9th Day of Christmas
Photo Prompt - the baking process & the treats
Teacher - Nic Howard
My Layout - Magic Cookie Bar Memories
I know some of you have read about my Magic Cookie Bars before as I've shared the recipe and mentioned them in a few previous posts. However, I realized that I had never scrapped my memories about this favorite treat. Nic's prompt to document a favorite treat for the 9th Day of Christmas provided the perfect opportunity. I included quite a bit of journaling, so I had to modify Nic's layout to fit that it all in.
Journaling reads: *Many years ago I discovered an Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk recipe that has become a favorite with my family. It’s a fairly simple recipe as long as you don’t skip the “press down firmly with fork” direction (which enables the sweetened condensed milk to perform its “magic” and hold everything together). The recipe calls for 1 cup of chopped nuts – I always use pecans!
*My favorite memory occurred a year or so before Robbie and I met. It was after a family BBQ at Mama & Daddy’s house in Groves. I was helping Mama clean up the kitchen while most of the family was still relaxing out in the back yard. There was one Magic Cookie Bar left in the bowl, so I leaned out the back door and asked if anyone wanted the last one. Luckily I had a firm grip on the bowl because several family members ran to get to the bowl first and grab that final cookie! As they fought over that last one, we all started laughing and I knew then that I would be making these Magic Cookie Bars every year for the holidays and other family get-togethers.
*I remember when I lived near enough for them to visit often, Trey & Nichole enjoyed waiting for me to cut the Magic Cookie Bars & put them on a plate. They wanted to eat the crumbs (of graham crackers & chocolate & coconut & pecans) that were left in the pan!
*One year during Christmastime when we were living in Hudson, I baked up a bunch of goodies to deliver to friends & shut-ins from our church. I packaged all the goodies for Robbie & I to deliver one Saturday. I placed two Magic Cookie Bars, a 5 dollar bill, and a tract on Salvation in a Ziploc bag. Robbie noticed the bag and asked who it was for. I replied that I had put it together in case we saw a beggar while we were out. Robbie laughed and reminded me that we were no longer in the Dallas area and we’d never seen anyone begging on a street corner since moving to east Texas. I was undeterred, however, and we headed out. As you might have guessed, we saw a beggar that day . . . of course, he was on the other side of the highway from where we were. I didn’t even have to tell Robbie to turn around! When we got back to the intersection, the beggar had already started walking away across a parking lot, but I was determined that the little Ziploc bag was for him and Robbie sped over to where he was. He seemed grateful (& somewhat surprised). I’ll never know what happened to those Magic Cookie Bars (I hope he enjoyed them) or the $5 (I hope it paid for some milk to go with them) or the tract (maybe it planted a seed that lead to his salvation), but I’m certain that something miraculous happened that day all because we shared our Magic Cookie Bars.
*In the fall of 2011, I shared the story about the Magic Cookie Bars and the beggar during two of the Bible Study sessions I was teaching. It was an example of how we can give to others even if we don’t always see the fruit of our gift. However, I had not thought to take any Magic Cookie Bars with me to the meetings, and the ladies gave me lots of good natured grief about it before I promised to make a huge batch for our last meeting of the study!
*My favorite memory occurred a year or so before Robbie and I met. It was after a family BBQ at Mama & Daddy’s house in Groves. I was helping Mama clean up the kitchen while most of the family was still relaxing out in the back yard. There was one Magic Cookie Bar left in the bowl, so I leaned out the back door and asked if anyone wanted the last one. Luckily I had a firm grip on the bowl because several family members ran to get to the bowl first and grab that final cookie! As they fought over that last one, we all started laughing and I knew then that I would be making these Magic Cookie Bars every year for the holidays and other family get-togethers.
*I remember when I lived near enough for them to visit often, Trey & Nichole enjoyed waiting for me to cut the Magic Cookie Bars & put them on a plate. They wanted to eat the crumbs (of graham crackers & chocolate & coconut & pecans) that were left in the pan!
*One year during Christmastime when we were living in Hudson, I baked up a bunch of goodies to deliver to friends & shut-ins from our church. I packaged all the goodies for Robbie & I to deliver one Saturday. I placed two Magic Cookie Bars, a 5 dollar bill, and a tract on Salvation in a Ziploc bag. Robbie noticed the bag and asked who it was for. I replied that I had put it together in case we saw a beggar while we were out. Robbie laughed and reminded me that we were no longer in the Dallas area and we’d never seen anyone begging on a street corner since moving to east Texas. I was undeterred, however, and we headed out. As you might have guessed, we saw a beggar that day . . . of course, he was on the other side of the highway from where we were. I didn’t even have to tell Robbie to turn around! When we got back to the intersection, the beggar had already started walking away across a parking lot, but I was determined that the little Ziploc bag was for him and Robbie sped over to where he was. He seemed grateful (& somewhat surprised). I’ll never know what happened to those Magic Cookie Bars (I hope he enjoyed them) or the $5 (I hope it paid for some milk to go with them) or the tract (maybe it planted a seed that lead to his salvation), but I’m certain that something miraculous happened that day all because we shared our Magic Cookie Bars.
*In the fall of 2011, I shared the story about the Magic Cookie Bars and the beggar during two of the Bible Study sessions I was teaching. It was an example of how we can give to others even if we don’t always see the fruit of our gift. However, I had not thought to take any Magic Cookie Bars with me to the meetings, and the ladies gave me lots of good natured grief about it before I promised to make a huge batch for our last meeting of the study!
Those Magic Cookie Bars have done their magic in many ways for you and yours. I am sure they left an imprint of God's love through you for the beggar.
ReplyDeleteI made almost no cookies this year for the first time in nearly 35 years, but I did manage a batch of Magic Cookie Bars!
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