36 Weeks Pregnant Means...

Celebrating Hank's 5th Birthday.  We aren't fancy though, we both forgot until we were eating dinner, and I threw him a few sweet potato fries since he's made it 5 long years, 3 and a half of those living the bachelor life with Ben.  

That deserves some type of recognition, right?

Cleaning out more drawers, and finding gems like this.  I wish it could transport me back to those truly carefree days...going to Six Flags after school most days...the life!!

Bringing Spring inside, because our Creator is just incredible! 

Upping my vitamin regimen since we are down to the final four weeks.  

Midwives are serious about prevention. 

Packing the diaper bag.  Not packing our bag.  Sitting it by the door.  Not taking the tags off.  How much sense are we making at this point?  

It is just a practice run, we are praying she will hibernate for another 4 weeks!  Although I still can't shake the thought of running around with violent contractions trying to find the gatorade I bought 2 months ago.  

Yeah, we may need to finish packing.

35 Weeks Pregnant Means...

Major.  Car.  Repairs.

Savoring times like these...family dinners at my parent's house.  Nae and Mark are moving to Florida this month, and we are going to have a tough time adjusting.

MORE Major.  Car.  Repairs.  

(Side Note: James 1 is true...it is easy to count pain in the butt things as joy when you are focused on watching God unfold a miracle instead of worrying and being anxious.  #whatwe'relearning)

Sitting in the nursery, praying over our girl.  Trying not to keep adding things to lists.

Enjoying SPRING!  It is azalea time, and we will take it, early or not!

A Couponing Success Story

I had all but fallen off the couponing bandwagon.  After my midwife warned me that I should eat no carbs, as in "...your gender reveal party this weekend?  Don't even go near the cake...", it was a lot easier for me to hit Costco once a week and load LOAD up on produce to keep me going.  The temptations weren't as great to grab a pack of Oreos, unless I wanted a 50 pack of Oreos.

Alas, I have shattered my weight-gaining goals in a good way, and I was told I had two days a week to eat whatever I want.

Re-enter strange couponing habit.

I found this bread at Publix for less than a buck with coupons.  It is delicious.  My husband likes it.  And they are small with two in a pack, so it is the perfect amount for us to split a loaf when we are indulging.  

When I saw the bread in real life, I noticed it had real butter in between each slice.  REAL BUTTER!  Not margarine or weird hydrogenated stuff.

Many people look down on couponing because they say you can only find coupons for junk.  They are mostly correct.  But we are back to couponing so I can get our essentials for next to nothing, and be able to afford lots of extra produce and better quality groceries.  To me, its a win win.  

Is anyone else's toaster oven as foul and caked-up with junk as ours?  The sad thing is, our real oven is even nastier.  Yesterday both upstairs and downstairs fire alarms went off when I opened the oven door.  Someone may have made a pie and let the drippings, well, pour into the bottom of the oven a few weeks ago, a la something like this.  

Happy Wednesday!

Cashing in the Christmas Money

Does anybody else hang on to their Christmas money until this time of year?  I find that saving it will give me something exciting to look forward to during these lagging months of the new year.  On one of my walks in effort to prevent pregnancy cankles, I ran across a large sign in a window.  A blown-up cover of a cookbook, which had me at hello.


(You'll have to forgive the photo quality, I only took the picture so I'd remember the date of the signing...)

My sister and I trudged downtown on Saturday during the monsoon, hoping to be able to chitty chat with Cheryl and Giffith Day.  There weren't a ton of people there, but the Day's were NOT trying to be social.  So we snacked on the Mexican Hot Chocolate & Lavender Shortbread cookies and left it at that.

Squint, you can see Griffith in the window!  Cheryl and Giffith looked exactly as they appeared on the cover of their book, which is so so awesome.  I think they are probably just really genuine people, who were maybe tired of telling their story 75 times?  Or maybe the rain had gotten them down in the dumps.


Side Note: If you live in or ever visit Charleston, the Heirloom Book Company on lower King is a must for any cookbook lover.  Just put your hands in your pockets and don't touch anything--it is all so beautiful!  They had a complete box set of Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" on VHS.  It was $120something dollars.  It did not come home with me.  Plus, we don't have a VCR.


All of this to say, my sister and I were glad to have gotten out on a Saturday afternoon, and I am over-the-moon about reading every word of this beautiful new book.  I need people to volunteer to eat the things I will be baking.  First up will be their Buttermilk Chess Pie--my in-laws promised me I wouldn't be sorry.  "We haven't had one since we lived in Dallas!"


Merry Christmas in March!

Mrs. Jane's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Mrs. Jane is my mom.  

Everyone knows she makes the best chocolate chip cookies--the kind that stay fresh and soft for days without any weird tricks like putting bread in the container with them.  When you make them fresh without chilling the dough first (who can wait?), they turn out to be a little more flat like the ones below.  I ran out of common salt so I threw in sea salt for the remainder of the portion, and I will say it was nice to bite into those surprise chunks of goodness, especially when they were close to the chocolate.  

Since Ben and I aren't in any condition to be eating entire batches of CCC's, one of my favorite things to do is make one pan of them and then freeze the rest of the dough.  Now there is no point in freezing the dough unless you make it easy on yourself later, so be sure to spoon them out on a baking sheet that will fit in your freezer, and give them a night to harden. You can cover the dough with wax paper or even line the sheet with parchment, but I am too cheap to waste materials and use them very sparingly. Don't leave them out in the wide open freezer for much longer than that, funky things will eventually happen. 

When they are frozen through, sit them on the counter just long enough for the chill to come off, and they will release without problem and you can toss them in your storage container of choice.  Ziploc bags work just fine, but if you have a big Rubbermaid you can part with for a few weeks, those are even better. 

If you enjoy baking, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is invest in the proper tools.  Any other Williams-Sonoma addicts here?  Maybe about once every four or five months, we have wiggle room in the budget and I will invest in a missing tool that I've found myself reaching for on a more regular basis.  My Aunt gave me two of these HEAVY duty cookie sheets as a wedding gift, and they are simply amazing.  So amazing that I didn't bother cleaning them for their blog debut...

It doesn't end with bringing them home, you need to vow to take care of them!  If things are not dishwasher safe, take the extra minute or two and hand wash.  If they are only to be used for cookies and not burgers, use them for cookies and not burgers.  Take immaculate care of your tools, and they will last a lifetime.  And for the cheapies you have leftover from college, take care of those too, and when they reach their endings, replace them with something of quality.  

For those who think they cannot afford quality pieces, put aside $5 a month and you will be on your way to the necessary essentials in no time!

So now for the recipe!  We gave these cookies as favors for our wedding, along with cartons of white and chocolate milk.  Attached to the bag were magnets with the recipe, and I love to hear stories of our friends replicating these CCC's.  I believe they were all gone by the time we even made it to the reception, which is why we have no  pictures from the photographers.  If you look closely at this b&w photo of us leaving our reception, you'll notice Ben grabbed a chocolate milk on our way out.  Boy is obsessed.

I'll get into the theory of these cookies another time, but the main concept I'd like to review would be the softened butter vs. melted butter conundrum.  When a recipe calls for softened butter or melted butter, it is absolutely essential that you add what is specified!  Adding melted butter when softened butter is required will drastically change the consistency of the dough.  More flour will be required because the liquid butter will absorb the flour instantaneously, which will negatively affect the texture of the cookie.  Do not do not do not take shortcuts here!  If you need to soften butter in a hurry, leave it in the paper and with a sharp knife, make cuts at each tablespoon mark. Fold it backwards toward itself, making an arch shape, and leave it on the counter for a bit.  Clean off your kitchen table and by then it should be soft enough!

The last and final reminder is to take these cookies out when they have JUST started to turn golden around the edges and top.  By the time they have cooled enough to remove them from the pan, they will have finished cooking perfectly.  (Just because you have removed the pan from the oven doesn't mean you have removed the cookie from all heat sources).  I'd say these cookies are at their prime on day two.  

One final note: use butter, not margarine.  Don't ever skimp on butter unless a recipe specifically calls for margarine instead!

Mrs. Jane's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

MIX 3 sticks of softened butter, 1 c white sugar, 1 c brown sugar, 2 eggs, and 2 t vanilla until creamy.

ADD 3.75 cups of flour, 2 t baking soda, and 2 t salt.

MIX in chocolate chips, nuts, m&m's, whatever!

PLACE spoonfuls of dough onto greased cookie sheet.

BAKE at 350 for 10 minutes or until the edges are golden.

easy.as.pie.

34 Weeks Pregnant Means...

Unpacking gifts...

naturally, Hank thinks everything is his.

Indulging...and having only gained 13 pounds thus far, I feel no guilt.  

Growing babies need to know what they have to anticipate in a few years!

Watching the lovely birth videos at our 34 week appointment...

which are intriguing and energizing---really!  

Making homemade chinese...

which has a lot less junk in it, imagine that.

Enjoying more frequent walks during my 9-5 day...

and trying to prevent an unfortunate cankle situation.

33 Weeks Pregnant Means...

Stocking up on $3.99 Lumberjill outfits. 

As demonstrated by her father, you can never have too many of those.

Speaking of her father, we are taking lots of time to reminisce the past 15 months 

and pack in a few more memories before her big arrival.

Readying her nursery with sweet gifts from friends, the occasional thrift store find, 

and a custom-built window seat made for dreaming and little imaginations.

Preparing to transition into work from home mode. 

Hank has already filled the administrative assistant position.

Hammering out at least one more homemade chocolate cheesecake 

to stash in the freezer for midnight feedings...er...babygirl's midnight feedings.