Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies

A quick perusal of my Pinterest boards would reveal a few things: first, I recently chopped all my hair off (I obsessively pinned hair pictures for weeks beforehand). Second, I am a sucker for a good DIY idea (as who is not?) and third, I can never have too many chocolate chip cookie recipes.  I am fairly confident in saying that, if forced to only have one dessert forever, that dessert would be some sort of chocolate chip cookie.  It's a love story for the ages. 

My favorite sort of cookie is extremely chewy, a little crisp, has sea salt and no nuts (I will post my favorite recipe for that at some point-- it's my excessive modification of these). I could live on them for days. My poor husband, though, prefers crunchy cookies with nuts and lots of other ingredients (sacrilege!), so I like to find recipes for him too. Just the other night I was going through my mom's giant recipe box and I found a "Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe. It had some unusual ingredients (lemon juice, ground oatmeal) so I thought I'd give it a try.  Verdict: excellent.  They're flavorful and soft and unique.  The cinnamon doesn't make them taste like oatmeal cookies, it just gives them a depth and (apparently) the lemon juice helps to activate the baking soda? Sure!  Here's the recipe:

Not a great photo, but the idea is there...

Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

2 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 eggs

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Place rolled oats in food processor or  blender (I used our Magic Bullet) until finely ground. Combine ground oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. 

In a mixer, cream butter, sugars, vanilla and lemon juice together. Add eggs and beat until fluffy.

Stir in the flour mixture and add chocolate chips and nuts. Drop a couple inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden and set in the middle. 

Expectations

This afternoon we came home from a playdate with all the cousins (five total) at the "bouncy place" (one of those indoor bounce houses, a la Bounce U) and as we were walking in, I saw a package in our mailbox.  I was excited that my book finally came, as I am planning on painting up a version of one of the illustrations inside for Juliana's room.

by Claire Keane from Rapunzel's Amazing Hair

This is my progress so far...

So, pretty much done.

I grabbed the package (which seemed a trifle light) and opened it up with Juliana's help. It definitely didn't have a book inside, but it did have one of those little drawstring mesh bags inside, you know:

And I thought, oh, Stephen got me a present!  How fun!! So I (thoughtful wife) pulled out the packing slip instead, so I wouldn't ruin the surprise. Logically. And on that innocent piece of paper I read, regarding the contents of the box which was lying open on my dining room table while my two babies played on the floor nearby: "Shipped: praying mantis eggs, 400."

I screamed (as one does) and threw the box outside, scaring both my children and causing them to cry. 

After some digging I figured out that they were sent here as a (wildly misguided) birthday present for my husband.  Well, not that misguided I suppose, as he is thrilled, but they definitely will not be taking up permanent residence with us.  I'm not sure any bug gives me the heeby jeebies as much as (shudder) this:

I couldn't even bring myself to Google "praying mantis" for a real picture. Had to go with "cartoon praying mantis."

Birthday Fun and More

~Pretty~

Samuel just had his first birthday party (Pixar's Up themed) and I loved how the decorations came out! Mostly thanks to my crafty sister and her new Cricut (that I gave her for Christmas... definitely not in order to extort cute decorations from her).

The banner says "Adventure is out there." I saved it to go up in Samuel's room.

And here's one of the birthday boy and his floating house:

Carl Fredricksen never looked this cute.  Do you see the adorable "Grape Soda" bottle cap cutout?  It was all just so darn cute.

~Happy~

I mentioned in my last post that we got a new Peter Rabbit teapot and have been having tea parties in the afternoons.  I actually got the idea from the Ambleside website. The essay suggested an afternoon tea to help with the evening pre-dinner sugar crash as well as to sneak in some poetry and conversation. I loved the idea so much I implemented it immediately.  Here is Juliana with her very own teacup listening to some Beatrix Potter (appropriately enough).

And she only spilled three times!

~Funny~

I don't know why she does this.  Do your toddlers do this??

Yes, that is our dog's bedtime crate. She loves to go in it. So. Weird.

~Real~

I recently had the really brilliant idea of letting my two year old finger paint inside ("Well, that's understandable, it had to be inside," you're thinking, "it's winter!" Nope. California. It's 82 outside.).  At the kitchen table, which is white, without paying much attention to what she was doing (I was painting too).  I looked over after about 10 minutes, and this is what I saw:

I just. I mean. I really should have seen this coming.

So, you know, business as usual around here.

Go see Leila for everyone else's pretty, happy, funny and real this week.

Five Favorites - Volume 1

I love favorite things lists (mine and everyone else's)... such a fun way to reflect on the little things each week.

1. We found a new item at Costco this week: Lee's coffee concentrate.  Oh my goodness. Have you had this coffee?  It is AMAZING.  And now I have enough of it to last me an extremely long time and it's at HOME.

2. This new L'Oreal lip gloss in Endless Red. It's sort of a weird formula that's part stain/part gloss, but I really like the color and the stain stays put quite well.  It's definitely a bolder color than I normally wear, but I like it.

3. I am mildly obsessed with these.  They are SO GOOD.  I make up excuses to go to Sprouts so I can buy them. 

4. If you're a stay at home type, you want to read Quotidian Mysteries. An excerpt:

We want life to have meaning, we want fulfillment, healing and even ecstasy, but the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not where we wish we were. We must look for blessings to come from unlikely, everyday places-- out of Galilee, as it were-- and not in spectacular events, such as the coming of a comet.

I love Kathleen Norris, and this speaks to me where I am right now.

5. I found this Peter Rabbit teapot at a thrift store last week and Juliana and I have been having tea parties with it.  Tea and literature!  It doesn't get better than that!

Hallie has lots more at her place-- go visit!

Our Latelies

~Pretty~
We don't have a whole lot of decorating done around here.  So far we have one advent wreath on the kitchen table, one strand of garland above the tv, and one Christmas card holder of which I am extremely proud.  This little baby was the product of only about five minutes of effort and I didn't even go to Pinterest to come up with an idea for it (although granted, I'm sure its very existence is a result of my time spent on that little site).  Here it is on the mirror in our entry facing the front door:

I mean, clothespins? Clearly a Pinterespiration.

Here's the long view:

Why, hello there, headless me.

~Funny~
Juliana trying on hats at CVS while we waited for my flu shot:

"Pink is my signature color."

And Sammy practicing for his role as le petit prince:

~Happy~

The day before Thanksgiving was our third wedding anniversary!  On the following Saturday my hubs was a groomsman in our friends' wedding and we took a picture of the two of us after the ceremony.  A picture of the two of us is rare indeed.  Evidence:

Aw. Pretty cute for an old married couple.

~Real~
What you're looking at right here is a 9 month old with a broken femur:

At least he's cool enough to wear Wordsworth quotes?

I know: sad and adorable at the same time.  Poor guy.  While walking to church as we do every Sunday morning, I slipped and fell backwards.  I held him the whole time, but somehow his leg got a fracture.  It was horrible, but he has recovered beautifully and he now rolls around and tries to crawl with that big old thing on his leg.  He's a tough little dude.  

Head over to Like Mother, Like Daughter for more of life's little joys (and realities).   

Quick Takes Friday

1.  I have been known to declare (dramatically, with great self-sacrifice) to anyone who will listen once I finish any sort of project that I'm not going to blog about it because I just don't have the time: I can either do the project or blog about doing a project, but not both.  This, while mostly true, is maybe also an exaggeration, so I'm working on trying both for a bit just to see how it works out (if my hero, P-dubs, can homeschool four children, assist in the running of a ranch, star in a cooking show, write two cookbooks and two children's books, make dinner every night (while blogging about it) and still post like 5 times a day maybe I can manage a couple posts a week.).


2. I have to use my time wisely, right?  For instance, right now the hubs is going to watch The Walking Dead. I can't watch The Walking Dead (seriously I don't know why they'd make a show that is unwatchably gory) but I like the storyline.  Blogging while not-watching The Walking Dead is a perfect use of my time and resources (what's that? "Laundry?" No, I don't know anything about that.).

3. New favorite mascara alert (don't get too excited, this is a bi-monthly event): Maybelline The Colossal Cat Eyes Mascara.  It is GREAT.  My "HG" ("holy grail" for those of you who don't spend time watching YouTube makeup tutorials. I know, I'm cool.) is Clinique High Impact mascara, but I have to go to the mall to get it, and I don't go to the mall much these days (they're not double-stroller friendly).  This is a very good substitute.  

4. I have many projects floating around in a half-completed state over here, but lately I have managed to finish a few.  At one point we made a frame for a poster I had and wanted to frame, but it didn't work out (we couldn't figure out how to safely mount it with glass/plexiglass so we just had the poster framed professionally).  Anyways, we have a very large (maybe 3'x4'?) very light frame that I want to do something with, but I'm not sure what.  I was thinking one of those frames-within-a-frame projects I keep seeing on Pinterest, but I haven't quite worked out anything.  Any thoughts?

Not quite this busy, though.  Via Pinterest.

5. Ugh maybe I can't even listen to The Walking Dead. The sound effects are hideous.  But the plot is extremely compelling!  Perhaps I should just read the comics.


6. Baby picture time!  Juliana loves these "blue ice popsicles."  They're actually Pedialite pops.  I figure they're slightly better than Otter Pops? Maybe?  Sure!

7. And here's Sammy because he's cute.

We play in the playpen in the backyard so the dog will give us some room.  Otherwise he'd be licking Samuel while beating me with his wagging tail and scratching Juliana.  He's very friendly.

Go see Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

Mini Bedroom Makeover

Recently (er, the last five months or so.  I'm slow.) I've been re-doing our master bedroom.  First we got a new (old-- antique) dresser, then we rearranged the furniture.  After that I decided to paint the wall behind the bed a navy blue.   We've never had a headboard, so it was a pretty big, pretty blank dark blue wall.

Forgive the bad cell phone photography.

The creative impulses that led me to paint the wall navy (all the other walls in my house are beige.  This was a big deal.) dried up at that point and it took me until this week to decide what I wanted to do.

Since every other available frame/canvas/bare space in my house is covered with pictures of the kids, I wanted to make the bedroom more of a kid-free zone.  I bought some incredibly cheap frames from WalMart and spray painted them white and painted the mats black and framed up some wedding photos .

The frames as-purchased:

I want to say this cost $3.99 at WalMart? Nothing some spray paint can't fix!

I also wanted a quote for the wall, but wanted something custom and didn't feel like paying for a custom decal.

I poked around Pinterest for some how-to advice and cobbled together my solution.  I found a font and a quote I liked ("I have found the one whom my soul loves" from Song of Solomon and Miss Le Gatees font) printed it on several pieces of paper in size 400 font, and rubbed chalk on the back of each page and then taped them up on the wall and traced the letters (with a de-leaded mechanical pencil) to transfer the "stencil" to the wall.

It really looks magical at this point.

Getting there...

and (a few hours later) that was that.  The finished result:





And a wider view:



Ta da!

I was going for pretty and peaceful.  We're getting there.

Linking up with Leila today for some Master bedroom fun (... not that kind of fun)! I have her to thank for getting this project moving (she said to spruce up the master, so I did!).