Frantic mistake

I was frantically cooking dinner the other night when the phone rang.
It was my sweet neighbor from our old neighborhood who has since moved to some Carolina state. I never can remember which one it is, just suffice it to say, it is way to far away for me!!!
She was also frantically cooking dinner and trying to accomplish cookies on top of that for company...as I understand it anyway.
Not just any cookies, my cookies from the previous weeks post.

She frantically asked "Are there really no eggs in these cookies???"
I frantically answered "Oh, my!!! You must be kidding me, I didn't include eggs in the recipe???"

My heart dropped to my stomach.
I knew I had!!
I remembered typing it out on the printable recipe sheet.

Well, she didn't print out the recipe sheet, but frantically scribbled out the recipe straight from the post!!

I have since frantically corrected this mistake on the post, and apologize profusely (and frantically) for any of you who didn't have my phone number to call and check on the recipe!!

Catching up

I am happy to say that I got my grocery shopping accomplished.
The fun purchase of the day was 3 new flower pots.

Oh, I know that is not grocery store fare, but I was at Wal-mart and had seen an orange pot that I really really wanted for a specific new plant that we have.
A friend gave us this foursome of plants in one pot at our housewarming party and I have been wanting to separate them to spread the plant love around the house.

I know orange is not a well loved color by too many people, but I am not scared of it and don't mind it at all right smack dab in the big middle of everything!!! Color tends to lend to my happiness quite a bit.
Taking pictures with my cell phone, emailing them to myself, saving them on the computer, adding them as a lame image to my blog...not so much.
Yes, I am still bewildered by the madness and my dear husband has far more truly important things to tend to, so I will suffer on.
But, as I was saying...orange pot...

This plant was the least favorite of mine in the grouping, but I have come to really appreciate it.
It has a fantastic array of yellows, reds, oranges, and greens.
Anyone know what this is called? I did a quick search and couldn't find it in images.



Ahhhhh, here is a shot of the "beautiful" Galveston beach I was telling you about yesterday.
All that clumpy brown stuff is the piles of seaweed. I would say it was a good 7-8 feet laid out on the sand, for as far as you could see.
It was scratchy
and...
well...
I can hardly believe it, but I cannot find words to describe it well enough for you to get how disturbed I was by it.
I might need counseling to get over it.
I hate to speak too badly of it, because it is just a natural occurrence that I happened to get into the middle of. It is not the seaweeds fault that I showed up on the beach that day to play.
Okay, I am moving on from this ridiculous topic!

Now to introduce you to Shelby.

She was very funny this morning as I tried to take her picture.
She is a bit of a prissy princess and was not in the mood for photos.
(Please disregard my sons black boat sized shoes there in the background, they are now put away!)

My daughter picked out a super cozy PINK dog bed for her. She refused, I mean all out totally and completely refused to lay in it. She has however decided that the green blanket with the little cat embroidered on it is just fine.
Prissy princess dogs...humph!!

I think she comes from a one woman family, and is having a bit of a time adjusting to all the love available to her. It is neat to see her little by little trust that the kids have her best interest at heart. I was thrilled that she let my oldest son take her out for a potty break today. She immediately dashed right back in to my side, but progress was made!!

Oh, and by the way I swept and vacuumed first thing this morning.
Wait a minute, let me translate that.
After I had several cups of coffee I swept and vacuumed.
Not much happens around here before the coffee, so if in the future I use the expression "first thing this morning" be assured that it carries the inference of coffee consumption.
So the floor is all fresh and ready for the next assault and I feel good about it being clean.
Win win!!

Well, that catches you up a bit for now.

FYI, I am finding myself stuck in a recipe rut and am determined to get out of it, so watch for that in the coming weeks.

'til next time!!

News of the week

I need to go to the grocery store.
My pantry and fridge were full to overflowing with our company here last week, now they have a hollow echo feeling about them.
I am actually totally okay with that. I love to go to the grocery store.
I thoroughly enjoy strolling down the aisles, singing along to the random music which plays constantly in the background.
You know...I don't take my 3 kids to the store with me. That pretty much sucks the joy right out of it.
Now, one child...that I will do, but three...oh I shudder at the thought.


Wowza, got my first electric bill for this house...had to pick myself up off of the floor for that one.
I decided I have been waaaaaay too comfortable and immediately had the husband reset the thermostats to higher temps. We have those nice programmable ones, so it was easy to do.

We went to the beach last week.
When you hear the word beach do you think of white sand and beautiful blue water? Well think again...this is Houston and the only close beach to go to is Galveston Island Beach.
Galveston beach gets zero thumbs up from me! It is just not a pretty place and this visit it was even worse than usual because of the unreal amounts of seaweed floating about and stacked up on the beach.
I mean it was gross.
Luckily once you got out into the waves, you couldn't feel it anymore.
Now the waves for the day...I give them a 4 thumbs up.
Just picture me out there riding the waves like a surfer in her hay day.
Now scratch that and picture me tumbling in the pre-storm waves constantly with salt water in my eyes and gasping for breath all the while trying to keep my youngest child from drowning because she enjoyed the thrill of it as much as I did.
So, I have decided that gross can be overlooked a bit if life risking fun is involved.

All of that was just drivel, while I put off telling you the real reason for my post today.

Deep cleansing breath!!!

We adopted a dog yesterday.

All of my closest friends had to shake their heads and ask to hear that information again. Most of my closest friends have a dog or dogs and have noticed my less than positive reaction to their animals. It is the licking, and the hair and the jumping and the begging for food, and the licking, and the chewing, and the potty trips in the middle of the night, and the potty on the floor, and the barking...oh you get my drift.
It is just too much.
My husband made mention of a dog who needed a home. Just a tiny little comment about how it was a cute little dog and it was out of a home.
I tried to ignore him and chase away the mixed feelings of sympathy and horror at the thought of a dog and all that goes along with it.
I was doing really good until he sent along a subtle email with the title "dog?"
The thing that totally got me... was the pictures.
Why the pictures??
I think I could have resisted had I not seen the cute pictures.

So, yesterday her owner brought her over to give it a trial run with the family.
There was no way I was gonna have a dog, homeless or not if I didn't feel comfortable with it around my kids.
Well, she passed all the tests and now is snuggled next to my feet as I type away.

Here are the good things...
She is not a puppy, so scratch potty training off of the list!
Whew, she is great about letting you know she needs to head out.

I absolutely 100% do not want a dog underfoot in my kitchen. It is dangerous and icky.
We have already begun teaching her to stay out. It is a bit of a full time job as there are three entrances into the kitchen, but overall she is doing awesome.
She is testing the waters constantly, but is reacting well to a firm "out". With this I am pleased!!

I really want a well disciplined dog.
One who will obey commands and knows who is the boss around here. While I think she has a ways to go, she is showing definite signs of being able to handle this rather quickly. Excellent!!

I suppose the hair will be a challenge, but hey...I really should vacuum and sweep more anyway! It will push me toward being a better housekeeper!

The jumping...hey not so much of that! Cool.
The licking...well dogs lick right. Ewww. I suppose it is like baby drool. When it is your own baby you tend not to mind quite as much as when the baby belongs to someone else.

Overall she is sweet and feisty and fun. She follows me around like a puppy, and frankly who doesn't love that??
So, this week...getting used to a new little life around here.

The challenge for today...her first time alone in the house as we head off to church time.
Yikes...crossing my fingers and toes!!!

I will post pictures later... the whole picture posting fiasco issue has not yet been resolved. Aaaaarrrrrggggggg!

Jen's chocolate chip cookies

So, when I left you last Friday I was headed to the kitchen to make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies.

I put the majority of them into the freezer, scooped out into dough balls of love.
Some I baked off right then and there, and was able to have warm from the oven cookies waiting when our family arrived.

Instant hero status was achieved.
I admit, it was a planned maneuver to win over the hearts and stomachs of our week long guests!!

I have a need, a desire, a heartfelt yearning to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
I wanted a cookie that is a bit crispy about the edges, but soft and chewy in the middle. This particular requirement is best achieved by using shortening.
Well, you know that is not gonna happen around here.
I wanted to be able to incorporate wheat flour into the recipe without it being a killjoy.
Tough to achieve, I assure you. My solution was to use some wheat flour and some bread flour in hopes of equalizing the proteins and thereby having a firm but soft cookie. Okay, at this point are you thinking, "Blah blah blah blah...whatever, just get to the recipe already."
I am not sure that I am there 100% yet, but feel this is close enough to perfection for now.

Here is the printable recipe for you, and I will type it out here as well.

Start with 3 sticks of butter softened.
Oh, maybe I should mention that this makes a lot of cookies!
Therefore three sticks of butter is entirely appropriate!
Incorporate 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar and 3/4 cups sugar into the butter til light and creamy. Incorporate 3 eggs, one at a time, into the creamed mixture.
Next add 2 tsp. vanilla.

In a separate bowl whisk together these dry ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup wheat flour
3/4 cup bread flour
3/4 cup oats
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Add enough chocolate chips to knock your socks off and call it done.
My absolute favorite chocolate chips for this cookie (and every other cookie in all creation probably) are the Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips. They are extra large dark chocolate and amazing!
And, the packaging is beautifully done too.
What can I say, I enjoy attractive packaging.

I then bust out a tool I cannot believe I managed to live without for 30 some years of my life...
the Pampered Chef medium sized scoop.
It makes, in my opinion, the perfect size ball of cookie dough, just a little less than 1/4 cup.



Scoop and scoop and scoop until all of your dough is in gorgeous little dough balls to chill until stiff.
If you want to bake these all at once, well then go for it.
My best suggestion however is to limit your consumption by freezing part of them to cook later.
That way, when you want to impress your friends with warm cookies that you just happen to have on hand, you can simply pull a dozen or so from the fridge or freezer and bake them up.
Oh, yes...12-15 minutes on 350...that information is helpful right??


Here they are chilled and ready to hit the preheated oven.



And here they are just out of the oven. (bad photo, sorry)
Warm and fluffy, crispy and chewy.

I made another batch later in the week where I threw in about a half a cup of coconut, and a half a cup of pecans. My kids won't touch these, but my sister in law and I sure enjoyed them. In fact...there is still about 2/3's of the dough still in the freezer.
I think maybe I can hear them calling my name, yes...I think that is the desperate sound I hear.
I am sorry friends but I simply must go.
When a cookie calls your name...you have no choice but to answer.

Evil chef Jen

I'd love to stick around and shoot the breeze with you but I have so much to do!

My husbands family is driving in from Nashville and Dallas today.
We are gonna have 9 extra people staying in our house (5 for 6 days and 4 for 2 of those days) and I am so excited about it.

No really, I am.

I love having company.

You wanna know why?

(Well besides the obvious fact that it is my husbands family and we love them dearly.)

I get to cook!

I have this inner chef begging to be set free, who is bound by the chains of mommy-ness.

Pleasing children with food in the daily grind of everyday life gets to be a chore.
You know, hearing stuff like....
"I am not gonna eat that!"
"What is this green stuff?"
"This doesn't taste the same as last time, what did you do?"
"Do you have to put oatmeal in the cookies?"
"There are too many blueberries in this."
"Can we have chicken?"
"Aaaawwwww do we have to have chicken again?"
"Can we have burgers?"
"I don't eat burgers."
"Why does all the good food have to have trans-fat in it?"
"I have to eat all of these vegetables to have dessert?"

Just on and on and on. I keep telling my darling children that I simply cannot please everyone all of the time.
The things that please one, distress the other.
Of course I try to alternate with who to be on the good side with, but someone is always unhappy, it is the nature of the beast.
I get that this is where I am in my life and will continue to fight this battle. A little at a time I will win them over.

But when company comes....Mommy is gone and Chef Jen gets to make an appearance.

If I want to put green stuff in the lasagna...I do!!
If I want to put cranberries in the scones...I do!!
If I want to add roasted red bell pepper to the pasta sauce....I do!!

Okay I could go on and on with that list of I do's.
Just suffice it to say, I cook what I want, how I want to please the more mature palates who sit around the big people table.

Yes, blog readers...I selfishly prepare lavish dishes so my children can suffer the atrocities!
Bwahaha ha ha ha....(evil laugh!)

So, I might not be back until this time next week, I just didn't want you worrying about me.

I am off now to prep our Saturday night lasagna ingredients and to make a double batch of oatmeal cookies to freeze.
Let the torture begin!!

Who to serve

Oh friends... the flowers in yesterdays post seem to live for less than 48 hours.

Those from my post, which were fresh Monday morning are now withered away with the stem curving over into the water, all the petals gone.

I just wonder at a God who would create a stunning flower which is available for pleasure for such a short amount of time.
Not a cloud of doubt kind of wonder but a shimmery purple kind of wonder.
If I had been out of town for just one day I would have missed this small thing.
This delicate beautiful cluster of six petaled flowers.

It causes me to think in this line of thought....

Do you ever feel like you have worked on something to make it just perfect and it is only enjoyed for a few brief moments, then gone? (Yes, you can include the last big meal you made in this thought process, it fits the scenario just fine.)
Or you have worked diligently on something only to have it go unnoticed or seemingly unappreciated?

Does the lack of regard make the hard work you did on it invalid?
Does lack of appreciation make the time you spent on it worthless?


The simple truth is that not all of our work will be treasured.
Not all of our efforts will be noted or appreciated in a way that we may feel is appropriate.

We spend so much of our time in both creative and mundane service and can get distracted by the amount and kind of service we do, instead of who we are meant to be serving.

If we are serving God in our creative or mundane service then our efforts are not in vain.
Our time and energy are duly noted and appreciated by our creator who seeks our devotion.
Often I think we set out,
strike that...let me speak for myself.
Often I set out to please others or myself.
I need to set out to please God above all else and if it pleases others then so be it.

I don't mean that in a harsh way, like I don't care about others, but in that it is more important to please the master, and if while doing that I can add something to another life then it will mean double the service.

Ah, here is the bible passage I was searching for on the subject.
Colossians 4:23-24
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.


I meant to write about chocolate chip cookies today, I get so distracted!!
Oh, and if I have done any work for you lately, or cooked a meal for you, or picked up a kid for you, or cleaned your house...I have felt appreciated.
This is just written on principle and not on recent activity!!

I hate complaing about this again but...

My middle son asked me first thing this morning..."So, Mom have you written your blog today?"
I heaved a sigh and responded "No, I haven't."

See, here is the deal.
I take a photo with my camera.
I then have to load the photo to the old computer because this computer, for some strange reason doesn't recognize the existence of the camera.
I then log onto this blog page on the old computer.
The photo is loaded onto a new blog page, all is saved and shut down.
I then switch computers and log on where I can now write about the loaded photos.
If by chance I happen to delete a photo,
which mind you... I have done every single time,
I must begin the process all over again and usually by that time, the child who was breathing down my neck to get on the other computer has taken over said computer and won't come up for air for at least 40 minutes by which time I want to be done and moving on with life.

This is supposed to be easy and fun.
Both of those things are missing in the photo loading scenario, which is why I have been posting less often.
It takes twice as long to do double the work.

But since I had the prodding I decided to go ahead and give it a shot today, deciding to give you a list of wonderful things.

Due to my incompetence and the hullabaloo of loading images onto this blog, it has been whittled down to one wonderful thing.

Come to think of it, this may be a good thing.
Can't have too much wonderfulness all at once.
That sets a standard which I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to live up to.

Less wonderfulness on my part, less chance for disappointment on your part.

But, because I care about your blog experience I will press on despite the erasure of images and thoughtfully written text and present to you the one photo which survived my accidental deletion which of course occurred today.



This is one of our floating plants which was recently added to our pond.
I had no idea whatsoever that it was a bloomer! The bud is so tightly wrapped in its green stem that there is no visible clue of an impending burst of color.
So, on Sunday floating green bulbous plants and on Monday this full out gorgeous set of blooms.
What a treat!!
This 6 petal flower is literally a shimmering lavender. Notice the one petal which has the darker purple decoration, and yellow spot in center. Perfection! All the other petals circle around it, drawing your eye to the drama created.

And, perfect timing too. My mother in law is coming this next week, and she above all others will enjoy the pond as much as I do, if not more.
I was just commenting to my husband that I wished that the water lilies were farther along and would bloom for her visit. I had no idea at the time that these beauties were lurking there about to surprise me.

Oh, the visual treats God has tucked away in his arsenal.
I will never tire of discovering whatever He chooses to send my way.

Hopefully tomorrow I will create and delete another entire post for you, then have to start over and rework it until it is less than I imagined but more than nothing!!
Come on, laugh with me as we get through this trying time in my blog life.
Later y'all.