Keeping Busy

I know how lame this sounds, but the truth is that I get bored on weekends.

I’m sure I’ll miss this boredom come fall when I have to spend every moment not dedicated to research dedicated to studying Child Assessment and Psychopathology (I know, my life is awesome, right?). But anyway, until then… I get bored.

So today, I gave myself a project. I made a recipe book.

I don’t know how well you guys stalk me, but last week I did a guest post on a semi popular blog (thedailybalance.com) about ‘my’ world famous pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. When I make those cookies I used to use a paper print out of the recipe but it ultimately got destroyed by water and what not. So, when I was making them for the post, I tried to recreate the recipe by memory and um… failed.

Then, this morning, I read this post by Kath on her blog. This post depicts pictures of a recipe book she’s had for years, with little notes on each page about what she thought of each meal.

AHA!

I love craft projects (despite have less than zero artistic talent) so I went into this full force.

I am so excited about this book. It is full of cookie, cake and bread recipes that I have tried and that I want to try. Now, every night when i want to bake something, I just have to ask E to open the book and pick something new.

That's a blanket in the corner, not a small animal!

Tonight, he picked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

waiting to go in the oven

This recipe is from Cooking Light, but they aren’t so light. 1 cup white and 1 cup brown sugar?! 1/2 cup peanut butter? Granted, the recipe made 4 dozen cookies, but that’s still 1/24th cup sugar per cookie. I have no idea if that is a lot… But it tastes like a lot. The verdict: These cookies are too sweet and not peanut-buttery enough. Kind of bland really. Also, the recipe only calls for 2/3 cup chocolate chips, I was skeptical of this and upped it to a generous cup, but still not enough!

So what did the man think? In E’s Opinion: they’re not terribly peanut buttery, but good texture and creamy and yummy (I left him with 3 cookies and ran upstairs to grab something. They were all gone when I returned. Good Boy!). So maybe I spoke too soon. They’ll go in the book as a B/B+.

Next time, I think I’ll try a bundt cake. Any recommendations? There are still lots of empty pages in my book!

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What’s wrong with this picture?

When I said this blog would be ‘all chocolate, all the time’ I may have spoken too soon.

Tonight there will be no chocolate, only peanut butter cookies.

One thing you should know about me: I am something of a bake-aholic. When I am bored, I go bake-crazy. And it has been raining steady everyday, and it was a very boring holiday weekend. I baked all of my chocolate chips away!

Turns out our choc-stock was irrelevant for tonight’s bakefest anyway. This morning, I received a request from E’s boss to make peanut butter cookies.  You do not cross a judge, even if it does mean baking a non-chocolate good. Plus, I love peanut butter cookies.  E does not, so this request was an excellent excuse to make them.

Ergo (lawyer speak! I’m so clever) no chocolate passed these lips tonight. Ok, that’s a big lie. I have chocolate hidden stored in my desk to munch on all day long (I bake when I’m bored, I eat when I’m bored…why can’t I crave running or weight lifting when I’m bored?). I also had some chocolate ice cream while I waited for the cookies to bake, but you get the point.

These particular peanut-butter cookies are unique because they are not overwhelmingly peanut-buttery (because we ran out of peanut butter). E and I both agree that is a good thing. Unsure how the judge will rule. I’ll inform you of the verdict.

Cookies and roses. Sort of like valentines day, except: no chocolate, and I bought those flowers for myself ($6! not bad). So, not really like valentines day at all.