Makeover

I have wanted to update the look of my blog for a while, but haven't really found the time or energy to do so.  One of my friends offered to help out with my header, and I finally took her up on the offer!  Thanks to Ella for the fabulous job!  I also updated pictures of the kids since they are growing like crazy!  It's nice to have things look a little brighter and fresher around here!

The Cookie

I used to be known for my chocolate chip cookies when I worked and brought them into the office.  My co-workers swore that I had a secret ingredient.  I swore that I didn't, but just followed the recipe off of the bag of chocolate chips.  I actually think my "secret" ingredient was vanilla from Mexico which ran out long ago.  Within the past year, I don't think my chocolate chip cookies have been that great.  I follow the same recipe, but something just doesn't seem right.  I recently saw a recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cherry Espresso Cookies and I was sold!  The base of this cookie is suppose to be THE chocolate chip cookie . . . I just had to try it.

I did buy all the ingredients to make the cherry espresso version, but I decided to try my hand at the original cookie first.  I must say it's pretty tasty, but I'm not sure it's THE cookie.  I might make a few tweaks of my own.  This recipe calls for three kinds of sugar and recommends that you don't use chocolate chips, but chop up the best kind of chocolate you can afford.  While I did buy a lot of chocolate to chop, I ended up using some dark chocolate chips for 10 oz. and then some bittersweet and dark chocolate that I chopped.  I decided that since I don't like chopping chocolate, I would like to try this recipe with just some plain old semi-sweet chocolate chips to see what that tastes like.  The other thing that was really odd is that you set the oven to 360 degrees.  If you have seen my oven, you will know that they markings are almost rubbed off, so I am lucky I can find the 350 degrees mark!  And that's what I set my oven at 350 . . . My cookies baked closer to 11 minutes and I think that was even a bit too long.  I also didn't make all the cookie dough.  As you recall, I just made Valentine's day cookies, so I made a few trays and then froze the rest of the cookie dough. (To do this, scoop out the cookies on a cookie sheet, stick them in the freezer for a little while, and then put them in a bag - you then can bake straight from the oven, although you  might need to add a little bit extra time).

All in all, I do plan on making this recipe again.  Here is the recipe that I used yesterday:

THE Chocolate Chip Cookie (Adapted from Not Without Salt)
2 sticks butter (8 oz)
1/4 cup white sugar (2 oz )
1/4 cup Turbinado sugar (2 oz )
1 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed (12 oz )
2  eggs
2 tsp vanilla (1/4 oz)
3 1/2 cup All Purpose flour (1 lb. )
1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 lb. chocolate (use the best quality chocolate you can afford. With a serrated knife cut chocolate chunks roughly 1/2 inch)

Cream the butter and the sugars until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes on medium high. Scrape down the side of the bowl. Continue mixing while adding the eggs one at time. Make sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Combine the flour, soda and salt in another bowl. With a whisk to combine. With the machine on low, slowly add the flour. Mix until just combined, taking care not to over mix. With a spatula fold in the chocolate.

Bake at 360* for 12 minutes. They should be lightly golden on the outside but still look gooey on the inside.

Happy Valentine's Day - the cookie edition

I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day. As I mentioned in a previous entry, it's a fun little holiday at our house to show our love for each other and to eat lots of candy, cookies and chocolate! Ever since my BBF Lisa showed me how to decorate cookies using royal icing, I have been hooked. I made snowflake cookies and then cookies for my godson's first birthday. And now I made cookies for Valentine's Day.  I want to be sure to document the cookies that I am making, and sadly I didn't take any of the birthday cookies.  This time around I decided to document each step:

First you start with plain cookies

Then you pipe an outline around each cookie

Then you start flooding the cookie with a thinned icing

I experimented with a couple few techniques

Once the flooded icing is dry, you can pipe on words or other decorations

These were for Uncas' work today (the name of a project he is working on)

Two of my favorite Valentines!

Sharing the Love

Mixing the dry ingredients

On Friday the kids and I were meeting our friends Ella and Eliza at an indoor park.  Eddie had received a cookbook from his godmother Lisa for Christmas, so I thought it would be fun to bake something from it and bring to Eliza.  I picked out a couple of recipes and let Eddie make the final decision.  He picked Snickerdoodles.  (I believe it went something like this "I make these".)  So we went about making the cookies on Friday morning.  I wish I had a camera when he gave the cookies to Eliza.  We put them in a cute box with hearts and he walked over, gave it to her and then came back to me.  Eliza seemed pretty happy with the cookies.  I know many people think that Valentine's Day is just a Hallmark holiday, but I think it's fun to have a day to show/tell people that you love them!

Helping roll the dough into balls

And speaking of Eddie - I can barely believe that he is going to be 2 next month!  He is such an adorable little boy. This morning I was changing Edith's diaper and she was crying (because that is what she tends to do at times when she doesn't want to do something) and he bent down to her and kept asking "What's wrong Edie? Why are you crying Edie?" It was so sweet. 

He is also very curious and he now will ask "what's that?" or "who's that?"  It's fun to actually hear what is going on inside his little head.  It's also amazing how much he remembers!  He'll often ask about or mention people randomly.  In fact just the other morning he was asking about Great-Grandma (my mom's mom).  We hadn't talked about her recently, but for something she was on his mind. He also likes to narrate what he is doing or what is going.  One funny example is when he falls down now he will say "I fall down", which might sound differently depending on the severity of the fall.  Everyday it seems like something new comes out of his mouth and it really is fun to watch him grow and learn!

Twins!

Josie, Ronie, Eddie and Edith

This morning the kids and I went to visit good friends of ours who had twin girls at the end of December.  They were born at 32 weeks and spent about 3 1/2 weeks at the hospital.  Uncas and I were able to see them when they were teeny, tiny at the hospital.  The kids hadn't been able to meet them until today!  Eddie sure liked to talk about them though, especially Josie ("Josie eat pizza. Josie eat jelly and peanut butter.")

Eddie was so good with the babies.  He was very gentle and really liked looking at them.  Edith was indifferent, although she did tug on Josie's foot at one point. Ronie slept pretty much through the whole visit, although Josie was awake and taking it all in - she was probably wondering who the loud little kids were that were running around her house!

Since they live in our same town, we look forward to many playdate, picnics and fun times with the twins and their parents!  I left my actual camera at home, but took a couple of pictures with my phone.  I know that this is just the first pictures of many more to come of the four kids together!

Meeting the Twins for the first time! (Ronie on the left, Josie on the right)

Zoo and other things . . .

Today the kids and I took a spontaneous trip the zoo!  We were suppose to have our playgroup, but the mom hosting had a sick household.  A couple other of the moms and I decided to move the playgroup to the zoo.  They both had memberships that allowed them to have a +1, and kids under 2 are free!  What a fun morning we had.  The kids had a lot of fun and Edith did too!  Here are a few pictures:

Getting ready for the dolphin show

The kids checking out the penguins

This weekend we also had some very dear friends over for dinner on Saturday.  It's been a while since the adults have all hung out together.  Now that we are up to three kids, schedules can be challenging.  Eddie and Eliza had a great time playing together!  We tried to get pictures of the three kids together, but as you can imagine trying to line up a two year old, almost two year old and a 7 month old didn't go quite as planned!

Best picture

We are losing them . . .

And I think we are done!

Finally - I don't feel like I take nearly as many pictures these days.  And I don't!  Often I take them with my phone and I don't know how to download those pictures to my computer.  But I am trying to remember on random days to take pictures of the kids so we have some documentation of this time!  Here are some random pictures!

Edith and Sammy "playing" together

Posing for the camera

I love how nicely she will sit and smile for me!

A rare moment where this guy stood still AND looked at the camera AND smiled!

Eddie with his mohawk!

Wordless Wednesday