Foodie Friday

I have to say that this has been one of those weeks when I have been completely uninspired. I've been just absolutely exhausted the last day or two.

It's amazing how much energy PMS takes up.

But it's like I've always said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right."

Actually, I don't always say that. But it sounded good, didn't it?

All I really want to do tonight is lie on the couch and eat peanut butter M&M's. And maybe some chocolate chip cookies. And isn't that handy since I just made some yesterday.

I tried out the recipe that Holly left last Friday in the comments. Oh heavens. I think I have found me a new favorite recipe. I posted it on the recipe blog here.

Did y'all go back and look at the recipes that everyone left in last week's comments? There's some good stuff there. One even has a substitution for eggs if your family deals with food allergies.

Speaking of which, Kim from Just a Southern Girl posed some questions in last week's comments and I wanted to address those for her.

Kim finds herself in an interesting situation which most of us will never face. Cooking while living in a foreign country. Now, I will say that I did face this challenge while living in France one summer during college. As close as France is to the U.S., many things are just not the same.

Just try finding H.E.B. tortillas, picante sauce/salsa, and Dr. Pepper in southern France. Just go ahead and try. It's a little hard to make enchiladas without tortillas.

I'm just sayin'.

But back to Kim. Her concerns were 1) no Crisco, 2) different brown sugar, and 3) no chocolate chips.

If you don't have access to Crisco or other types of shortening, I'd just stick with good ol' butter. The difference is that butter has a lower melting point than shortening. Therefore, a cookie made with butter may tend to spread a little more than one made with all shortening. Just keep that in mind.

A couple of ideas for mitigating this issue is to: A) Let your cookie sheet cool completely before placing more dough on for the next batch. Placing dough on a completely cool sheet will keep the butter from beginning to melt before it gets into the oven and hopefully will keep the spreading to a minimum. B) Store your dough in the refrigerator between batches. Cold dough on a completely cool cookie sheet will go even further to accomplish this same goal.

Next, brown sugar. Brown sugar is just regular sugar with a certain amount of molasses mixed with it. Light brown sugar has less molasses, and dark brown has more. So, Kim, if yours is REALLY dark, my guess is that it has a lot of molasses already in it. And if you'll notice from the recipe that Holly sent, we are adding extra molasses to the dough. The idea is that liquid sugar (like molasses) will hold moisture and keep your cookies moist longer than solid forms of sugar (like regular white granulated sugar). Your brown sugar down there might accomplish the same result without adding any additional molasses. All that to say, I wouldn't do a thing to the sugar.

And if you really want to geek it up, you can read additional information on sugar here.

Lastly, no chocolate chips. I really can't help you there. The next best thing would be to see if you can just find some chocolate bars and make chocolate chunk cookies. Let me know if you're in dire need of some. We'll find a way to get a girlfriend her chocolate. :)

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Tune in tomorrow when I'll post my stew recipe over on the recipe blog for Soup's On Saturday over at But I Had a Tiara. We finally had some cool weather this week and I was able to make it. And I used venison. It was yummy.

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Lastly this week, I want to give you guys a little bit of a heads-up for what's in store. I'm planning a blog carnival that we're calling Way More Homemade Holidays. It's going to be a time when we can share our oddball family recipes, our family traditions, and some of our favorite memories from around the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table. Stay tuned for more details and a button is in the works and coming soon.

A letter to my husband's admirer

Dear Buffy,

I wasn't aware until recently that you knew where I worked. But it has become apparent to me that you do.

I know that it is you who must be bringing sweets to my office and leaving them on the kitchen table. Sweets like lemon cake with lemon frosting, chocolate chip cookies, and a box of bagles and cookies from Einstein Bro.s.

Only someone so devious would be working so hard to ruin my figure. I guess you think that I will eat so much that my waist-line will slowly disappear causing my man to find me less attractive and you more attractive.

Or you may think that bringing such delectable treats that I will eat will draw me to exercise more to guard my figure and spend less time with my man.

But, you shall not win. No, you shall not win.

I am not eating your diabolical treats. Well, not very much of them anyways.

I am making my own. So that I can fatten him up too. Then maybe you'll leave him alone.

So take that, Buffy.

Weekend of girliness

I love my girlfriends.

I have several different sets of them, in fact. There's the church set, which by the way, I feel like I haven't seen in for-ev-ver. There's the quasi-church set that all come from different churches but make up our Friday night couples group. Then there's the college set.

It was the last group that I got to hang with this past weekend. And oh it was good.

We try to get together, just the girls, for one weekend during the year. It started out being twice a year, then we started having kids. You know how that goes.

We're an interesting bunch, really. We started out as a much larger group that met our freshman year in our dorm at Texas A&M... Leggett Hall. One dropped out our sophomore year, and seemed to even drop of the face of the earth. We've heard some things through our friend the grapevine about her chosen profession, so it's really quite possible that she did, in fact, fall off the face of the earth. One transferred out to go to another school and we lost touch. One married someone who just decided he didn't like some of us and she abruptly broke off all communications a few years ago.

So, after all these years, it's down to the four of us. We laugh and talk about our kids, about people we knew in college, about politics (although never too seriously, because we want to remain friends, you know), and about the sad state of the economy. We watch, yell, scream, and jump up and down during Aggie football games.

We marvel, even, that we are still alive after some of the stuff we did in college.

I was even the tame one - the goodie two-shoes of the group - and I think that it's a miracle that I'm still here.

And yet, we are. Here, that is. Alive and well.

Our weekend this year was spent in San Antonio where one of them lives. She, in fact, is pregnant with and fairly close to having twins. So we all travelled to her this time.

Our weekends rarely consist of a whole lot. So this one was typical.

We went to Alamo Cafe for dinner on Friday night. I had some incredible Chipotle Chicken enchiladas and some excellent guacamole. And I tell you, my friend Carrie can order a Margarita... she knows what she's doing. Even though our poor 12 year old looking waiter did not. He had the blankest look I think I have ever seen when she asked what kinds of tequila they had.

Saturday was partially spent watching the first half of the Aggies play Texas Tech. When we left at half-time to go to Sonic for a drink run and to check into a nail place nearby, the Ags were actually ahead. Once we saw the score, though, after half-time, we didn't even try to go back to watch the rest of the game. We needed retail therapy.

And I needed some flip-flops to show off my new toenails.

Prescription... La Cantera. Oh, now that's a beautiful mall. And it's where I found some beautiful flip-flops.

And would you believe I found them at Dillard's? I couldn't. Not every Dillard's has quite the shoe selection that this one did. I even found the pair of shoes that will go with the brown dress that I apparently need to buy for Mike's company Christmas... oh, excuse me, Holiday Party this year. Yes, I wanted to buy shoes for the dress I don't have yet.

It was at that point that I realized that I had to leave. I could no longer stand there in that shoe department and not spend money that I didn't need to spend.

Saturday evening we just hung out back at Beth's house and gabbed and watched Saturday Night Live.

You see? We don't do terribly exciting things. Seriously, most of the time was spent sitting around just being together. But it's just the being around one another that's so good.

Oh, I love these girlfriends.

And I can't wait until the next time we see each other.

A title would be good here...

Y'all are so sweet. I just enjoyed reading your captions for my little picture last week.

And since I just know you've all been just sitting on the edge of your seats just waiting to find out who won...

drum roll please....

From the Random.org integer generator:
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:9
Timestamp: 2008-10-20 11:10:15 UTC

And that would mean that Kay at Notes from the Wall won.

However, my favorite caption was from MariaJoy. "Mom told me my face would get stuck like this if I kept doing it...shoulda listened to Mom!!"

So, I'm going to send both of you a Sonic card.

And good grief, but I've been trying all day to come up with answers for a meme that Kay tagged me with and I'm still working on it.

Look for a better and much more exciting post tomorrow.

Foodie Friday - Preferences and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cooking is personal, ya know? At least it is for me.

It's a love language.

I figure that one way I can say, "I love you" to my family is to cook for them. Whether it's dinner that I'm just trying to get onto the table or sweets that I bake when I have a spare minute, it's a way that I can love them.

And it's especially sweet when that love is accepted and enjoyed.

But it's also personal just from a preferences perspective.

We all have our preferences about food.

I have several friends and two children who don't like tomatoes. I don't get it, because to me, there's just about nothing better in the summer time than sweet tomatoes. But that is their preference versus mine.

And I am getting to the point where I can look at just about any recipe and pick it apart and re-work it so that it meets my and my families preferences.

I got to thinking about this the other day when someone brought chocolate chip cookies to our office. Let me be clear... they were good or I wouldn't have eaten like 10 of them (jk... it was only nine). But they were not cooked according to my preferences.

These cookies were crisp. All the way through. Crisp like a tortilla chip (before it gets stale because the package has been sitting open in the Texas humidity). And my preference is a soft cookie that is fluffy and cracked on top.

I attended a Pastries and Confections workshop at the Disney Institute back in 1999 when I went to Disney World in Florida while Mike was in a conference for work there. I don't even know that the Disney Institute is still around, but it was a wonderful experience.

One thing I learned in this Pastries and Confections class was how to alter a cookie recipe according to my preferences. So I thought I'd share that with you today, in case you didn't already know.

It's all about the type of sugar, flour and fat that you use.

Crispy cookies that spread out usually use all butter and white granulated sugar.

If it's the fluffy soft cookie you like, then use all shortening and brown sugar. You can even use cake flour instead of all purpose flour for some extra cakey fluffiness.

Those are the two extremes and many recipes that I encounter are somewhere in the middle and include combinations of these ingredients.

For instance, Sara @ Greetings from Butterville shared hers just the other day here. It calls for all butter with all brown sugar. I am curious to make these to see what their texture is like.

Today I am going to share my chocolate chip cookie recipe with you, which I believe I initially took from the chocolate chip bag and then altered it for my preferences. It is below and it is also on the Recipe Blog.


Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips


1. Cream Crisco, brown sugar, milk & vanilla. Beat in egg.
2. Combine flour, salt & baking soda and mix into creamed mixture just until blended.
3. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. In 375F oven, bake 8-10 minutes for chewey cookies or 11-13 minutes for crisp cookies. Allow to cool 2-3 minutes on cookie sheet, then remove to cooling rack.

And just for fun, here's some history on the chocolate chip cookie.

So what about you? How do you prefer your chocolate chip cookies? Thin and crispy? Tall and fluffy? With or without nuts? (Notice my recipe is blissfully lacking nuts!) Care to share your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with us?

Note to self...

For the love of all that is good and holy, will someone PLEASE tell me that 3 year old boys have a "time of the month."

Because I need something to explain the mayhem that was my son this morning.

One minute smiles, but the next was a meltdown.

Clearly he woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Only he sleeps in a day-bed and there's only one side to wake up on.

That does not bode well for future mornings.

Maybe having a regular bed with two sides would help.

Note to self: Buy son a regular bed with 2 sides.




On the upside, he has really been showing his stuff when it comes to musical aptitude.

He plays a mean air-trumpet these days.



He has also picked up a little air-trombone and air-guitar as well.

Although I'm thrilled that he is developing a love for music like his mama, I'm a little terrified of what this means for the pre-teen and teenage years when he is learning his instrument of choice.

Note to self: Build a sound-proof room addition onto the house.



And if all that wasn't enough, his reasoning skills are beyond what I think any three year old should have.

He asked for some more milk last night at dinner after his sister got some more. I explained that he still had plenty in his cup.

His reply was, "Daddy, I need you to drink my milk so I can have some more."

Although incorrect, it was a well-reasoned repsonse. And this seems pretty normal for him.

Unless it's his time of the month, of course.

Note to self: Figure out how to peek inside son's brain to determine its inner-workings.

Today

Today is October 15th and that means 2 things to me.

First it means that yesterday was October 14th... the 7th anniversary of my first misscarriage. My second came not ever 2 short months later on December 4th of the same year, 2001. All while my daughter was less than a year old.

It also means that it is the National Day of Remembrance for Pregnancy and Infant Loss. Angie at Bring the Rain is doing a great thing at her blog this week. She wrote a beautiful post and then opened up the floor for all of us to remember our babies that some of us may have never been able to hold.

After I posted, I was going to just skim through the 500 plus comments. But I found myself reading each and every one. Tears rolling down my face at certain points. Grieving all over again with these other moms. Placing my hand on the screen as I prayed for certain ones of them as I felt the Holy Spirit urge me.

I prayed for a young lady who in the last 7 weeks has had her husband pass away just days before finding out that there was no heartbeat from her baby. I prayed for one who is still bleeding as her loss was so recent. I prayed for several that posted about suffering the continued shame and guilt of abortion. I prayed for a few who, like me, are at their anniversary date this week.

I know for a fact that many of you whom I have come in contact with through blogging have also experienced a loss such as this. I have said before that I believe I am in a very special position to pray for others who have been through similar circumstances. I encourage you to go over to Bring the Rain and post your story, or at the very least, pray over those others who have.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ, our comfort overflows.

1 Corinthians 1:3-5

Wordless Wednesday - Begging for a Caption

This picture from our recent trip to Arbuckle Wilderness is just begging for a caption. Leave a comment with your caption and I'll pick one lucky winner to receive a $5 Sonic Card.

Oh yeah, I'm a big spender. Give me a break... economic times and all.

Comments will remain open until Friday at midnight (CDT). I will try to post a winner on Monday.

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom to see other Wordless Wednesday posts or to add one of your own.

As long as it doesn't involve camping

I don’t know if I mentioned at all, but our family took a little trip this last weekend.

We took off after Sarah’s soccer game on Saturday to go up to Lake Murray, Oklahoma. My parents gave us a gift certificate last year for the lodge there and we really needed to use it. Sarah had a long weekend off of school, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Oh it was a beautiful weekend. And if you need a quick getaway, that is a great place for it. The lodge accommodations aren’t five-star by any stretch of the imagination… maybe two. But there was a bed and no tent.

Because, you know, I don't camp. Roughing it for me involves a hotel without room service. And unless 6:30 am coffee service at your room qualifies as room service, this was roughing it.

But there is so much to do around there, especially with the kids.

And this was a first for me. I went totally without doing any research. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely accurate. I had one thing on my agenda and that was Arbuckle Wilderness, and I only had that on my radar because my parents gave us money to do that as well. We also figured we’d be able to rent Wave Runners at some point and take the kids out on the lake. Beyond that, we had no plans at all.

Well, the Wave Runner thing didn’t pan out. But we did some other fun things instead. Like…



Mini golf….







A horseback ride…









Hiking and swimming at Turner Falls…

And of course, Arbuckle Wilderness…

I realized only after we got home that this may have been the first time we’ve traveled for a vacation with just the four of us. Since Nathan has been born, either he was young enough that he stayed home, or our vacations have been with extended family.

And how wonderful that both of our kids are now old enough that we can go and do things without diaper bags, diaper changes, sippy cups, high chairs, or naps on the rare occasion if need be.

We are truly at a fun point in life.

And I hope to take full advantage of it.

Are you there yet? What kinds of things do you / did you do with your family to take advantage of this young childhood time of life? Give a mama some ideas.

Awestruck

There is no other word for what I am feeling right now. Y'all just HAVE to read this post at Beyond This Moment about the booklet she won in the giveaway I did here a month ago.

Y'all, our GOD... He is some kind of AWESOME!!!