peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Oh, yes.

If you know me, you know that for dessert to be dessert, it must have one key ingredient:

CHOCOLATE.

Pie is great. I like cake, for sure. Cookies are delicious. But if given a choice (unless it's Grandma Landin's pie with sugar on top), I will choose the one with chocolate. Every time. Except for when it's Grandma's pie.

That said, these peanut butter cookies have just been elevated from breakfasty-kind-of-cookie to Dessert-Cookie.

The hubby loves oatmeal cookies.

The son loves peanut butter.

I love chocolate.

These cookies are a win.

And? I didn't even tweak the recipe. Not one bit. And I let Joshie stand next to me on chair the whole time and "help" me. The recipe was that easy. It was our rainy day activity. The blah-day remedy. The "fill up a half hour so my son doesn't fall apart because of teething pain" diversion.

What recipe, you ask?

This one. Half brown sugar, half granulated. Butter. Peanut butter. (or "buttah-buttah," as my son calls it) Vanilla. Flour. Baking soda. Salt. Quick oats. CHOCOLATE CHIPS.

I love when a recipe has all simple, everyday ingredients but turns out so deliciously. Mmmm. Nobody ruin my bliss by telling me about empty calories, processed sugar, blah blah blah. I'll go running tomorrow. No, for real. I will. After I eat another cookie.

Go make these! Now. Go.

cocoa crinkle cookies

I can hardly contain the chocolaty deliciousness! My Grandma and Grandpa gave me a Hershey's chocolate cookbook for Christmas, and I've flagged some recipes to try. First on the list: Rich Cocoa Crinkle Cookies. Observe:

Oooh, ahhhh....


I am pretty sure this is a new go-to cookie. It might rank just above below chocolate chip cookies (mmmm!!!). At any rate, it's a new personal favorite!

Here's the recipe from my new cookbook:

2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup Hershey's Cocoa (I used Special Dark)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar

1. Combine granulated sugar and oil in large bowl; add cocoa, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to cocoa mixture, beating well.
2. Cover; refrigerate until dough is firm enough to handle; at least 6 hours.
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls (commentary: 1 inch is decidedly too large, in my book. However....); roll in powdered sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched lightly and tops are crackled. Cool slightly (2 minutes, here). Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

The recipe says it makes about 6 dozen, but I only came up with about 5.5 dozen, and with making the cookies smaller than suggested. I promise I only ate one two. So far, that is.

And how do they taste? A little like brownies! Slightly gooey, crunchy around the edges, so richly chocolate. A total success.

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!

rhubarb pie, chocolate chip cookies, & deviled eggs

Not all together, of course!

It has been a productive couple of days here - I did some speed cleaning so that I could get to the fun stuff (pie and cookie making, of course).

The rhubarb in our backyard is so huge already, with some stalks almost two inches wide! I pulled a bunch of them for this pie, which turned out nicely.


I've been wanting a chocolate dessert (go figure), so my sister-in-law and I made these yummy cookies.


Hubby and I are going to a picnic tonight, so I made these deviled eggs to take along.

danger: chocolate.

I'm pretty sure chocolate chip bags should carry a warning something like this:

NUTRITION GENERAL'S WARNING: The product you are about to enjoy can be highly addictive, though it masquerades as a mere vegetable product. The health benefits of eating chocolate have been established through study, though mass quantities of said product are not to be consumed on a daily basis. Please consider enlisting the help of trusted friends if you would like to quit the over-consumption of cacao based products.

On that note, almost all of the chocolate chip cookies that I made this weekend are gone. I can't even blame this one on my hubby. It's mostly my doing.

The same thing happens to me when there are cheese curls in the house. Absolutely addicted.

I'm not sure I want help, though... it's so good!

feelings are not good at telling the truth

sometimes I feel like my career so far - if you can call it that - has been a blip on the radar or a shooting star. I feel like the things that I've done are good, and that I have been successful, but that I was brilliant for a short time and then disappeared from the sky.

will I have the chance to make a difference like that again? will i have a long term career? do I want that?

it's a good thing that feelings are not (always) truth.

this is an interim time, a dry spell, a cloud across the horizon. I will have the chance to shine again, and it will be good. I will have the opportunity to use my music skills and to teach what I love. but this time is necessary, too.

my husband will finish his degree soon, and then I hope to complete a masters' program, too. (this is slightly scary, since I have not been practicing, and since I am unsure of what program I want to pursue, at all!)
after that, I may teach a couple years, but we want to start a family. I think it's really important that children have their mother or father at home to nurture them, to teach them, and to provide a stable, consistent environment.I don't want to be working at a job other than mothering if I can help it at that point in time.

side note: I love chocolate. one of the realtors here at work gave me a recipe for 5-minute chocolate cake in a mug... I can't wait to try it! maybe tonight. and this dove chocolate square is melting in my mouth. mmmmmmm!

I may be able to teach some private lessons. it does take a lot of work and contacts to build a private studio, but hopefully that will be easier to accomplish through the church that we will be attending at that point. I do think I can balance that and mothering, especially if I can teach during naps. anyone think that's unrealistic? perhaps. or we can put the little one in a play area nearby and begin to teach the baby music, too. oh, yes.

all of my future dreams involve a little bit of fear for me. I suppose that is a normal feeling. Ipray that it won't get in the way of my courage to try! I know the sting of rejection, and hope that I don't have to face that again. iI pray that I have the courage, persistence, and will to build up my skills again to an audition-worthy level, and that I will not be too critical of myself.

I have started to put together a scrapbook to celebrate our first year of marriage. so far, I've done four 8x8 pages - moving day, some pictures of our little apartment, and pictures of the beautiful surrounding area. I need to get some more prints, though. the book is turning out really cute! I would like some more scrapbook papers, too, but we'll see what comes of that. sometimes I am more creative when i don't have exactly what I need, or rather, what I want.

maybe that's what God is getting at in my life. I do have everything I need, but not everything I want. I may need to be more creative with my life at this point, and I know I need to be a good steward of the gifts I have been given (hence the need to practice).

may the Lord grant me the strength to daily accomplish His will for my life, the patience to wait for His timing, and the joy and ability to do all things well.

fresh m&m's

taste better than older ones.

go figure. it's my opinion that they always taste best out of the individual-size bags, but since i eat only a few at a time, they don't stay wonderful for long. still good, but not fantastic.

mmm.

we're enjoying the "warm" weather in our little city - highs in the 50's today. (Farenheit, that is.) tomorrow will be much colder, and only in the 20's, so it's a welcome break.

We visited my in-laws and their church a couple weeks ago, and the pastor always distributes a scripture reading plan that goes along with his sermon that week. The verse to memorize was this:
"Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." ~Psalm 105:4

And it has been very helpful to me. There is no time in my life that I have needed strength and wisdom more than now, and I'm so thankful that I have God to rely on. I really can't do this all by myself.

have i mentioned that i love chocolate? I'm actually slightly allergic to it - it makes me sneeze - but i loooove it. i'm enjoying brownies right now - that's one of today's blessings. i'm really glad for those little extras. it makes the coming home from work routine so much more relaxing!

work today was relatively busy, which was actually nice. i enjoyed having things to do. i'm so exhausted when i come home, though. i don't know how working moms do this! i really hope i can stay home with my children when they come along. i also didn't know how exhausting an 8 hour work day is, even with an hour lunch. my lunch today was eaten up by trying to survive the freezing wind and rain as i mailed a package at the post office and got lost on my way back to the office. my intuitive directional skills came in handy, though, and i actually arrived back within 10 minutes of the end of my lunch. whew. embarassment avoided this time - i'll have to get directions next time. the one way streets here really throw me off sometimes!
there's this one street that's actually split - it runs on either side of a creek, and the lanes are tiny and poorly paved. and wouldn't you know - i ended up on that road. in the rain. yuck!

i'm extra thankful for my new parka on a day like today. it was a great deal, and i'm really happy with it. it's not my favorite colors, but it looks cute with my pink scarf, so i guess it's okay. the coat is a dusty olive color, with minty accent panels and a feminine shape...and it repels water really well, and is lined with super soft fleece. i felt blessed.

my dear husband is gone again tonight - he decided to be in the pit band for a musical, and tonight is the night they go through the entire production with the cast for the first time. i won't even see him... :o( he slept in today, so i just kissed him goodbye as i was leaving for work. i miss him. it's lonely in our little apartment without anyone else here!

i've been thankful for the extra time i have in the mornings. i can fit in relaxed devotions, a cup of tea, and still do my hair, and even makeup, if i wanted to. i would really like to be going for a run in the mornings, but it has been too dark to be safe. we live in an area that has relatively low visibility on the roads, and i just wouldn't be comfortable with running in the early light or the twilight. i've been going for brisk walks on my breaks at work, but i'm not sure how i'm going to keep it up when the weather gets as bad as it was today. i'm hoping to find a way to exercise inside (without paying for a gym membership). ah, the dilemmas of a desk job.

on a pleasant note, i'm almost finished with a baby blanket i'm knitting for a friend of mine - her baby boy is due in january. the blanket is light blue and white striped, knit in a chunky homespun style yarn. it's coming together quickly! i love to see progress.