Bumper sticker moment :)

I love it when a bumper sticker puts a smile on my face and makes me forget all about the horrible traffic for just a moment.

Just do it Donny Osmond!

My TV habits are rather funny. I like news programs and reality shows. Most of the reality shows are winding down. I thought I would share some of my thoughts:

BIGGEST LOSER:
I seriously can’t stand Ron. Why haven’t they voted him off yet? With Sione gone and Kristen being voted off last week, I am now pulling for Filipe or Tara. I am so glad Kristen didn’t think Ron was really so innocent of his son’s actions. I think Ron’s deceiving and manipulative ways would make him an excellent contestant on Survivor, and the bonus is that most players have found that show to be a successful weight loss program.

SURVIVOR:
I hate it when all the competitive guys are voted off quickly after the merge. With Brendon last week and Tyson voted out this week, it allows someone like Erinn with no strategy or hope of winning individual immunity to sneak into the finals. I liked Coach’s idea of all the strong alpha male players in the final four. That would have been fun to watch. I am just thankful that the cute Jeff Probst can never be voted out.

DANCING WITH THE STARS:
I actually don’t watch this show, but I might if Donny Osmond would quit teasing us and get on his boogie shoes.

AMAZING RACE:
Most of the teams are whiners. Seriously, does it really matter who pulls the clue out of the box first? I wonder if these teams now regret how incredibly petty they look. I hope at this point that Tammy and Victor are VICTORious.

AMERICAN IDOL:
I hope Kris and Danny make it to the finals. My daughters LOVE Adam. I do find him interesting, but I just can’t get the camera mugging over the top “Ring of Fire” performance out of my head. I think my husband might be starting a write-in campaign for Susan Boyle.

Today is Earth Day

Do you know what last Wednesday was? Yes, the dreaded tax day. This year was sad for me. No refund. I had to pay because I didn’t give the government enough of my money during the year, and so I was one of the unlucky ones who had to give more. Give might indicate that I willingly did it, and in all actuality it was done merely to stay out of jail. But look what a new week can bring, the sun is shining, and we have a little annotation on our calendars encouraging the celebration of planet earth. Being a wannabe green guru, I really should have something exciting planned. I did fill up my recycling can and put on the curb for collection, but I do that every Wednesday, so I guess that doesn’t count. I watered a dying perennial in my yard that I transplanted last week. That probably doesn’t count either. I should have done it days ago and now it will probably die. Well, if you want to do something fun and struggling for an idea, click here for a website with recyclable craft ideas.

Warm out of the oven melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies :)

Who doesn’t love warm out of the oven chocolate chip cookies with a tall glass of cold milk? Whether your mom made them from scratch or sliced and baked from a Toll House tube, it seems everyone has a memory of coming home from school and smelling chocolate chip cookies baking. Every once in a while I love to surprise my children with the scrumptious smell of baking cookies as they enter our home after a long day at school. Many years ago, I tried to convert a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe to whole grain. The mouth watering smell was easily duplicated but the taste was more like chocolate chips stuck in a slice of not very good whole wheat bread. I remember being so excited that I was baking something so healthy for my family, but after one taste I was feeling defeated. This experiment was long before I owned a wheat grinder, and I had used store purchased whole wheat flour. That is never a good idea. Since that time I have experimented with a variety of grains. This is my favorite whole grain recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

The dumbed down kid version:

1 ½ cups shortening
1 ½ cups brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups hard white wheat flour
3 ½ cups spelt flour
1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips

Cream together shortening and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and blend well. Whisk together dry ingredients and mix with wet ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

My favorite chewy version:

Decrease hard white wheat flour to 1 cup, spelt flour to 2 cups, and chocolate chips to 1 cup. Add 3 cups oats and 1 cup chopped nuts.


Did you know that the chocolate chip cookie has only been around since about 1934? According to Wikipedia, there are two conflicting stories about how the cookie came about. Both involve Ruth Wakefield the owner of Toll House Inn, a popular restaurant in Massachusetts at the time. One version states that she put chunks of chocolate in a batch of sugar cookies hoping for it to melt as it baked, and the other states the chocolate accidentally fell into the dough while she was mixing and because of frugality on the part of the head chef at the time, he encouraged her to bake the cookies instead of tossing the dough as she had planned. Regardless of the origins of their discovery, chocolate chip cookies are fantastically delicious.

A cop out or environmentally friendly?

On my birthday last week my husband thought he was being cute and thought his actions were blog worthy. So I am not sure if his true intentions were to be environmentally responsible or if he was being lazy. Several minutes before it was time for me to open presents, he left the kitchen with one of my “go green” bags. He then returned with my present inside the bag. I believe he may have forgotten to wrap my present, but I’ll give him the benefit and believe he was being clever. It was better than him just handing it to me. Ashlee said he could accomplish the same purpose of not wasting paper by reusing a birthday gift bag like she did. I don’t think I will ever not wrap presents to save paper because opening them is too much fun.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I love it when the first time you try to adapt a recipe that it turns out perfect. My life has been so incredibly crazy the past month that I was so grateful that when I found the time to make these cookies that they weren't a flop. My daughter Hollie had requested some chocolate crinkle cookies, and I decided to surprise her with them when she got home on a day she had to stay late at school. It made 36 cookies, and they were gone in 2 days.

CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES
1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 Tbls melted butter
12 Tbls cocoa
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups hard white wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup powdered sugar

1. Mix oil, butter, cocoa, sugar; blend in eggs.
2. Add vanilla, salt, baking powder, and flour.
3. Cover and chill several hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheets.
5. Roll 1 Tbsp dough into a ball and roll around in powdered sugar to coat.
6. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
7. Remove from baking sheet and cool.
8. Have plenty of milk on hand to enjoy with cookies.

My favorite breakfast. No grinder required.

It is funny the things you believe as a kid. I thought that oats grew the way they come in the Quaker canister. I’m not sure when I realized that oat flakes were made from oat groats, but I am glad I discovered it because steel cut oats is my favorite breakfast. And it’s not just because Oprah recommends eating them. I boil about 1/3 cup steel cut oats in 2/3 cup water for about 10 minutes. Once they are in the bowl, I add about 1 tablespoon brown sugar, some milk, and a handful of chopped walnuts. Yummy!