C is For...

Cookies!

We've been baking.  We mixed up two different kinds yesterday, Hunky Chunky Chocolate Chip and Gold Rush cookies.  Both are Bill's name for them, they are a standard sugar cookie mix but he rearranges things and adds in a few ingredients to make them his own specialty.  Gold Rush uses yellow candy melts, broken into a billion pieces by Bill with a metal meat tenderizer - he has a good time with that!  It also has raisins and walnuts.  The Hunky Chunky Chocolate Chip cookies are similar to a chocolate chip cookie but he uses chocolate bars or kisses, again broken up with his mallet, and sometimes he puts nuts in but I don't think he did this time.  Today, we mixed up the ice box cookies that were handed down from his grandmother or possibly his great-grandmother.  I think the ice box cookie recipe is on the cooking blog - it's the one that uses a pound of butter and 6+ cups of flour!  The ice box cookies are currently rolled and wrapped in waxed paper, sitting in the fridge for a while.  He's going to bake at least some of them tonight.

Most of the cookies are going to work with him this week, but we've had our share to snack on.

Otter made chocolate chip cookies two days last week, they went to school with her and were gone in a matter of seconds.  I don't think I've posted the recipe she used, it's one from my family and it's also used for cut-out cookies with a few changes.  I will eventually get it posted on the cooking blog.

One discovery from the cookie marathon baking sessions is that I need new cookie sheets/baking pans.  The ones I had have been used way past their intended life span so most of them have been tossed.  I told Bill that he can get me some new ones (good ones this time) for my birthday.  And that I will even pick them out myself, I don't mind a bit.  Same thing for my Christmas gift from him - I need new house shoes and that's something I'll have to get myself.

Usually, I don't like picking out my own gift but this is one of those years when I kind of have to!

Otter's about to start her last week of this term at college and it's finals week.  She's also a week away from her oral surgery.  We usually have something special or fun on Friday nights for dinner, I suggested that Otter pick what we eat this coming Friday, since she's going to have a period of a few days when she won't be able to each much "reguar" food.  I think it's going to be DiGiorno's pizza this week.  Which is fine, we haven't had that in a while.  Even though we've had cookies the last couple of days, we've still been fairly good about our diet.

The dogs seem to have recovered from their pig-out session when they tore open the dog food bag last week.  However, Maggie was in disgrace last night - she apparently forgot that she is housebroken and peed on their blankets.  Actually, she might have been asleep and either dreamed or just leaked.  It wasn't a lot, but she's the one that did it.  Shortly after that, she wanted me to let her out so I did.  She immediately went out to the grass and relieved herself there so I'm not really sure what happened.  I washed the blankets last night and Frasier actually slept on them last night - usually, he avoids their blankets for hours after they get washed.  Maggie's also got an interest in something under the shed.  Every time I let them out, they head that direction but then Maggie Moo crawls underneath and it takes a lot of calling to get her back out.  I don't think that there is anything actually under there, usually it's a cat but she keeps going underneath and I'm not sure I like it - there are a couple of animals that burrow and one of them is black & white striped!

It's a little on the cold side today.  It wasn't bad this morning, misting slightly and cool when we got to church.  By the time we got out, it was dry but it was also getting cooler.  Otter and I ran an errand this afternoon and we could tell that the temp was really dropping.  It's supposed to get really cold tonight and we could get the "s" word although that's not expected.  It was supposed to be today but the forecast keeps getting pushed back.  However, since the forecasters here don't know their heads from a hole in the ground, the best thing to do is to be prepared for any and all eventuality!

I've seen a little more about the new Star Trek movie.  The trailer released in Japan is longer than the one here.  It also contains what I'm pretty sure are scenes designed to throw the fans off the track as to who the villian actually is.  The Japanese trailers are leaning in a direction that pretty much none of us want to go - Khan.  But I hope that they are really just trying to muddy the waters on us, because that would be a major, MAJOR tactial mistake on the studio's part.  However, after I went back and viewed the trailer released in the US and noticed a couple of specific characters that were fairly prominently featured, I'm still thinking that it's Gary Mitchell.  Which would make perfect sense and could actually be a good thing.  Khan would be the wrong way to go.  They need to leave him alone, at least for now - maybe forever.

I got a lot of crochet done yesterday.  I'm mostly working on the bigger project that is a Christmas gift so no details here yet, but it's coming along very well.  I have a smaller Christmas gift project that I'll be starting soon but it won't take me as long as the big one has.  Although it is smaller, it's a little more intricate so it will still take a little time.

Think I'll head back in the direction of the kitchen shortly.  Bill's going to be baking those cookies and he's a dirt/clutter magnet.  I've already cleaned the kitchen twice today - once was a full-scale, counter wipe down, wall cleaning assault on flour dust after he mixed up the dough!