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Wanted:  New York Mom that is looking to get back into the workplace because of financial necessity for an article in a major magazine. If that sounds like you and you are ready for "extensive coaching" to get you started and ok with being interviewed and photographed for a major magazine check out this awesome opportunity that was posted on the Fort Green Parents list...

If you’re looking for perfect clothes for a little boy for the Holidays, check out the Burwell sample sale. All Burwell New York pieces are design, cut, and sewn in the heart of the garment district using the finest traditional fabrics, such as herringbone, cotton velveteen, cashmere and super soft corduroy from mill in England, Italy, Spain and Japan. Vintage-inspired details are added, like the antique brass and pewter buttons, or the faux-fur collar on the peacoat.

The Mommy Poppins Holiday Toy Swap & Drive is ON!

When my children were very young I had a wonderful neighbor who became a dear friend. They were of Italian heritage and had similar aged children. We shared holidays with each other for years. We went to their house to trim the tree, hang the Advent Calendar, bake Christmas cookies and eat a 7 fish dinner Christmas Eve and they came to our house to light the menorah, eat latkes and open presents. These memories have always stayed with my family though eventually they moved and life took us in separate directions.

Mrs. D passed away this year so I wrote to her husband asking him for her Christmas cookie recipes. Now I will share them with you.

Mrs D's Traditional Italian Christmas Cookie Recipes:

CHRISTMAS NUT THINS

Ingredients

1 Cup of butter or margarine softened
1 Cup of sugar
2 eggs well beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
Pecan halves

Combine butter & sugar. Cream until fluffy
Add eggs beat well
Add flour & salt and mix until smooth
Stir in chopped pecans and vanilla. Mix until incorporated

Drop by 1/2 tsp on a greased cookie, sheet about
2 inches apart. Place a 1/2 pecan on top of each cookie.

Back at 375 for about 8 minutes or until lightly brown.

Makes about 6 dozen.

PIGNOLE (PINE NUT) COOKIES

1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 Cup flour
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 Can almond paste (8 oz)
2 Egg Whites, slightly beaten
1 Jar Italian pignoles (pine nuts)

Heat oven to 300 degrees
Lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets.
Shift sugars with flour. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, break up almond paste with a wooden spoon
Add egg whites and beat until well blended & fairly smooth.
Stir in flour mixture until blended.

Making cookies

Wet hands and roll dough into 1-inch balls.

Rolls balls in nuts and place on cookie sheet with about 2 inches separating each cookie.

Slightly press cookies just to shape a little.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes

Cool on wire rack

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar

No post today. But here's some pics from the Columbia County Fair.

Just a couple more days of vacation for me and the family. I'm going off-line for these last few days and I'll be back to regular posting on Monday.

Sorry about the late posting today. I’ve actually been offline since Saturday.( Yes, it’s been pretty traumatic.) I’ll be on vacation for the next three weeks, so posting may be light, but I’m planning on posting at least 3 times a week, if not more. But definitely stayed tuned, because there’s some good things in the works. We’ll have the second half of our summer guide coming with activities for every day of August.

Mommy Poppins was listed on awesome NYC site, Manhattan Users Guide.

If you are new to Mommy Poppins, here's how to make the most of the site:

Recently we've been doing weekly topics on summer fun activities with kids. We've done a week of free activities ( Best Free (and cheap) NYC Swimming Pools for Toddlers and Kids, Free Movies for Kids, Free Summer Sports Activities, etc), then Free Museum Programs in All 5 Boroughs, and last week was Outdoor Summer Festivals and Concerts.

You'll also find Excursions, Shopping and other random helpful information and silly stuff. There's preschool and elementary school reviews and information if you click on the Education category link in the side bar.

There's been a sharp readership spike in the last few days with a ton of people coming in under the same search term and I can't figure out if it's from a link or just word of mouth. If you are a new reader, please leave a comment letting me know how you found the site. Thanks!

And if you like the site, you can subscribe either by email (at right) or RSS (see subscribe link directly below this post) and get updates as they are posted.

We talked about education for all of March. Particularly covering Under-the-Radar Preschools and Top Tier Elementary Schools in NYC. We couldn’t cover the whole topic in one month and we didn’t get to nearly as many schools as we would have liked, but schools will be an ongoing topic here.

We hope that we did give you enough information to begin to see the wide array of choices in NYC. We have many more schools we want to talk about and we will continue to write about NYC schools.