Begin Blogging now....

This is my first post...every blog needs one! I am currently at work but having a slow day, so I thought I'd just map out how I expect the blog to go.
Once I get home, and probably help from Randy (in other words, in a couple days), I'll try to put up some pictures from my annual cookie bake. Each year in November, I gather a small group of friends and family to make cookies. I don't mean a batch of cookies...I mean a house full! I'll have to look back over my records to see how many different kinds I've made over the years. I know my record was 42 different kinds (I was shooting for 45) in 2006, but my help has informed me that I need to cut back...something about getting older and me being crazy???....so this year I only have 25 on my list....but that is already starting to eat away at me so I might have to sneak some in. I have never managed to count the number of individual cookies that we make but there are always at least 36 of each recipe, usually more, you do the math. We make around 200 beautiful iced sugar cookies every year, using my mom's recipe. They are always the first to go. I'll share the recipe with blog readers as soon as I get my hands on it. I am surprised I don't know it by heart since I've been making it for at least 30 years now, but I have an unreliable memory not to mention many other recipes fogging up my mind at the moment.
By the way, any time I share a recipe, I'll make an effort to type out measurements, but just in case I don't remember, the code my family uses is quite simple: T (big T) means Tablespoons, t (little t) means teaspoons. I grew up with my mom using that so when a friend asks me to write a recipe, now and then I'll get a call from someone asking me what's what...it always surprises me it's not what everyone does...but then again, I also call a tape measure a "yo-yo", thanks Dad! (some of the guys I work with still know what I mean on that one at least!)
I called this blog "Just Add Nuts" because I'm a firm believer that nothing is as good as it could be until you add nuts! I know some people can't eat them and some people are allergic, and I feel terrible...but most any recipe I post is nuts optional...so you can leave them out...just please DON'T tell me about it, life is heartbreaking enough without news like that!
And of course, once you get to know me and my friends, you'll see there's another kind of nut in the world...and like the ones we bake with, you can never have too many nutty friends in your life, so those ones are NOT optional!
Randy and I are trying to head up a team for Operation Baking Gals, an organization that sends baked goods to soldiers. I'll post more information later about that, but if you happen across my site and want to participate, please send me an email and we'll see about having you join our team.
Stay NUTS,
Val