April Fools.

As a cruel April fools joke on us all the powers that be have caused a small spring snow storm to white out all of the wonderful dirty-ness of spring on April first here in Northern Vermont and I'm not what you might call thrilled.  April is about warm rains, mud puddles, and my doggies finally being able to play in the river again without fear of being swept away under ice.  Snow is not included, nor is it welcome, in that description.  In an effort to cheer myself up in the few remaining hours before I have to go to work and sort sale tags for 5 hours I have decided to visit my favorite website and make a list of some new recipes to try for spring.  Recently I have been in a chocolate chip cookie rut, baking a batch every week or so with a few different recipes but always fairly consistent results.  Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with chocolate chip cookies, but I feel that it's time for a bit of a change.  Last week I went for oatmeal cookies using an old fashioned cranberry oatmeal cookie recipe from one of my mothers cranberry cookbooks and I was VERY disappointed.   My cookies came out way too cakey for my liking, not nearly chewy enough, annnddd the first batch cooked faster than anticipated and set off our mind-blowingly annoying smoke detector system when the bottoms got only ever so slightly burned.

No pictures of those because they were a great disappointment for me.

The day before yesterday I set about making cookies to bring to lunch with my Grandma and again, in an effort to stray from my chocolate chip cookie rut, I attempted a new recipe.  This time butter cookies with a thumb-print full of blackberry jam or chocolate in the center.  These came from an old Betty Crocker cookbook and turned out much better, but still not as satisfying as I might have hoped.  Pictures below, but no recipe because to be honest, they just weren't that special.

Now onward, to new and exciting things.  I have realized that I am going to need to work a little harder to get out of my plain old chocolate chip cookie rut and so I will be branching out much further than simply other varieties of cookies.  The possibilities are endless, but here are some of my favorites thus far:

Peabody's Really Bad Day Fix-It-All Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake - A new and cheesier way to enjoy chocolate chip cookies!
Homemade Samoas - Yep, thats right, make your own Girl Scout Cookies.  I'm there.  Samoa's are my favorite so naturally making my own is the next logical step...unless I decide to make these instead:
Samoa Truffles - So everyone knows I love truffles.  Love to make them, love to share them, love to eat them myself, play with new flavors, coatings, fillings.  Samoa truffles?  Yep, this is definitely going to have to happen.
Cinnamon Raisin Brown Rice Pudding - This just looked all warm and delicious and it is snowing out so naturally warm cinnamony-raisin things would have to make the list.
Bri's Sweet Pretzel Cookies - A super twist on traditional chocolate chip cookies, these pretzel and berry and chocolate chip cookies look to be anything but boring.  Still in the cookie comfort zone, but with all kinds of new flavors.  I'm intrigued...

So there you have it, my "I spent 5 minutes on tastespotting and already have more recipes than I could possibly need so I have to stop now before this gets out of hand" baking wish list.  Now if only I could find people to share with...

Eventually I will most likely try them all but if anyone has a preference for which one I should try first, like if you're planning on stopping by my house and would like to find some Samoa Truffles all ready for you, just let me know.  I would be happy to take requests.

There, that brightened up my April Fool's Day!

cookies and big decisions.

I don't know where to start but i'm going to try to spell this all out for whomever still reads this and for myself.  Recently, after a few glasses of wine, I got to thinking about what my life would be if I stayed here in Tahoe for another year, like I have been planning on doing for a few weeks now.  I made the decision to stay but the anxiety about what I am doing with my life didn't go away; it didn't feel like anything was solved or going away, it felt like I might be making a mistake.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here and it is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life, but it just doesn't feel quite like the right fit. I love my friends and of course potlucks are amazing, work is going well and I know I would have been content with another year at the conservancy BUT I feel like thats what happens to everyone here...once you get here its easier to stay and barely scrape by money-wise, and make do with the work and social life that you have instead of going in search of better because it is so beautiful here that its intoxicating.  When I go out and look at the mountains and the lake I can't believe I would ever leave this place, its truly an artist's and a photographer's dream!  The only problem is thats its just not me, I just don't fit, and how long am I going to put up with feeling like a square peg in a round hole because its easy and pretty and because so many others feel that same way and have put up with it for years?  I'm a woman of action and when things start to get uncomfortable or less meaningful or no longer ideal I do something about it.  I'm not going to wait for things to become meaningless or even painful before I go, the idea is to leave yourself wanting more, not less.  So its goodbye Tahoe for me, because I do love it here, but thats not enough anymore.  Now when I have a few glasses of wine I feel no anxiety, its sad that I'm going, and I'll miss everyone here terribly, but I know I'm doing what I need to do and I'm blazing a new path and and seeking out new experiences...and it feels right.  This is what I do, I keep looking until I find just what I want and then I go for it, its who I am, young and completely free, following my heart.  It feels right.

Sooooooooo with that said I will be peacing out of beautiful South Lake Tahoe come mid-February and hitting the dusty trail on a second epic cross country road trip...to visit friends and new cities and find out just where I want to go next.  Last night I baked cookies and this morning I got up to watch the sunrise, its time to start living up my last days here.  So here are my cookies, Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies from this recipe, which came out great because I used a high altitude recipe (it'll be pretty sweet to be able to just bake things again, without fear of collapse or oily mess...).  Here are the resulting cookies:

Yayyyy cookies!  I have tons of them now, even though I made them HUGE soooo if you are in South Lake Tahoe and you want a cookie or 2 gimme a call and i'll be happy to share!  

This morning Matt and I got up at 6:30 to go watch the sunrise at the upper truckee marsh, it was so beautiful but not the best viewing spot, so perhaps tomorrow we'll look for a better one.  Anyway here are my favorite shots from this morning, not bad but I'm still getting used to my new camera and I'm pretty sure I can do better...so stay tuned, I'll definitely be taking more photos in my final weeks here because I want to take as much of the beauty with me as i can!  

First rays of dawn

Sunrise behind the trees and mountains

hey...its me!

Epic shot of Mr. Matt

The sun sneaking over Mount Tallac

Sooooo gorgeous!

Sun kissed mountains and lake and protected Tahoe Yellowcress habitat...this is the only place it grows in the WHOLE WORLD!  sweeeeeeeeeeet.

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pillows!

So i know, i haven't posted a recipe in a whileeeee and i'll tell you why...because my last 2 attempts at baking at altitude have been epic failures, first with collapsing cookies and then a collapsing zucchini cake...very disappointing for me.  I made cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes again for my roommate for her birthday, but since i had already posted the recipe I didn't feel the need to put that one up again.  So today, for a friends birthday, a friend who recently gave up eating dairy, i finally got to make a recipe I have been looking for an excuse to make for AGES....andddd it worked perfectly, even at altitude!  I'm so happy!  So without further ado, this is the recipe and these are the cookies:

Yummmmmm!

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Whoooopsy!

So hey, sorry about being on hiatus for almost a week now, as you may or may not have already figured out, I don't have internet at my new house.  I have been taking daily pictures though so here they are:

Sunday:

ummm awesome.  zoom way in on this guy and you can see the hairs on his legs!

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Monday  (Moving Day!)

On the drive up, you can't see it on this little one, but the moon looks sweet

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Tuesday:

New Home:

beautiful!

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Wednesday:  

All in my second days work! Spent the day here, monitoring groundwater levels

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Thursday: (TODAY!)

Woohoo!  All caught up!  Today I did what I do all the time, I baked.  Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Made from the same recipe I used here except in place of coconut and butterscotch I used dried cherries! Yummmy!

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guess what i did tonight!

if you guessed "baked" then you're right on.  I guess its time for a brief update, for those of you who are not my mom and haven't been following my more recent adventures and have just heard ominous phrases like "big decision" and "new home" dropped in here and there for the past month.  About a month and a half ago the company I am serving my AmeriCorps assignment at went through some major lay-offs.  Among the casualties was my direct supervisor and while efforts were made to keep me feeling happy and productive without her, I was still given, and ultimately accepted the offer to change sites.  I have selected a new site located in South Lake Tahoe and will be moving there this very weekend I believe. SO as I am leaving and one of my current coworkers has a birthday coming up, but it will be right after I leave, I decided now is as good a time as any to make him his birthday cake.  He selected a cookies and cream cheesecake and I opted for individual style, for easier distribution and consumption at work.  And ta-da! we're back to baking...I got the recipe here, it makes exactly 30, even with ample tasting of the batter (inevitably leading to the most delicious tummyache ever!) and they are pretty neat little buggers with oreo's as their bottom crust (i.e. no smashing cookies and melting butter and pressing crumbs into the bottom of muffin cups, just dropping a cookie in there) so here is a small photo montage of the making of the cheesecakes:

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lovely flowa

taken today at work in gold bug park.

i have an addiction.

to something other than taking pictures....

i'm addicted to baking.  i just can't help it.  i fought it for hours today, and ended up making 2 batches of cookies.  i didn't even eat any, i was already full when i started making them.  oatmeal craisin almond chocolate chip cookies, chocolate peanut butter sauce pan cookies.  

someday i'll be a full time baker.  can't wait. :o)

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gifting...

i made housewarming party presents tonight...i'm confident posting them on here because i don't think the person they're for reads this.  I made a cranberry almond scone recipe (based roughly on this one)and a double chocolate coconut butterscotch chip cookie mix (based on this one, but drop the chunks for chips and add butterscotch chips and shredded coconut too), all the dry ingredients and a card with how to finish them up, wrapped nicely in a tea towel and tucked in a basket.  i hope they like them!

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new babies and new cookies!

I planted my lettuce seeds a few days ago and already I have some new babies growing up before my eyes!

I also found this very interesting recipe today on a website called cooking for engineers, which I find hilarious, and also awesome.  The recipe is represented graphically at the bottom of the page, which i found especially neat.  I followed the recipe almost exactly (rare for me, i know) except i used whole wheat flour and chilled the dough for a few hours, then formed the cookies and skipped the re-chilling part and just baked the darn things, for 15 minutes at 300.  When I took them out I thought they would be crumbly and awful for transporting to a party but after they cooled a bit they turned out pretty great.

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you say tomato...

i say why does my tomato plant look like its been in a knife fight?  a bit of poor leaf health...but its green and blooming, so it can't be tooooooooo unhealthy....

I made chocolate coconut butterscotch cookies again, since tomorrow a few volunteers are getting together for dinner.  I ate way too much cookie dough but i have lots of yummmy lookin cookies to share tomorrow!  Hurray!

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coooooooooooookies

Today I got to spend my lunch break on the shores of beautiful Jenkinson Lake (aka drinking water reservoir) in Pollack Pines.  I had an apple and baby carrots and some tasty brie I got at a little cheese shop downtown, it was a pretty fabulous lunch.  Heres a little photo memory of my bright, sunshiney afternoon for photo numero one hundred and oneeeeee!

After my amazing afternoon at the park I decided the only way to end this Friday was with my new favorite evening activity, going to the baking/kitchen aisle in the nearest department store and letting myself pick something out.  Tonight I got a mixing bowl, a new cutting board (because my old one was cheap and made out of glass and it ruined my only knife....booo!), and a can opener.  Then I popped over to the grocery and got everything I needed to make one of my very favorite cookie recipes of all time, Chocolate-Butterscotch-Chip-Coconut-Cooooookies!  (Adapted from my Mom's old school Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe for "Sugar Jumbles") and lucky you, I'm going to share it with you here:

Mix thoroughly: 1/2 cup of butter, 3/4 cup sugar (half white and half brown), 1 egg, and 1 tsp vanilla. 

Sift together and stir in: 1 and 1/8 cup flour (i used whole wheat and they were still delicious), 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 a tsp salt.

Fold in: ~1/2 cup chocolate chips, ~1/2 cup butterscotch chips, ~1/2 cup shredded coconut

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a lightly greased (or non-stick) cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes, cool on sheet for 3 minutes, then move to wire rack and finish cooling, then enjoy...if you can wait that long!

okay, they don't photograph well, but they're still amazingggly tasty...try it, I dare you not to like them!

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