Planted Garden (A little belated!)

So not only have things been busy, but in taking a week off for "Anniversary Week", I've gotten a little behind on our day-to-day posts. Fear not, I've got plenty of time this week to catch up (and the excuse of recovering from food poisoning to justify computer time). First thing off the list was my hair, and now--our garden!

These poor little guys were just overflowing in their tiny little planter. And even though we had to wait a week after actually getting the garden built (stupid freezing temperatures in May), we finally got them in!

They look so tiny in there! One of the nice things about the planter we bought was that the containers are biodegradable, so we were able to just break the sections apart and plant them, no digging the plants up or uprooting them necessary. That's why you see some little chunks of brown scattered throughout the garden; we really didn't get too precise about burying them. In addition to the bell pepper, tomato, green onion, broccoli, and winter squash that we started in the planters, we added summer squash, zucchini, spinach, and green bean to our planted garden. Oh, and we divided the garden into square foot quadrants to make the planting process a little easier, especially since we are pretty clueless about spacing and everything else (hence the twine--although it'll be gone soon as the plants start to take off). We also made sure that we had a few "empty" quadrants so that I'd be able to get into the middle of the garden to pull weeds.

Which, after just over a week, haven't been too bad! Our biggest "weed" right now is actually grass; as you've been able to see, we planted over a previously seeded portion of our lawn. We did uproot and till (as best we could) the plot for our garden, but then we left some of the grass/soil chunks under the topsoil we added because I read that the plants can get good nutrients as the grass decomposes. Well, apparently all of the grass didn't get the memo to die. Not the biggest deal though. And I've learned that it's actually easiest to weed shortly after it rains because the soil tends to be a little looser and softer and it's easier to get the weeds by the roots. It's naturally a little muddier as well, but that's what gardening gloves are for!

We've also had some serious plant growth in the week and a half since we planted. The broccoli have gone crazy since being transplanted, as has one of the green onion plants (we're afraid that we lost the other one; but we did plant a few more from seed to increase the crop just in case). We also had a tomato plant that was struggling with the move, and after the violent storms that whipped through here last night, I don't think it'll pull through. The other three are thriving though. And some of our new plantings are already sprouting--we've got definite seedlings from both the summer squash and zucchini, and I'm pretty sure the majority of our spinach plants are coming up (although they look borderline like sprouting grass, so I'm a little wary. But they are sprouting right where we planted, which is definitely a good sign). And I think we have progress from the green beans, although the seedlings look different from quadrant to quadrant, which makes me believe that I actually have a weed masquerading as a green bean plant. But since I know nothing, I'm letting them both grow for now! Once I'm confident what are our plants and what are weeds, I'm going to take my camera out and get close ups of all of them so I can introduce them to you. Mostly because I'm actually seriously impressed by the progress this whole adventure is making--I think it's officially time to take "Plant a Garden" off our 101 in 1001 list!

Finally!

Well, as you could probably see in the last picture from yesterday, I've finally chopped my hair!

There it is, all ten inches of craziness. After having it short for a week, it's hard to believe that I actually used to tote all that around. Even things like getting dressed feel way different because I don't have to pull all my hair through the head opening, it's just already through! I had Darrell take some before and after pictures; it's such a crazy difference!

Forgive my twisted bra strap and crazy broad back. I probably could have re-done the picture to be a little more flattering....

And the view from the front!

I'm still getting used to it so it's a slightly different style everyday. Not that I really ever do too much to "style" anyway, although I'm starting to learn that with something like this I might actually have to start using real grown up styling products. But we'll see :-)

I've got a whole bunch of posts back logged from the previous weeks that I've been too busy (or sick!) to get put up, so be on the look out for some longer posts or double features this week!

Happy Memorial Day!

At least I hope it's a happy one for you! I can't quite say the same around here--we've been pretty well stuck inside all day by obnoxious hot and humid temps, 40+ mph winds, and a lovely bout of food poisoning. Thankfully just me (I don't know what we'd do if we were both sick!), but waiting on me has pretty well hindered Darrell's day as well (yes, I get needy when I'm sick, and yes, Darrell insists on taking care of me. Don't judge).

We did get a chance to enjoy ourselves a little bit over the holiday weekend. And of course, there's no better way to enjoy yourself over Memorial Day than with a little food off the grill and some beer.

I can promise you that it was tasty at the time, although it looks incredibly unappetizing to me now (except for the watermelon; I've been snacking on that--successfully!--all day).

We followed dinner up with a little fun and frivolity:

They gave a sad statistic before the show about how many drive-in theaters there used to be versus how many are still open. I'm just glad one of the handful that is still open is near us! I think drive-in theaters are super fun (and a great deal!) because you get to bring in stuff like this:

We do drive-ins in style. And don't judge me about the Hy-Vee cake; I would have made something myself but we were out of eggs. Turns out those are an important ingredient when baking.

The best part about this drive-in experience? We got to see this guy on the big screen:

Oh how I love you Captain Jack Sparrow. Pirates IV was pretty spectacular--although getting a good picture of him on the screen was a bit of a daunting task (the rain didn't help either).

One last picture before I settle down for yet another nap. For those of you with good eyes, you might catch a preview in this picture for what my post tomorrow is going to be about!

Wedding Registry Tips

I have to say, Darrell and I were (foolishly) proud of ourselves when we registered. We were lucky enough to be living in the house that we planned to live in after the wedding, so we were able to go room to room and figure out exactly what we needed. We also spent an entire afternoon inventorying all of our kitchen supplies to figure out which ones needed to be updated (or upgraded!). I consulted a variety of "recommendations" lists, and even attended the gift opening of one my friends to get ideas from the gifts she and her husband received (you'll recognize something on this list for sure Whit!)

And yet, there are a few things I wish I had known before registering. So (in fitting with my wedding/anniversary theme), I've put together a short little Do/Don't list for when you are registering--or maybe even for when you are looking for gifts off a registry to purchase!

Do: Register for an extra set of dishes.
Seriously. Darrell and I found a pattern that we just loved, and so we registered for the standard two sets (each set had four place settings). We didn't ever intended to host more than eight people, and just in case that ever happened, we had a few mis-matched place settings left from college. So we figured two would be perfect. Well, less than a month after the wedding, I broke one of our bowls. After calling Darrell in tears (seriously, we loved our new dishes and I was so upset that I broke one), we decided that we'd just go buy another set. That way we'd have replacements in case anything else broke. False. Apparently our dish set was discontinued immediately after we got married and there wasn't a single store (or place online) that had even just a replacement bowl available. We've also realized that only have eight place settings is actually a little inconvenient for hosting dinner parties of eight--we have to coordinate making sure everything else is clean, which doesn't leave us with anything to serve with (or use the night before!). So seriously--get an extra set of dishes.

Don't: Register for low-quality items.
Especially when they are things you are going to be using all the time. I remember us standing in the store with the registry gun trying to decide which measuring cups to get. We knew that we wanted stainless steel, but beyond that didn't really have a preference. The store had three different styles available, ranging in price from $7 to $19, and we decided to just get the cheapest ones (after all, we didn't want our guests to think we were hoity-toity). Well, those cracked in like three months. So we went back and got the next most expensive pair--and we all know what happened to those (see here for a refresher). And guess what? We now have the most expensive set. And they are working great. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't be afraid to register for something that's a little bit more expensive than you buy if you were buying it for yourself--because you aren't! Someone else is buying it for you! And if no one happens to buy you those more expensive measuring cups (or whatever the item may be), then you can decide for yourself how much you want to spend (although seriously, if it's something that you are going to be using All. The. Time--investing in something of decent quality!)

Do: Register for Rubbermaid Premier food storage containers


The fancy pattern is just a bonus!

These things are seriously amazing. Sure, they are more expensive than some of the other food storage options, but in tying in with the previous point, these are ones to definitely get on your list. Or just buy if you don't have them already. Darrell and I always cook so that we have leftovers, and these things are like magic. We've stored spaghetti in these bad boys for at least a week, and there is never any discoloration or residue left after washing. It's incredible. I cringe when I think about how much money we wasted on the lower quality ones that we had to throw away after a few months of constant use (and I don't even want to talk about the gross melting plastic issues we had with some of them). We haven't found a single fault with these and in over a year have not had to toss or replace a single one. They also have some small one-cup sizes, which are great for storing spices and sauces. And they stack super well! We're just in love with these.

Don't: Assume you'll get wall decor and picture frames.
Like I said, one of the advantages we had was that we were already living in the house we were going to be furnishing, so we could determine exactly what we needed/wanted. Well, one of my priorities was getting stuff onto the barren walls in our house. And I already had my eye on a few pieces. Darrell, however, was determined not to register for any decor. His logic was that people were going to buy us cutesy frames and wall pieces whether we registered for them or not, so there was no sense in doubling the madness. And since Darrell's logic tends to be pretty spot on, I agreed (with the exception of one or two must-have pieces). Well, he was partially right--we did get some frames and decor pieces, but probably not ones I would have picked out on my own (except for the awesome one from his sister Kim!). And since most of them didn't come with gift receipts, we either had to use them or re-gift them--and then still buy all of our own pieces for the walls. Granted, I love the way our decor has come together, and we did get some good deals on some of the pieces (yay for Canvas on Demand Groupons!), but it would have been nice to have someone else pick up the tab on a few of the items.

Do: Register for a sewing kit.

Never ever had it crossed my mind to register for something like this. In fact, if we saw it in the store (during one of the multiple trips we took to make and perfect our registry), we probably instantly dismissed it because we thought it was an accessory kit for a sewing machine or something (which I am so not Holly-Homemaker enough to own--or want to own). But my good friend Whit got this for her wedding, and as I looked closer at it, I realized that this thing is genius. Under no circumstances am I ever going to have the desire (or ability) to whip out my own clothing, but sewing on a loose button? Right up my alley. Onto the registry it went--and into our house it came. This kit comes with just the right enough of necessary supplies to make the most basic repairs (loose button, torn seam) possible--and lots of thread colors to boot! It's been a great little kit to have around, and the fabric scissors always come in handy when we have old shirts to turn into rags (or headbands--stay tuned for a post on that!)

Don't: Register for space you don't have.
This tip is probably somewhat limited in scope. I know a lot of couples that moved (some multiple times) during their first year of marriage, so a lot of their registry items were just token "I think we'll need this" items. Darrell and I knew exactly how many and what size lamps we need--but we still feel into the "I think we'll need this" trap of getting stuff that you never really end up using. Our biggest pitfall was that we registered for stuff that we'd use "once we finished the basement" or "once we finished our patio". Well--it's been over a year, and neither of those have happened (in fact, we've never planned to finish the basement any time soon, so I have no idea why we were registering for stuff down there). And now what's happened is we have an entire bathroom full of coordinated rugs and accessories that we may not even want to use once we actually get around to finishing the basement. And we have a fire pit that's still in it's box in the garage because we didn't get any landscaping done last summer. Truthfully, it's not the worst problem in the world to have, but the other day I saw some fire pits in an ad somewhere and thought "those look nice", and I realized that I honestly have no idea what the fire pit we actually own looks like. And as we cruise into our second year of marriage, we're still not any closer to having our patio finished. I know we'll use and appreciate the pit once we actually get around to using it, but I'm realizing that registering for stuff that "we'll need someday" isn't exactly the best logic.

Do: Register for a mandoline.

See that guy? Total awesomeness. Slicing potatoes and zucchini and everything else has never been easier. This (along with a vegetable peeler) was an item that Darrell originally thought we didn't need to purchase after no one bought it for us off the registry. But after our first time frying fish and chips, I insisted that we go back to the store for this. I'm all for helping out in the kitchen, and I'm getting better at handling knives, but sometimes I don't see the point of laboring over something when there is a tool out there that does it so. much. quicker. And so much more precise. And thin. And wonderfully. It's not exactly the easiest to store, but we love it anyway.

Don't: Throw away all your old towels.
This isn't so much a registry tip as a "what not do to after the wedding" tip. Darrell and I worked an extra vacation day into our honeymoon so that we'd have a day at the house to blitz clean and organize (also a great idea). As we were replacing items with the new ones off our registry, we threw all of our old towels into a bag for Y's Buys (like a Goodwill, but affiliated with the YMCA in town). Well, about a month ago we accidentally left the grill over off overnight, and it was super dewy in the morning. Normally that wouldn't be a huge issue, but it was forecasting rain for the next two days, which we certainly didn't want to leave it uncovered for. Nor did we want to cover it while it was significantly wet. So, we decided to wipe it off. And realized that our only options were to use our good bath towels or dish towels--or use like a million paper towels. Thankfully, all of the one of the bags hadn't made it to Y's Buys yet, and we happened to have a few old towels in there. So we now have a junk towel--which is a pretty darn good thing to have.

Do: Cater to your personal tastes when you register.
I love to bake and Darrell loves to cook, so a lot of our registry items were kitchen items (plus lots of outdoorsy items--another of our favorite pastimes). However, I went about the registering for baking things pretty stupidly. Register for an 8-inch square pan? Nah, I'll just register for two 9-inch pans; they'll work the same (if the sarcasm isn't clear enough--they don't). Register for a min-muffin tin? Why bother? I like my muffins big (never again will I underestimate the usefulness of a mini-muffin pan--how else would I make these guys?) One baking item I was smart enough to register for?

These guys. Stackable cooling racks are awesome. Even if you aren't someone who likes to bake on a regular basis, these are a must. They'll prove their usefulness (and space saving abilities) in just one batch of cookies. And the great thing is that they fit together really nice to store, so you don't have to give up that much extra space to have three cooling racks. Seriously awesome.

Whelp. How's that for a novel on your Friday? Props to you for sticking through that--especially if you've already "been there, done that" with the whole registry thing. But if you haven't? Seriously consider these tips. And even if you have? Share these tips with your engaged friends (don't worry, you don't have to give me credit or anything. You can trick your friends into thinking that you're intelligent--but just this once). If these tips help even one couple weed their way through the maze that registering can cause, then I'll consider it time well spent (or maybe more accurately, time well wasted. My house isn't cleaning itself while I do this, you know).

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Here's to three days (four for me!) without work, but filled with plenty of sun, friends, grilling, and beer (hopefully!)

The Great Name Debate

Well, it's happened. You met the love of your life, you had the wedding of your dreams, and now it's time to sign the license and make it official. But wait--how do you sign? What name will you use?

Thankfully, most to-be-married couples decide this sooner than the actual wedding day, but for many couples the decision of what to be called is a major one. And it doesn't help that there are so many options: Does she take his? Does he take hers? Do they keep their own? Do they hyphenate? Do they combine their names into some new, joint name? How does anyone know what to do?

In my opinion, though, there really shouldn't be any debate. Joining to another person in marriage means that you are committing to building a life with them, and I think that if someone doesn't change their name to take their spouses, that person is basically saying "Yeah, I want to marry you, but I don't totally want to commit." Sure, I understand the situations where one spouse (generally the wife) has a well-established career and wants to keep her name for professional reasons. That logic I can get behind. But I think it could still cause a little discord if the couple decides to have children, because then what name do you give the child? How do you explain to a five-year-old why Mommy has a different name than the rest of the family? And don't even get me started on hyphenating--cruel and unusual punishment, if you ask me.

But lately, I've been finding articles encouraging women to keep their own name--not because it makes sense professionally, but because it won't cause them to give up their identity. To this I say--are you serious? Taking my husband's name when I got married was not "giving up my identity". Rather, it was making the decision to take on a new identity--that of Darrell's wife. And changing my name was a way of showing that I was committing fully to that role--not in the 1950s sense of being a wife, but in the "I am promising to be with you for the rest of my life because we are now a family and a team" sense of being a wife. Imagine if baseball players always keep the "name" of the first team that they played on. How ridiculous would that be? Every game would look like an All-Star game because you'd have people with all different jerseys playing for the same team.

Okay, so maybe the baseball example is a little bit of a stretch. But it kind of works. And although Darrell and I never really debated what our name would be when we got married, this statement sums up my opinion perfectly: The name I had growing up was the name of the man my mother chose, so it's only logical that after marrying I would take the name of the man I chose.

Now, I know that with all the non-traditional families out there some people probably can't use that logic, but I think that regardless of what your name is prior to married, and who that name came from, it would only make sense to take the name of person you are choosing to be with. If you just can't bear to let that part of your identity go, then make your maiden name your middle name or something. But honestly, I always raise an eyebrow when I see married couples listed as "Mr. X and Mrs. Y." I feel like it's a cop-out; it's like saying "yeah, we want to be together, but we're not quite enough of a team to take the same last name."

Yes, changing your name is a pain in the ass, and yes, we just celebrated our one-year anniversary and I've still got a few places left to update with my name change, but it's totally worth it. It's worth it to know that when people see my name with Darrell's name that they'll know we're a team, we're a couple, we're committed. And we should be--because if we didn't feel that way then we shouldn't have gotten married. It's not about women's rights, it's not about "losing" your identity--it's about committing to be someone's partner, to be a player on their team, to be with them for the rest of your life.

More Anniversary! (And a few recipes for good measure)

Getting sick of hearing about our anniversary yet? Rest assured I won't delve into a full recap of any actual wedding stuff, since most anyone who reads this was at the wedding (but if you weren't and want details, let me know! I'll gladly talk about it!). But I'm having fun recapping our anniversary, especially since it was one of the first weekends we'd spent together in months. And I promise this will be much shorter than yesterday's post; in fact, it's actually more of a food post anyway.

We decided not to do anything too elaborate on Sunday since we had done the whole (disastrous) camping thing on Saturday night; we used it as another day to lounge around and relax, in addition to getting some of our usual Sunday chores done (namely grocery shop). On the menu for our "anniversary" dinner?

Sweet and Sour Pork and Pineapple Stir-Fry. With beer. We really know how to class things up for an anniversary.

Seriously though, it was quite good. And Darrell said that it was pretty easy to throw together (as is par for the course with most stir-fry recipes). I'll do my best to relay the recipe, but I was pretty much not in the kitchen for any of the prep work, so I have no idea how closely Darrell followed the recipe (and chances are, knowing him, he modified it because that's his style). But here goes:

Sweet & Sour Pork and Pineapple Stir-Fry
(from a Pampered Chef cookbook thing)

1 lb pork tenderloin (I do know that we used chops instead of tenderloin)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch, divided
2 cups sugar snap peas
1/2 a medium pineapple (We used about 10 oz canned because we had some in the pantry)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/3 cup apricot preserves
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium red onion, cut into 1/2-inch thick wedges (optional--Darrell chopped ours a little finer than that because I don't like big onion pieces)

Hot rice for serving (we always use brown rice!)

Slice the pork into thin strips. Combine pork, salt, and 2 tbsp cornstarch in a small bowl, set aside. In a separate bowl, combine soy sauce, vinegar, and remaining cornstarch; whisk well. Add preserves and mix until well combined. Add oil to large skillet and heat over medium-high heat until warm. Place pork into oil and cook five to eight minutes until browned on both sides. Add onion and cook thirty seconds until onion begins to brown. Reduce heat to medium; add peas, pineapple, and sauce. Cook one to two minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring constantly. Serve over hot rice.

That does sound fairly easy! Granted, using canned pineapple tidbits was probably a huge time saver because core and slicing pineapple can be a bit tedious. But definitely worth the effort because this was a good one. Lots of different flavors and textures--crunchy peas, sweet pineapple, tangy sauce. My only regret is letting Darrell take both leftovers  :-) 

I wasn't about to let our anniversary pass without a dessert though. We opted not to do the traditional "freeze the top layer of your wedding cake" bit since that sounded insanely gross (and not to mention a waste a space!). Our baker had said that she would recreate the top layer for us at a super reasonable rate... But we got so busy we forgot to call her and arrange it. Whoops. But really, I think it worked out better this way. Because now I have an excuse to bake something special every year for our anniversary. And maybe some year I'll actually do a cake (like when we have kids to help us eat it...), but for this year we feasted on this:

Nom nom. And it was super quick and easy to throw together, which (in addition to being extremely tasty) is a huge plus in my book. It's actually a slight alternation of a recipe I've previously posted. I used the same concept as the Fudgy Crinkles, but made it with a box of red velvet cake mix and 1/2 cup softened butter instead of oil. And instead of rolling them in powdered sugar, I slapped some cream cheese frosting in the middle (I'm partial to the stuff in the can; I really need to find some good and reliable homemade frosting recipes) and made them sandwiches. And for fun I stuck our cake topper from our wedding in there. Not too shabby for a first anniversary if you ask me!

Like I said, I'm not going to spend all week recapping our wedding and honeymoon and all those details, but since this time last year we were reveling in all things wedding, I am going to do a few more wedding-related posts. But hopefully they'll be worthwhile instead of boring!

Anniversary Camping Adventure

About a month ago Darrell and I found a few minutes together to talk about what we wanted to do for our anniversary. Darrell had a few requests: It had to be something relaxing and not stressful (he's been putting in ridiculous hours at work), and I had to plan it. My request was that we "copied" something we did on our honeymoon so we could start some sort of a tradition. I suggested staying at a Bed and Breakfast like we did on our honeymoon; Darrell suggested camping. And camping--being the significantly cheaper option, paired with the fact that there isn't much Bed and Breakfast selection around Sioux Falls--won. So I began to look into options, and found a campground that I loved in Nebraska. Well, the week before our anniversary, I was looking at our calendar and realized that under no circumstances would we have much time to pack for a camping trip before Friday, which meant driving two hours to a campsite on Friday night would be chaos (I was working until eight every night, we had errands and chores that had to get done before the weekend, etc). So, we scratched Nebraska and went instead to Newton Hills, a nice state park just 20 minutes from our house, which gave us much more time to leisurely pack and get ready. And another perk was that we'd be able to attend the Open House for Calico Skies Winery and Vineyards, a new winery near Inwood, IA (also a throwback to our honeymoon where we visited a local vineyard).

So plans were set, reservations were made, and then Mother Nature spoke. Friday afternoon I emailed Darrell from work and proposed backing out of camping for Friday night--we still hadn't got anything packed, and there was a 80% chance of thunderstorms overnight, which I didn't think would be very conducive to relaxing and getting a good nights sleep. Saturday's forecast looked significantly better, with a chance of storms in the morning and partly cloudy skies the rest of the day. So instead we ordered a pizza, picked up some beer, and grabbed a movie on Friday night. Perfectly relaxing. And a perfect segue into Saturday.

Saturday was wonderful. We slept in, lounged around the house and watched Shrek, made a big breakfast, and got our stuff packed up for camping. After a stop at the gorgeous vineyard (where we naturally picked up a bottle of their wine after sampling it), we headed to the campground. Things were going well--the ground was a little wet from the night before (it had crazy stormed Friday night and we were super glad that we weren't camping) and the hiking trail was pretty muddy--but we had no issues getting camp set up and dinner going over the fire. Just as we were uncorking the wine we heard a rumbling in the distance, and brushed it off as a motorcycle starting up at a nearby campsite. But the rumbling was incessant, and as we looked to the skies we instantly realized its source. Hoping the storm would blow around us, we (foolishly) set up our dinner and wine on the picnic table and began eating. Not but five minutes later the rain started. Thankfully it was really light at first so we were able to get the campsite organized--food and wine in the tent, unused logs under the tent's vestibule to stay dry, and a few extra logs on the fire to build it up to withstand the storm (we were expecting it to blow over fairly quickly and had plans to do popcorn over the fire later).

Needless to say, Mother Nature had other plans. It stormed for two hours straight, and any plans for the rest of the evening (besides sleeping) were shot. I'll stop rambling and let the pictures do the rest of the talking.



No, that's not fog. That's a downpour. Our fire was still going strong at this point, but that didn't last. And notice our neighbors with an open tailgate--they pulled up about five minutes before the storm started and were frantically trying to get camp set up without getting everything soaked



Not a good night to be camped under a tree. Right as the lightning was starting to pick up Darrell suggested making a run for the car, but then another downpour started, and we figured we'd be safe in the tent



Pea-sized hail? Thanks for the anniversary gift Mother Nature (and thank you Darrell for insisting that we invest in a quality tent--the only reason any water got into the tent was because we kept unzipping the rain fly to take pictures and watch the rain and lightning)



Attack of the earthworms! These guys were EVERYWHERE

Still having a good time! (at 6:00 the following morning when water was still dripping onto the tent from the trees above us I was not having such a great time--the incessant dripping was torturous!)

Happy Anniversary to us! Cheers!

I do have one final picture--because of the ridiculous amount of rain that fell, Darrell and I opted to pack up camp early and head home for breakfast. Since the forecast was calling for a chance of rain again on Sunday Darrell didn't want to set the tent outside to dry, so he improvised in our basement.

It's a good thing we don't have the basement finished yet.

Here's to hoping the next year isn't nearly as eventful as our anniversary camping trip was!

Happy Anniversary!

Here's to many many more great years together! Love you!

Stay tuned this week for details on an unforgettable anniversary camping experience, some wedding tips and advice, plus more home improvement projects. Back to celebrating for now though!

Some People

I love my local Tar-jay, and generally like to think that the people who frequent there are a tad classier than the regulars at Wally World (if you've ever been here you'll understand what I mean). But sometimes, people amaze me, no matter who they are or where they shop. I pulled into Target on a fairly busy afternoon, and to my amazement find that the spot across the aisle from me is being occupied by a shopping cart. Now, I like to believe that the cart blew into the spot (you can see the cart corral just across the way) and that someone wasn't so lazy that they just left it there, but there's no way of knowing. But I do know that while I was sitting there, a handful of people walked and drove by (a few even making sure to swerve around the cart so they didn't hit it), and no one did anything about it. Blew my mind. It was a perfectly nice day, the cart corral was a mere fifteen feet away, and no one was moving it. So I did. I was secretly hoping that it was going to be one of those secret camera shows and I'd get some big award and acknowledgment for doing a selfless good deed, but no such luck. No matter though, I still felt pretty good about recognizing an issue and stepping up to fix it (clearly, because I felt the need to blog about it). Moving a shopping is a big deal, after all :-)

Cutler Creek Cabernet Sauvignon

So I've decided that in an effort to "class" things up a little bit on my blog (and maybe actually make it worthwhile for the reader), I'm going to start doing some beer and wine reviews. It'll probably mostly be wine since we don't stray too far out of the box with our beer selection, but maybe I'll be inspired to try a few unfamiliar varieties of beer so I can review them. And really, the reviews probably won't be helpful to most people because despite the amount of wine I consume, I'm really quite clueless about tastes and flavors and aromas (Me: Mmm, good wine. Vino Friend: I really like the subtle vanilla taste in this wine. And I can definitely tell that it was aged in an oak barrel. Me: Yeah sure). And I've also never really met a wine that I didn't like, so chances are the reviews won't be super informative or judgmental. But hey, if you're just a plain jane like me who gets intimidated when people start getting all wine-y, then read on!

This wine was actually an impulse purchase on our last grocery trip (as are most wines we buy, for that matter). The reason for the impulse? It was only $3 (classy way to start, right?) But, we figured we'd give it a shot, because if it was drinkable then it would be a great go-to wine on those nights we want a little something extra with dinner but don't want to spend much money. Our original plan had been to serve the wine with the ribs we were going to have that evening, but when we discovered that it takes like three hours to slow-cook ribs on the grill (and it was already close to seven), we quickly changed plans to brats. Which I'm glad we did. While this wine was definitely drinkable, I don't think it would have accompanied ribs very well. For a cabernet sauvignon it was really light, and a little (dare I say) fruity. Definitely not something you'd want to pair with a heavy steak or meaty ribs. But it worked just great with our light meal of brats and grilled corn on the cob, especially because we ate on the patio (definitely a good summer patio wine).

I did have the foresight to chill it slightly, and I'm glad I did. Usually we store and serve our red wines at room temperature, but I had a suspicion that for $3 this wine would be on the lighter side, which it definitely was. I'd avoid this wine if you are looking for something with a real cabernet taste (not that I know what that would be anyway...), but for $3 I'd definitely take it out on the patio and drink it again!

The Mighty Queens of Freeville

Whelp, I have a confession. I actually didn't finish this book. First time that I have ever started reading a book and not finished it. And really, it had very little to do with the book itself. It was due back at the library and I couldn't renew it online like I normally would (something about my card not being active, despite the fact that I had used my library card a mere three weeks ago to check the books out. Whatever. I'll sort that out this summer), and I wasn't about to drive to the library to renew it so I could finish the last thirty pages and then drive back to return it. So, I just returned it unfinished.

Now, normally I would take major issue with the fact that I didn't finish a book, and not knowing the ending would bother me. I've stuck with some far less-interesting books than this one (like the one here), and I'm rarely totally disappointed by a book. But the structure of this book did make it feel like I had reached the end--even though there were still three or four chapters left.

Okay, before I totally lose you, let me explain. The Might Queens of Freeville is a memoir. But it's not told straight through from the beginning of the story to the end. It's told as a series of mini-stories that all overlap and connect to detail life of the author. This style did make it confusing at times--the beginning of the chapters did attempt to flow in a chronological order, but a few paragraphs in the author would switch to a "flashback" and tell a story from her youth, or her daughters youth, or her marriage, or whatever else was relevant. I'll admit that this style made following the progression of the book a little difficult (in one chapter she details the somewhat long and agonizing life and death of their cat, and in the next chapter she's moving across the country with her daughter and cat in tow), but the narrative style is what kept me engaged. As you would expect from someone who writes for a living (she is an advice columnist), she has the right balance of humor and reflection, and an uncanny ability to give advice without actually sounding like she is giving advice. So it was definitely enjoyable, and once I started treating every chapter as a new, "mini" story, I began to enjoy it even more. But do I ever plan to check this book out so I can re-read and finish it? Probably not. It's just another story of a divorcee/middle-life crisis/single mom/woman with family values. But it's the author's ability to take those seemingly "normal" events and weave them into a novel that makes this book marketable--any plain Jane could write a story about her life, but it takes a special kind of writer to be able to sell a story about her life (a skill that I'm truthfully envious of).

4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

So I know that I just posted about the progress of my chocolate chip cookie quest, but I just couldn't wait to get these cookies on the blog. You see, I've been meaning to make them for almost a month now because I owe them to a friend who fixed my computer. But I've kept putting it off because I've gotten busy or lazy or just plain forgotten. So once I actually got around to making them, and realized how easy and uber-delicious they were, I knew that I couldn't delay getting them out there for you so you can try them. And you should try them. They may seem a little unusual, but they are sooo good. It's a good thing I'm seeing my computer-fixing friend tonight or I don't think they would last. Ready for the super easy recipe? Good.

Peanut Butter Cookies
(makes one dozen)
(borrowed and slightly altered from this great blog)


1 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Mix together the peanut butter and the sugar using a spoon or spatula. Add the egg and baking powder and stir until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Roll into small balls and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork and sprinkle with additional sugar (if desired--you could also roll the balls in sugar prior to flattening). Bake in a 350* preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Cool on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes (don't try to rush them off the sheet--they'll be pretty fragile when they come out of the oven and will need to set before you can move them!) and then enjoy!

See? Super easy. And so delicious. It's been ages since I've had a traditional peanut butter cookie so I probably can't make an accurate comparison, but I definitely feel like these have a much more noticeable peanut butter flavor. It's not overpowering, like I thought it would be, but definitely there. And they aren't super doughy or anything, but still end up being super soft. I ate one last night after they had cooled slightly and the chocolate chips were all melted and gooey.... So good. And I'm glad they're so easy, because I'm definitely going to be making these again since I'm giving away (most of!) this batch!

The Great Cookie Debate

The process has begun. Remember when I promised to find and perfect the best chocolate chip cookie recipe by the end of the summer? Well, trial number one is in the books. And it's inconclusive at best.

Not that there is any real difference in appearance, but the cookie on the right was baked after the dough was refrigerated for 24 hours. The taste difference? Marginally better for the cookie baked from the refrigerated dough. Darrell and I both thought that it was definitely a little chewier and had slightly more pronounced flavors, but nothing so profound that it necessitates refrigerating the dough first (especially because then I end up snacking on it).

I'm still not happy with the way they are baking and their final appearance though, no matter how good their taste is. As you can see in both cookies, the chocolate chips remained concentrated to the middle, which was caused by the thinning out of the dough (and only the dough) as it baked (and I even baked these on an ungreased cookie sheet!). Not only do I want evenly dispersed chocolate, but I also want puffy, pillowy cookies!

I've got a few revisions to try though. Although I was displeased with this attempt, I think it's best if I stick with the same recipe next time (it's just the one off the Nestle Tollhouse bag). Because I want to try not creaming the butter and sugar quite so much. Usually I get bored with the mixer while the mixture is still significantly grainy and in loose bits, but I beat this batch until it was super light and fluffy. Which I think may have caused it to be more inclined to spread while it baked. Additionally, a friend suggested that my cookie scoop might be to blame because it forms too dense of balls to allow for proper baking. I don't know if I'll completely give up the ease of my cookie scoop, but I think I'll try flattening the dough slightly before baking.

It might be awhile before I get around to my next attempt; I (foolishly) made a full recipe so we have quite a few cookies sitting around our house right now and I don't think Darrell will support my baking another batch right after we finish these. Something about sweets and snacking or something like that. Must. Remember. To. Cut. Back. Recipe.

I have, however, found an Ah-mazing peanut butter cookie recipe. Two cookie posts in one day might be a little much, but it might be happening!

Garden Party!

It brings me great pleasure to introduce to you....

Our garden! Sadly, because of the possibility of a freeze (WTF South Dakota, it's the middle of May) we didn't get the plants moved into it. But we did have a wonderful (and wonderfully free) Sunday to construct our new addition. And it's a good thing we had the whole day free, because it was quite the process. I even remembered to take pictures along the way, so you can witness all our hard work yourself!

We started by constructing the bed in our driveway. After much debate and examining the wood possibilities at the store, we settled on a 6' x 6' garden. Of course, once we got the boards set together I felt like the whole thing looked a little small, but we decided just to go with it and add on later if we want /need to (and of course, decide if we are even successful enough gardeners to justify having a larger garden).

I took this picture right after we had set the first round of screws in the boards (which was a way longer process than it needed to be because the drill wasn't fully charged), and our next step was to flip the whole frame so we could get the second round of screws in. So we picked it up to flip it over...and the whole thing fell apart. Someone (I won't name names) didn't get long enough screws, and told me (even after I expressed concern) that they would work just fine. Well, they clearly didn't--they went through the first piece of wood just far enough to get one or two threads into the second piece, but it wasn't enough to hold them together. The phrase "I told you so" may have made an appearance. So we left the entire mess in our driveway and headed to the hardware store. Which worked out well for me, because I came home with these bad boys:

I love me some cute gardening gloves! And these are super awesome too, because they are nice and fitted, which means it's almost like not wearing gloves at all. They were more expensive then the "one size fits all" gloves with the fat fingers and stiff canvas/leather, but soooo worth it. I totally wore them the whole way home from the store (don't judge).

Anyway. We removed all the too-short screws and started actually getting the boards put together. Because the drill wasn't fully charged and would run out of "oomph" after a short while, Darrell had to manually tighten a few screws. Which was fine... until he decided to put a screw through a knot in the wood.

Maybe I should be impressed by how strong he is? Needless to say, we had no way of removing the partial screw, and it was too short to bend over or otherwise eliminate the hard, jagged edge, so the executive decision was made that this would be the side that got buried. A few screws and a trench later, it was.

Let me tell you, I wish we had plotted off the garden area before we started planting grass seed. Digging that trench and breaking up the grass/dirt inside the plot was a Pain. In. The. Rear. Those grass roots have some serious holding power, and clay-y soil certainly doesn't help. But, we prevailed, and packed in some of the bigger chunks around the side to hold the frame in there securely. We then added some good topsoil, plus some special "garden" dirt that supposedly has special nutrients and stuff in it. As novice gardeners, we figured our plants would need all the help they could get. Next, Darrell began putting up the stakes that we needed to attach the fence to (darn rabbits making us buy extra supplies to keep our garden safe).

I got a little bored while he was doing that since it was a one-person job, so I started randomly digging up weeds (which we have plenty of in our yard). Well, let me be the first to tell you that I. Hate. Dandelions. Their roots go on FOREVER, and it's pretty much impossible to completely get them out, which means they'll just Keep. Coming. Back. (Can you tell how exasperated that makes me?) So I was going to town on this massive dandelion bunch, and was determined to get the entire thing pulled up (at the cost of putting a massive hole in our yard, but whatever), when this happened:

Apparently Darrell isn't the only strong one in the family. And apparently cheap garden tools are a bad idea when you have soil that is predominately clay after the first few inches. You may have won this time dandelion, but I'll be back. And better prepared.

And that's all the farther we got! We still need to get some zip ties because we need to attach the fence to the top of the posts (the little U-shaped nails Darrell got for that project weren't working so hot on the thin stake; he couldn't get enough pressure behind the hammer to pound them in without snapping the stake in two), and then I've made him promise to cut the extra height off the stakes (why we needed four-foot stakes for a two-foot fence is beyond me). And then, of course, we plant! After tonight, any risk of a freeze should be a thing of the past (at least it better be!), so hopefully we'll get the plants in by the end of the week. Which definitely needs to happen because some of them are seriously growing out of their little containers. I'll have to remember to take a picture of them before we transplant because it's kind of ridiculous how big some of them are for the size of the containers. Of course, they'll probably look super tiny once they get into the garden, but at least we'll be one step closer to having our own vegetables!

Triskaidekaphobia

Are you scared of the number 13? Does it concern you that today is Friday the 13th?

Normally, I wouldn't even bat an eye over something like this. Friday the 13th spookiness? Pssh. Don't buy it. But today? I definitely had what felt like a weird time-space continuum experience. Coincidental that it happened on Friday the 13th? I think not.

So here's what happened. I'm enjoying my morning, hard at work (like always), and when I finally get a break I decide to check up on the blogs I stalk follow. Right away I notice that something is wrong. The first blog post is one from Wednesday. Now, you might say that not having a post since Wednesday isn't that big of a deal. But the thing is--I had checked the blog on Thursday, and there had been a new post on Thursday. I think maybe it's a fluke, or maybe they took it down, or whatever. No big deal. But as I keep checking my blogs, I start to notice that ALL of them are showing posts from Wednesday at the latest. And I know I read new posts on some of them Thursday. Totally caused a moment of panic (and serious deja vu)--Wednesday was not a day I wanted to repeat (especially when I'm so close to the weekend!)

Thankfully, when I tried to log on to Blogger I was informed of the difficulties they were having and that they had removed all posts published after a certain point on Wednesday. Phew! Because now I can safely (and positively!) proclaim TGIF!!!

The Evolution of T-Shirts

Does anyone else have a t-shirt problem? You know what I'm talking about--the fact that t-shirts are used by just about every sports team or extracurricular activity or road race or volunteer event to represent your involvement and participation. And as someone who enjoys participating in said events, my t-shirts tend to pile up. In the past years I've started to come up with a system to keep the problem from growing out of control, and I noticed a significant trend. My different "phases" of t-shirt use represent the different phases of my life. Confused yet? Let me demonstrate.

This is a (very) small sampling of my current everyday t-shirts. They are the ones that I primarily use for the gym, for lounging around the house, and for going to sporting events. As you can see, this group consists of shirts from the school I currently work at, shirts from road races (we got that one on our honeymoon!) and a volleyball shirt from a few years ago. I would affectionately consider these my "post-college" shirts.

My next group is a little bit more worn and ragged. This is the group of shirts that I've slowly been pulling out of my drawer as it gets filled with new shirts (I only allot one certain area for shirts and if it starts to get too high for the drawer to close then it's time to pull some old ones out).

This shirt "phase" has slowly grown into a collection of my college shirts that I wear only when desperate for a t-shirt or to do grungy work. I have a shirt from a service trip to New Orleans, a shirt from a May term in Alaska, a shirt from my soccer team's annual "Smash Cup" (the green shirt reads: A night we won't remember with friends we won't forget), and a volunteer shirt from Unified Sports Day. This pile doesn't get trashed right away though... They sit around for a little bit until I'm motivated enough ready to move them into the final phase: The cut-off

This is quite the raggedy bunch of shirts. And if the lighting was better, you could see some serious stains (I used to wear them weekly for sand volleyball in the summer: sweating plus diving in sand equals gross shirts. Plus I also occasionally wear them outside on runs when it's crazy humid--and then they get crazy sweaty). This is actually the group that spawned this whole random realization: I was finally getting around to tossing out some of these shirts and I realized that all of them are from high school (my senior class shirt, a shirt from a track meet that my then-boyfriend was running in, and a rec-basketball jersey). And it made me a little bit sad to be getting rid of them and eliminating my "high school" phase of shirts. Sure, I know the cycle will continue and I'll sooner or later I'll phase out my college shirts once I start getting more post-college era/marriage era shirts, and then eventually I'll get shirts for events my kids are in and schools they are at.... But nothing will quite replace my own high school shirts.

Oh, and for the record... I know that I sound really nostalgic and attached to items from my past, but at no time did I ever consider keeping these bottom phase shirts. I fully realize the ridiculousness of that; if you know my mom and sister you know about their hoarding tendencies and I've definitely learned not to be like that. So instead I'll just blog about them (and I promise, this will be the only time), and then be done with them. And for that, Darrell is infinitely glad.

Gone Again....

Turns out that Spring is quite the fickle season. After a few pleasant weeks and finally shoving Old Man Winter aside for good, Spring has made another departure. Thankfully, it's Summer who has taken its place and not Old Man Winter, but still. I don't appreciate 86 degrees and high humidity for the middle of May. Nor do I appreciate 66 degrees and humidity at 6:00 in the morning when I'm getting up for a run. What ever happened to easing into the oppressive heat and humidity that defines a South Dakota summer?

On the other hand, I can't be too upset. Because when Old Man Winter isn't around, we get to do this:

I heart our deck. Especially on perfectly calm, cool evenings. With food fresh off the grill. *LOVE* And please forgive the randomly plated food--we were hosting dinner for Mother's Day the following night and didn't want to dirty all of our big plates. So we just took turns eating off the same plates. No big deal.

Hate

Pure, total, complete hate. And it's legit. Because when you discover a colony of wasps building these on your house, you're allowed to hate. Utterly hate.

Tell me that's not the grossest thing you've ever seen. And you wouldn't believe the number of wasps we took down when we sprayed these things--that medium sized one alone had at least ten on it. Darrell got a picture of them at the nest using his super high-zoom lens on his camera; I'll update with it as soon as we find the USB cord for the camera. And even though we waited until dusk to spray the nests (which is apparently ideal because the wasps are more likely to be at the nest and docile), we apparently missed a crap ton of them. Because we sprayed the nests Friday night, and when I was outside Saturday I sprayed at least five individual wasps that were just flying around. We saw even more later that day, and some again on Sunday, but we ran out of Raid so we couldn't kill them. But we will get them. And if they try to build another nest, we'll get that too. Especially since we finally bought a ladder. These wasps will rue the day they inhabited our property. Because I H.A.T.E. wasps.

More Life!

No, I'm not talking about new developments with our vegetables and herbs. And I'm certainly not talking about a new human life.

No, what I've got is life from a much bigger (and subsequently more expensive) experiment that we started last fall.

TREES!!

Yay for tree buds! Not only does it confirm that Spring is finally here, but that Darrell and I managed to not kill our trees! Or at least not one of them--this is our Blazing Red Maple (or something like that) in our backyard; the other two in the front yard (some sort of a Linden and a Yellowwood) have not shown as much success in the budding department. Although truthfully, the Maple is definitely my favorite (is that weird?) so I'm super glad that if only one of them lives, it's that one. I'm totally indifferent about replacing the other two.

You might be thinking that having a tree bud after winter isn't that big of a deal. Or you may be thinking that it's really strange that I'm already okay with replacing trees that we just planted last fall. But see, much like many of our "projects", the whole planting-a-tree bit was very much a "let's just do it and see how it turns out" kind of thing. Here's how the process went:

Me: We need to get at least one tree planted before winter hits.
Darrell: Okay.

(two weeks later)

Me: We really need to get going on the trees. It's already the middle of October.
Darrell: Okay. Let's go now.
Me: Now? Um, well, do we know what we want? Where are we going to plant the trees? Should we plant trees like the ones our neighbors have? Do we know what kind of trees our neighbors have?
Darrell: Don't know. Let's just go see what they have.

(at Landscape Garden Centers)

Darrell: Look, they're having a buy two get one free sale. Let's get three trees.
Me: Um, okay.
(cue thirty minutes of aimlessly wandering around and looking at tree labels--thank goodness they put pictures on there of what the tree will look like once it's matured!)
Me: So which ones are you thinking?
Darrell: Not sure. Any that you like?
Me: I want one that has pretty colors in the fall (hence my love for our maple). And nothing that's too pointy.
Darrell: Okay, so that sounds like it would be these (shows me the Linden, Yellowwood, and Maple).
Me: Yeah, those look fine.
Darrell: Sounds good. We'll borrow a truck tomorrow and come back and pick them up.
Me: Come again?
Darrell: Well I'm not going to pay them to drive our trees the five miles to our house. And I'm certainly not going to pay someone to dig a hole in our yard. I can do that myself.
Me: Um, okay.

And that was how we got our trees. Maybe not exactly (we may have consulted with one of the worker guys a time or two), but that pretty well sums up the thought and effort that went into it. I'll spare you the annoyingness of more dialogue and just explain what happened once we got the trees home (which, for the record, was its own adventure--imagine Darrell in the bed of a truck trying to keep three trees upright and me trying to drive as slowly as possible down a two-lane highway).

Since we never really "planned" where to put the trees, we moved the (massively heavy) pots around our yard until we found a spot for each of them that looked good. But we decided that before we just up and planted them that we should probably call that 811 number so that Darrell didn't kill himself digging the holes. Well, turns out we had planned to put one of the trees on top of some pipes or wires or something. They told us that the lines were deep enough that we could still dig if we wanted to, but cautioned us that should they ever need to get at those lines that they'd have to uproot our tree. No thank you. So that caused another entertaining afternoon of us hauling around three potted trees and trying to find a good, aesthetically pleasing (and safe!) spot to put them all. Once that was settled it was finally time to dig. After we went to the hardware store and bought a shovel of course. Thankfully the trees had some explanations on them for how to transfer them into the ground, and we certainly tried our best to follow those. But we have super clay-y soil, which not only made it hard to make the holes deep enough, but also had me super concerned about the abilities of the trees to live. Plus we had to be worried about the ridiculous winds in South Dakota, so off we went on another trip to the hardware store to buy some rope and stakes to help our trees remain upright in the wind. Those little guys had so many things working against them, and to top it off we were terrible at remembering to water them.

So you can see why I'm super excited to see that at least one tree has persevered. And even though we may not be in the house enough years to see the maple mature and produce it's brilliantly red fall leaves, I can be happy in knowing that we left a good legacy for the next owners (although apparently not so much with the yellowwood. I did some reading up on them after we had the trees purchased and it turns out that they tend to attract bees. Whoops).

The Hunt is On...

As much as I love to cook and bake, there is one kitchen staple that I have not mastered. In fact, it is one staple that I haven't even attempted much. Chocolate Chip Cookies. I think all serious bakers should have a go-to, delicious, chocolate chip recipe in their arsenal--one that is tried and true. And sadly, I'm not even close to being there.

For the record, this post isn't totally out of the blue. I whipped up a batch of cookies last night to use up an egg yolk I had in the fridge, and the outcome left much to be desired. Which is a shame, because a good chocolate chip cookie is just So. Delicious. And always hits the spot. I realized last night just how far off the mark these cookies were, and my disappointment fueled a desire to find/create MY perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Now, I know everyone has different ideas about what makes the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie, which is why this is the quest for "my" perfect cookie, not "the" perfect cookie. To me, the best chocolate chip cookie has a nice, even, lightly browned color, just a little bit of crispiness on the outside, and thick, gooey, soft, melted-chocolate-ness in the middle. The cookies I made? Wafer-thin (except for the "humps" of chocolate chips), and with a noticeable crunch throughout. Maybe someone's idea of perfection, but definitely not mine.

Thankfully, I have tried my hand at enough recipes that I'm pretty sure I know precisely what I didn't like about this one. For starters, rather than creaming the butter and sugar, this recipe called for melting the butter and then mixing it with the sugars. While I was initially excited about this step because I hate creaming butter and sugar (someone please buy me a KitchenAid Stand Mixer please!), the melted butter definitely created a runnier dough than I've seen in other cookies. Additionally, this recipe calls to bake the cookies on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, which I know also encourages the dough to spread out as it bakes. The runny dough and prepared cookie sheet spelled disaster for the thickness of these poor cookies.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had both batches in the oven that I had the brilliant idea to bake/prepare the same batch of cookie dough a few different ways to see which I like best. Because I'm really wishing I had tried some of this dough without parchment paper to see if that would have helped alleviate the thinness. Of course, they might have gotten really stuck to the pan that way, but without trying, I don't know.

So I've concocted a plan (restlessness at night will do that to a person). I'm going to perfect chocolate chip cookies this summer. Because gosh darn it, when I have kids, I hope all their friends to want to come to my house after school because I make the best chocolate chip cookies. I've already got a few variations in mind that I'm excited to try. For starters, I read that a key step in making chocolate chip cookies is refrigerating the dough for 36 hours. Now, I don't normally see this step in recipes, so I'm not to certain about it. But it'll be easiest enough to test. I've also see people sprinkle a little bit of coarse salt on their cookies just before baking, and I'm intrigued by this. I've had a salted chocolate cake before and it was delicious, so I'm thinking the same would be true for cookies. And of course, I'm going to change up the surface on which I bake the cookies. One thing I'm not going to try again? Using melted butter. I'll grin and bear it through creaming the butter.

Friends in the area beware! I might be needing to find people to help taste test--and then take cookies home with them! Because even though I may have extra time to work out in the summer, I certainly don't need to fuel myself with sweets.

PS: One slightly unrelated discovery that I made last night? My stomach does not enjoy raw dough as much as it used to. I filled two sheets with cookies and had enough dough left to make probably six or seven more, but it was getting late and I didn't feel like baking another half-pan, so I decided to just eat the rest (with a little help from Darrell). I'm pretty sure most of my restlessness last night can be attributed to that. Lesson learned.