I've been meaning to share one of my favorite recipes for ages, but between the tea room, and the garden, and the farm, and kids, and sleep, something has always come up.  Since I'm enjoying a whole lot more time at home than usual lately, and Passover is just around the corner (these aren't baked, and they don't contain leavening, or even flour), it's time to finally share.  But first, a little back story:

My mom used to make no-bake cookies for us to take in our sack lunches when I was a kid.  I loved them. Since she isn’t around to show me how to make them, I went looking online for a recipe.  I assumed it would be a simple matter to find the same recipe, or at least one close enough to satisfy my craving.

You know what happens when you assume.

Every recipe I found had peanut butter in it.  Now I may not have paid attention to cooking time and measurements, but I was sure of one thing:  Mom never contaminated those cookies with peanut butter.  I love peanut butter, but I’ve had no-bake cookies with peanut butter in them, and they don’t hold a candle to the ones that my mom made.

I mentioned to my sister one day that I’d sure like to make some no-bake cookies, but I had no recipe, and no idea how they were made.  She replied “Oh, I know how to make them”.  I may have suggested that she hang up the phone immediately and get busy making some, and while she was at it, write down the directions.

FYI:  These are not like other no-bake cookies.  They will be sticky, and you cannot eat them with any decorum at all.  They are totally worth it.  Also:  Yes, I know exactly what they look like!

Mom’s No-Bake Cookies
4 cups quick oats
7 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 stick margarine or butter
2/3 cup milk
1 2/3 cup sugar
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla

Mix the oatmeal and cocoa in a large bowl and set aside:

Combine margarine (or butter), milk and sugar in a sauce pan and stir constantly over medium heat until it comes to a boil.

When it begins to boil and foam, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Pour into oatmeal mixture and mix thoroughly.

With a cookie scoop (#50) or a spoon, drop onto waxed paper and allow to cool. This part isn’t strictly necessary. I’ve been known to just start eating with a spoon when no-one’s looking.
Makes about 24 cookies.

Stuck at home with your kids and sick of watching Netflix?  Have a tea party!

We're stuck indoors around here, waiting for the rain to end and the sun to come out.  Maybe you're in the same boat?  Perhaps it's time for a tea party!

My girls love to play dress-up, so it's simply a matter of deciding which dress to wear, pulling out a tablecloth and putting the kettle on.  Maybe your kids aren't so much into frilly dresses.  There's no reason they couldn't put on their favorite superhero costume instead.  Surely superheros like tea parties too?

If you don't happen to have any tea at home, how about hot cocoa, spiced cider or lemonade?

Make some sandwiches (A PB&J or cheese sandwich looks fancy cut into triangles with the crusts removed, and we all know at least kid who won't eat the crusts anyway). 

Let them polish the silverware (even your everyday stainless will shine with a little elbow grease). 

Get out the holiday dishes or even some paper plates left over from a birthday party.  Bake some cookies together, or maybe try your hand at some scones (if you can make biscuits, you can make scones!).

Play some uplifting music--whatever that is to your family.  We're fans of George Strait around here, with a little Neil Diamond thrown in for good measure.

Talk to each other.  Tell them stories about their grandparents, or themselves when they were little, or what you wanted to be when you grew up.

Take pictures!  I'd love it if you'd share a photo of you and your kids having tea on our Facebook Page.

I've decided to move my posts about the tea room's garden to their own domain.  Partially, this is because I know some of our followers aren't particularly interested in gardening.  The main reason though, is that I'll be writing more consistently about the plans, projects and progress in the garden, and I feel it deserves its' own blog space.  I hope you'll follow along at Ozark Garden Journal.

We began 2019 with a great deal of both hope and trepidation.  After spending nearly 18 months restoring the 102-year-old craftsman bungalow, we were excited to see how our dream would be received in the community.  We were also fearful that we might have missed the mark, and that our business model might not be as exciting to Mountain Grove as it was to us.

Looking back now, it's funny how so many of the things we feared never came to pass. 

With the exception of about 4 days all year, we never had more business than we could handle. 

Despite the many mistakes we've made, our guests have always been gracious, patient and cheerful while we did our best to fix things.

When I had to take a couple of days off due to a sinus infection, my family did just fine in my absence.

Nobody ever reacted negatively to the menu changes we introduced each month.

No children have managed to lock themselves in the bathroom. (but we've got a spare key squirreled away just in case!)

I have not, thus far, managed to spill hot tea on anyone.

The Japanese beetles did not demolish the garden.

A plague of weeds did not take over the garden.

The evil black walnut trees did not kill everything I planted near them.

Almost universally, the bulbs I planted in the fall came up and bloomed their little hearts out in the Spring.

The Dahlias that I forgot to dig up in the Fall came back in the Spring.

With a year behind us, we now have a much better idea of what our guests want from us.  We've been able to determine what makes the most positive impact on our guests, and what interferes with our ability to deliver the kind of guest experience that we want to be known for.

Now as I look ahead to 2020, my word for the year for The Ironstone Cottage is "Simplify".  That's not something that comes easily to me.  My natural inclination is toward "more".  More details, more options, more projects, never mind the toll that "more" takes.

We will be making changes to our menu, the services that we offer and our business hours.  We hope these changes will allow us to balance the needs of our family with the wants of our guests.  We'll be sharing some of those changes in the next few days.

If you want to stay informed, please join our email list here.