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.

This morning started off rather early for a Saturday - 7:55am, to be exact. I rolled out of bed and drove to our church to pick up our Angel Food order for this month. About 2 miles into the drive, I realized that the gas tank needle was on empty. Ha. This is a ridiculous situation to be in, since I have to drive about 20 miles to get to the church, and there is not a gas station until about a mile past the church. We do live in the middle of nowhere.

So, my DTE said I had about 38 miles left, which is plenty, of course. But when it dropped to 27, the light started flashing and I began to get nervous.

I did make it to the gas station, but not without some coasting and prayer. :o) Silly me for forgetting to fill up on the way home yesterday. Also got the aforementioned Angel Food box.

All this is to lead up to the reason that I stopped at WalMart: because I had time, and I was there already. Sufficient reason, yes? Total damage: 3 cake mixes (cupcake inspiration and excitement from my friend Kristen at Team Fuest), 3-pack of tissues, and juice boxes (because I can't resist, even though I'm a grown up woman now).

I happily drove home and was greeted by my dear husband - big hug and kiss. It's so VERY wonderful to have him home when I get home! I miss him a lot during the week.

Lunch was homemade chicken soup. Successful. Check. My hubby was very appreciative, and I surprised him by pulling out the confetti cake mix. His favorite! Yay! He requested a layer cake, with raspberry filling, and lots of icing. Can do! In the meantime, we played Scrabble. He almost always wins this game, and today I was very close to winning...but, alas! I was short a few points. Oh, well.

I also made cupcakes to freeze.

And here's the cake:

He approves. :o)

chocolate chip cookies!

Warm, cozy comfort food for a way-below-freezing Saturday night? Sounds amazing.

So I pulled out the Ghirardelli chips. 80% cacao. Mmmmmmmm.

I first compared the G recipe to the Nestle version (my personal favorite), and found that there are very slight differences. I proceeded to use the G recipe, measuring the flour and baking powder - no, soda - into the small mixing bowl. Check. Find salt. Added salt. Done.

Sugars - 3/4 cup of each. I pulled out the white sugar, measured, and dumped....

...into the small bowl of dry ingredients. Problem! For those of you who don't know this cookie recipe by heart: it says to put the flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and sift together, and then to cream the sugars in butter in a separate, larger bowl. Once those are mixed, you add the eggs, vanilla, and very last, the flour mixture.

A mini panic session ensued for this type-A wifey. What do I do? I haven't ever screwed up the chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I've been doing this since I was 10. I can't unmix these, since I'm no chemist. I don't have a sifter. I think I'm gonna cry.

But I have a solution.

The flour/salt/powder/sugar mixture went straight into the big bowl. Added vanilla, eggs, shortening and water (in place of butter). Turned on the mixer. Poof! Dough.

Things were going well. I scraped down the sides of the bowl. And then all of a sudden, the evil dough climbed all the way up the beaters and almost reached the top of the mixer! Darn.

I ended up having to mix the rest of the dough by hand, but that's alright. It's good exercise.

I added the chocolate chips (the ENTIRE bag, thank you) and a handful of walnuts. It doesn't look half bad!

In fact, they look pretty normal. What were the recipe writers thinking? This is actually easier in some ways.

So I figured I would go ahead and bake them. No problems, just a slight cookie casualty as I was putting it on the cooling rack. That's a taste test cookie. :o) Alright! It tastes alright!

Success.

So I took a stack of these over to my hubby, who was waiting in great anticipation of these fail-cookies (which were rather successful, I think). I set the cookies down for him, and reached up to touch my hair.

It was then that I realized that I have melted chocolate on my fingers. And in my hair. Seriously?

But the cookies are delicious. Am I overtired? Has it been a draining week? Perhaps, yes.

Definitely yes. But I'm still laughing!

four part time jobs? and grad school apps.

even weeds look pretty when they're frosted with snowflakes!

a berry - bearing plant beside our deck

lacy goldenrod plants

snow-sugared pine cones

more of the berries

My parents came to visit this past weekend! It was so nice to see them - it has been a while! They only came for Friday night and Saturday, but we packed it full of fun, nonetheless. These pictures are from Saturday morning, when everything was frosted in white. It was a beautifully sunny day, and warm! Well, warm for January in central New York.

I was really thrilled to finally have work when I started nannying in December. I'm working for a family with twin boys, born on December 3rd, a 2-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old girl. It's busy, but I love it! It's nice to be taking care of the kids, and I like feeling needed.

I also just picked up some more piano students from a friend who needs some time off from teaching. This is excellent, as all the parents are pleased that I'm traveling to their homes to teach their kids, and they pay me more for that. Cool. It's okay with me.

While I was working out early this month, I got a call from the director of the local high school's musical, asking me to accompany. Wow! Okay. It's nice to play piano professionally.

I am still working at church as the Worship and Music Coordinator, and I love that job. Things are busy at the moment, though; we're having three distinctly different Sunday services in the next four weeks, and they all involve musicians and personnel that don't usually serve at our church. It has been complicated to coordinate, but I'm working on it. I keep reminding myself that I love being in music.

As if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, I'm also applying for grad school in the Fall. I have an audition on the 13th of February, as well as the 12th-13th of March. I am auditioning for Vocal Music Education and for Choral Conducting, so the preparation work will be extensive. I haven't sung in a while, and I feel a bit frustrated with how I sound right now. I hope to take lessons with a professor at the local college to brush up before my audition. So soon - yikes!

My husband started school again yesterday after a very long break. It will be good for us to both have a set routine again, after both losing our primary jobs and not having much to do! Tomorrow is his longest day - I will kiss him "goodbye" at 8:15am, and not see him until about 8:00pm. Crazy...

Tomorrow night is also our couples' bible study. This is such a nice break in our week, and it's great to focus on what really matters. I love being able to share that time with my husband, and to talk openly with other people about what we're learning from the scriptures.

I volunteered this morning at MOPS (that's Moms Of Pre Schoolers - a parenting support group) in the baby room (ages 0-1 year). I took care of the twins that I usually watch, as their mom usually comes to MOPS. They're adorable, and it was fun to share that with the other caretakers in the infant room. One of the twins, though, showered himself as I was changing his diaper...talk about dramatic. It was all better after a new outfit and extensive "washing" with baby wipes. lol. poor little guy!

My husband and I went out tonight for a quick trip to the mall and a stop at Dunkin' - I had forgotten, I guess, how greasy those doughnuts are. But they're yummy! I also picked up a couple of cute things at the mall. Valentine's Day, here we come :o) I can't wait.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, there's a card-making party coming up! All of us girls will pool our scrapbooking and card-making supplies for a girly night next Saturday. So excited! I could use a girls' night...

All this is to say that I'm very blessed. I have jobs that will pay our bills, a husband who loves me so much more than I deserve and more than I'll ever understand, and a God who provides for my every need. I have the opportunity to continue my studies, to work in the field I was trained for, and to care for children, as I've always dreamed. I do hope that, one day, God will see fit to give us our own children. But for now, I am grateful. And content.

motivated.

this morning, i was that. i had breakfast, started the dishwasher, made muffins, washed dishes, swept and cleaned the hall and kitchen floors, cleaned the bathroom, deep cleaned the kitchen counters, put away the now-clean dishes, straightened the bedroom, tidied the living room, and vacuumed every carpeted thing. all of this by 11am.

we had a worship music rehearsal at our house at 11:30 - just my husband on guitar, another friend on guitar and vocals, and me on the piano and some high vocals. it was a great time to play together. we all have a degree in music, so it makes it easier to communicate with each other. besides that, it's fun. did i say that? :o)
it's a lovely sunny day, too - not even snowing.

this afternoon shall involve shopping with a friend (yay!), and hopefully i won't have to make dinner.

last night's entertainment was being at a friend's house - chris and jacqueline, and their almost-two-year-old daughter. it was good to just relax together and play a couple games.

signing off for now.

"look to the Lord and his strength. seek his face always." -ps 105:4