Weekend wrap up

I'm exhausted! I've been going nonstop this whole weekend. I had volunteered to bake cookies for the soldiers of Jon's battalion that are finally coming home. In fact, as I type many families are enjoying the company of their loved ones after a long 15 month separation. I'm going to be watching the coverage that the local news station is putting on at 10 tonight and I know I'll have tears (of happiness)! I wanted to go to the ceremony, but didn't want to take time off work I didn't have and post is 75 miles away....plus, like I said, I'm exhausted.

There were a lot of soldiers to be accounted for (600+), but as much as I would have liked to, I wasn't able to have enough cookies for all of them. I ended up with 97 baggies when all was done.

I started making the cookie dough last Wednesday night because I was going to try to bake them all for Friday so Jon could take them in to work with him. With homecoming information constantly changing, though, I found that I would be able to have them done in time and as fresh as possible by Monday (today). They were all simple recipes. I didn't want anything too complicated if I had to bake a large volume; no rolling out of dough, no cookie cutters, no rolling in sugar/cinnamon/etc......nothing like that. I baked Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies, a tried and true recipe I've made several times. I also made my Lime Meltaways for a different flavor, and Alton Brown's wonderful Puffy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Lime Meltaways

Puffy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I hadn't made the chocolate chip cookies before, but I had made Alton Brown's chewy cookie version and that one turned out soooo good! I ate 7 in one day! The reason I made the puffy one this time was because I didn't have enough butter! I had gone to the commissary that day and bought one pack of butter, thinking that would be enough since I already had 5 sticks in the fridge at home. Wrong! I remembered the puffy cookie recipe used shortening, but since shortening grosses me out to no end, I decided to use half shortening half butter. They turned out awesome! Even my official taste tester (and his wannabe) thought so! Jon ecstatically exclaimed "They taste just like Mrs. Field's!"

After all that baking I had to package the cookies. I ended up putting one of each of the chocolate chip and almond white chocolate chunk cookies and three meltaways per baggie. I got done late because I started late as a result of weekend traveling.

Don't worry, Jon wasn't left out. I made some Cream Cheese-Lemon Bows for him (and Sammy). These cookies are staying put here!

I was discouraged when Jon later told me that lemon wasn't his favorite, but he actually liked these! I hadn't planned on the dusting of powdered sugar since I pretty much considered it decorative, and come on.....guys don't care about presentation! But Jon wanted it, so he got it!

And I couldn't deprive him of his obvious favorites, the chocolate chip cookies, so he got a few surprise ones this morning. He took the cookies in to work for me.

Those Target bags were heavy! I didn't know what else to put them in. I hope they got to the soldiers in decent shape!

OK...gonna finish watching The Bachelor now. I ruined it by reading about the whole controversial ending so I know what's supposedly going to happen. Stupid reality TV! What I heard better not be true! I liked Jason so much.....

ETA: Ugh! Yeah it happened. Jason dumped Melissa after proposing to her and wants to try things out with Molly. I don't care if Molly didn't know about this but if I were her, I would drop his ass! Who does that? Probably scripted like people have been speculating. I think I'll watch the next Bachelorette since Jillian will be the one.....then I'm done.

Dinner and The Bachelor

Considering I've been eating crap over the weekend (what do you mean Goldfish crackers and a can of olives isn't a meal?), I figured I should cook dinner tonight. So after work I drove over to the running store to return the ouch-inducing shoes and raced home so I can prepare dinner before The Bachelor started. Didn't quite make it, but I was able to sit down and eat for the last half of it.....and I'm watching it now as I type! I must multi-task!

So on the menu tonight was the lemon-olive chicken, recipe courtesy of Real Simple and presented by Half Assed Kitchen. The first time I saw this blog, by the way, I laughed out loud. I especially love the description: "Eh...it's edible." So here are the pictures protraying the recipe.

I must chop all the veggies beforehand, especially the shallots. I really need to invest in those onion goggles! Tears galore! Can't you just picture me rocking those sexy things?

Fry up those little buggers! I just read that the onions have these enzymes that, in a multi-step reaction, eventually produce sulfuric acid in your eyes! No wonder they, along with my throat, were in agony! Read about it!

A shot of the browned chicken. The coating had cumin in it, so I was drooling the whole time I was cooking! It was all I could do not to bite a chunk of the chicken with it looking so pretty and smelling so delish right there!

Throw the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for a while. We're almost there!

Time to eat! Can you tell I eat on the coffee table in front of the TV? Did you also catch the Turbo Jam in the corner of that picture?

This was really good, even though I accidentally bought cilantro instead of flat leaf parsley. Don't ask me why, but the last couple times I meant to grab parsley, I've made this mistake!

cilantro

flat leaf parsley

Am I crazy? Do they not look similar?

Oh my, I'm so excited for next week's Bachelor. They're going to Seattle!! If you saw the preview, those sea planes were a constant in my last two years living there. I had a view of Lake Union from my lab and watched those sea planes take off all throughout the day. I could hear them from my apt. less than a mile away. Oh, homesick!

OK, nevermind...on to tonight's show. I've been rooting for Melissa, although she initially annoyed the crap out of me. I don't know why, maybe I was in a bad mood when I watched the first episode? I know she is Jason's type and she's soooo cute. And....bouncy. And appearance-wise, she kind of reminds me of Deanna. Shannon creeps me out. She's psycho! Megan is kinda tough girl bitchy and while I couldn't stand her before, I warmed up to her on this episode. Too bad she's off, though. Stephanie is really sweet, but she looks way older than her age and I don't see any chemistry between her and Jason. Nikki is beautiful and I've been feeling so bad for her because she's so walled off. I guess I can just relate to her because I'm so shy and if I were in her shoes, I totally wouldn't be aggressively going after Jason. That's just not me! So she's off as well. Naomi reminds me of Eva Mendes (I think it's the lips) and I don't like Eva Mendes much. So that's my two cents. Who's your favorite? We're getting down to the wire here!