Nikki Friendly Cookies!!

Oh my gracious and these are WONDERFUL:

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

Mix peanut butter and sugars with mixer until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and mix another 2 minutes. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place on a greased baking sheet. Flatten with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake in a 350 preheated oven for 10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

WARNING: since these are sans flour, they are not your hardy, throw-it-in-your-gym-bag-and-tote-around-all-day kind of cookie. They will break apart. So be nice and your niceness will be rewarded. :D

Oh, and if you want to make these not-Nikki friendly (which would be mean but oooohhh so tempting) after flattening slightly with a fork, gently press in either a good piece of chocolate or a few chocolate chips. ;) Enjoy either version with a tall glass of cold milk.

Oh Joy!

Isn't it amazing how doing something as simple as Googling a cooking technique can open up a whole new world? Or, in my case, introduce me to a cool new blog (or a new obsession, depending on how well you really and truly know me).

Meet Joy the Baker. (Some of you haven't realized that I do occasionally include hyperlinks so click on it!)

If you like silly, zany, sassy, witty humor, you're welcome. If you like to bake, you can send me some of her recipes that I know you're going to try out as a means of showing your appreciation.

I'm already making lists of what I want to try:

Easy Cinnamon Roll Muffins
S'mores Brownies (well, ok, so I'm going to cut some corners with Betty Crocker. Don't hold it against me)
Carrot Cake Pancakes

Oh, and I've also decided that my dream kitchen comes complete with a series of her photography, focusing mainly on her photos of ingredients on a cutting board. I want that zested orange picture, I really really do. ;)

Just another...

.."boring" Sunday at our house. ;)

Have Patience

Dad, you'll love this one:

"Have patience, have patience
Don't be in such a hurry
When you get impatient
You only start to worry
Remember, remember
That God is patient too
So think of all the times when others
Have to wait for you."

This is a song that came from The Music Machine. A tape that Mom stumbled across many many many MANY years ago that put the Fruits of the Spirit to music (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith and Self-Control!). I think my brother and I completely massacred this tape with how often we listened to it. And of course the song that really stuck was probably the one that drove my Dad the most crazy; isn't that how it always works? ;)

Anyhoo, I find myself mentally singing this little tune more and more lately. It's always popped up in the recesses of my brain at key moments over the years but never as much as it is now. Not only am I singing this at work (because everything is slow) but of course I'm singing this at home. What I really need to do is starting singing this out loud.

Things are very slow around the office because of the economy. In fact, the inspiration for this post came, not from my son as I'm sure you expected, but from my boss. I'm chomping at the bit to get some information from a customer and my boss calmly states: "Have patience." Suddenly I'm 7 years old again in my pink bedroom with the large metal boombox blasting out Music Machine, Love, Self-Control and many other catchy tunes. I sang these songs in the car, the grocery store, waiting for swim lessons or anywhere a tune would come to mind. Not only are they irritatingly memorable, but eventually the lessons they sing about really do sink in. So now I take a deep breath, quickly sing my Patience song, and find my calm happy place so I really can have patience. :)

(Oh, and in case you're wondering, Patience is about Herbert the Snail who is moving along in the way that snails do and gets in front of a line of crazy busy ants. As Herbert slowly makes his way the ants are frustrated and furious because they can't move as quickly as they'd like to.)