Lace, Workouts, and Stovetop Popcorn

I'm sure I'm not the only person on the face of the planet with lots of things I'd like to do.  I've got projects coming out of my ears.  Sometimes I settle down long enough to get something done... other things are just on-going, never-ending, infinite projects.

Like cleaning.  Cleaning NEVER ENDS.  And just when you think you've got it done, something gets messy again.  I'm sure you've all been there... especially all you parents out there.

Anyway, enough ranting.  I'm not here to talk about that... instead, I'm going to give you all a little snap shot of my life.

My current lace project is starting to look super awesome:

I'm really excited for this one.  I've been working on it whenever I have a moment (which is not often) but it's really coming along nicely.

_

On to the working out thing - I know, I know, you're all thinking 'What?! The lazy wife doesn't work out!' or maybe 'Exercise? Do you even know the meaning of the word?'  Yeah. I'm lazy. I dislike "working out" - I dislike being sweaty.  But I've started to find that I have no energy, my bones ache, and I'm about 50 pounds heavier than I should be for my health.  Oddly enough, that's not due to my pregnancy, but because I slowly put on more and more pounds before I got pregnant.

All that to say that I'm working on getting healthier, lighter and more energetic.  And since I'm posting about it, hopefully I'll stick with it.  Here's my "plan":

1. I started using the RunKeeper App on my phone - I'm doing a 5K training.  Not that I'm actually "running" so much as walking and occasionally jogging until I start wheezing and die can't keep it up and walk again.  So far, so good - note that I've been doing this for all of two days.  Still, it's a start.

2. I'm doing an hour of yoga every Saturday.  Well, every Saturday that I can.  I used to do yoga a lot. It really helped with my thoracic scoliosis. Since that's been giving me a lot of pain recently, I really need to do yoga.  Lucky for me I have my own personal instructor (my husband used to teach yoga).

3. I'm trying to eat healthier.  This one is sort of touch and go.  I never thought of my diet as all that bad, but I am trying to eat more veggies, fewer empty carbs, and more small meals rather than bigger ones.  I am also trying to drink more green tea.  I'm going for life style changes rather than just temporary dieting.

_

And now, one of my favorite snacks: Stovetop Popcorn!

I learned this from a friend - its super easy, tastes awesome and doesn't have all the junk that microwave popcorn does.  I will give two BIG warnings.
1. It's super easy to burn this popcorn.  A smoke filled home is not our goal.
2. It's super easy to burn yourself while making this popcorn.  I got myself really good one time while making this, and I had a scar for 2 years.  I burned myself while tipping the pot to dump the popcorn into a bowl.  So don't burn yourself.  Be careful, and be aware of how you're holding the pot so you don't end up with a very painful burn.

If you're brave enough, here's the simple recipe:

About 2 Tbsp coconut oil (I don't carefully measure, I just put in what seems right at the time.)
1/2 cup popping corn (make sure you get the kind for making pop corn)
Some salt to taste

In a large pot, add the oil and the corn.  Turn up the stove to medium high heat.  I find that for my stove the sweet spot is about 3/4 of the way to high - it's has to get pretty hot to pop the corn, so you may need to use high heat depending on your stove.
Make sure the lid is on your pot!  You don't want popcorn all over your kitchen.
Just like when making microwave popcorn, wait until the popping has slowed down, then turn off the heat and remove from the hot burner.  This usually ensures that the popcorn doesn't burn.  I've made this popcorn lots of times and I still occasionally get what I call a "burnerated" batch. So, keep an eye on it.
Once off the heat, sprinkle with salt and pour into a bowl.  The coconut oil adds a nice flavor and the right amount of oiliness - It's delicious!

Weird tangential story: when I was a kid, my parents had a air-popper for making popcorn.  It was this awesome machine that would spin the kernels in a heated section and the popcorn would jump out of a chute and into the bowl.  It had a metal section where you could melt butter, but we never put butter on our popcorn (I was raised SUPER healthy).  We did put soy sauce in a spray bottle and sprayed that on the popcorn when it was done.  It was actually really delicious - so if you need something low sodium/low calorie to spice up your bland air popped popcorn, you might just give a spray bottle of low sodium soy sauce a try.

Steak, Potatoes and Spinach with Blue Cheese

So... it's been a while.

Let me see if I can catch you all up in just a few sentences...
I'm two years older.
I've had a baby. She's adorable and getting cuter every day.
I've done a lot of decluttering and reorganizing to streamline my life.

I think that about sums it up.

Now, on to the reason for the post.

Isn't that gorgeous.  I made up some of it, and while I was cooking I said to my husband, "if this turns out well, I'm totally going to make a lazy wife post about it."  And it turned out amazing.

***

Steaks with Red Wine butter - derived from Les Halles cookbook by Anthony Bourdain
The following measurements are not exact and should be tweaked to suit your own tastes.

1 small red onion (the original recipe calls for shallots)
1 cup red wine (I used Merlot, you can get inexpensive red wine but make sure its something you wouldn't mind drinking)
Salt
2 sticks of butter

Enough steak to feed your family
Salt & Pepper

To make the flavored butter:
Mince your onion, and put it in a pan, and a pinch or two of salt (depending on your tastes).  Add the wine and bring up to a simmer.  Stir occasionally until the wine has almost completely evaporated. Cool to room temperature. Soften the butter and blend the butter with the onion.  You can do this in a food processor, or a mixer, or by hand.  Just make sure it's fully incorporated and there's no large sections of plain butter.  Then get out some parchment paper or plastic wrap, and make a log out of the flavored butter and chill in the fridge.
You can also freeze the butter and use it at a later time - I have a bit in my freezer that I pull out any time I want some quick, easy, and delicious steak.

For the meat:
Salt and pepper one side of the steaks.  I like using top sirloin, but you can use whatever steak you like. Preheat your oven to 350.  Also, preheat an oven safe pan on the stove - I have a lovely cast iron skillet that works great.  Once the pan is hot, sear the seasoned side of the meat and season the other side with salt and pepper.  Sear all sides and then put the pan in the oven and cook until it's done to your liking.  My husband likes his steak well done, so I get everything else going before I turn the oven off and take the meat out to rest.  Once the meat is done, take it out of the oven and put a nice pat of butter on top and let the meat rest for 5 - 10 minutes so all the delicious juices get redistributed and the butter melts.  Mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Pan Fried Potatoes and Onions
I eat this for breakfast most days with a fried egg, but they're just as delicious for dinner.

3-4 medium sized Yukon Gold Potatoes (about 1 medium potato per person)
1 medium-large onion
1 Tbsp butter (you can use the wine butter in place of regular butter)
Dried Thyme (optional)
Salt

I use a 10" ceramic non-stick skillet for this recipe.  Preheat your pan on medium heat.  Chop your potatoes and onion into bite sized cubes (for breakfast, I like to slice them more thinly) Melt the butter in your preheated pan. Add the onion and potatoes, and sprinkle a pinch or two of salt and dried thyme.  Cover, stirring occasionally (or do that awesome chef-flick to flip everything) until the potatoes are soft.  Then remove the cover and still stirring occasionally, cook until it gets deliciously caramelized and browned - you may have to turn the heat down so it doesn't get blackened.

Creamed Spinach with Blue Cheese
I just made this up last night, so my recipe is very inexact.

1 bag frozen chopped spinach
1 tsp better than bullion chicken broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder (more or less depending on how much you like garlic)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

In a sauce pan on low/med-low heat, add frozen spinach, chicken broth, garlic powder - put the cover on until the spinach has thawed.  Once thawed, add milk and stir occasionally while it simmers for about 15 min.  Add the blue cheese and stir to melt it in.


Then you serve it all up and feel like you're eating at a 5 star restaurant.  I'm so glad I added that blue cheese to the spinach... and I'm also glad that I made enough last night that I have left overs to eat for lunch today :)

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

What I did Yesterday (over the weekend, really...):

Yes, I glued every single one of those little roses on there...

This is what I did Today:
I went from this:

To this:

And this is what I'll be doing tomorrow:
Just so my Husband has brownies to take to work on his birthday...
Smitten Kitchen Brownie Recipe

Mmm...

Dinner Highlights

So.  I know there are some people out there that are able to menu plan like champions.  They're organized and make lists of what they're going to make and what they'll need for the next week or two of meals.  Some of them even prep all their meals on one day and then pull things out of the freezer... or make more of one meal so they can use the meat in the next nights meal, or maybe even two nights.  I know there are people out there like that.

I am not like that...

I wish I were like that, I wish I could plan ahead and know what I'm going to make... and I've tried it.  I had one week where I planned out everything we were going to eat... but by day 3 or so, I was way off from the list, and just ended up doing what I always do... which is throw a meal together with whatever I have in the fridge/freezer and hope it goes well.

And I've gotten pretty darn good at doing that.  I don't look at recipes (generally) I just rummage around in the fridge and see what I've got.  Usually the meals turn out ok, sometimes they turn out amazing.

Here's some of the highlights:

This meal did not turn out as well as it looks.  The chicken recipe was from ringaroundtherosies.net - it's the Teriyaki chicken recipe... I think it would have been alright with chicken thighs instead of breasts, because the meat turned out really dry after cooking in the crockpot. I generally have some rice sitting around from another meal, and I'd just made hard boiled eggs earlier that day, so this was a pretty easy meal to put together (especially since I went through that phase when I liked making Bento lunches and bought some rice and egg molds from my local Asian market).

***

 
I have to give some thanks to Trader Joe's for this meal. It's pretty much from there, except for the nut pesto on the pasta (the nuts and oil came from Costco).  So, the meat is the Chimichurri Wild Pacific Salmon from Trader Joes - I don't usually like cooked fish (I'll eat Sushi, but not cooked fish, I know I'm weird) but this fish is AWESOME.  I've bought it quite a few times, until my local TJ's ran out, but they promised me it'll be back in the fall... it better be back in the fall...  The lettuce and tomatoes are from TJ's (I love the mini heirloom tomatoes).  And the pasta is the linguini they sell at TJ's.  Yeah... it was a good meal.

***

One night I decided to make fried chicken nuggets, mostly because I'd just made chicken fried steak and I had the oil out already... I had also been watching Paula Dean fry some bacon wrapped macaroni and cheese... yes, that's right... go look at it and feel your arteries clogging.  But from that I learned that you can use crushed up crackers instead of bread crumbs.  And what did I have sitting around?  Crackers.  And of course chicken and eggs and flour.  Anyway.  This chicken was amazing.  I think I could have done bigger pieces... I ended up coating some of them in Frank's RedHot Wings Sauce and put them in a salad with blue cheese dressing... mmm... I'm drooling just thinking about it.

***

This was another fish meal.  Weird, I know... but since TJ's was out of the Chimichurri Salmon, I ended up trying their Wild Marinated Soy Ginger Cod Fillets.  And I have to say... they did it again.  It was delicious, and I might add very easy to put in the oven and bake for 12 minutes.  I didn't think I liked fish, but I am a changed woman.  The noodles are based on the Korean dish Japchae.  The first time I made it was a while ago (mostly because I found the mung bean noodles at my local supermarket) and it's delicious.  This time, I used whatever veggies I had sitting around, some in the freezer and some in the fridge.  It all went together really well.

***

Well, I think that's about all for now.  If any of these sound really good to you, then leave a comment and I'll try to remember the recipe so I can post it :D

Grilled Eggplant Lasagna

I was just wandering around the farmer's market near me, gathering the usual things I buy... onions, tomatoes... you know, the normal stuff.  Then I saw them.  The most beautiful dark purple, almost black, eggplant... aubergine if you prefer.

When I had a BBQ at my disposal, I used to love marinating slices of eggplant in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and grilling it.  Some of my friends would make it into baba ganoush - there is nothing like homemade baba ganoush.  My mom makes an eggplant caponata that is amazing.  And of course, there's always eggplant parmesan.  Eggplant is just so versatile.

I will also mention that when I was in Scotland with some dear friends, there was an Indian restaurant below our flat that made the most amazing eggplant recipe... I only wish I could remember the name or find the recipe, because it was a taste of heaven on a fork... I'm not kidding... absolute heaven.

Now... with all those wonderful ideas running around my mind, I bought 2 aubergines to take home and cook.  After a couple days of not being able to make up my mind about what I would turn these beautiful purple nightshades into, I finally decided to make up my own recipe.  So I give you The Lazy Wife's Grilled Eggplant Lasagna.

Normally, I have more pictures, but I wasn't really sure the recipe would turn out that great, so I didn't take pictures till I had the whole thing assembled.  Oh well. 

***

Grilled Eggplant Lasagna

Instant Frozen Yogurt

It's summer here... it's so hot that it feels like summer is slapping me in the face:

Summer probably does slap a lot like Batman.

Yes.  That's how it feels.

Anyway.  Here's just a few ways I get relief from the summer heat without having to leave our apartment complex:

1) Go for a dip in the pool.

2) Crank up the AC in the apartment.

Or

3) Make some delicious frozen yogurt.

Let's focus on that last one :)

 

I've been making a series of cooling beverages in my blender.  Because every iced drink tastes better blended.  Then I started thinking about lassis.  They're basically yogurt blended with some fruit and maybe some other stuff.  This recipe is somewhere between frozen yogurt and a lassi - and like most of my recipes, I didn't really measure when I made it, so the measurements are approximate and you can adjust it to your own tastes.

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Some Like it Hot

Nope. Not talking about the movie... I'm talking about snacks.

My husband really likes spicy chips.  Like the FLAMAS® DORITOS®. They're pretty darn spicy... I can eat like 3 or 4 before my mouth catches on fire... but he LOVES them.  He also likes running, and having an extra pound or five can really make running a pain... literally.  So, rather than run out to the store because my husband was craving a high calorie hot and spicy snack, I made some Spicy Edamame.

I didn't use a recipe for these, so the measurements are approximate and really up to your own taste... but here goes.

***

Spicy Edamame

1 bag frozen Edamame (I got mine from Trader Joes)
2-3 cups water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you want it spicier)

Put the water in a pot. Bring it to a boil and add 1 teaspoon salt and the edamame.  Boil for about 5 minutes (basically follow the instructions on the bag), then strain the edamame.  Place the edamame in a bowl, add the remaining salt, chili powder and cayenne pepper and mix.  Enjoy!

***

If you've never eaten Edamame in the pod, you hold one end with your fingers and stick the pod into your mouth up to your fingers, then bite down slightly and pull the pod out to squeeze the beans out of the pod.

The Lazy Wife tries Gardening... again.

Blue/Purple Hydrangea

Well everyone, I've moved.  The boxes are unpacked, but not everything has a home yet, mainly the craft room is still a bit of a mess, but it's coming along.

Some of you may know that gardening runs in my family.  My grandpa at one point had about 300 orchids... my mom generally has several orchids growing and used to have masses of african violets.  My dad maintains the garden around their house and usually has lots of vegetables and flowers to share with family and friends.  My sister always has a great garden going... but somehow, I missed out on this family green thumb.  I've killed just about every plant I've ever owned. 

I think I have identified my problem though... it's that I am an inconsistent water-er. 

I get really excited in the beginning and water regularly... then I lose interest and my plants become neglected... then I realize that I've been neglecting them but I can't remember the last time I watered... so I over water... then I forget for a while... you see the cycle.  This is a pretty consistent feature in my life overall - I can do some things consistently, like brush my teeth and feed my cat every day, but I'm not so good when it's something I have to do every few days... Needless to say, this is not a behavior that many plants can live with... so they give up on me and go to the big garden in the sky.

However, they say that identifying the problem is the first step to overcoming it... or something like that.  So, I'm trying again.  I was going to start out small... like, with a cast-iron plant, which I hear are very hard to kill... but then I visited my sister this last weekend and I ended up with quite a few plants to put in my back patio, and a couple for inside my apartment.  Not that I'm complaining... I just have a horrible feeling that I'll relapse into a plant murderer again :(

But, to be hopeful... things have started out fairly well.  I only have one plant that is looking somewhat dead (but it looked like that when I got it, so I don't feel like it's entirely my fault).  I do feel rather good about the Peonies... since they looked rather sad when I got them from Costco, and now they're looking a lot more perky and happy.

Lovely Peony

Hopefully, I'll continue to be able to post pictures of my tiny garden... with plants that are not on death's doorstep... and my plant murdering days will be in the past.

Baby Basil Plant

A Very Quick Update

Hello Friends!

It has been a while... but I've been working and working and working... since my Husband didn't have a job... Well, he had two jobs, but they were only part-time, so those kind of don't really count as a Job job.  But now he has a Job job... so we're happy.  The only problem now - we have to move (about 280 miles north of where we are now).

But this is good for us!  (I keep trying to tell myself that - over and over again)  And it's good for you because I'll actually have time to write about my cookery and crafty adventures!  (And maybe a few more comics for fun)  Yup that's right, in about three weeks time the Lazy Wife will be back :D

Also, I wanted to do a little shout out to the people that commented because they found my blog on Pinterest.  I wasn't even on Pinterest myself, but people pinned the Honey Bran Muffins I made, so that's awesome!  Thanks to everyone that pinned my muffins!  You make me feel loved :D

Candied Almonds

As I was wondering what to do with my left over evaporated milk, I found a recipe for Candied Pecans that sounded pretty good.  But then I realized that I didn't have any pecans sitting around, and I didn't particularly want to go out an buy any because I'll be moving soon, and the fewer things I have to take with me, the better.  I did have a large bag of almonds though.  So I decided to adapt the recipe to almonds, pecans would work well too, of course.  The original recipe is here.  But I ended up doubling it (but I'll post the original proportions, because really, how often do people need 6 cups of candied almonds?), so that I could use up all the evaporated milk I had, and I added a few more spices, because really 1/4 tsp of cinnamon is not enough.

***

Candied Almonds


3 Cups whole Almonds
1 cup sugar (1/2 brown sugar, 1/2 white)
1/4 cup Evaporated milk
2 Tbsp Water
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Cardamom
1 pinch Clove
1 pinch Cayenne pepper (if you want a slightly spicy sweet nut)

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

I was kneading bread yesterday, and I started thinking that my arms would probably look a lot better (read: less flabby) if I baked bread every day.  But then I realized that I'd also have to be eating the bread I made that day, which, I think, would cause some pretty intense weight gain.   Unless, of course, my evil plan of baking bread and delivering it to people came to fruition...

I love bread.  And one bread that I have a particular passion for is Hawaiian Sweet bread.  So, of course, when I saw a recipe for it, I decided that I should give it a try (since King's is SO expensive)... and I just happened to have a can of evaporated milk on hand - I don't know where it came from, I certainly didn't buy it - and I REALLY love Hawaiian Sweet bread...  I will admit that my bread isn't exactly like King's Hawaiian, but it does make up for it in cost.

I was trying to make medium sized sandwich rolls, but they puffed up a lot in my oven, so they definitely could have started out smaller.  Also, the recipe I used lied to me in a couple places, so I'm giving you *my* recipe that has corrections/lazy options included.  I found the recipe online, it said that it was a version adapted from The Food of Paradise, but now I can't find the site, so I can't link to it :P

In response to this post, I expect you all to be extremely sad that you don't live with me or close enough to me to get a sample of this bread...

Mini Pommes Anna

That's right! Potatoes! Not just any potatoes! Deliciously French potatoes, or rather Mini Pommes Anna.

Wikipedia tells us that "Pommes Anna is a classic French dish of sliced, layered potatoes cooked in a very large amount of melted butter."

I can't take full credit for this recipe, since I got the idea here: Bakers Royale

I changed the recipe a little, since I didn't have any Yukon Gold potatoes (those would be really good for this though) but I had a mixed bag of fingerling potatoes... and they were also very delicious.  And looked a little more like a real Pommes Anna instead of just a single stack of sliced potato.

***

Mini Pommes Anna

BACON!

Today I realized that I had bacon in my refrigerator.  I wanted to eat the bacon, but couldn't be bothered to stand in front of the stove cooking it.  So I decided to bake the bacon :D

But I wasn't going to settle for just plain old bacon, I added maple syrup to one batch, and ginger syrup to a second batch!

To Bake Bacon:

Asian Food Kick

I've been craving Asian food recently.  I don't know why... but I want everything with rice, soy sauce, and all those other "typically" Asian tastes and flavors.  I got a jump start on the week when my friend had us over for dinner and served Vietnamese spring rolls.

At least, I've always heard them called Vietnamese spring rolls, they are also known as fresh spring rolls, Vietnamese salad rolls, and sometimes summer rolls.  They look very pretty and are really not so difficult to make.  Ingredients vary based on what you want/like.  My friend made vegetarian rolls, using vegetables she had on hand.  I made mine with chicken.  They make a great meal and can either be pre-made, or you can have your guests make them for themselves.  It would be really fun to have a roll making party, and everyone can put in or leave out whatever they want.

My friend generously gave me the rest of the rice paper and rice vermicelli that she had left over, so I decided that tonight was Spring Roll night.  Really, the only mandatory ingredient is the rice paper, everything else is up to your taste and what you want to put in, quantities are also flexible for whatever size group you have.

My relationship with Pineapple

I love pineapple.  It's delicious.  I love it on pizza.  I love eating it out of the can.  So when I saw a pineapple at the store for a decent price I had to have it.

I brought my beautiful prize home.

I cut it into pieces and peeled some kiwis to go with it (they were also at a good price at one of the fruit stands near by).

I started eating the pineapple.  And I couldn't stop.  I ate more and more and then this happened...

Yes, those are my taste buds crying there...

 
and I started to think that there might be a problem.

I did some research, and apparently I'm not the only one with this problem.  I thought maybe it was just the acidity, but then again the Husband doesn't have any problem eating all the fresh pineapple he wants.  I can eat cooked pineapple (like on pizza) with no problem at all.  So I think I've narrowed it down, and since I know I'm allergic to some kinds of pollen, it's not totally unusual that I would also be mildly allergic to fresh pineapple.

I still have some of that delicious pineapple left in the refrigerator... I guess I could cook it, but really, I'll probably just force it down and deal with the feeling that I've rubbed my tongue against a cheese grater, and the mild sore throat.

That is my current relationship with pineapple.

What I did this week...

 At first I thought I was just being extremely lazy... then I thought I was suffering from something even worse and much more sinister than laziness...

I've also been mixing some delicious cocktails inspired by watching Jeeves and Wooster... but it's not a good idea to add rum to your sloth... you end up with a drunk sloth... which, if I could draw, would be a very funny picture indeed.  I'm not sure why I feel slothful though, because I have So Many Projects.  Here, just to show a few:

Not sure what the flowers will be for, but they're cute :D

I had to use up the Baileys frosting :)

Bacon, Cheddar and Broccoli quiche

The cake was just boxed yellow cake with chocolate chips, but I had to have something to put the Baileys frosting on... Here 's the quiche recipe for those of you that might like to try it (really the filling could contain any number of delicious things, I just picked three things I liked:

It wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without Corned Beef and Cabbage

I would have posted these pictures yesterday, but I had eaten several cupcakes, drank two whiskey sours, and one Irish car bomb.  This was over a period of hours, but after that I had an epic two person solitaire game (I'll post rules later) with the Husband.
You may be wondering, why would cupcakes have affected my ability to post pictures.  They didn't... but they would have affected my typing, so I put this post off to today to make sure none of you had to suffer through the even worse grammar that would have resulted from my slightly inebriated state.

On to the cooking.

First, Corned beef and Cabbage (and carrots, for alliteration):

Corned beef - cooked to package instructions, cabbage and carrots added to the pot after the meat is removed to cool, and cooked until fork tender.

Now for what you really want, Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes :D

These take some work, but are SO worth it.

***

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting: Makes 12

Random Thought of the Day

I saw a picture on Etsy and immediately thought "It's a beean!"

The beean of course harks back to this:

which came up because Husband always hears "human bean" rather than "human being" when people use that phrase.

That is all.

"$250" cookies

Today I'm making cookies.  Some of you are probably familiar with the "myth of the $250 cookie recipe" others may not even know what it is... so I'll explain.

I got an email one day that described a situation involving a woman having lunch with her daughter at Neiman Marcus.  For one of the common texts go here.  Basically, this woman and her daughter finish their lunch and want a cookie for dessert.  They like the cookie so much that they want to get the recipe, but the waitress tells them that she can't give it away, but they can buy it for "two fifty."  Of course, the woman doesn't realize that she's actually paying $250 for a cookie recipe until she gets the bill.  She then (to get retribution on Neiman Marcus) sends the recipe, in email form, to as many people as possible, telling them to forward it on to everyone they know.

This story never actually happened.  Neiman Marcus has, recently, started offering cookies (somewhat similar to this recipe but with some instant espresso in the mix) and offers the recipe free of charge to anyone that wants it. This email also went around for a while using "Mrs. Fields" as the over charging antagonist.  Apparently the original story goes all the way back to 1948 when the outrageously priced recipe was for a red velvet fudge cake, made by the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, that had cost someone $25.  Inflation has a lot to answer for...

Apparently, no one knows where this recipe actually came from... but I read about other people trying it and saying it was a darn good chocolate chip cookie.  So I figured I'd give it a try too.  I altered the recipe a little, so this is my variation of the recipe:

***

Potential Comic Fridays

It has been recommended that I should post my silly Lazy Wife pictures here (sometimes they even evolve into comic strips).  So, hopefully... even if I'm not doing anything particularly interesting craft-wise, you'll still get a weekly Lazy Wife update.

I now present, the first Lazy Wife comic:

 

This all happened because I put on a bright pink tank top and a bright green sweater one morning.  My husband didn't actually say that I was a watermelon, but he was thinking it.

This came out of Husband's remark about "Indignant pig" which is apparently his inside joke about Black Cauldron.  I didn't get the reference because I haven't seen it, but I thought "Indignant pig" was really funny.  He does a super cute impression too.