Saturday, April 24, 2010

Cookies!

Ok, so I have decided that I am going to have a weekly blog "thing," bc everybody else does. Only it took me a bit to decide what I wanted to do. I couldn't pick a weekly thing I might not be able to do every week, and I didn't want to pick something that would be hard either (lazy, I know). So... I thought, what about cookies? I am always finding recipesthat I would like to try (but never make bc I tell myself I don't need the extra calories), and so they just sit there. What's the good in that? Why not bake a few and share some experiences at the same time?

So here's my first cookie post. I have not currently thought up a witty name for my blog thing so for now it's just cookies.

So here's the story behind my first recipe:
My Dad and I grabbed breakfast not too long ago at a new bakery that recently opened up in Oxford, Honey Bee. I do have to say I thought it was very good. They serve a variety of bakery items: sweets and homemade bread, and they have a wonderful breakfast and lunch menu. It's small though and can get crowded pretty quickly. Also, probably my favorite thing about the bakery is their selection of teas and coffee, you can get some very interesting brews and a french press also, which I have always loved. Anyway, back to story, after my Dad and I grabbed breakfast and were paying I saw this bakery had some Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies. I LOVE oatmeal cookies, always have. And thought these sounded like an interesting twist. So I looked up a recipe and tried em out. They were just as good as they sounded and super easy. :)














I would have taken pics of the cookies I cooked (as proof) but... I ate them all before I thought of that...

Here's the recipe and I have a few tips to give with it. I didn't add the 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter because I just refused to add that much butter, it's ridiculous. But I soon realized that was not the best thing to do- these cookies are actually made with a cake mix. Just the plain-jane yellow cake mix. It actually gives them a great flavor, but because it's a cake mix you need the extra butter to make the cookies form a more dough-y material. They are pretty hard to form into cookies because they are a bit flakier due to so much cake mix and oats. Also, next time I make them I will definately omit the 1/4 cup of sugar. I originally added it just because it wasn't much, but these cookies are sweet enough as it is, almost too sweet in my opinion. And I can have a sweet tooth at times.

Anyway, hope someone enjoys these as much as I did!


INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 box yellow cake mix with pudding
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Stir in cake mix and oats until blended. Stir in butterscotch chips and walnuts.
2. On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Friday, March 19, 2010

Ok, this was just too weird so I had to share. I watched Up in the Air last night (Which, I thought was a different, pretty funny movie, if anyone is interested. It was also kind of depressing though, which is an odd combo lol.) That's not the point of this post though, the weird thing that happened was the opening song to the movie I immediately liked. It was a jazzy lady, whose voice I thought was just beautiful. I have always had a weak spot for jazzy, soulful ladies. I really have no idea where I get it from. Anyway, I thought, I'm gunna google (Which, on another completely random tangent, did you know that "google" is officially in the dictionary now? . Google has apparently tried to keep it from becoming a mainstream term, because if it loses its trademark status, then other companies may be free to use the term. I say "googling" ALL the time...)

Ok, I will get back to the original point of this post- weird happening, heard song on Up in the Air, knew I wanted to look it up and get it. Well, another source I use for new music is artists that Oprah features in her magazine. One of the artists she featured this month, and the first one I "googled" was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Well, waddaya know that was also the artist of the song I heard last night on Up in the Air. Strange coincidence and great song = blog post :)

This is the song. And Sharon Jones also seems like a rather special lady. She apparently tried to begin her career at a younger age, and no one wanted her (which I find unbelievable).







Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Poop Senders

This is just too good not to share...

http://www.poopsenders.com/

xkcd


One of my fav xkcds.
Also, for those that know Pam Lawhead, it will make sense why this reminds me of her, for those that don't just disregard :)