The Long Awaited Conclusion...

Ok, so I finally have a little time so write down the recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I've started calling this batter "Traditional" because you can put pretty much anything you want in it and it becomes that kind of cookie. Want MnM cookies? Use traditional. Want white chocolate macadamia nut cookies? This is your dough. Want coconut craisin? Well, here ya go:

BTW, you're going to need a scale. A digital scale that reads in ounces and grams. I weigh almost all my ingredients in grams because it's more accurate. So my recipes are going to be in grams. Here's a picture of my scale.



I found it on amazon.com and it's made by Salter. I've had no issues with it whatsoever besides it being a little hard to clean sometimes.

Anyway, here we go.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Use an oven thermometer because I can almost guarantee your oven isn't that accurate. Mine is but that's because I paid $1000 for it. And it was worth every penny. :^) ...and I still use an oven thermometer.

200g Butter Flavored Crisco
150g granulated sugar
170g brown sugar

Cream these ingredients together until light and fluffy. Use a mixer if desired.

Add-

1t vanilla
2 eggs

Mix them in. It helps to slightly beat the eggs before mixing them in but it isn't essential.

Add all at once-

315g flour
1t baking soda
1t kosher salt

Fold these in WITH A SPOON until the dry ingredients are about halfway incorporated. Do not use a mixer. You will almost certainly overmix. Refer to the earlier post for a picture to compare to.

Add the mixins. Use 350g total of chips (have fun with combos!) plus no more than 1 cup (weights vary) of nuts or fruit.

Finish mixing, leaving some of the flour showing. Again, look at the earlier pictures for reference.

Here's another reason I should've done the supplies post first. You're going to need good cookie sheets. Many people like half sheet pans that you get at the restaraunt supply store or Williams Sonoma but I swear by AirBakes. They rock. I don't ever have a brown bottom on my cookies unless I overbake them.

You also need parchment paper. It's with the aluminum foil and stuff at Walmart. Don't use wax paper or anything. It won't work.

Then you need some cooling racks. Two, to be exact.

Finally, you need a disher. I used to make mine with the two spoon method but every cookie was a different size and therefore a different done-ness. That's not ok. A disher/cookie scoop/ice cream scoop is the easiest way to get uniform cookie sizes. The ones at Target work well... for about 5 batches. Then they break. The ones from Williams Sonoma are crazy expensive ($26) but they haven't broken yet. I'm asking for some cool Zeroll dishers for Christmas. I hope they work as well as advertised. I'll keep you updated. If you're left handed, like me, you're going to be restricted to universal dishers. The ones with the little thumb lever aren't going to work for you. Everyone else, I have no idea if the thumb lever ones work or not because I can't use them.

Ok, now you can put parchment paper on your cookie sheets. You'll need two cookie sheets. The parchment will want to roll back up when you tear it off so just flip it over and viola! It doesn't cause you any more problems. You'll need 3 sheets of parchment (yes, that's one more than you have cookie sheets. It'll work out.

Now, you can dish out your cookies. In my opinion, the #40 disher is perfect for cookies but they don't sell a #40 at the stores. So I use a #50 (the littler of your two choices) and overfill it. If I'm using a #50, I can get 5 rows of 4 on each cookie sheet or 20 cookies. When I get my #40, I'll start doing 4 rows of 3 or 12 cookies per sheet. You don't want the cookies to run together when they bake. They look funny that way.

Put one pan of cookies in the oven at a time. The more cold stuff you put in the oven, the longer it takes to heat back up to the right temperature. Also, try very hard not to open the door during baking. Lots of heat escapes. Now, if your oven likes to make wide temperature cycles or it gets hotter the longer it's on, you can use the open door thing to your advantage. But be careful. Lots of heat escapes really quickly. I just turn my oven light on with the first pan and don't turn it off again until all the cookies are done.

I have no idea how long they'll bake. (?!) They'll get done when they get done. You just have to watch them. If you feel they get too flat when they bake, try chilling the dough for a little bit before baking.

Here's a before and after.



These cookies are just a little too done. They'll be kind of crunchy. I need to get more pictures to show exactly what they should look like but this'll have to do for now.

Ok, when you take out a pan of cookies, slide the parchment and cookies off onto the cooling rack. Then put the other pan with more cookies into the oven. When you have two cooling racks with cookies on them and a third pan in the oven, take the cooler cookies off the parchment and put them in their storage/transport container. Then use that sheet of parchment again to put more cookies on. You can rotate out pans and cooling racks in this fashion until you're done. If that's too confusing, let me know and I'll try to explain it differently. It's late and my brain isn't running at full capacity.

You can expect the cookies to taste good for about 3 or 4 days. But I doubt they'll last that long unless you made waaaay too many for whatever you're doing.

I know, I know. You're waiting for the rest of the chocolate chip cookie post. I'm sorry. Life has been crazy. My house is a disaster. I need to get it cleaned up and get the Christmas stuff up so we have background options for our family photo on Monday. I want to have plenty of time when I sit down and write the rest of that so I make sure not to forget anything and it all comes across right. Is that enough excuses? Lol!

This morning Jersey managed to find a way to the neighbor's yard. I think she got up on the cedar stump and went over the fence. So I had to go get her. But she made friends with the lost dog that's been in our neighborhood for 2 weeks. I called animal control last week and the dog's still here. I wish I could take him in but there's no way. Anybody need a sweet but skittish brindle and white mixed breed?

I do NOT want to get started on the house. It seems like every possible thing that could be dirty is dirty. Should I clean first and then decorate or decorate and then clean? I'll sit here some more and think about it.

Tuvok and Jersey have figured out how to play tug with each other. It's cute. Right now they each want to play tug with a different toy and it isn't working out so well. Oh, now they have the same toy. They are having so much fun together! Tuvok's going to be sad when Jersey has to go home.

I've decided to do a milk fast for a couple of weeks between now and Christmas. I'm lactose intolerant but I take pills and drink milk anyway cause I love it so much. But every once in a while I have to take a break and let my body do some cleansing. This morning I had oatmeal. I tried to make it in the crock pot overnight but the timer didn't work. I had to use a wall timer thing and I guess I didn't set it up right because the oatmeal was still cold this morning. So I drained off the extra water and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and it was yummy. Apparently you're supposed to use steel cut oats for the crock pot but I decided to try the old fashioned rolled oats and just cook them for less time. Oh well. I'll just make them in the microwave or on the stove until I can get to a store that actually sells steel cut oats. I need to finish up my box of cereal before I start in earnest anyway.

All this talk about oatmeal made me hungry for some more. I like it with a little brown sugar and cinnamon. One of these days I want to try it with molasses or honey.

I think I'll decorate first and then use the energy I create from that to clean afterwards. Besides, I'll have glitter and stuff all over the place and just have to clean again anyway. I wish everything didn't have to have glitter on it. Oh well.

Thanksgiving

Today is probably the least commercialized holiday of the year and therefore my favorite. It is odd that no one has come up with a chocolate turkey or whatever but I'm not complaining. This holiday is still about being with family and giving thanks for what you have.

I am thankful for a lot of things. Too many to write down. Especially since as soon as I'm done with my tea I need to make Molasses Crinkles, shower, and chop up a ton of sweet potatoes. I should have done the first two last night but I was so exhausted from work that I plopped my butt down on the couch and didn't get up until midnight. I should have gone to bed way earlier but the TV was on and you know how that goes.

So now I get to suffer the consequences. But first, blackberry sage tea from Republic of Tea.

I got all the baking done for the people who ordered stuff. It was a lot of work but it was fun too. I really enjoy baking for people. Heather even came over Tuesday night and helped me and let me vent about work.

The tea is gone and my brain is defogging so I need to get going.

I Like Weekends

Today DH had a migraine. Even if he didn't, for some reason I was very asleep this morning. Like I could not get up. It was wierd. So we missed church and I'm sad about that. Fortunately, our services get posted online so I can watch it later. Yay.

I finally got around enough to leave the house sometime after noon. Tuvok and Jersey and I went to the dog park. People always assume that it's hard to keep Tuvok under control because he's so big. He's actually very well behaved. But walking with Jersey is a workout! First, she's a country dog and not used to being on a leash. Second, she has a harness. Harnesses are like the worst thing ever if you don't want your animal to pull. I imagine they were invented for sled dogs. To pull the sled. Harnesses distribute the load over the strongest part of the dog's body making pulling easier and probably more fun. Anyway, Jersey needs a gentle leader!! But we all had fun at the park and the dogs played and played until they were worn out and then they played some more. The walk home was much easier. After that we all crashed on the couch for a few hours and I watched some TV. Then I had to go to WalMart. I normally don't mind going to WalMart but it's the Holidays. Oh. My. Goodness. And this isn't going to be as bad as when I have to go on Wednesday. I'm going to have to get like a spa treatment or something after Wednesday's WalMart trip.

All I need to get done tonight is a batch of snickerdoodles and finish packing up the seeds for the seed swap. Monday and Tuesday are going to be crammed. I have to make 3 pies, 2 half batches of muffins and 3 batches of cookies. It's a good thing I like to bake.

Oh, and then Wednesday after WalMart I need to make molasses crinkles for our family get together. Oy.

Baking Lesson #1: Knowing When To Stop Mixing

In my experience, the single most frequent mistake people make in baking is stirring too much. So that's why I made it the first lesson in "Baking Like Me". Remember, this is only my way of doing things. There are many ways to a good cookie.

There are many different terms used that mean "mix it together" in one way or another. Mix, fold, cream, beat, whip, combine- to many people, these all mean the same thing: take a spoon or a beater to it. But each of these terms mean totally different things.

Fold and Combine require the least amount of stirring. The only difference between the two is the technique. To fold measns to reach to the bottom with your spoon and bring the bottom ingredients to the top. It is a very gentle and loose method. Combine is similar but it isn't as specific on how you combine the ingredients. The most important thing to remember is in both folding and combining, you have to STOP STIRRING as soon as possible. This means in most cases that there will still be flour or clumps of dry ingredients in the dough/batter. It'll be ok. I promise. Over mixing causes the dough to become tough. And who wants tough cookies?

Mixing is a general purpose term which basically means you want everything to be consistent but don't go crazy.

Beating, whipping, and creaming are at the upper end of the scale. Generally you beat eggs and batter to create a smooth, airy consistency. The quick strokes force lots of little air bubbles into the batter/eggs and make it fluffy. Whipping is generally for cream or creamy type things. Once again, you are adding air to the substance to make it fluffy. In the case of cream, you are also changing the texture to make it more firm- hence Whipped Cream.

Creaming is the mixing method that I didn't understand for the longest time. It usually applies to a sugar and a fat being mixed together. I used to think once they were combined, that was it. But when I learned to REALLY cream, that's when my cookies really improved. I learned to cream from Alton Brown. He's got some great things to say about all the mixing techniques in his second book, I'm Just Here For More Food. Basically, you want the sugar to cut holes in the butter. On a tiny scale, sugar is very sharp and butter is kind of globular. The sugar smushes and pokes holes in the butter globs and for some reason, it's a good thing. How do you tell when you've creamed? Well! I took pictures. As you cream, the mixture will become lighter in color and in appearance. It'll look, well, creamy. Basically, if I were the type to use a mixer, which I'm not, I would use a mixer for this because it really wears out my stirring arm. The fat and sugar will combine and then as you stir, you'll see the change in texture and color. It's almost impossible to over cream something so when in doubt, cream some more.


Here's what the batter looks like after stirring in the eggs and vanilla.


Here comes the really hard part. The part where you have to have the self control to STOP stirring. Before you add flour to a mixture, you can pretty much stir until the end of time and it won't hurt anything. But after you add the flour it's all different. Flour contains stuff called gluten. As far as baking is concerned, gluten holds the world together. That's why gluten free products are so difficult. If you want a yeast bread, you want the gluten to form a dense, elastic network. but for quick breads and cookies, that's bad. Tender baked goods do not have elastic gluten strands in them. Most people add the flour while their mixers are whirring away and don't stop the mixer until they can't see any more flour. By that time, you're halfway to a yeast dough. Here's what my chocolate chip cookie dough looks like before I add the chocolate chips. Keep in mind I'm going to have to stir more to integrate the chips. I try to get the flour about halfway integrated into the dough at this point. I have folded the flour in, by the way, being very gentle.



Then I fold in the chips, again, being very gentle. There's still flour showing when I'm done. I'm ok with that. You should be too. You'll see that the flour goes away during baking.



This post has already taken two days to write. So I'm going to stop here and put the actual recipe in another post. I also just realized I was planning to make a list of tools before I started recipes. Oops. Well, maybe I'll do that after the chocolate chip cookie lesson.

God Must Like Me

So yesterday wasn't as bad as it could've been. The cutter was fixed when I got there and the Pres was cutting stuff. I got to focus on little jobs and handwork most of the day. I was pseudo in charge even though Kieth is the supervisor. I kept getting all the phone calls that would normally go to Matt. That was kind of funny. They technically would go to Kieth but I guess they thought I had a better chance of knowing the anwsers to the questions. It was true because poor Kieth was either cutting stock or die cutting time cards on the Miehle all day and had no idea what else was in the shop. I even made a good political move. The owner of the company walked in and looked like he was about to start nitpicking stuff and being a pain so I said, "hey, I have something for you!" So he followed me and I gave him a nobake cookie. His face lit up and he smiled and said Ooh! and walked out of bindery. Score!!

I'm drinking Oolong tea this morning. I like it. The pets are being annoying this today. It started at 6:00 when everyone was hungry but normally they all go back to sleep after breakfast. Today they stayed awake and were bothersome. I tried putting Tuvok in his crate and he whined and groaned until I let him back out again. He kept trying to play with Lilly which caused all sorts of hissing and moaning and general racket. So I finally got up at 9:00. But it's ok. I feel rested and ready for the day.

Today on the agenda:

Pack up okra seeds for the seed exchange at GardenWeb
Mulch Beds 1 & 2
Purchase a pair of nice jeans
Set up the dog line outside for Jersey

We're dog sitting for my aunt and uncle while they go to Denver next week. Jersey is a sweet and beautiful German Shepherd/ Golden Retriever mix. She and Tuvok will have a blast!

Right now, we're going to go to WalMart. Bleh.

Bad Time At Work

So today was a crappy day. We have 3.5 people in bindery. The .5 is because the mailer dude helps out when he's not busy, which he was today. But Perry has been out sick for two days and so we have 2 people in bindery. And it's busy. So first there's the OSU Foundation mailer (17,000) and then there's some ambiguous 100,000 piece job coming over and due tomorrow but it wasn't approved yet so it couldn't be printed but they still want it tomorrow. And then the Graphic Whizard is having trouble with its numbering head and that's what I was working on during all this and they only printed me like 15 extras and I used up too many because of the stupid machine being stupid and I asked Matt to get me 30 more and he had them print 20 more but I also made a math error and I actually needed 60 more and RRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! And then the cutter broke. While the big boss was using it. Which of course means he has to take the whole machine apart and pretend he knows what he's looking at while he's staring at the guts of the machine. And then they call in this guy, who turns out to be the general manager's dad and he takes like 4 hours to take the cutter apart more and finally Matt finds a burnt connection in the back. So now they know what the problem is. But literally EVERYTHING that comes into bindery has to be cut. Ok, 95%. But ALMOST EVERYTHING that comes into bindery has to be cut. So we're at a standstill with a million and one things to do. Plus, the General Manager, President, and Owner of the company are all hanging out in bindery getting more frustrated all the time, which means that we have to be DOING something in order to not get yelled at but there's nothing to do. Fortunately, for a couple of hours I got to go up front and run the inserter. But that's also not good cause I found out more crap that we have to do tomorrow. We've got this 5000 mail merge for Salvation Army and I was doing the first part where the brochure and return envelope get put in the big envelope. But then tomorrow we get to double parallel fold the letters and HAND INSERT all 5000 of them into the matching envelope and hand seal the envelopes. And then there's another big mail merge for DLO after that. Mail merge sucks because the name on the envelope has to match the name on the letter inside the envelope. They don't use a window envelope so we get to look through the envelope with our x-ray vision and make sure each name matches. oh, and at like 4:30 the giant job finally got approved and they made plates for it and Larry had to stay and run it even though he was already there when I showed up this morning at 8:00 and his plates were messing up after only 10,000 impressions and changing plates is a long annoying process and it wastes a lot of time and ink and paper to get everything back where it should be so he can continue running the job. And of course it's a 4 color press so each plate change is actually 4 plate changes. So he's probably STILL there fighting with that and we're going to be expected to cut that down tomorrow with a broken cutter and get it out even though no one has any idea if there's any more bindery on it other than cutting. For all we know, it could fold and tab and mail and who knows what. And then Matt, our production manager and general Savior is off tomorrow and Monday. He's the one who fixes all the problems and keeps the minions from experiencing the wrath of grumpy upper management. But tomorrow we'll have all the upper management hanging around (helping) and being grumpy because of the machines breaking and we'll be super duper busy and he won't be there. And Perry will probably also be sick again because it's his MO to be out for the whole week.

So there were these posters. 9 of them. That foam cored. They wanted them at the end of the day today. I finally got to them at 4:30 and of course I couldn't cut them on the cutter so I had to use the poster cutter thing in the hallway and then I decided to call the store and see if they could wait until tomorrow for them because it is SO much easier and faster to foam core a poster with the cutter. They were fine with that so I was about to not worry about it but then the President saw the work order and wouldn't listen to me when I told him they didn't need it tonight. So he made me do all 9 posters by hand which is really really horrible. But then we remembered that the clamp on the cutter was still usable so I didn't have to foam core them by hand, just cut them by hand which is way less horrible. But then they sent Keith to help. I don't need help with posters even in normal conditions and I REALLY don't handle help well when I'm grumpy and stressed out. So Keith is "helping" me by getting in the way and pulling when he needs to push and so forth and I'm about to explode and then he won't listen when I politely say I don't need help and could he go get the other posters to cut. He just looks at me until I smile and look sweet. This is why I don't work in/with the public. When I'm stressed out, I can't smile and be sweet. I'm not that good. It's not Keith's fault but he didn't know what I was doing and he was being slow and clumsy and he was going to mess things up. The last thing I needed was to have to redo a poster at 5:15 in the evening. Especially since the President won't let me leave until they're all finished even though I know they won't be picked up tonight and RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deep breath....

I made nobake cookies tonight. With extra dark cocoa.



And I hugged my kitty and she purred. So I'm doing good.

I think I'm going to try and finish the kitchen nook this weekend. There used to be a wall oven there but it was a tiny pathetic one so we took it out and now there's a hole. I'm going to turn it into a pretty little nook with glass shelves and it'll display my polish pottery baking dishes. All I need to buy are the brackets for the shelves and the textured wallpaper. And I've got a $25 home depot gift card!! WootWoot!

Hmm... where am I going to put all the junk that's currently there? Oh well. It'll be worth it.

It's only 8:00 but I'm worn out and I have a big day tomorrow. Good night.

I took some pictures of some of the tools I use in my kitchen. I need to work on that more. The baking blog thing may be a weekend only project. Just letting you know I haven't forgotten.

I decided to sell baked goods during the holiday season. The typesetters at work made me an awesome brochure with the options and everything in it. I sent one to each of the stores and a couple of people have already told me they want to make an order. Yay! Now I need to make an invoice form.

That's about all that's interesting. I hope to get some TV watching done tonight.

Oh! I made a corn bag out of a bandanna and it covers my whole back!!! It takes 5 minutes to warm up but OH IT FEELS SO GOOD!!!!! I fell asleep with it on my back last night and I think I'll do the same tonight. :-)

Weekend Review

This weekend I did the following:

Friday evening-
Made butternut squash, biscuits, and nobake cookies and had dinner with D&H and H's mom.

Saturday-
Woke up at 9:45 but layed in bed enjoying the softness for another hour
had tea
played on the interweb
weed eated (weed ate?)
Watched TV
Showered
Made pumpkin chip muffins and banana muffins
went to a corn maze. DH and I made a mutual agreement that we hate corn mazes. The bonfire and smores were cool though.

Sunday-
Woke up at 7:00 and couldn't go back to sleep so I made tea and played on the computer
Went to church
Went to Sunday School
Had BLT-L's for lunch (don't do lettuce on sandwiches. Yuck)
Worked on my Christmas list
Worked on the flyer
Watched some TV
Made lentils and cornbread for D&H
Made cookies for Keith's b-day tomorrow
Made a blog

Hm. Pretty productive. I still smell like fire even though I showered. Of course, I put on the same pants from before so... Hey! They were cleaner than the pants I weed eated (ate) in!

Anyway, this week looks pretty good. Keith's b-day is tomorrow and that's it. The most interesting thing is that we are trying to make it to Saturday with $30. We have more money than that but we'd like to put it in savings instead of WalMart. So we'll see. It's a challenge!

That's all I think. Bedtime.

Baking

Lots of people bake well. I have been told I also bake well. In fact, many people ask for my "secrets". They want a recipe or something. But I've found that my "secret" isn't an ingredient so much as a technique. Knowing how much to stir at what point; knowing when to take things out of the oven. I learned that stuff mostly from watching my mom and partly from practice. Most people nowadays didn't get that baking time with their mom or whoever cooked in the family. In some cases, the youngest relative that actually knows all that stuff is the grandparent and they may not still be around. This saddens me. I get so much joy from baking and sharing my baked goods with others. I want others to have the opportunity to get joy from baking. So, I think I'm going to blog about baking occasionally. I'll try to get pictures of how things are supposed to look and I'll be very detailed about techniques.

First, there are some resources I have found very helpful. I'll be referencing these so if you want to follow closely with the intent of replicating my baking, you might want to pay attention.

The Better Homes and Gardens Heritage Cookbook, (c)1975

If you only have one cookbook, it should be this one. Everything I have tried or that Mom has tried from this book has been good. Also, it gives a very interesting history of food and cooking in American life. You may find yourself reading this like a regular book.



Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 12th Edition (c) 2002

I got this one for a wedding present. It has been just about as awesome as the Heritage Cookbook. It is chock full of handy charts and tables and the recipes are pretty good too. Some are even copied from the Heritage Cookbook.



If you want to know about the science behind food and cooking, watch Good Eats on the Food Network. Alton Brown is really entertaining and brilliant. He makes the dullest subjects fun and memorable. He's made (at least) 3 books. They are really interesting and helpful. They aren't recipe books, although they do contain some recipes. These are books you should read through and then reference back when you need a reminder on something.

I don't agree with everything he says but I also acknowledge that there's more than one way to make a good cookie. His method appeals to mass audiences. He uses food processors and stuff like that. I don't. I'm a purist. A bowl and wooden spoon are my tools. But, I have learned a lot from him and I have adopted many of his suggestions and practices and I know they have improved my cooking. I went from "these are good cookies" to "this is the best cookie I have ever eaten!". That's from watching Good Eats and reading these books.







The next time I blog about baking I'll make a list of the tools I use for baking most often. I may list my most frequently used ingredients. We'll see how long it takes to do the tools list. :-)

Stream of Consiousness

Howdy.

This has been a pretty lazy week at home. Mostly because work picked up after Tuesday and my back has been killing me. But this evening DH popped my back and I feel much better. It went "cracklkealkalkap!" and now I can lean backwards again! I literally was unable to bend back past straight before. I'm not even sure why it happened. I don't remember doing anything to cause my back to be "out". Perhaps I should research what actually happens to cause a back to be "out" and then maybe I can prevent it in the future. Like I need more things to do.


I need to organize my thoughts. This is probably going to be boring. Tonight I need to put the socks away and that's all. Tomorrow is Friday. Keith and Shawn are both off. Friday night is free. Between now and Monday I need to weed eat, plant the mums, call/email Tillanie, call Sprite, get whatever I decide to bring for the Sunday School Party, go to the party, make banana and pumpkin muffins for Sunday School, go to church, water the plants as needed, move the big Amaryllis to the garage, make notepads for Tonya, print the pictures for Wayne, see about planting some lettuce and peas, make the flyer for selling my baked goods, get food for lunches, make cookies for Keith's birthday, get further on the 2010 calender projects, work on the afghan, and I don't think this is all going to get done. Hmm.

Ummm... I can do the computer things tonight. But do I want to or do I want to watch TV? Maybe I can split the difference. Computer things include the picture, the notepads, the flyer, and the calenders.

Here's a random picture of some hailstones we got last summer.

Yesterday after work I pretty much planted my butt in front of the TV and didn't move until I went to bed. It rocked. I felt much better today.

Today at work we were really slow so the bindery department (all 4 of us) went to see how the new building is coming along. Work just bought this gigantic building a couple of blocks away. Somehow they managed to make it seem smaller... But it's still huge and it'll be a great improvement on our current situation. Right now when we're busy we'd like to bring in some help but we can't because we don't have a place to put them. There's just not enough space. Machines have to be rolled out of the way to use other machines and stuff like that. The only real thing I don't like is that there are no windows. AT ALL. It's like it was built by Jehovah's Witnesses or something. (you know, cause their churches don't have windows...) I would love some natural light but it isn't to be. I thought a could convince them to make a window, especially because thete isn't a door big enough to get our big paper cutter inside. I said they could knock a hole in the back wall for the cutter and then just have a 9 foot picture window there. They weren't quite as enthused about my idea as I was. They told me I could hang pictures of the outside on the walls. I can't make a plant grow with a picture of the sun. >:-(

Fall made it. It was late but it's here now. It's chicken & dumplings weather. Makes me want to hibernate. Makes me wish we had a fireplace or a wood stove. I'll settle for a giant warm cuddly puppy dog. :-)

It's 9:00 and I'm tired. I wish I could say that was abnormal but I'm an "early to bed, late to rise" kind of person.

Ok, so I've gotten the following things done:

Mow
Greenhouse door finished
Greenhouse set up and running
Plants spent the weekend outside and are back in
Tuvok taken to PetsMart and Dog Park
Plant temp preferences researched
Clean back porch
Make rolling plant carts

Things I didn't get to:

Weed Eat
Plant mums
Calculate cookie prices


All in all, I'd say I did pretty well. I even managed to watch some TV. Tonight D&H (best friends) are coming over for beans and cornbread with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for dessert. I miss them being down the street but their new house is really nice.

Anyway, I'm tired! Here are some pictures.

These are the plant carts I made.


Here's Lillibut relaxing in her heated kitty bed with her fuzzy kitty blanket. Not spoiled AT ALL. Nope.


Here's Tuvok after the dog park.


I think the only stuff next week is at the end of it so I'm not even going to worry about it yet. I really wish weekends were three days long. I need two days to work on the house and one day to rest. Oh well.

This week has been crazy! But it's over now. Today I just need to weed eat, mow, plant some mums, take the dog to PetsMart and the dog park, put the metal protector on the greenhouse door, water the plants, and get DH to and from John School. He's teaching the legal ramifications of engaging prostitutes.


...Maybe I can do some of that stuff tomorrow.

Cinnamon was being cute this morning. I gave him a box with paper and hay and dried fruit in it. He is having a blast!





Come to think of it, I don't know if there's ever been a time that Cinnamon wasn't cute. Hmmm... Nope.

Oh, and since it's such a gorgeous day I need to put a bunch of my houseplants outside. But right now I'm drinking my tea and blogging. So there.


Other minor things for the weekend: finish researching acceptable plant temps for my collection and figure out how much it costs to make different kinds of cookies. I'm looking into selling baked goods this holiday season to make some extra money. I want a sentsy candle and I want to buy Christmas presents.

Cinnamon has worn himself out. Still cute!


Other things on my mind... *cue tumbleweed* well, I guess it's time to move some plants outside then!

There's something wrong when you have to take a pill to make it through your evening. That sounds worse than it really is. The pill in question is a B vitamin complex. It gives me a boost of energy to make it through all the stuff that I do in the evenings. Last night it was making peanut butter cookies and cleaning the kitchen and installing weatherstrip stuff on my greenhouse. Tonight it is the cleaners, Sam's, Home Depot, WalMart and washing the dog. Even though I'm healthy my job still wears me out. I stand all day and move heavy boxes and big handfulls of paper. I really like my job but when I'm done I'm plumb wore out! But then there's the house and the husband and the animals and the plants to take care of.

Tomorrow evening I'm making a chocolate chip cookie cake for a coworker who's getting married and Lawn Mower Cleaners for a party on Thursday night. Lawn Mower Cleaners are just tortillas rolled up with a cream cheese concoction inside. I wrote down the recipe of the unnamed tortilla rollup things underneath my list of things to do that day. I had to pick up the lawn mower from the shop and go to the cleaners. When I showed the recipe to my aunt she thought that was the name. So it became the name.

Ugh. I need to wash the dog before I run out of energy.

Plants

I've just finished watering my houseplants. That's recently become quite the ordeal. First, I started collecting Hoyas in earnest. I had been a casual collector until recently. I inherited a bunch of plants from a friend of mine a few weeks ago and then I got my grandmother's Hoya and her Sansevieria (Snake Plant). This has sparked a renewed interest in horticulture and all that. I've been on GardenWeb.com and have learned a TON and I discovered a really neat blog: Plants Are The Strangest People. He's got a list of other fun plant related blogs that I haven't checked out yet but I'm sure they're cool too. My lesson for this week was, "Soil matters". Lots of plants are particular about the kind of soil they like to live in and more often than not, it isn't sold in a bag. You have to mix it yourself. I used to think people who did this were crazy but now I'm not sure. Are they not actually crazy or have I become one of the crazies? Hmmm...