The Winter That Kicked My Butt

This spring, I'm going to eat lunch outside. Read on the back porch, take the dog for long walks, get Clark off training wheels, and bribe the kids with ice cream so they'll go geocaching with me. But all these plans are fantasy for now, as we're currently getting more snow on top of the snow that we've had for weeks. (Twenty-one inches in the backyard … Clark measured.)

And yes, we've had our fair share of fun. But really, this winter can just end already. It's not the snow days – I actually prefer those days, because we get a free pass from all the running around – it's the parade of cold, grey days ... weeks and weeks of them. The bitter, biting, minus zero days. Walking the dog at 7 am and feeling my nose hairs freeze. All things that make me just want to curl up under a blanket and eat cupcakes. The low motivation does not play well with the fact our household also happens to be crazy busy right now. 

Jeff's regular job has ramped up, so the last two months have him working nights and weekends (!!!), which I know is the norm for lots of families, but it's new for us. Plus he's teaching a class for the first time this semester, so if he's not doing work-work, he's doing class work. If he's not doing either of those works, he's coaching two Odyssey of the Mind teams. Oh! I forgot to mention that it's OOTM season which means my dining room is full of balsa wood, paint, cardboard and duct tape from January until March. No dining room table means I can't even break out a good puzzle to make the blahs go away.



Early dismissal today rather than a snow day, since our district is dangerously close to adding days to the school year because of all the snow. Which means that during the worst bit of weather today, I had to go pick up the kids from school (x2). The car couldn't get up our hill, so I backed right back into the driveway and did the back and forth on foot instead (x2).

Counting my blessings but at the same time counting down the days. 

Baking Monday – Cowboy Cookies

These are my favorite cookies! They are my aunt's specialty, and even though I have her recipe, I swear mine never taste as good. But last week's batch turned out pretty close.

The multi chips are a must! There are many cowboy cookie recipes floating around out there … I tried another one once that was a big fat fail … but this one is my favorite. Why are they called cowboy cookies? This was the best description I could find: "Cowboy cookies are the original Powerbar. History states, cowboys used to make them for riding the trails. They were a quick, easy way to get a lot of nutrients and they kept well for travel." Yee-hah!



Cowboy Cookies

1 cup sugar
1.25 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking powder
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

• Cream butter and sugar
• Mix in eggs then vanilla
• Sift flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder into mixture and combine
• Add oats
• Add chips
• Use either one scant large scoop or two mini scoops for each cookie

• Bake at 350 until light brown (about 15 min)

Baby Cookies (with Kid Help)

I made baby cookies for a shower a few weeks ago – simple and sweet!



The kids helped me decorate leftovers.



Clark went with minimal piping but heavy on the sprinkles.



Theo filled the entire surface with icing.

Final work – pretty and delicious!

Baking Monday – Chocolate Mocha Shortbread

No eggs in the house = shortbread today! I made two recipes last week that took four eggs each (pb brownies and colossal cookies, yum) plus weekend waffles, so there were no more left for Baking Monday day. Happily, shortbread is one of my favorites, so no worries. Add a little scoop of coffee and cocoa and they are even better! I would cut back on the butter just a little bit next time – these were slightly on the greasy side – but super yummy. The original recipe suggests sandwiching these with Nutella, sounds like a good idea. 

Baking Monday – Girl Scout Cookies

Today's cookies brought to you by the Girl Scouts! 

This recipe, published in 1922, was posted on the Girl Scouts Facebook page over Christmas break. The first GS cookies were baked by the scouts and sold as a fundraiser, which continued until the organization started hiring commercial bakers in 1936. I knew these would be a perfect Baking Monday project! The directions are delightfully vague ("bake in quick oven").



A vintage recipe calls for a vintage cutter. I used one of my Grandma's copper cutters. I have a big collection of these, which I keep mostly for decoration, because they're not great to work with … the little handle is sharp, and the enclosed cutter shape makes it hard to drop the cookies out.



I cut back on the butter slightly and added another scant cup of flour. I also added a tsp of almond in addition to the vanilla, because I was in an almond-y mood. I guess these are similar to the GS Shortbread cookie (or Trefoils, or Scot-Teas, depending on your generation/region!) 

Very yummy and disappeared quickly! 

Baking Monday – Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies

Up today: Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I know, I know, been there, done that. However, read on to reveal my real motive for making peanut butter cookie dough today.



It wasn't for these chip cookies, those were the second act.

This was the main attraction. Not much to look at on the outside, but …

Ah! What's this? A cookie wrapped inside another cookie? Yes, indeedy.

I had Oreos left over from Dora's movie party a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd try these stuffed cookies, seen via Pinterest. They're pretty good, but weren't my favorite – I prefer chocolate-covered Oreos much more – and since each one is the equivalent of three cookies, they're pretty indulgent. This might work better with the mini-sized Oreos. I'm assuming no complaints from the taste testers however, since no leftovers came home!

Blocks!

Theo's been using the site DIY.org to complete projects and earn badges, kind of like scouts, without the organization. There are tons of themes to choose from, users complete and post tasks to earn virtual badges and can also buy actual badges for $5 each. He got a new messenger bag for Christmas that we'll sew his badges onto. His first badge earned was Minecrafter, shocking. Theo doesn't have many extracurricular activities, so this has been perfect for him. I'm not thrilled about the social aspect - you can follow users, have people follow you, and leave comments for each other. The good news is that kids who sign up must have a linked parent account, so I get emails every time he posts a project or comment, so it's easy to keep tabs on what's going on. He's working on his animation badge, and came up with this little movie today, I love it!