taste of summer

The last few days have been warm... 74º warm... what a change. It has been a winter's dream come true.

We've flown kites,
flown remote control planes,
played on swings,
jumped on a trampoline,
chased imaginary butterflies,
blew bubbles,
played with neighborhood kids,
went for walks,
chased Buckwheat chasing squirrels,
grilled burgers,
played in water,
got a pet goldfish,
crawled in grass,
thrown rocks,
wrestled with goldendoodles,
ate cookies (lots of cookies),
got some sun,

and this morning,
woke up to dense fog from the evaporating water
of the endless fields around us.

Tomorrow we hope for some thunderstorms.

most scrumptious

I know it wasn't that long ago when I posted a recipe for my favorite butter cookies... but here is a sugar cookie recipe that I am now over the moon about. Due to the excessive amount of butter in these cookies, I think the two recipes should nicely exchange names.

Even though I've been trying to eat lighter and less and better and all that, I gave in to Mont's sweet pleas for us to make cookies. I didn't offer chocolate chip cookies, because I knew I would eat them all in two days. So I offered others.. 'Snickerdoodles?' 'Yep!' ... 'Or... Sugar Cookies?' 'Yep! Dos wans'

It was settled.

Searching on the web for a recipe I had seen not too long ago, I decided to give it a try, and thankfully I had grabbed another box of butter squares at the store the day previous.. I needed 5 sticks for this recipe! Don't worry... it makes a lot of cookies, so it spreads out. Or at least this is what I've told myself over and over again.

Without further ado.. here is the recipe for Cutler's Famous Sugar Cookies | Butter Cream Frosting:
Sugar Cookies: 
1 1/2 c butter (3 sticks)
2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
5 c cake flour*

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until blended well. Add dry ingredients and mix. To make dough easier to work with, chill before rolling! Roll to about 1/4 inch thick and form (cut) cookies and bake at 350º for 10 minutes. Cookies are done when top is slightly cracked and no longer looks wet. Edges may brown.

*I didn't have cake flour (that's what I get for baking on a whim), so mine didn't get as fluffy or as crackled as they should... but goodness they were still so soft and tasty! I didn't even mind that they weren't bigger. The taste and texture was still very cake-like and delicious.

Butter Cream Frosting: 
1 c butter (another 2 sticks!)
4-5 c powdered sugar*
milk
1 t vanilla

Beat soft butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Add a splash of milk and vanilla then blend well. Tint frosting with food color as desired. Decorate with sprinkles immediately after frosting.

*4-5 c really blends down into a small looking amount, but it did go far enough to have extra for me. Next time I'll be more liberal with my frosting and lay it on thicker!

.... go on and make 'em! Just have some people in mind to give them to afterwards... We kept all of them and now I have 7 lbs to go again instead of 5, dang it! But it was so worth it!

eating lighter

I've been trying to eat better lately, really truly. I have about 10 5 lbs left to lose to return to my normal weight, and I don't think DQ Blizzards every week helped me out with that. Since I don't exercise regularly, I knew it was calories that I was going to have cut to see any results. I don't gain much weight by eating normal, I just don't lose any; and I want to lose, so I'm cutting out the junk! (until I made cookies two days ago at Mont's request...)

With 5 lbs gone after a week, I'm wondering why I hadn't done this sooner. Here's what I've been doing (or trying to do before the cookies were made) is this: 

Breakfast:

- eat half of a serving of mini wheats + milk (my reg. 2%) + a piece of 12 grain toast. 

- glass of cold water + vitamin (I need to be better at taking vitamins on a regular basis)

Ab routine: 

I have to face it, this is what needs the work after babies. My arms do heavy lifting all day and my legs get lots of walking. Abs and obliques are where I want to focus more attention. So I do a short 25 minute workout, and the next morning I think I see myself narrowing a bit. 

- cold water (if I expect myself to drink lots of water, it better be cold!)

Lunch: 

- plate of baby spinach + almond slices + craisins + creamy poppyseed dressing. easy, and very tasty. 

- cold water

Alternative Later Lunch: 

- there have been a few days where I push my lunch back to 2 o'clock or so, and eat a bigger lunch of penne pasta + shredded cheese + salt + pepper. Not the lowest in fat, and definitely high in carbs, but if I eat like this, it's the last thing I eat all day. I'm not hungry either. It gives me plenty of energy and I feel really great the next morning. 

-If I want to eat a different 'big lunch' I choose a turkey sandwich with 12 grain bread + feta crumbles + red onion slices + spinach + mustard + tomato slice + salt and pepper. It's a very, very tasty sandwich but doesn't last as long as the pasta. I usually have to have a snack later in the day with that. 

- cold water

Dinner: 

- Cook or steam a vegetable, season with salt + pepper + parmesan, share with Mark, taking more than half! : ) This way I fill up more on veggies, and I feel more satisfied after dinner.

- Whatever we eat for dinner I think of the amount I would normally take and devour in seconds. Think real hard and be honest with myself... it would take up my entire dinner plate. 

- I take a smaller plate, then put 1/2 of my normal portion and take longer to eat it. 

- Eat this smaller dinner at 5:30 or 6:30 at the latest! 

- cold water

- Don't eat anything else all night. If I feel a craving, like Mont's Cheetos still sitting in a cup, I'll take one and put the rest away for the next day. Just one, and I get the taste and curb the craving. 

- cold water

Here was yesterday's lunch.. I chopped off the bottoms of the asparagus, then seasoned with olive oil + garlic powder + salt + pepper + parmesan shreds. 

Then baked at 350º for 12 minutes. It was pretty tasty! I'd never cooked asparagus for myself before, but I'm glad I finally did!

* hardly tips, I know.. more common sense eating. : ) 

bobby pins

This weekend I stepped out of my "down, up, or half-up" comfort zone and tried an up-do I had seen online recently. I am not a girl known for talent with hair, so today when two girls asked how I did it, I was beyond flattered. So, to remember this day always.. I give you... the front view:

And my pride-grin with the back. It's the end of the day, so I hope you grant me the loose strands. : )

 Non-secret Secret: 3 'granny braids' as I've always called them, twisted up into buns plus lots of magical bobby pins.

fresh out

Thorough planning is my mother's forte, while my near misses are what sets me apart. Mark teases me about this often, but when putting together a grocery list, I typically forget one vital ingredient to a meal for people. It's sort of a running joke that I hope trips and falls really soon.

Missing ingredient for enchiladas today was the most necessary of them all: the tortillas.

I quickly texted two neighbors, one right after the other, and when first said she had just used all of hers, and the second neighbor was busy throwing a birthday party for her 5 year old (happy birthday, Coral!), my problem-solving kicked in and thought... I'll just make them!

(because Heaven forbid I ask our guests to bring over the missing ingredient .. which I've done before, but let's not get into that)

Things I learned when doing this were:
First: I really, really like working my hands through flour.. have you ever done it? It feels like how I'd imagine a cloud to feel, so cool and unbelievably smooth and soft. TRY it. I felt like a moron telling Mark how nice it was over and over again! Really, truly, I almost never wanted to stop.

Second thing: the dough balls really just need to be torn from the dough and placed down. At first I was rolling them into individual balls, realizing quickly that they were drying out before I could finish all of them.

Third: cover said dough pieces with plastic wrap so they don't dry too quickly.

Fourth: don't use a tortilla roller, just use an American rolling pin. Mark's Turkish friends gave him one while he was deployed once and my hands felt like I had been clapping too long after just 15 minutes of rolling. (i'm sure you know that burning/itchy feeling after a good long clap at a sports game or play, right?)

Fifth: they were delicious. The first was too thick, the second was cooked too long, but after those two it was smooth sailing.

Sixth: There is something so primitively beautiful about a stack of homemade tortillas. The inner pioneer / frontier woman inside me was so proud. Ya ya.. just work your hands through flour and see if you can avoid the same feelings.

Here's the recipe I used. I substituted the lard (gross.) for shortening (still gross, but it's what I had.) and they turned out wonderful.

in a sea-shell

You know that phrase "in a nutshell" that is used when something long is wrapped up all tidy-like into a shorter version?

Well let's take all of Mont's beach and ocean experiences and put them all nice and tidy, into one little seashell.

It all began when I showed him that if he held the shell up to his ear, he could hear the ocean. Though we keep the shells in his and Emmy's bathroom, somehow this particular shell finds its way into my bag, or our family room, or other similarly unexpected places.

The magic that this seashell holds for Mont is undeniable. He sees it and thinks that he can instantly be transported to the place where there are ocean waves, where there is sand, and sea weed, and fishies, and crabs, and birds, and sharks, and friends, and most importantly Grandma and Tiger (Grandpa) and Pirate Cave.

He holds it out to us and asks us to "Open it?" "Get 'em?" "Get Grandma? Tiger's in der!"

When he realizes I can't open it, he hopefully realizes his one last chance is what might get him his Grandma and Tiger.. He tells me that he's going to "Get 'em?" and then puts his little fingers into the shell and says, "I got 'em!"

The smile on his face tells me that he is on that ocean with his Grandma and Tiger, so I don't say anything.. I just smile and wait for his imagination to come back to me.