Peace, Trust and Citrus Pineapple Cookies

One of my favorite things about blogging is waking up every morning and seeing what my friends have been up to. Recipes and thoughts, pictures and poetry. I look at all of your posts and they inspire mine, now and in the future. Today I was inspired to think about peace. We have had so much peace and happiness in our home lately, compared to the past few years, and I am truly thankful for it every day. Being married to a student for 7 years, while having 2 kids, 3 pregnancies, 5 moves, and constantly varying income has definitely made for some rocky periods, and nothing disturbs my inner peace quite like money troubles. When we moved to Utah 3 years ago so Stephen could attend BYU, some of the hardest, most bitter and angry times of my life began. I would just feel sick with fear and anger every time we "ran out" of money (which was just about every semester). Often we could turn to my parents for help, but I was so ashamed. It took me two years of this for me to realize how much we were actually being taken care of. We had parents who were able to help. We always had food, (even if it may have been cheaper or more "boring" than we might like) a warm home, power, and transportation (generally). We were never asked for more than we had, or were able to borrow. We were never kicked out of our apartment for late rent. We were so blessed compared to so much of the world, and yet I would have such horrible feelings when our money would trickle away.

Finally I read a scripture that set off the lightbulb in my brain (and heart). Matthew Chapter 6 verses 31-32.
"Therefore take no thought, saying, 'What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.'"

He knows what we need. He will always take care of us. Yes, sometimes that means we will get a whole lot closer to our limits than we may like, but the point is, He is there, and He is watching. One way or another, we will squeeze by and everything will be all right.

I have remembered this ever since then and those awful feelings have never returned. Sure it's not fun sometimes, to tighten our belts and cut back for a few weeks, but we'll make it. I know that now.

And guess what!! Flour and sugar are really cheap, if you aren't too horribly finicky! Sometimes we just eat pancakes. Dirt Cheap! But these days we can afford to have a bit of fun, so here is my latest cookie creation!

**I found the base of this recipe on a blog somewhere, but I can't remember where! I added things and changed a few other things... If it looks like yours, let me know and I will give you credit. Sorry!!**

Citrus Pineapple Cookies

Printable Recipe

3 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening (crisco)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 and 1/4 cup crushed pineapple, drained well 

Zest from 1 orange

1 tsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream together shortening, vanilla and sugar. Add in eggs, zest, lemon juice and pineapple and mix well. (I had pineapple tidbits instead of crushed, so I drained them, lightly squeezed them with a paper towel to take away extra juice, then gave them a quick spin in the blender. Not too much! You still want it chunky, not pureed!)

Add dry ingredients and mix well. Drop lumps of dough, about two tablespoons-ful on cookie sheet. (Mine were huge, so I gave you a more specific size!)

Bake about 10-15 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Let cool completely and frost, if you want! 

Stephen wanted me to leave some unfrosted, so I did... then tried one with Lemon Curd on it... citrus perfection!  The frosting is pretty darn yummy, but honestly, this is my favorite way to eat these. Little Stephen agrees. That's my boy!!

If you're a lemon nut like me, try it this way first. If not, that's okay! Here's the frosting recipe, because I love you anyway!

Frosting:

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 package of cream cheese (4 oz.)

2 Tb softened butter

1 Tb fresh squeezed orange juice

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp orange zest

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Whisk in juices and zest. Whisk in powdered sugar till thick and smooth.

This is a new family favorite! They're fluffier than the cookies I usually like, but not too much. Just right. Stephen said he really liked them multiple times, which is a big deal! It takes a lot to get him excited about new treats, he tends to stick to his few favorites. 

The pineapple flavor doesn't exactly smack you in the face; they're lightly sweet and fruity. The lemon juice brings the pineapple out a bit more, gives them a hint of "tang".

They're prettier with frosting, hence all the pictures. :) I'm thinking of trying to work the extra frosting into sticky buns somehow... hmm....

My zest is pretty chunky... I forgot my microplane!! Horrors!! Yeah, I know, I'm spoiled. I really really love that little gadget though. My Mom gave it to me. She's the bestest. Anyway, my husband had the genius idea to take off strips of peel with a vegetable peeler and chop them as fine as I could. It worked pretty well! Log that away for future disasters!

These are so scrumptious I've eaten three already... do you need much more convincing than that??