Making Cookies - Including tips and information you may find helpful

My future daughter in law, Sarah, makes these wonderful Quadruple Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'd experienced her delightful cookies even before I met her - this may be one reason I knew I was going to like her. Drew got her recipe for me, and I filed it away.

Now, I really enjoy baking cookies and cakes. I can't tell you why, I just do. I needed to bring something to church tonight, and I decided these cookies would be just the thing. I was feeling pretty good about this decision when I found the recipe quickly and easily. I followed that up by doing two very important things: I made sure I had all the ingredients and read the recipe all the way through. At that point, I was feeling like someone should pat me on the back for doing everything so well.

So, here are my helpful hints to make cookies:

•  Don't congratulate yourself too soon.
•  You probably don't need as many chocolate chips as a recipe calls for - there are usually a bunch left over when you're out of cookie dough anyway.
• I am pretty sure you will burn the calories of AT LEAST one cookie when you stir the flour mixture in with the sugar/vanilla/eggs/butter mixture. It is a work out. 
• You will burn the calories of AT LEAST two cookies stirring in the chocolate chips. I didn't measure the calories burned, BUT if the burning sensation in my arms was anything to go by - at least two. Your mileage may vary.
• As a side note, I am also fairly certain that Arnold Schwarzenegger got his incredible arms from stirring up  batches of these cookies without ever eating any of them. You can ask him the next time you see him, but again, I feel certain this is how he did it. I'm not saying he is a paragon of virtue or anything, but really? Can you imagine the discipline of stirring up batches of cookies and not eating any of them? No? Oh. Well, then, that does sort of shoot a hole in my theory, doesn't it?
• Putting the cookies in the fridge for 10 minutes does help to get nice, evenly sized cookies.
• I am not in any way certain that this is a fact, but it SHOULD be: the first cookie of each batch has no calories. I mean, really, how else could it be fair to the cook? She needs to make sure they are uniformly good, doesn't she?
• Silpat or parchment paper is THE way to go. No sticking + easy clean up = awesome! (Haha! I even threw in an equation)

That's about it. At one point during all the stirring, though, I thought of the two EASIEST possible ways to make cookies for church. Because I really like you, I'm going to share them with you:

1. Ask Sarah to make them for you

OR

2. Buy cookies at the store.

I hope you've found this helpful! If you have any tips YOU'D like to share, please leave a comment.

Come Fly With Me

Logistics - something at which I will never excel. UPS can run circles around me in that respect. My propensity for procrastination (and the fact that I can be a little lazy) has made it necessary for me to plan for the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon more than a year in advance. I am joining a group of ladies to train for a 5K run in 10 weeks. 

I am, however, an optimist. And, according to my late mother, a carpetbagger. As early as the 2nd grade, I started wanting to take my things with me, "in case I needed ." So, I have had a kite in my car since Lydia came home. I've waited for just the right day to get the kite out and watch Lydia experience one of my favorite (and most frustrating) childhood activities. Today was the day it all came together. Doesn't it look like she's doing a great job?

School pictures 2011

My school pictures were never this cute...

Life lessons

Never give your child a Popsicle  before a photo opportunity.

Always put the mustard and ketchup on the bun before you put the hot dog in. Especially if your child is a messy eater. If you forget, and put the condiments on the hot dog, turn the hot dog over so the condiments are completely surrounded by bread.

If you meet another princess wearing a Cinderella dress like you AND her name is Lydia, too, it may be the most magical thing that happens to you at Disney. If she's riding on the same bus & staying at the same hotel? Magic is the only possible explanation, isn't it?

Twinkle Toes

Lydia misplaced one of her shoes last night. I looked high & low with a fair amount of urgency without locating it. Lydia was blissfully unconcerned.

This morning Gene asked if we'd found the shoe. I said no, but Lydia said, "I dreamed about where it is!"

Gene, "Well, where is it?"

Lydia, "I don't know. My eyes were closed."

Oops! I forgot about my blog

It's not early onset dementia. I've just been busy.  Why don't I do a bullet list (and please refrain from asking why I didn't do a bullet list, oh, six months ago, ok?)? The following won't necessarily be in chronological or alphabetical order:

• After Lydia camped out on the upper deck with Gene last winter, I rewarded her with an ipod Touch. How did she repay me? By taking pictures, videoing , and recording just about everything. It's interesting to see the world from her perspective. Not all of it is flattering, though. Here's a sampling:
• That photo of me at the sink isn't very flattering, is it? But it was accurate.

• Gene wanted a house with a pool & a shop (he had a house with a shop but not pool & no good place to put one)
• We looked at a house with neither, and we made an offer on it the same night
• They counter offered. We countered their counter offer. They decided not to sell. I sent the gentleman a letter asking him to let us know if he ever reconsidered. Oh, and I included a family picture. He and his lovely wife reconsidered. We got an offer the day after we listed our house.
• We moved over Memorial Day. The family who bought our old house moved in July. Guess who had the cooler temperatures for moving? It wasn't us. They had some misty rain part of the day, but blissful temps. We were in a sauna with the heat cranked up. I grumbled. A WHOLE LOT. Then I felt ashamed because God really had placed me in a very nice home, and I feel at peace here in a way that I never even realized I didn't at our old home.
• Drew met the sweetest, cutest young woman named Sarah. We met her, went to Texas & met her family & we LOVE them all. Her family treated us to a Texas Rangers game on the 4th of July. On the way home, I called my SIL who'd asked me if I wanted to go to Jenny Craig again. I can't honestly say that I WANTED to go to Jenny Craig, but I didn't want to look like I looked in Lydia's picture above & I do WANT to be healthy. So, she and I went to buy Jenny Craig food right after I got back home.
• 
  
• Drew graduated, passed his licensure exam & got a job. Love that young man!
• I've lost more than 20 pounds. WOOT! I still have a long way to go, but my resting heart rate (if I'm not watching the Rangers or Razorbacks) is in the 50's. After much trial & error, I can do week 4 of Couch to 5K on the treadmill. Last week I logged 6.5 miles (walking most of it) while I watched a Rangers game.
• Lydia learned to swim without floaties. In my brother & SIL's pool. Because my new house has neither a pool nor a shop ; ) and I am ok with that! Did I mention that I live right around the corner from my brother? 
• I am taking some time off from teaching Sunday school for the little kids. 
• Lydia started preschool & turned 5.

There's bound to be a WHOLE lot more I've left out, but it's a start. I'll try to update more often. Catch you later!

Speechless

This little blog o' mine. I'd like to let it shine. I really would. I just can't find much to share right now. I feel like I've completely lost my blogging mojo.

We had a fantastic February - snow, convertible weather, camp out on the deck weather. Good times. While today was as beautiful a day as you could ever ask for, you just never know what we'll be getting tomorrow or the next day for weather.

Regrets? I'm sorry I didn't buy the sled at Bass ProShop right before Christmas. Or order one after the first snow. Or the second. Sigh. And I sort of wish we lived closer to the church's fantastic sledding hill where all the fun kids went sledding & where the photographer who took Lydia's Christmas pictures was snapping pictures. And I wish I came up with fun ideas like making a Dalek snowman & was prepared for it BEFORE it snowed. Now, my pantry was WELL stocked for snow. I was just late to the party in the outdoor venue.

That's about it for right now. I'll be back. Eventually. I think.