Cabin Weekend

You've heard about Old Lady Game night - take the fun of Old Lady Game night and turn it into an entire weekend up at my cabin. 7 women, three little boys (sons of the women) and my husband. Mike was given the option of coming or staying home; he wanted to come. He had a weekend full of bonfires and and the casino with Uncle Robb. Us ladies had a weekend full of innocence; a weekend of flower pressing; going to bed early and Bible talks (if you know me at all you can tell how full of sh!+ I am) Anyways, there actually was some cookie baking done. Batch #22 1-26-12 Peanut Butter Brownie Bars Possibly too rich to handle. A fudge brownie base sprinkled with peanut butter cups and peanuts. Follow that with a topping made of chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter, rice krispies and a teaspoon of vanilla. Mike very much likes these. Another 5 smiley face recipe. He can't leave them alone. My friend Megan couldn't leave them alone either. Batch #23 1-28-12 Cherry Oatmeal Cookies These unlike the bars, I actually made at the cabin. Note, it's not as much fun making cookies when you have just one (small) cookie sheet, only a hand mixer, a small mixing bowl and you are slightly hungover. I powered through all that though and made another high ranking smiley face recipe (4 from Mike but my friend Emily gives them a 5 - she took quite a few home with her "for the ride home") This is your basic oatmeal cookie but with cherry chips in them. However, have you ever heard of cherry chips? I assumed the recipe means like chocolate chips but cherry chips. I looked; I found mint chips, cinnamon chips but no cherry chips. I reasoned that oatmeal raisin cookies is a common combination, so I bought cherry raisins - it was a successful substitution. 23 cookie recipes down - that means only 600 more to go. I think 23 recipes in span of 4 months is downright impressive. At this rate I'll get 70 done a year and be done in..... 9 years! Oy!

New Kitchen

So it worked, my last post outlining the arguments about why I needed a new kitchen worked! Actually, my dad was looking for a project and my mom wasn't ready for him to start the bedroom; that's why I got my new kitchen.
I didn't even know it was happening. My husband and I went down to Indiana for Christmas. On our drive home ( a 13 hour drive) Mike told me "remind me to tell you about your last christmas present when we get home". So an agonizing 13 hours later, we arrive home. I open my front door and find my stove in my living room. The kitchen was completely gutted. Everything that was in the kitchen was put in the first floor bedroom, not how I would've arranged it, but hey, I wouldn't complain. So over the next three weeks we got our new cabinets, island, flooring, countertops, sink and the best thing ever!, a garbage disposal and dishwasher.

So my first cookies in the new kitchen? Batch #21 Peanut butter candy cookies!
These cookies are pretty incredible (but not 5 smiley face incredible, just 4 smileys). They're chunky peanut butter cookies with crushed up butterfinger bars inside of them. Side note: 5 butterfinger bars at 2.1 oz each = 16 fun size butterfinger candy bars. I made my husband figure out that math.

I made these cookies for my advocating for esl students masters class (the 15 member class takes turns bringing treats). Yes, I decided to go back to school to get my masters; I may have been on a cookie high with the I can do anything attitude when I made that decision. I'm not so sure about this whole writing a thesis thing. I may not be cut out for this program, maybe I'll just stick to cookie cut outs.