Reading, Writing, and Cookie Making

My birds are so thoughtful as to welcome me to another amazing day.  Today I woke to an almost carbon copy of yesterday's birds - Blue Jays in abundance and dancing Mockingbirds, in addition; a male Cardinal joined the mix -  a surprise for me since I have not seen a cardinal for quite some time.  His preference was eating the red berries on the dogwood.

But, in no time at all, it was 1 PM -  leaving only four short hours of daylight.  I will never finish everything posted on the day's 'to do' list...I did not accomplish much yesterday either, so many items keep repeating on said list,  rather than being crossed off. Tick, tick, tick....

I do try to informally schedule the day by slicing a part, more like a sliver, for each interest or chore:  reading, writing, gardening (Yes, I am still working in my gardens - the soil is getting cold, but there is still plenty of weeding and clean-up.), cooking/baking (which entails lots of clean-up), sewing, laundry, photography, collect eggs/water chickens and other farm chores - just to name a few.  Some days are all reading, others all farm chores.  I think I can make-up the 'lost' time for a specific item, but I never can.  So, there you have it - day gone!  Then, I look around and noticed that I probably should have vacuumed the floors days ago, not to mention dust the furniture - can't do everything.  Groceries anybody?

Speaking of reading, I started to reread Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge which is  co-written by Gladys Taber (my favorite author) of Stillmeadow and Barbara Webster of Sugarbridge.  With each page turn, I realized that I was checking to be sure I was turning only one page and not two, those pages were that thick - sturdy and substantial. The book was published in 1953 and sold for $5.00.  Pages of more recently published books are skimpy - you can view the writing through from the following page - and the cost is usually over $25.00.  Hmmmm...The comparison is almost like cardboard versus tissue paper, the pages are that different.  I feel gypped with my new books.  I like quality books - ones that will last 100 years or more. Really!  I feel like my new books are the economy versions, even when I am paying full price.  Even though I am super careful, these new books looked quite 'used' after one reading.  I guess I should be happy that I am still able to purchase any Book, and not have to read on one of those technological contraptions.  No Kindle for me!

As I read, I nourished/treat myself with cookies from a new recipe I tried last night - Peanut Butter  Chocolate Chip.  I am not fond of peanut butter, but I am of cookies. Chocolate chips, a requirement  in most of my cookie recipes.  And, these are fabulous - tasty, soft, moist, chewy with a perfect combination of peanut and chocolate flavor.  This time, I almost followed the recipe 'to a T', except that the recipe said to drop by 1/4 cupfuls of dough per cookie - yikes - even for me, that is one BIG cookie.  I used my new little cookie dough scoop, baked for 10 minutes and ended up with about 75 delicious, adequately-sized cookies.  I find, the smaller the cookie, the longer they last. (Yeah - right....) Glenn had one and thought they were OK.  OK? Just OK?  Glenn is not a cookie aficionado.  "No problem,  I would eat them." I said.   His response, "I know that...by the time I want another cookie (in about one week) they will probably be all gone." Glenn knows me so well!

Well, I am not going to save any cookies for him, especially if he only thought they were OK.  I did squirrel away a few containers in the freezer.  Even I try to allocate my carb calories.  I am not very successful, though, but I do try. But then again....I need to store up for the bad days that are coming'.

I have to stop looking for delicious cookie recipes - one day.....

Note: Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe is found at allrecipes.com.  Let me know what you think....


P.S.  This blog was supposed to be posted on November 20, 2011 - something went wrong...either technology or me???