was trying to think of something to do with the kids. Since there is cooking involved I did most of the actual making but they were excited to choose their colors and watch it come together. I think the hardest part of the whole process was waiting for it to cool enough for them to handle it without getting burnt fingers. There are many different recipes out there but I chose just this basic recipe for Plain Old Playdough. I think I want to try the Glitter and the Fruity Fun Jello recipes next for a little fun variation. So go ahead and make this recipe to bring out the kid in you.

Plain Old Playdough
All playdough recipes found HERE

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS cream of tartar
1 TBS oil
food coloring

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan, slow to medium heat. Stir continuously. Once dough is at the consistency you want, remove from heat. Cool before using. *high salt content so please keep playdough away from pets. Also, make sure that it is stored in an airtight container or sealed plastic bag. I just reused my old playdough containers.