As a follow-up to my question in what I posted earlier today, it takes 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees to bake a pan of bar cookies. I decided that Jake, my brother, needs a batch of bars since this week is his vacation from work. I took a pic of what the bars look like straight out of the oven. They came out about 10 minutes ago, so the whole house is smelling pretty yummy at the moment.
I’m back to baking. Sort of. In my time out of the kitchen in the month of September, I got quite inspired to start some other types of projects. My biggest one at the moment is sewing balloon curtains for the living room. They are pretty complicated and I’m making them up as I go, so it’s fairly time consuming. I’m also in the process of getting a whole lot of flower bulbs planted around the yard before the ground freezes. So many other things are going on around here in the world of projects and school (midterms this week!) but all is very, very good.
Last week I wanted a quick, throw-together recipe of something that would be easy to give away. I found a bag of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips in the pantry with a super simple recipe for cookies right on the bag. They turned out chocolaty and crispy and very tasty. The 60% cacao gave them a really great flavor, as opposed to the typical semi-sweet chips. Plus, the Ghirardelli chips are pretty big, which gives a fun look to the final product.
In a medium bowl, stir the flour with the baking soda and salt. Set aside for later.
In a stand up mixer or a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter with the white sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until incorporated. (I’m quite sure that this would also work just fine without any kind of electric mixer, but I didn’t actually try it.)
Gradually blend the dry mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. I always us a cookie scoop so I end up with uniform cookies. They look lovely. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.
If you’re super short on time, you can always skip the parchment paper and spread all of the dough in the bottom of a cookie sheet with edges. Bake until the top is golden brown. I have to try this to figure out how long it will take. It’s been a while since I’ve taken this shortcut, but it’s so worth it if you have company on the way or you just don’t have time to scoop all those little cookies and wait in the kitchen for each pan to finish baking. I’m guessing 20-25 mins*, but don’t quote me on that. I’ll let you know when I try it, which just might be tonight.
My little helper approves this recipe.
Isn’t my niece adorable?! She’s 14 months old and way too cute. I just had to share this pic from Mama Bex.
Last week we had some crazy gorgeous weather here in Minnesota. I know around Minneapolis it was in the 80s, but here in on the lake it was a lovely 70 just about every day. I had worried until that point that all the nice weather was behind us and that I’d just have to get used to the mid-40s. Silly me. Doesn’t this happen every fall? I seem to doubt it until the warm weather blows through.
Ella & I spent lots of time outside walking, playing, raking, and gardening.
Here she is with her baby stroller. She eventually got tired of dealing with the cracks in the sidewalk and just picked it up. Smarty.
We’re getting ready to plant bulbs, something I’ve never done. Then again, I’ve never really had a place for them. Ella kept busy (meaning she wasn’t wandering away) by digging in the dirt with her spoon.
We were both happily digging when I glanced over at Ella. Her cheeks were full. Hmm. As soon as I asked her what she had in her mouth, she opened up and a clump of dirt came tumbling out. I take at least part of the blame for that one. After all, I did give her a spoon to use. What does she usually do with a spoon? Lesson learned.
Pictures!! Sometimes I don’t even realize how many pictures I take. Today I finally sat down and took all the pics off my camera and iPhone and tossed them on to the external hard drive for safe keeping. How many pictures would that be? I’m not exactly sure, but I do know that I had just under 1,100 pics and videos on my phone alone. Whoa. A good number of them have already been posted in the months since I first started using my iPhone, but not all. I’ll work on getting them posted in the week to come. It’s going to be a busy week, though, so no cross-my-heart promises. Here’s one just to tie us over. (She found Daddy’s stethoscope and watch and knew just what to do.)
Speaking of my iPhone, did you hear what happened to it? If not, here you go. So, two weeks ago, Ella and I were upstairs getting ready for the day. Pete was home since it was his week off, and we were all getting things together for a day trip up to Grand Marais. The weather was beyond gorgeous and we were already dreaming of the Sven & Oles Pizza we were going to feast upon for lunch. So yes, Ella and I were getting ready. I was in the bathroom putting my contacts in while Ella walked from her bedroom to the bathroom to our room and back. No worries, she does this all the time and we’ve made sure there is nothing she can get into that isn’t safe. There is even a gate at the top of the stairs. No-hassle make-up time for Mama. My contact started to really irritate my eye, the you-don’t-even-think-you-can-open-your-eye-but-you-know-you-have-to-in-order-to-get-the-stinking-thing-out-of-there kind of irritated. This is not normal for me. I messed with the contact and finally had it in place. As I wiped the tears off my cheek, I glanced to the left to see Ella standing next to the toilet. The lid was up. Odd. She doesn’t usually do that. And then, to my complete horror, I saw my iPhone sitting at the bottom of the toilet. Without a moment of hesitation, I scooped it out, yelled for Pete, stripped off the case, and tried towel drying it. We searched online for ideas on what to do to get the water out and ended up blowing it out with a can of air from Best Buy and zipping it in a bag filled with rice. (Mind you, the only rice we had was a package from an oriental rice mix I found in the pantry. At least it was colorful.) The poor phone showed no signs of life. All we could do was wait. And wait we did.
It was hard to put the condition of the phone out of my mind. I couldn’t figure out how Ella got a hold of it or why she had chosen to use that particular object as her first subject for toilet swimming lessons. What good would the heavy analysis do, anyway? The fact was that it had happened and, as many parents have told me since the event, it will surely happen again with other objects.
I waited and prayed and prayed and prayed some more that my poor little iPhone would come back to life, the same phone I debated getting for so long because I was sure that Ella would do something with it and I would regret ever spending the money on such a thing. When the time came for Pete to get his, though, our contract with AT&T was up, presenting us with a really great price to renew along with new phones. It seemed like an ideal time to get one if I was ever going to get one. I decided to give it a go.
It turned out that I loved having it! I used it constantly, and I don’t know what I would have done without having Pete’s work calendar so accessible when making family plans. I could do without the constant Facebook and email, but Face Time is enthralling. Pete would call us from work and we could actually see him and he could see us. Ella would laugh and say hi and point and show Daddy what she’d been doing. And I had taken tons of high-quality pictures and videos. Tons! So you can see why I spent so much time praying for my little electronic device – the one I wasn’t even sure I wanted to buy in the first place. I had grown quite attached to it.
Then came September 28. My birthday. The day my iPhone turned back on. That’s right. It came back to life. I still think that it was Jesus who gave me a pretty sweet birthday present.
Maybe you don’t think I should make such a big deal out of a silly electronic that I could obviously get by without just fine. It’s true. There is no reason I need to have it. But it’s acted as a little line between an incredibly hard-working hunk of a husband and his girlies back home. I get to see him in the middle of a long, difficult shift (for either one of us), even while Ella is asleep in bed and I can’t leave the house. I consider it a blessing that we could afford them at all. The residency paid for Pete’s and the contract renewal made mine far cheaper than normal. I really didn’t think I could stomach spending the money on another one. Thank you, Jesus, for hearing my measly little prayer and answering it in a pretty cool way.
So my iPhone and I are one again. And we have lots of pictures to prove it.
Last night I was able to visit another small group. This one was just two blocks away from our house, so after putting Ella to bed (Pete was staying home after a long couple of shifts), I walked the picturesque path through the neighborhood and over the creek. Such a peaceful way to transition from a fussy bedtime to a night of friends and time focused on my Papa. I would love to make this group a regular, but I’m still praying on it and will visit a couple others. They have childcare with multiple little kids and the study was focused on the influence we have on the children in our lives. It was so nice to be in the presence of some very cool brothers & sisters.
Toward the end of the night, a couple people pulled out guitars and led a few songs, including Could I. I’ve sung it before, but as I sang last night, I sang the words more carefully and thought of it as a beautiful poem. This is the image I often have as I spend time with God, held in His arms or sitting beside him, openly expressing my joys & smiles, hurts & tears. I’m always amazed at how open I can be, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my Papa is right beside me, feeling what I’m feeling and loving me all the way through it.
It’s okay if you’ve never heard the song before. It’s pretty new, I think. As you read each line, relax into it. It’s moving.
Enjoy.
COULD I
by Kim McMechan
Could I just sit here a while
Know that there's nothing that I need to say
Safe in the knowledge that you know my ways
Love me completely no need to hide a thing
Could I just stay here a while
Letting you melt away all of my fears
I feel your comfort when you are so near
I'll hide myself in this shelter you've made for me
Could I
Could I just kneel here a while
Doing what I was created to do
Bowing in reverence I long to adore you
Willingly giving all that I can surrender
Could I just rest here a while
Letting you whisper my burdens away
In all of my journeys there's no other place
Where I find refuge strength for my weary heart
Could I