Project 365 Writing/Photography Challenge; Post #12

Dear Faithful Reader,

I meant very sincerely to post this last night, but when it came down to it, I finished my sewing project at 10:30pm and my hands hurt. Hand-hemming cuffs always kills my hands; but I didn't have the right thread for top stitching with the machine so I had to blind-stitch it by hand. Anyway, I baked cookies yesterday afternoon with Small Boy. First we made the peanut butter, then the chocolate. However, the chocolate were low carb, with soy flour, almond flour, gluten, and Splenda. Disgusting. The very light colored ones are sugar cookies, but are low carb made with almond flour and Splenda. Very tasty! Yay! (You can find the recipe here. I should note that I followed the other reviews and only used 1/2 cup Splenda.) I was so excited when hubby said he likes them that I almost jumped up and down and clapped my hands; except I was feeding Boy dinner and my jumping/clapping would have put his dinner all over the floor. He does that well enough on his own without my help... This is not my first low carb baking session, but it is my first one that actually ended in success. I was especially thrilled considering the cost of the little bag of almond flour-- $10.99--Yikes! However if the recipe turns out good, it is still cheaper than buying Atkins treats/desserts. I also found this morning that you cannot store these cookies sealed in a plastic container; they turn a bit soggy, just like if you  cover the donut box with plastic wrap...so I'm setting them out on the cooling rack again to see if they firm back up. Then I'm putting a good old fashioned cookie jar on my thrift store shopping list. So that is my thrilling story for today, I may take a break tomorrow but I will be back on Monday. Have a great weekend, and go make some thrilling memories!

xoxo,
BakingQueen

Project 365 Writing/Photography Challenge; Post #3

Okay, so I'm watching the season premiere of Duck Dynasty and listening to Small Boy on the monitor not napping.  So to answer the obvious question, yes I'm watching it at 1:30pm the day after on A&E's website, my son is not napping at 10pm. And I still don't know what to say, except that it is now 2pm and Small Boy is still awake. He (and therefore I, because I accidentally turned my alarm off instead of hitting snooze) slept in till 8 this morning, and I heard him awake for quite a while around 5am, so I think his schedule is completely off. I just ate breakfast at 1pm today, as it was already a busy morning. I got up feeling behind, made breakfast for hubby and Boy, then Boy and I ran to Costco before hubby went to work. Now I need to plan the rest of the shopping that I need to do at Freddy's tomorrow. And I am thinking that Boy may actually be falling asleep after all. Nope, just heard him talk again. I also am really wanting some cookies, so I guess that means I ought to get up and make them, and quite rambling here. After debating on showing you the box of diapers I picked up at Costco (we are now stocked up for a month, yay! But yes I know that is kinda blah for a photo...) or the sink full of dirty dishes (I know, not pretty), I have settled on this one as the nice part of today :)

And now I gotta go get Small Boy up 'cause I'm pretty sure if he ever does fall asleep for a nap, that he won't go to bed tonight till 11, and that won't make for a well-rested easy-goin' Mama tomorrow.

Project 365 Writing/Photography Challenge; Post #2

Well I didn't promise to post no pictures of my kiddo, I only promised they wouldn't be all him! This picture actually contains two things I am very happy to have, the boy and the KitchenAid mixer! I have been wanting this mixer for years, and my old one finally went AWOL when we moved, so hubby bought me this one :) :) :)
We made oatmeal raisin cookies together, and as you can see, Small Boy is busily helping. He also insisted that the coffee maker be on; if anything has buttons that make lights come on, they will be pushed and the lights will remain on! Yes, that is a knife in the mixer, and he can work the power switch. Fortunately, he cannot plug the mixer in! Whenever I needed to mix, I plugged it in, turned it on, and then carefully kept his hands away, then immediately unplugged it as soon as said mixing was done. Then he busily put in the measuring cups and spoons and tried to remove some of the batter, and of course tried to remove the coffee pot and dump it out.  So let's see-- I creamed the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs, then mixed in the flour, then mixed in the oats and raisins. That makes at least four of the plug-in-mix-unplug session. It was all worth the extra work, though, he had so much fun! And wouldn't you know it, he still has not actually eaten one of those cookies; he is a very picky child and decided the texture was gross to bite into. He did not actually taste the cookie. I refrigerated most of the dough, so maybe they will cook up different and be a little more moist when I bake the rest up. I am not giving up, these really are tasty healthy cookies and he should learn to like them (after all, he likes the "Grandma's" oatmeal raisin cookies that you can buy in 2-packs at DariMart!).  Next we will do peanut butter cookies; maybe after I uncover my kitchen from the pile of dirty dishes that is burying it!