Easter (Teacakes)

Here are my kids on Easter morning. Aren't they beautiful?

OK, so I am a little behind with my posts...

Easter started on Saturday morning with a very cold Easter Egg Hunt at Church.

When we left church, we took the boys to get a haircut. I ran by the grocery store and then we took the kids over to Mom and Dad's to color Easter Eggs and have another Easter Egg hunt with the cousins. Meanwhile I stayed home to work on my cooking.

We celebrated Easter on Saturday night with Michael's Mom's side of the family. It was a fun time to be with family we don't get to see too often. I took a Pineapple Casserole. We had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and lots of good sides. Here is a picture of the kids and some of their cousins getting ready for another Easter Egg Hunt!

This is a picture of Michael and his Grandfather. Everyone calls him Strawberry, or Straw for short.

After a great church service Easter Morning, we headed over to Robert and Judy's house. (Judy is my Dad's cousin.) I grew up very close to all my cousins on this side of the family and now we all have kids of our own. There are always a lot of kids to play together and there is so much for them to do. Most of the kids in this picture are third cousins. I love it!

Along with an inflatable bouncy, a huge playground, and alot of land to wander around, there are several 4-wheelers that are running all afternoon. This is my second cousin Jon, taking Sophie on a joyride.

Regretfully, we didn't make it to Michael's grandmother's house to visit with his Dad's side of the family or over to my Aunt's house to visit with my Mom's side of the family.

I made A LOT of teacakes this Easter. I took some to Robert and Judy's and sent some over to my grandmother. I think I was in college when I first went over to my Grandmother's house to help her make her teacakes. She made these for every holiday. She made them for my birthday. She made them for my graduation parties from high school and from college. My Grandmother is known for her teacakes. After I learned how to make them, I started helping her on the holidays, to save her time. I also started taking them to parties of my own and bridal and baby showers. A lot of people that try them say they remind them of cookies their Grandmother made. I am proud of this recipe and of being able to make them like my Grandmother did. She says she makes them like her Mama used to make them. There is a lot of heritage in cooking, which is a whole post of it's own. Here is a picture of my Grandmother holding Reed when he was a baby. I can't believe I can't find a more recent picture. You can bet I will have one soon..

Grandmother's Teacake Recipe

I never make just one recipe of these cookies. For Easter I made 4 recipes. I think that made about 7 or 8 dozen. Usually, I will make the cookies one day and ice them the next day.

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups White Lily self rising flour, sifted

1/4 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla. Mix with flour and milk. Divide dough in half, wrap in wax paper and chill for several hours. Well chilled dough is easier to roll out. Sometimes for the sake of time, I will put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350, depending on how your oven cooks you may need to adjust the temp. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out with round cookie cutter and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 13 minutes.

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.

Now it's time to ice the cookies. For the icing:

1 box confectioners' sugar

3 Tbsp. melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup whole milk, heated in microwave for 30 seconds

Few drops of food coloring

Mix sugar, butter, vanilla and food coloring. Add milk gradually. You may not need all the milk. Consistency: You should be able to spread the icing to the edge of the cookie and the icing shouldn't drip off the sides. You will need to keep stirring the icing so it stays smooth. This is how I do it:

This is the finished product. Yummy!