Wanda's Famous (and not so secret) Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've spent the last few years perfecting my chocolate chip cookies recipe. I'll let you in on a little secret though. The recipe hasn't changed. I've handed this recipe out to many people and (I want to say this without sounding boastful) few can replicate the cookies that I serve. I'd like to tell you that the secret is “love”... But it's not. The method of mixing and brand of ingredients makes a big difference. So if you want my recipe, you'll need to pull up a chair and sit a while. It's more than a list of ingredients and a cooking time.

(You'd better pay attention.  There won't be a quiz afterwards, but there won't be a traditional recipe either.)

You'll need to preheat your oven to 350 F when you're ready to start.  Don't do it now though, you need to read the process before you're ready to get going.  We start with ½ cup of Becel margarine in a medium bowl. If you just can't afford Becel (or can't buy it because you live in the States), you are allowed to use “Can't Believe it's Not Butter”. Please don't use other brands. And I love butter but you can't male these cookies with butter. They melt down into a flat pancake with butter.

Add ½ cup of packed, dark brown sugar. Please don't use light brown sugar. It just doesn't have the same depth of taste as dark brown sugar. With a fork, lightly mix the sugar and margarine, just until they're coming together. You can't over mix. Something bad happens when the sugar and butter spend too much time swirling around each other. It's like boys and girls in the pool at Camp Omagh... We need to be really careful how much contact they have.

So when your margarine and sugar are just combined, add 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of real vanilla (if you use artificial, I will notice and it won't taste as good) and ½ teaspoon of salt. Mix until just combined. Again with the swirling. Too much swirling is not good.

Put in 1 cup of all-purpose flour and throw in ½ teaspoon baking soda. Make sure it's fresh and hasn't been sitting around for a while. Stir until you start to see the batter mixing with the flour. Don't mix it all the way though!!

This is when you put in the fixin's. Start with ¾ cup of Chipits chocolate chips. (1 cup if you're just putting in chocolate chips.) I've tried a few varieties and these really are the best. If you must use a different kind, go ahead. But do so at your own risk. You can add in whatever combination you'd like at this point. I also like to add 1 ½ cups quick oats. It's entirely up to you, but they're much better with the oats!

At this point you can make the cookie your own. These are my current combinations:
Almond Cherry - ½ cup almonds, ½ cup dried cherries
Toffee Pecan - ½ cup Skor toffee bits, ½ cup pecan pieces
Peanut M&M - ½ cup chopped peanuts, ½ cups M&Ms

Stir just until everything has come together.  You want it to hold nicely together but it won't want to if you beat it into submission.  Spoon large spoonfuls, about 1 ½ to 2 tbsp onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.  (Parchment paper can be reused and helps cookies cool and come off the pan in their own time.)  Bake 10-14 minutes.  (Smaller cookies can bake 8-10 minutes.)  They are done when they still look a little under-done in the middle but the outer edge is starting to brown.  Take them out and let them cool on the parchment paper for about 15 minutes before moving them.

Pour a glass of milk, grab a cookie or two, and enjoy a job well done.

So...  What would you put in your cookie?

A Sweeping Change

As some (most?) of my family and friends know, my sister and I are starting our own little cleaning business using natural and toxin-free cleaning supplies.  We've done our homework (thanks Caroline, Al, Trina, Mom, and anyone else that's helped us out), made our flyer, registered our business name (YEAH!) and now I'm making a Facebook page so that you can like us and I can cheer like Sally Field when she won an Oscar. 

So now I have to fiddle with code.  I don't do code.  So I may experiment on this blog for the next post or two, trying to figure out what this code does.  In theory, I should be putting a "Like" button on this post for the Facebook page. 

I'm sure I'll end up bugging my coding friends in about three minutes when I get fed up with being dumb.  Until I get it sorted out, please bear with me.  In the meantime, please look for us on Facebook (The Cleaner Sweep, http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Cleaner-Sweep/174666169250756) and please Like us!

Midnight Math

A common game in our house is to ask math questions at supper.  We've recently started extending this game into the night-time on those rare occasions when the kids need night-time attention.  The other night the eight year-old was up so my hubby decided to drill him. 

Hubby: What's 6x8?

Boy:  I don't know.

Hubby: What's 2x8?

Boy: I don't know.

Hubby What's 2x2?

Boy: 48.

It was a little delayed, but he got there.

Tonight, it was the seven year-old's turn.

Hubby: Hey, what's 3x4?

Girl: I don't know.  Ask me an addition math question.

Hubby: What's 4 +4?

Girl:  Eight.  Easy-peasy.

The best part is that the kids never remember these conversations in the morning.  We like our midnight math fun.

Finding blessing in the "No"

Every time the phone rings today, we all jump to see who it is.  At lunch it was my husband.  Then I got a beep on call waiting and I jumped over to see that it was my friend across town.  The adults in this house are all anxiously waiting for the phone call.

My sister and her family are still here.  They move out next weekend.  This will be good for all nine of us.  In the meantime, we are waiting to hear if my brother-in-law was the one out of three candidates that was chosen for the dream job.

I've been praying about this a lot over the weekend, but especially today.  As I walked home from school this afternoon, praying about it, I found myself telling God that He knew the good that this job would bring to my sis's family, and to please just let it happen.

And then I realized that God knows exactly what He's doing, and we don't need to be so selfish as to assume that the blessing in something is for us.  Who knows but that this job is going to be a lifesaver for someone else.  Maybe someone will even come to know Jesus because of this job.  Or maybe there's another job lined up for my brother-in law that will allow him to be a blessing to others.  We just can't know what God has in store.

Don't get me wrong...  I'm not giving up on the job yet.  We still have time before the end of the day to get that phone call.  (Those that are not chosen will not get a phone call, just a letter later in the week.)  And I'm still expectant that my brother-in-law will get this job.  But if he doesn't, I will know that someone else will receive a greater blessing because of it.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Wow...  I turned my head for just a minute sometime back in January and suddenly March is here!  I am amazed at how quickly the time has flown from January until now.  I'll let you in on a little secret.  We have a semi-legitimate reason for our distraction.

On January 14, my baby sister, her husband, and their two adorable girls came for a visit.  They liked hanging out with us so much that they decided to stay. 

Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it happened, but I like to think about it that way.  Truth be told, they prayed and waited and watched and realized that God was leading them out of the west and into the mid-east.  We had offered our home to them as a place to stay until they could get on their feet with jobs and a place to live.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic to get the phone call back in December (or was it November?) that they had decided to move out here.

To be quite honest with you, it doesn't feel like they've been here six weeks.  The time has really just flown by.  I think it has something to do with the munchkins that I get to play with every day.  They look like this:

The best thing about this whole experience is that my kids are changing as a result of their live-in cousins. 

My 7 year-old girl has turned into a little mother, right on down to lifting and buckling girls into high chairs, wiping little hands and mouths, and finding toys to occupy bored pre-schooler brains.  She adores her little cousins, and I think the feeling is mutual.

I have watched the boys change too.  The 8 year-old has continued to be a big helper and he's becoming more involved in the meal-making process.  He made oatmeal for seven people this past Sunday and he's constantly sorting, folding and putting away laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and begging for more chores to do to help.  The 8 year-old pretty much just rocks these days.

And the 5 year-old, the baby...  He really has been the baby up until about a month ago.  It's not that we treated him like a baby, but he was just always the youngest and relied on others to entertain him.  Now, he's got two younger housemates and he ends up comforting a sad little girl or finding fun games to play with the two cousins, or speaking with that sing-song voice grown-ups use when they're speaking to a 2 year-old.  It's been miraculous to watch him change so swiftly over the last month.  I've never treated him like he's my baby, (well at least not since he started school!) so it's nice to see him growing into a big boy version of himself on a more full-time basis.

Wait a minute.  That wasn't what I meant by big-boy help!

There he is, helping the girls play Connect Four. 

That's more like it.

I think the biggest surprise/relief for me has been the way Hubby and I have interacted with each other over the last six weeks.  I must admit that I was a little concerned that we would get snippy with each other and have shorter fuses with the added "stress" of having four more people in our house.  I am certain it is one part "good marriage" and many parts "Divine intervention" that has caused us to grow closer as a result of our shared living quarters. 

It really has been awesome to see our individual responses to the changes in our house.  I'm looking forward to seeing what our new and improved selves do next!

(And just an FYI for those who are curious...  My sister and her hubby both have full-time jobs now and are hoping to have a place of their own by April.  I know they will love having their own space and privacy, but we plan to see lots of them after they've moved out.  So they'd better not get any ideas of being too far away!)

Another Reading Binge

I know I don't talk about reading too much, at least not on here, but I can get heavily into reading and forget that I have responsibilities at home/school/church/etc.  So I tend to have seasons of reading and seasons of no reading.

One of my best friends has been reading Beth Moore's books for a while.  Okay, several of my friends have been reading Beth Moore's books for a while.  But this one particular friend actually made me look at the books and read a portion, which of course got me hooked.  So I immediately ordered the books and waited and waited and waited until they finally came in.  (Yes, the wait was that dramatic.)

While I waited, I also won a free copy of Dannah Gresh's book, "What Are You Waiting For" which recently came in the mail.  So now I have three books that I am anxious to get through.  I'm half way through "Waiting" and loving it.  The other two are "Get Out of That Pit: Straight Talk about God's Deliverance" and "So Long Insecurity: You've Been a Bad Friend to Us."

While I get through these books, I'd love to hear from you about good books you've read lately, fiction or non-fiction.  And I'd love to hear what you thought of any of these three books if you've had the chance to read them.

Gourmet Group Goodies

I have a very dear group of ladies that I hang out with about once a month. They're my “Gourmet Group.” Don't get weirded out by the word “gourmet” though. We aren't all hoity-toity. We've just decided to try new things together! So once a month, we meet at one of our houses, our hostess has chosen the menu, and we've each brought our assigned dish.

As someone who loves to be in the kitchen, attempting delicious foods for my family, I love having the menu from these evenings to draw on. Many dishes from these nights have been added to my nutritional repertoire. I was reminded of this as I was about to post a meatless meal idea to Green Grandma's Facebook wall. One night we had this amazing veggie lasagna that I have since made a few times. It is quite different from your typical Italian lasagna, but if you enjoy good food and want to add some veggies to your life, I think you'll enjoy this one.

I wish I had a picture to show you, but you'll just have to make it to find out what it looks like. Pair this with a salad and you've got a great dinner, meat-free!

(The original recipe can be found at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vegetable-Lasagna-232660)

Vegetable Lasagna

6-8 oz goat cheese

1/3 cup chopped pitted black olives

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 cups prepared pasta sauce

1 lb whole-wheat lasagna

Freshly ground black pepper

2 small zucchini, diced

2 small summer squash, diced

3/4 cup bottled roasted red pepper, diced

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Heat oven to 375°F. Mix goat cheese, olives, thyme, basil, oregano, and garlic in a bowl; season with salt and pepper. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce on the bottom of an 8" x 11" baking dish. Add one layer of lasagna and season with black pepper. Add a layer of zucchini, squash, and red pepper. Dollop spoonfuls of goat cheese mixture over vegetables and spread to cover. Repeat layers, finishing with pasta and sauce. Sprinkle Parmesan on top, cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 minutes or until top browns. Let stand 10 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Nutritional analysis per serving 312 calories, 5.1 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 58 g carbohydrates, 14.9 g protein, 7.3 g fiber