30 for 30: Day 15

I seem to be making a lot of cookies lately.....it's become my other "go-to" RAOK, along with the thank you notes.

Giving out cookies has resulted in a lot of people requesting my cookie recipe.  And guess what?  I'm posting it here:

The recipient of the latest batch of cookies that we made was for a custodian at our gym.  She is SUCH a nice lady and my kids love her.  She seemed a little down when I talked to her last, so the kids and I devised a plan to make her some cards and cookies and deliver them to her to bring a little cheer.  Thomas almost foiled our plans for a random act of kindness when he picked the plate of cookies up and tipped all the cookies out in the bottom storage compartment of our stroller, but a sub-10 second cookie pick up got all the cookies back on the plate, practically germ-free (it's okay....she totally saw all the cookie spillage happen and laughed as we frantically scooped them back up.  Then she ate one and thought it was delicious, so no harm done - haha!).

And all this talk of cookies reminds me that I need to post the recipe.  Without further ado:

Chocolate Chip Cookies (courtesy of Mrs. Fields)

1 lb. butter (do NOT use margarine), softened to room temperature (NOT completely melted!)

2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

6 c. flour

2-3 c. chocolate chips (I use one bag - I think it's something like 12 oz. - and that is PLENTY)

Cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat.  Mix in the dry ingredients.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.*  Let cool on the cookie sheet. Makes a lot of cookies (like, close to 5 dozen or so), so feel free to freeze the dough or bake all the cookies at once and freeze the ones that survive after the first day.  They taste just as tasty and fresh when you pull them out of the freezer.  The hardest part is waiting for them to thaw out so you can eat them :). 

That's the basic recipe....here are some tips I've learned:

* I like my cookies done a little on the "raw side" - if they are undercooked, they will continue to cook as they sit on the cookie sheet.  And when they are completely cool, they will be soft and chewy.  They are extremely messy to eat warm when you undercook them, so keep that in mind.  The undercooking method is best for cookies that will be eaten when they are completely cool and a few hours old.  Each oven is a bit different, so you might have to tweak your cooking time.  The cookies shouldn't have any brown on them (maybe a *slight* browning on the bottom) BUT - they shouldn't be shiny in the middle, either (that's a little too undercooked).  Like I said, it might take a bit of experimenting.  After making them a few times, you'll figure out what they should look like.  

A few other notes....after I mix the dough, I roll all of it into balls and stick them all on one cookie sheet in the freezer to set.  After about ten minutes or so, they are hard enough that you can "pop" them off the cookie sheet.  You can go ahead and cook them all at this point, or just some of them and freeze the rest, or stick them all in a freezer bag to cook later.  If you do pull them out of the freezer to cook, let them sit out for about 20 minutes or so.  The dough should be cold and firm when you put them in the oven, but not rock solid like you just pulled them out of the freezer.  The cool dough helps the cookies keep a thicker shape when you cook them.

Also - you might find that your cookies are a bit flat.  I've gone back and forth on whether or not the egg size makes a difference.  I used to just use the XL eggs that I get at costco, but it seemed like they make the dough too soft and "wet".  So I buy large eggs just for cookies - ha!  And I add just a bit extra flour to make the dough a little less wet and a little more firm - but you don't want it TOO dry and crumbly.  Like I said, it will take some experimenting, but once you've got it down to an art, you can tell what the dough should look like just by eyeballing it, using the 6 c. of flour as a general guideline.

Whew!  I think that's the basic recipe, plus all the tips I've learned from years and years of making them. 

Don't worry if all the extra tips overwhelm you.  Even if you follow the basic recipe and don't do all the little tricks that I do, you will have some very tasty cookies.

30 for 30: Day 14

I was panicking today when I realized I didn't know what I was going to do.  I usually try and plan something out beforehand, but all I had planned for the day was a nice run in the morning and non-stop busy-ness at home for the rest of the day.  It was just a busy, busy day.  The kind where you hardly see your spouse all day.  And I was alone at home with the kids.  And the one RAOK I had sort of planned out didn't happen because - who knew? - the public library is CLOSED the Saturday before Memorial Day.

Anyway, since I knew I was going to be out on a run and that would essentially be the only time away from home, I took advantage of that time to seek out people to be kind to.  I have a philosophy about early morning exercisers - we are all cut from the same cloth.  Maybe we are morning people by nature or forced into it out of necessity (i.e. working out taking priority over sleeping in).  Whatever the case may be, early morning exercisers are MY PEOPLE.  It takes a certain kind of person to want to get up early on a Saturday morning and lace up their running shoes.  Especially a Saturday that was drizzly and cool (though I thought it was *perfect* running conditions).  Since I feel a special kinship with these people, I went out of my way to give a hearty "HELLO!" and "GOOD MORNING!" to every passer-by that braved this unseasonably drizzly and cool Saturday morning.

Not gonna lie - some Saturdays I look at my alarm clock and think, "Why....?".  And then I'm reminded of this:

Yeah.  So true.  No matter how crappy the run, I never regret having gone out to do it.  I only regret not going to bed earlier the night before. 

30 for 30: day 13

Whipped up a batch of my extra super tasty chocolate chip cookies to give to the fine ladies that keep our gym daycare running day after day.  Some mornings it is an absolute zoo in there, but even at it's most chaotic, there is a sense of order.  Really, these women are the cream of the crop.  In fact, I'm pretty sure my kids like them more than they like me.  When I drop them off, the first thing Abby says is "Where's B's mommy?".  And before she can even complete the question, she has grabbed a book and is running over to her.  So, to  B's mommy and all the other "mommies" (the kids call any adult female a "mommy") - THANK YOU.   I owe my sanity to them and the hour that they spend with my children every weekday so I can have some time to workout.

And not to toot my own horn, but everyone tells me my chocolate chip cookies are awesome.  The secret, I tell ya - undercook them!  Yank those puppies out of the oven before there is even a hint of brown on them.  They won't hold up well if you want to eat them warm, but once they cool...ohhhh....there's no comparison.  They are divine.

30 for 30: Day 12

Aside from letter writing, it seems my next "go-to" RAOK is offering to watch people's kids.  Lucky for me, I know a lot of people with kids that need watching.

I actually helped out a friend today so she could help out another friend (so, kind of a RAOK ripple effect thingy going on).  We love having this particular buddy over because he plays well with Thomas and Abby and is just hysterically funny in almost every single way.  As it turned out, it ended up being a short play-date.  I was just slathering on my first slather of peanut butter when his mom showed up.  We couldn't send the poor child on his way when I had promised delicious peanut butter sandwiches for all.  So I made my weekday lunch special (we have PB&J every.single.day).  I really won't know what to do with myself if any of my kids have a nut allergy.  Probably cry.

Speaking of crying....

This might be another item that falls under the category of "I wiped my kid's butt", but we have been enduring a mighty struggle with 2 yr. molars that refuse to just COME IN ALREADY.  It's making my normally happy child act more like this:

than this:

Yeah.  We've seen far too few of those happy and content moments around here these past few weeks. So, my other RAOK for the day was that I was extra super patient with her when she spent almost the entire day in tantrum mode.  Giving myself a gold star for that one.

30 for 30: Day 11

It was more missionary mail today!  I'm seeing a trend here.  It seems the days that everything gets hectic and things don't go as planned, I resort to writing notes or letters to people as my RAOK.  But everyone loves a good handwritten letter, right?  Goodness knows I do.

This time we were writing our beloved former baby-sitter and friend, Sister N.  Last fall when she was off at her first semester of college, we called her to wish her a happy 19th birthday.  Knowing that she was wanting to serve an LDS mission, we were both lamenting that she had two more years before she would be able to leave.  The very next day, she was sitting in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City when President Monson announced that the ages for missionaries would be lowered - sisters could serve at 19!  Let's not talk about how insanely jealous I was after that.  Let's just talk about how it was a birthday wish come true and how Sister N. was totally and completely prepared to go when the opportunity unexpectedly came.

A few short months later, we were with this same missionary and her family when she opened her call.  It was so awesome to be a part of that experience and memories of myself opening my own mission call flooded over me.  A few months after that, she was off.

Luckily, Caroline decided to (finally) be born two weeks before Sister N. left.  We were getting concerned there at the end, but decided it was highly unlikely that I'd still be pregnant at 44 weeks (thankfully, I wasn't).

We went to see her one last time the day before she took off.  We miss her bunches and bunches, but are so happy for her and the service she is giving as a missionary.  It's fun to have missionaries to write again!

30 for 30: Day 10

The weather threatened to spoil my RAOK plans for today - as in, I was praying it would rain so I could skip our youth activity (which was supposed to be canoeing) and attend the choir concert of one of my young women.  The rains came, canoeing was canceled, and off to the choir concert I went.

I'm a bit of a music snob (okay...I'm a HUGE music snob) and was really didn't know what to expect.  It was a great concert, though!  The kids sang great, the music was really fun (it was a pops concert) and I was just totally blown away by the talent of some of the soloists.

The best part?  Seeing my YW, standing up on the bleachers waiting for the first song to start and she gave our group ( two other YW and myself) an eyebrow raise and I smile.  A close second would be watching her sing.  It's amazing how music can transform you when you become completely enveloped in it.

30 for 30: Day 9

Today I got to the gym early enough to do what I tried (and failed) to do last Monday - show up early to spin class to set all of the spin bikes up.  A small act of kindness - yes, I know - but considering this spin instructor is the exact same woman that tries to kill me every Friday morning at boot camp, I considered it quite a benevolent act to set up the class for her.

And I couldn't mention acts of kindness without saying something about the catastrophic tornado in Oklahoma today.  Such a tragic event.  I was there in the days after the big tornado in May 1999 to help with the clean up.  It really takes standing in a pile of debris that used to be a house to really appreciate the devastation Mother Nature can create.  Wishing I was there with my fellow Sooner-staters to help with the clean up and donation collections and so forth.  For those that are helping with the relief and rescue efforts: THANK YOU.  For now, we continue to pray and show our support for the Sooner state.

We love you, Oklahoma!