We quit swaddling her cold turkey and so far things are going great. We also got the OK from her pediatrician to introduce solid food, and we decided to start with bananas.

After a little bit of assistance with the spoon, she was ready to try it herself.

Success! (Kind of…)

I think this weekend we may move on to sweet potatoes!

I’ve been baking a lot lately, and as always I’m thankful for Mike’s office and my work both being so willing to take baked goods off our hands. In case you’re here because I occasionally make healthy things, I do have to recommend this salad, or more specifically, the dressing, which I now want to put on everything

Proceed directly to Shutterbean for the recipe!

I wanted oatmeal raisin cookies the other day, but I decided to branch out a little bit. These aren’t as cakey as normal whoopie pies (the ground up oats make them a little denser) and they have cream cheese frosting inside. Maybe it makes more sense to call them oatmeal raisin sandwich cookies. But whatever you call them, they’re good! I mean, can you really go wrong when cream cheese frosting is involved?

Today, I was standing next to him as he flipped through his notebook, looking for a blank page to do the warm-up. He’d stuck the post-it on one of the pages, and had traced over all the words a couple times in different colored ink. I know it seems like nothing, but I hope I’m starting to turn a corner with this kid. It’s little things like that that make this job amazing.

I was still a little tired after school but was determined to run since yesterday was a rest day. I had absolutely NO desire to run outside, so I made a deal with myself that all I had to do was 30 minutes on the treadmill at whatever pace felt good.

After warming up for 10 minutes, I decided to do intervals and ended up doing 5 x 2 minutes at 9.7 miles per hour. Definitely a confidence booster, and I felt a million times better after the run than before.

And since it appears we’re now on the topic of little triumphs, here’s one more. I’ve pretty much been riding high all week on the fact that I can now make rice krispie treats that I can actually eat. I’m not always a totally strict vegetarian (I still drink Guinness and eat Parmesan cheese) but I’m pretty adamant about not eating gelatin (why I pick and choose that way, I’m not entirely sure). I just assumed rice krispie treats weren’t going to happen for me anymore, but it turns out marshmallow creme doesn’t have gelatin in it!

They’re not exactly the same as when you make them with real marshmallows, but I’ll take them (and you can use a 10-ounce bag of marshmallows if you’re not vegetarian).

I had a slightly traumatic experience Friday morning. I went to scan something and my computer told me I needed to restart to install updates. I usually just click “restart later” but for some reason, I clicked “restart now,” and was then met with this screen.

Frozen just like that. Any attempts to revive the computer were futile. Mike thinks he can save it, but it’s a $300 netbook that I’ve had for two and a half years, use constantly, and carted all over Asia. It was probably time for an upgrade anyway.

After that, the rest of Friday was pretty good. I was planning on taking a rest day, but ended up running a mile and a half with my PE kids (and doing tons of burpees. So fun.) Friday night was, as always, pizza night.

This week it was super simple: just marinara, mozzarella, a little cheddar, and some canned pineapple. One of my favorite combinations!

Oh, and I made some cookies. Mike really liked these; I wasn’t quite as sold. I always get really excited when I see Meyer lemons, so I buy a bunch, bake something with them, and then remember that I like regular lemons much better. Meyer lemons just remind me of gin for some reason, and that’s not really something I like to be reminded of.

But if you do like them, and you are looking for a nice simple cookie to make with them, here you go!

Having my parents around has been really nice. I’m off again for Winter Break for two weeks starting this afternoon, and then reality hits in January. For right now, I’m just enjoying knowing Ellie is having a great time all day with her grandparents, getting to run with my dad in the afternoons, and not having to worry about getting all her stuff ready to go to daycare.

My sister flew down from Portland for a couple days this week, so we did Christmas a little early. She gave me The Pastry Queen Cookbook, which was what I almost gave her (at the last minute I switched to running tights and espresso flavored Gu). I’m SO excited about the recipes in that book.

My parents were insanely generous and got me a macro lens! Now I can get you a super up-close and personal view of everything I make!

These were inspired by a cookie I had at Bi-Rite creamery. I just found a basic chocolate crinkle recipe online and added some peppermint extract and crushed candy canes. I highly recommend adding them to your Christmas Cookie repertoire! They also make great gifts… I gave a few to my principal, vice principal, and department chair.

Those were supposed to be a hostess gift for the Christmas party we went to this weekend, but nope, I burned the crap out of 2 cups of mixed nuts (tossed with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger) because I read the cooking time as 45 minutes even though that was the cooling time. What a bummer. Fortunately we had everything on hand to make these cookies.

Soft chocolate cookies, rolled in sugar and dried coconut. Definitely good enough to make me forget about my embarrassing kitchen mishap.

Oh! Nuts sent me some nuts to bake with. I kind of forgot what a giant pain skinning hazelnuts is, but it’s definitely worth it. (I use the boil with baking soda method.)

Then I threw the hazelnuts and some milk chocolate chips into the food processor for a few pulses.

I adapted this from a recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours.I’m not sure why she recommends baking them for 18 minutes because that seemed WAY too long (I’d check them after about 10 minutes – if they start to darken they’ve baked too long). I cut out snowflake shapes and dusted them with powdered sugar to make them a little more festive.

Wednesday night, we took Ellie on her first plane flight. I was afraid she’d scream the whole time, but she did great (I think Sophie the giraffe helped).

She was alert and happy the whole time we were waiting at the airport, and then fell asleep as we were taking off. I still need to work on my fear of flying, but at least she seems okay with it.

Thanksgiving started with a 4-mile Turkey Trot.
We’ve done this run three or four times before. Last year I ran 3 minutes faster than this year’s 34:10, but it was still a really fun run.

It finishes in the zoo, so we went and checked on the elephants.

On the way home we made a mandatory stop at Starbucks. I wish I got to hang out with my sister more.

Now that it’s socially acceptable to put up Christmas decorations, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas cookies! I made a double batch of homemade oreos, and added some peppermint extract and red food coloring to the filling. Even though I doubled the cookie recipe, I made a single recipe of frosting and had enough (maybe I don’t fill them enough?) The recipe below should make about 45 modestly-filled sandwiches.

Recipe:

I skimmed a few pages and ended up checking it out, and I’ve actually really enjoyed it! I appreciate that the author doesn’t take herself too seriously, is able to recognize her flaws, and doesn’t do anything too unrealistic. At the outset, she acknowledges that she’s not unhappy, she just wants to see if she can make herself a little bit happier, and tries various things based on her research. Some of them work, and seem like things that I would definitely do (like getting rid of clutter and finding more fun); others don’t interest me (like keeping a gratitude journal or starting a collection). But I think the thing that really stuck with me most was the concept she kept coming back to: “Be Gretchen.”

I’ve definitely noticed that the periods in my life that I was the least happy were when I was trying to be somebody else. I will never be interested in interior decorating, and that’s fine. I’d rather throw a bunch of stuff in a pan and end up with blondies than spend hours decorating sugar cookies with royal icing. I’d rather run for miles than go to Zumba.

I know it seems really obvious, but I found it really helpful to be reminded “we can chose what we do, but we can’t choose what we like to do.”

I like putting things in blondies.  Like M & Ms and pretzels, or in this case, cranberries, white chocolate chips, and toasted pecans.

Moving on.

Caramel corn and chocolate chips in a cookie.  I really wish I could take credit for this, but it was actually Trouble Coffee (scroll down a little bit in that post) that made them first.

I’ve been kind of thinking lately that my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe might not be the best one out there, so I tried a new one for these cookies and was TOTALLY impressed. I definitely have a new favorite. I added a cup and a half of chocolate chips and two cups of caramel corn, and although they weren’t as thick as the ones from the coffee shop, I loved how these turned out. Apparently they were a big hit at Mike’s work, too. Yay.

I made my own caramel corn using half of this recipe and still had some left over to snack on.

Recipe:
(adapted from Savory Sweet Life)

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups caramel corn

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Beat the butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer for about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Scrape down the bowl, add the vanilla and beat for another minute.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add to the butter mixture and mix on low until incorporated. Stir in the caramel corn and chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, form a ball using 2-3 Tbsp of dough. Arrange on the cookie sheets leaving a few inches between each cookie to allow for spreading. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until just golden on the edges.

Cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cheese section makes me swoon, I am slowly working my way through the entire wine section, and their butter is a great deal. I don’t think it’s necessary to discuss the pound plus chocolate bars and how I feel about them.

But I have some issues with their produce and the disgusting amount of packaging it tends to include. Plus, I have a serious problem with the way that products will disappear from the shelves without any warning. Peanut flour, where did you go?

The other day I noticed there was no more organic peanut butter. I figured it had gone the way of peanut flour until my next visit, when it was back, and in GLASS! And then I meandered over to the chocolate section and saw white chocolate chips for the first time in months! I fell in love with Trader Joe’s all over again.

And can you tell I really need to get back to work? I seriously should not consider finding white chocolate chips and deciding which recipe to use them in the most challenging part of my day. I am so excited to use my brain again.

These are particularly good peanut butter cookies. If you bake them for just the right amount of time (before they start to brown on top), they stay nice and soft and just a little bit chewy. I happen to think that white chocolate goes really well with the saltiness of the cookie, but the original recipe called for milk chocolate chunks, so there’s another option.

Recipe:
(adapted from Orangette)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp salt
2 sticks plus 3.5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups natural salted creamy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment.

Stir the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugars together in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each one.

Add the peanut butter and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Add the flour mixture and mix on low until dough forms and all traces of flour disappear. Stir in the white chocolate chips.

Scoop up 1/4 cup of dough and shape into a ball. Place on the cookie sheet and do not flatten. Leave a few inches between each cookie. Bake for about 13 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to brown. Cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.