Cookie Fest

So I absolutely love chocolate chip cookies - and I'm sure there are a million recipes out there.  I got this one from my mom who has tweaked it to her liking.  I have been bribed many times to make these cookies all growing up.  I still remember making them almost weekly for my Sunday school teacher who somehow would convince me we needed them every week for class to operate.  I got pretty good at making them.  Now that I have my beloved KitchenAid it takes all of 10 minutes to whip these out ready to be baked.  I thought I might just post this for any interested people...and also for me to have access to it wherever I go.  They are quite delightful I must say.

 

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever

  

Recipe:

1 1/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

3 1/3 cups flour

1 cup or a whole bag of chocolate chips

Cream together shortening, butter, sugar, brown sugar, and eggs.  Mix in baking soda, salt, and vanilla.  Add flour and mix well.  Add in the chocolate chips.  I always like a lot of them so I do a whole bag.  For best results use real butter and real vanilla.

Set oven to 350 degrees.  Spoon balls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet or wax paper.  Bake 11-12 minutes.  Let cool and enjoy yourself!

Horrific Heat

Well....all I've been told about the rain rain rain you find in Portland....is a bunch of hooey as far as I'm concerned.  I hear in Utah it gets cooler and here in Forest Grove it just gets hotter...and hotter...and hotter!  Now - my arch enemy in life...my nemesis...my foe of all time goes by the name of Horrific Heat...as I'm sitting here typing I wait impatiently for the rotating fan we have that attempts to circulate the 92 degree air around a kitchen and family room to hit me every 5 seconds.  I truly believe I become a Mr. Hyde when heat enters the room that is not wanted.  

Outside heat is another business - what I'm talking about is the heat that seeps indoors and resonates in every inch of every space you could ever roam.  This is the Horrific Heat I'm talking about.  As the Horrific Heat arises Mr. Hyde emerges from within. Nothing seems to satisfy - a head in a freezer only lasts so long as does dipping feet in the cool water running in the bathtub or even wiping cold rags all over your face and neck.  The only sanctuary I find is in our bedroom where the beloved air conditioner resides.  Unfortunately when Ross decides to take a nap, I'm booted out unless I want to take a nap in there myself.  Cooking is almost unbearable as is any exercising done indoors.  I find myself trying to stay still so I won't increase the sweat that is already trickling down every limb...so maybe now you see how crazy I am about the temperature I'm in. 

I blame my parents for having central air and always keeping the temperature to a low level.  Little did I know what condition this would leave me in.  Steve laughs as he tries to accommodate my dire needs for the cold.  This would be my Achilles heel I think.  I'm pretty sure I would break in about two seconds if I ever were asked to retain information if any form of torture involved the application of heat...

I know the rain is going to come...I know after a few months of it I'll probably be writing about how I wish it would warm up some or be sunny...but as for the now...the heat is fighting a winning battle...all I have left is another dipping of my feet in the cold water before curling up to my air conditioner to go to sleep...and preparing for another battle tomorrow.  Wish me luck...

P.S.  Here are a few pics as of late:

Steve and Ross: the diligent true blue fans for BYU football.  Watching the game on the laptop since we don't have TV!

Ross's crazy hair after a bath when not combed with the comb-over style.  Kinda hard to see, but he's wild!

I made some delish sugar cookies recipe courtesy of a great YW lesson about a year ago from my friend Corinne.  Yum!

   

Here is the basic recipe--this is my best sugar cookie recipe. But listen…if you want to make this the right way, you can’t substitute margarine or shortening for the butter…you can’t substitute milk for the cream, and you need to use real vanilla! How many times have people told me… mine never turn out as good as yours… and then I find out that they have substituted in order to make it cheaper or healthier!

If you are using this dough for Fruit Pizza, one batch will fill one large jelly roll pan.

Best Ever Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp. cream

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

Cream together first five ingredients until light and fluffy. Add flour, salt and baking powder, and mix until just combined. Don't overmix, or the cookies will be chewy and tough. Roll out to slightly more than 1/4 inch thick and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes. Sprinkle with colored sugar before baking if desired. Or, frost with buttercream frosting:

Buttercream Frosting

1 lb. powdered sugar (one box)

1/3 cup soft butter (about 5 tablespoons)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 small pinch salt

Ross in a Box

Dear Gramy Jo, Grampa Stan, Queen Mum, and Grampa Don,

I would like to come visit you tomorrow.  I am tired of my mom at home.  She is not fun enough anymore.  I let her know by yelling and screaming all the time - sometimes for fun and sometimes because I'm bored.  She makes me eat squash and peas.  I want cookies and candy.  I'm sending myself in a box.  Watch for me in the mail. 

Love your favorite grandson,
Baby Ross

Da da da da

Book Binging

So I'm one of those people that has a serious problem when it comes to delegating my time when a good book is involved.  I have no control.  It's like an addiction on steroids.  When I get into a book that I like - getting chores done, meals made/eaten, precious sleep (and I like my sleep!), and, yes, even bathroom breaks taken all get put on the back burner.  Ross, right now, is the only thing that snaps back into reality; but, the minute that little guy goes down for his nap you'll find me huddled in a corner somewhere or sprawled out on the couch devouring as many pages as I can.  

My mother-in-law and I have some conflicting views on how to read books.  She is very much like me when it comes to book binging, but she can't stand not knowing the end - so to save time, she reads the end first and then will go back and read the rest.  I don't know why, but my feathers get so rustled whenever this comes up in our conversations.  I find that I have some serious opinions when it comes to book reading!  I understand why she does what she does, but it's almost like cheating yourself of the whole experience the book brings.  So while she is much more efficient with her time getting her daily tasks done and a proper night's sleep in, I'm the one still in pajamas with the dishes still in the sink trying to get to the end of the book.  Who has it right?  Who knows really? :)

I'm also not so much of a go-out-on-a-limb and try any random book kind of person.  It seems every time I do that I get the boring or even trashy books.  When I worked in my favorite bookstore, The Read Leaf,  some years ago, I felt like I was in the mix of it all.  I loved talking books with whatever customer came in, swapping favorite titles and genres.  Of course, my paycheck would basically go back into the store every month with all the books I would get.  I miss those days!  I love a good recommendation, and I love giving a good recommendation; but, I would say I more of a mooch recommending sort of person.  Rarely have I picked up my own book no one has told me about before and end up telling everyone else about it.  I'm a middle of the grapevine sort of person who's happy to pass along a good recommendation that I read myself.  Lately, I've fallen into the craze about The Help, and I must say that this was a definite book binge for me.  I fell in love with the voice and culture of the book within the first two pages.  It was an interesting take on the 1960's about two black women working as maids for white households and a white woman who doesn't fit in with the domestic woman role and wants to be a writer.  The all come together to write about what it's like to be a black woman working for a white family and finding and erasing lines between the two races. 

I gave up a few hours of sleep every night until I had to pry my own fingers from the book and put it down, reminding myself, that Ross works like clockwork and waits for no man when he wakes up in the mornings.  I've finally finished it which will hopefully let me go back to cleaning my house and actually getting sleep at night, but it was definitely worth the time.  A very good read.  Now I'm off for that good sleep....

  

Settling in...

Ross has gone through this phase of making this face - like he's exploring what his mouth and lips can do.  Haha!

So my father-in-law asked me if we felt more comfortable yet here in Oregon, and I didn't even realize I could be uncomfortable here.  While I still am completely lost here in Forest Grove, other than knowing how to drive to Steve's school in Hillsboro to drop him off and pick him up, get to Walmart, and Winco, I find that I feel like I fit right in.  I was talking to my good friend, Maren, a while back as well and we were talking about how a place once it's emptied of all your pictures, keepsakes, and furniture - it really doesn't feel like your house anymore.  I was sad to leave Provo, but once we set up our apartment here I felt like I had a home again.  I still have yet to feel like Oregon is HOME, but I definitely feel comfortable here - other than backtracking on my walks with Ross since none of the roads ever loop around or connect back to another one!

Steve is in his second week of school and the late nights of him studying are fast approaching. This scares me....I hear all the wives of grad students talking in the mother's room at church on how their husbands are gone on their internships for 1-3 months and they are just at home alone with their kids....yikes - NOT looking forward to those times.  I was spoiled rotten with Steve home for a whole month.  He's fairly interested in all his classes.  Today, as I type, Steve is observing my posture at a computer desk and will tell me how to sit properly so as to prevent any problems in the future.  I have a feeling I'm going to be a guinea pig here.  Over the weekend my blood pressure was taken quite a bit.  Luckily I have nice, low blood pressure in case you were wondering!  

Ross is rolling over like crazy.  I went on craigslist and tracked down a little johnny jump up and a high chair all for only $30!  When I went to pick them up - it was in a ritzy part of town.  I found out the high chair was a peg perego which is a pretty penny usually if you know what I mean!  Anyway - I'm quite pleased with my purchases and Ross is quite pleased with his little jumper.  He's getting pretty unsatisfied with his usual milk intake so we are about to delve into the land of fruits and vegetables!  I'm sure this will lead to many more messes and baths and a lot of cutie patootie pictures.  He likes to roll over from his belly all the time now and open and close his mouth like he's clicking his tongue.  We call him our little shark - The Great White Shark.  Haha.  He weighs over 18 1/2 lbs now and still has the cutest smile in the world.  We love him more every day.  I'm still trying to keep up with our apartment and Ross.  I have been sneaking in reading time at night with the book The Help which is terrible to have to put down and leads to sleepy mornings!  I have a real binge problem when it comes to reading.  Anyway - there is us and our little family just trekking on.

Here are some family pictures we had taken:

Ross's first rice cereal!

Yum!

Steve was blowing raspberries and I got this great shot of his lips! 

Workin' hard doing some homework and tummy time.

My cute boy out for a walk.

So we went to this place called Pat's Corner which had a restaurant outside this big lodge.  We found it on our walk.  We decided to sit down and split something for dinner...but when our waiter still hadn't even shown his face yet for about 15 minutes we decided to leave since it was getting late anyway and Ross tends to get hungry sooner rather than later. :)

Inspecting his first vegetable - sweet potato

And it's a winner!  He loves it!

  

Rolley Polley Ross

Hanging out outside.  Ross rolls over all the time now!