Mennonite Monday - Monster Cookies

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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This week I chose Monster Cookies from the white church cookbook, page 67. If you have the cookbook you will see the recipe can be made as a whole batch or a half batch. I always choose the whole batch, so I can freeze some of the cookies to use in a pinch. This is also a great recipe to use if you want to make cookies for a holiday because the colors of M&Ms change with each holiday. However, using holiday M&Ms is a give away of how long the cookies have been in your freezer, especially if you happen to pull out cookies with Halloween M&Ms at Easter.

Monster Cookies Whole Batch

12 eggs
2 lbs brown sugar
4 cups white sugar
1 Tbl vanilla
1 Tbl syrup
8 tsp soda
1 lb butter
3 lbs peanut butter
18 cups oatmeal
1 lb chocolate chips
1 lb M & M candies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix in dishpan in order given.

I start the mixing process in my Kitchen Aid Mixer, but if you want an arm workout go ahead and try it by hand.

I usually just guess on the peanut butter based on the size of the jar of peanut butter I can buy. This time I thought I would measure it out and it is a good thing I did because my mother and I were having a conversation about these cookies a few weeks ago. Mike had told my mom that he liked the way I made the cookies better because they were softer. I said it was probably the 6 lbs of peanut butter in them that made them soft. My mom argued that she thought it was only 3 lbs of peanut butter in the recipe and wondered if I had doubled the peanut butter. Mike thought it was awesome that I had doubled the peanut butter, only to find out (because of this picture) that I actually only used 3 lbs. Yes mom, your were right and I was wrong.

Once you add the peanut butter the mixer will be completely full, so you will need to transfer the mixture to a fix and mix bowl to add the rest of the ingredients.

I put half of the oatmeal, chocolate chips and M&Ms in the bowl first.

Then the peanut butter mixture.

Then the rest of the oatmeal, chocolate chips and M&Ms. This makes it a little easier to mix.

The best way to mix this is with your hands even though it is messy.

Sometimes I put the finished dough in the refrigerator for a while to set up and because I don't have time to bake the whole batch. This maybe the reason why my cookies are so soft and a little under cooked.

Drop by spoon-fulls, flatten and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. I usually use a 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie and bake for 10 minutes because we like our cookies soft. If you want really big cookies use a 1/3 cup of dough for each cookie. If you make a smaller size of cookie beware that you will have a ton of cookies. I usually get around 90 cookies out of the whole batch.

Half Batch Recipe:
6 eggs
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp white syrup
4 tsp soda
1/2 lb butter (1 cup)
2 1/4 cups peanut butter
9 cups oatmeal
1/2 lb chocolate chips
1/2 lb M&Ms.
Mix in order given and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Skinny Kurt and Young Kelsey

As I promised last week, here are some older pictures from the Nebraska State Fair. This is a picture of my dad showing the Grand Champion Market Heifer.

He had the Champion Market Heifer two times.

Here he is with the family that sponsored his prizes.

Here is a picture of me from the parade of Champions with employees from the business that sponsored my prize. This was my senior year of high school/freshman year of college with my Reserve Division Champion Steer, Walter.

I also promised some bonus pictures of young Kelsey at the Nebraska State Fair.
Since my dad showed in open class, I spent several days at the fair and my mom had to find creative ways to keep me busy in the barn.

They even put me to work sweeping the walk way.

I took many naps on the show box too.

Do you have any great memories from the Nebraska State Fair or another state fair? Please leave a comment with your memories or a link to a blog entry with memories from the state fair.

Go to an NFL Game, Check

Last weekend I was able to complete one of the items on my to do (before I turn 25) list. I attended my first NFL football game. Mike and I spent the weekend in Green Bay with college friends Jordy and Emily Nelson and some of their friends Weston, Megan and their daughter Macy. Emily and I had the same host parents in college and our boyfriends (now husbands) were both at state universities. At the time Mike was running track at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and Jordy was on the football team at Kansas State University. Jordy's college football career took him to the NFL and they now call Green Bay home, where Jordy plays for the Packers.

As you will see from the following pictures, I tend to forget to use my camera, which is why I don't have any pictures of Jordy's face (sorry Jordy), pictures of Weston, Megan and Macy (sorry again) or pictures of the things we did in Green Bay besides going to the stadium and the game. With that said, here are some pictures from our trip.

I thought this sign was pretty fitting especially since I was so excited for the trip.

We took a tour of the stadium on Saturday. This was our tour guide showing us a picture of the locker room. Since it is an active locker room we couldn't tour it, but we asked Jordy if it actually stayed as clean as it is in the picture, and he said it does.

We had to take a "for the Christmas card" picture.

The stadium was really cool. During the tour we were able to walk out of the tunnel that the team walks out of, but we were not allowed to walk on the field.

We had so much fun at the game. We got to sit in the second row behind the team on the 40 yard line.

There is Jordy warming up. He moved too fast during the game, so I couldn't get a picture then.

Our seats were about 15 yards from the bench where Aaron Rodgers (the quarterback) sits when he isn't on the field.

The crowd was a little bit different than the sea of red at Memorial Stadium, but it was still fun to experience a game somewhere new. We also noticed that we had way more room at our seats than you do at a Nebraska game.

Thanks Emily and Jordy we had a wonderful time. Hopefully we can return the favor sometime with a relaxing weekend in Nebraska.

Mennonite Monday - "Driesbachs" Cole Slaw Dressing

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

The idea to use this recipe came from a family friend who mentioned the recipe in this post on her blog several weeks ago. When we were young, our mothers would take us to Grand Island to meet another family friend. We would often go swimming at Island Oasis and have a picnic with fried chicken and cole slaw from Driesbachs in a near by park. As she mentioned, Driesbachs is closed, but their cole slaw lives on through this recipe.

"Driesbachs' Cole Slaw Dressing
1 pint salad dressing
1/4 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pint cream

Combine all ingredients and chill.

Pour over chopped cabbage.

Cutting Silage

This week my parents cut silage, which is what they feed the cattle during the winter months. It is basically the whole corn plant chopped up into little pieces.

This is the machine that cuts the silage three rows at a time. I think it is funny that it just looks like a tractor, but you drive facing backwards.

In the field the silage shoots from the picker into the silage wagons.

This was our view of the process from the yard.

Mike and my grandpa drove the tractors taking the silage from the field to the pile on the yard.
This job is harder than it looks because it requires a lot of backing.

Mike must have really enjoyed working with my family, since he gave me that big of a smile after 50 rounds between the field and the yard.

They dump the silage from the wagon.

Then my mom and grandma poured a liquid mixture on the silage.

Then my dad drives over the pile to pack it down.

Sights of the State Fair

As I mentioned in a previous post, this was the last year that the Nebraska State Fair was in Lincoln. Since I already covered some food from the fair, I thought I would also share some pictures I took at State Fair Park. I have spent many days at the State Fair over the years when my dad showed cattle in open class, when my grandparents had a display at the fair for their business, when I was old enough to show in 4-H and FFA, and when my brother was showing in 4-H. It is amazing how many memories I have at the fair over the years.

This is the open air arena where we showed our calves for 4-H. There were many good times in this arena, such as showing three times in the Parade of Champions and finishing 10th in Showmanship, but I also have bad memories of fighting my calves to make them stand still for an entire class.

I never showed in this arena, but this is where my dad showed in 4-H years ago. He even won Champion Market Heifer two times in this arena. If three people leave a comment that says "skinny Kurt" I will post a picture of him showing back in the day.

This is the building where all of the 4-H entries are on display. Over the years I have had quilts, photographs and other items on display here.

One thing I really like at the fair is the fact that the old fair logo is stamped in the sidewalks all over the fairgrounds. I will be very sad if the three balloons are not in the sidewalks at the new fairgrounds in Grand Island.

This was a huge block of cheese. I have no memories about this but I thought it was kind of cool.

When I was little my mom had to find a way to keep me busy for several days at the fair, so we usually looked at all of exhibits like really big pumpkins. This one weighted 445 lbs.


This is the Beef Barn where I spend my early years at the fair.

Recognize this from somewhere?

I figured this mural would get painted over in the future, so I thought it would be good to have a picture of it.

This is the hill (which feels like a mountain after a long day of walking at the fair) where all the food is. When I was a freshman in high school and showed in FFA and 4-H(which take place at opposite ends of the fairgrounds), my family ran up this hill at 7:00 in the morning, in the pouring rain, in our irrigation boots to feed our cattle at the 4-H end of the fairgrounds. Luckily the fairgrounds are pretty dead at this time of the morning, so no one saw us, but it must have looked pretty funny.

Since the fairgrounds are pretty large there are tractors and trailers that carry people around the fairgrounds. We rode on these for hours when I was young for something to do and to stay cool, since it is usually very hot.


I was crazy enough to walk up the bridge on 27th Street to take a picture of how the fairgrounds look now. I know this area will change a lot in the next few years, so it will be interesting to see how the property will change compared to this picture.