Week 43 : Oct 21 - 27

 

 

Oct 22 - the pumpkin patch 

Oct 23 - snickerdoodles

Oct 26 - selfie :)

Oct 27 - sick baby

 

Cookies #3 - Snickerdoodles

 Cookie #3 is the snickerdoodle.  I'm not sure I have ever eaten a snickerdoodle before, so I'm not 100% sure about how they taste. However, I think they turned out.

Picture from the book.

 

 

My cookies (I decided I should try and re-create the photo from the book):

 

Nevada's cookies 

 

 
Ingredients:

2 1/2 c. flour
2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
8 T. butter (softened)
8 T. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 large eggs

1/4 c. sugar
1 T. cinammon

After preparing the dough, I put the it in the fridge to keep it cold while I was baking the other cookies.  I cut the cook time a few minutes. I also used less dough than the recipe called for because the bigger cookies seemed to flatten out more.

 

Cookies #2 - Coffee Toffee

Last week's cookie, that I didn't make until this week, was the Coffee Toffee -- below is the picture of the cookies in the book.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 cups all purpose flour 

1/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 T. instant espresso powder

1 T. hot water

10 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1 t. vanilla extract

3/4 c. toffee bits

 

The cookies turned out pretty good.

 

However, again, the cookies were a little flat.  And again -- not sure the issue. I'm still not sure my oven temperature is right or that my butter was the right temperature.  Nevada says the butter is the issue -- she's probably right.  Still working it out.

These cookies were pretty good. They stayed soft, probably because I cooked them five minutes less than the recipe called for.

Cookies #1.5 - Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our cookie for last week was the Coffee Toffee cookie.  Because these cookies had toffee and one of my favorite cookie also has toffee, I was going to make them both: the first on Friday night and the second on Saturday.  I went to the grocery store Friday after work and bought what I needed for both cookies.  However, when I went to make the Coffee Toffee cookies on Friday, I realized that I had forgotten a main ingredient -- the instant espresso mix.  So I didn't do any baking on Friday.  

Saturday, I went to the store, again, to find the instant espresso but couldn't find it.  I then went to Home Goods (no luck there) and then Target -- and hooray, they had it.

and it was super cheap - $.99 per package of six.

Anyway, by this time I had already decided to make the other cookies (my YD and SIL's favorite). So I did.  Recipe can be found here.  Here is the picture from the website.

this is what my cookies looked like:

Anyway, these cookies are divine.

Week 42 : Oct 14 - 20

Oct 14 - lunch at the office for Diwali

Oct 15 - cookies .. but the wrong ones

Oct 16 - idea for fall decorations ...

 

 

Oct 17 - hanging out

 

 

Oct 19 - Cookies

 

Oct 20 - quilt blocks
 

Goals & Updates - 10.17.22

 My goals for the coming week are:

1.    Vaccuum -- I thought this was an easy one last week, but somehow it didn't happen. Oops.

2.    Make cookies -- I did make cookies last week, but not the right ones.  This week I'll make the cookies I should have made last week. 

3.  Finish making blocks for Mackenzie's quilt.  I don't have that many more.

4.  Hang 2 pictures.  (If I keep putting it on here, I'll have to do it, right??)

5.  Work on scanning / spreadsheet. 

Last week's update:

1. Make cookies - this week's cookie is a Toffee Coffee.  I didn't make the Toffee Coffee (my excuse is that I didn't have the instant espresso needed).  However, I made these chocolate chip toffee cookies.  Super yummy.  

2. Five more quilt blocks for Mackenzie's quilt -- done (pictures to be added later).

3. Vacuum (hardly worthy of putting on the list, but hopefully this will be an easy one) - FAIL

4. Continue scanning -- create spreadsheet. I didn't do any scanning but I did make progress on the spreadsheet.

5.  Hang some pictures - FAIL

Week 41 : Oct 7 to Oct 13

Oct 7 - flat cookies

 Oct 8 - up-do

Oct 9 - bottomless mimosas

Oct 10 - drive to work

Oct 11 - new neighbor & old

Oct 12 - New Neighbor

Oct 13 - Charlie

 

Sunday Goals & Updates

THIS WEEK'S GOALS:

First, here's my list of goals for this week.

1. Make cookies - this week's cookie is a Toffee Coffee.

2. Five more quilt blocks for Mackenzie's quilt

3. Vacuum (hardly worthy of putting on the list, but hopefully this will be an easy one)

4. Continue scanning -- create spreadsheet

5.  Hang some pictures 

RECAP:

Okay, now the recap from last week:

1.   Make cookies -- done -- here's the link to my post about them.

2.    Sew five blocks for Mackenzie's quilt - done

3.    Clean my closet - done

Before

After

4.    Scan at least one letter / item per day

I did get some scanning done.  One of the interesting things I scanned was a birth announcement from 1930 from my great aunt and uncle to my grandparents.

    

 

        5.    Work on knitted blanket - I just did this this evening (Sunday).  I'm really struggling to knit the blanket - but I'll keep at it.  Just not every week .. unless I do.

Cookies #1 - Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Nevada and I are baking cookies together -- remotely.  We plan to make a different cookie every week from this book.

 
The first cookie was a chocolate sugar cookie.  This is what they were supposed to look like:

Here are Nevada's:

 

Here are mine:

They tasted good, but were definitely too flat (not a cookie you can take to the office to share).

I believe the problem was one of three things:

1. Old baking soda / baking powder;
2. Oven too hot;
3. Cookie dough too warm.

I am going to get new baking soda and powder this week which I'll use going forward to eliminate that as an issue.  

I should get an oven thermometer -- I may do that, we'll see.

As for the third potential issue, I searched online and someone suggested baking one cookie first, a kind of test run. Then, if the cookie spreads too much, put the dough in the fridge for a bit (not sure how long).  It's certainly worth trying.

Next week's cookie is the Coffee Toffee.  Let's hope for better results.
 

Week 40 : Sept 30 to Oct 6

Oct 2 - Apple Pie!

Oct 3 - the cookies I'm going to make this week ...

 

Oct 5 - completed quilt blocks

Motivation and Goals

I have been having trouble being motivated to do anything.  I have all these ideas of what I'm going to do when I get home (or what I'll do on the weekend), and then as soon as I get home I do nothing.  I sit on the couch and play games or watch TV or both.

So, I'm thinking that what I need is to have some goals -- and some accountability.  By accountability, I mean that if maybe I post about it, I'll feel like I have to do it.  

My plans for this week / this coming weekend:

 

1.   Make cookies

2.    Sew five blocks for Mackenzie's quilt

3.    Clean my closet

4.    Scan at least one letter / item per day

5.    Work on knitted blanket 

This seems reasonable - do-able. 

Week 39 : Sept 23 to Sept 29

 

 

Sept. 24 - fall decorations

 

 Sept 25 - fabric for Mackenzie's quilt

 

 

Sept 27 - cousins

 

 

 

Sept 28 - the ride to work

 

 Sept. 29 - Christmas mugs