Home for the Holidays

Saturday my husband and I drove from TN to NJ to come home for the holidays. I've been excited for this time, in respect to blogging, since I was looking forward to writing about all of my holiday experiences. I'm the baker in the family, so every year the first couple days I'm here before the holidays, I park myself in front of the stove and churn out batches and batches of cookies, pies, and cakes. I initially was hoping to write a blog about all of the delicious desserts I made. Instead, I'm going to complain a little bit. I make chocolate chip cookies monthly at my house in TN. I always use the same recipe (having tried many different kinds in an attempt to find the best ever recipe) - Alton Brown's "The Chewy." Its awesome - the cookies are thick, gooey, chewy and delicious. So imagine my surprise when I made a batch here and pulled the first cookies out of the oven - thin, flat, hard, super dark cookies. NOT GOOD. So, of course I assumed that I messed something up and made another batch of dough. Again, the cookies spread and didn't really "bake," but instead just hardened... It was gross. So I went online to foodnetwork.com, found the recipe, and went straight to the comments to see if anyone else had ever had the same experience. I scrolled through the pages of 5 star comments until I came across a 1 star comment. It was from a woman who had made the recipe before and had them come out fine, but the last time she made them she got the same results I had! There was a response to her comment saying that this problem could possibly be caused by using cheap, store brand (Shop Rite brand specificially) butter. I was using Shop Rite butter!! So I took ALL the butter and went to shop rite to exchange it for brand name butter. I got back home, made another batch of chocolate chip cookies, and no luck. The same thing happened. I was so upset that I made a batch of Tollhouse recipe cookies and ate half of them! What a waste of time, ingredients, and money! I have no idea what was wrong - especially since I make these so frequently at home... Anyways, I've since made several more batches of the Tollhouse recipe, Spritz cookies, Ricotta cookies, and Oatmeal Raisin cookies - all of which have turned out just deliciously. Right now I have an apple cake in the oven. That's it for today though. I'll resume baking in the morning tomorrow.

This is my first ever blog and I was thinking that before I pour my heart out to cyberspace and tell all of my opinions, feelings, and random thoughts - there's something you should know about me. I am a cat person. Now you're wondering "why is she telling us this?" and "Are all of her blogs going to be about her cats?" Well, no I'm not going to write about my cats - that much. But I'm sure I'll mention them frequently since they are a big part of who I am and they always give me plenty to talk about. But the reason I mention that I love cats is because I think its very telling. In knowing that I'm a cat person, you can learn a lot about my character and who I am. And I think, actually, that I could tell the story of my life by describing cats I've known and loved - but I'll save that for another time. For now I'd like to introduce my current purrballs. I have three, all born in the same litter, all boys. Brothers. And if you know anything about social male cats, you already know that they're actually more like dogs in the amount of attention they demand. These aren't your stereotypical, stuck-up, independent felines. My cats are active, playful, social, friendly, cuddlebugs. (They're actually all sitting around me right now as I'm typing). So, first we have Merlin. He's the oldest and thinks he's in charge - he's also the most shy and most easily frightened. He's white with a gray wizards hat on his head. Next is Charlie. He is is orangey with cream stripes and, of course, a Weasley. (Ron's name having been already taken by my mom's cat). Charlie loves to cuddle. (Well, with me. He's not a big fan of my husband.) And he's always the first one to jump in bed next to me and claim his spot for the night! Finally, there's Nimbus. (Yes, another Harry Potter reference.) He's also quite the little storm cloud - he's full of energy and always running around or climbing something or chasing after his brothers. He's black and gray with stripes and spots. My boys were born on Feb 11, 2007 - wow they're almost two!! And they're BIG. At last weigh-in Nimbus was 12 lbs and Charlie and Merlin were 16lbs!! And, if you couldn't already tell - I'm completely crazy about them. But how could I not be? I can't go anywhere in my house without a trail of cats coming along. They make me smile and laugh on even my worst days and they love unconditionally. So now that you know a little bit more about me and my boys, I think I can start adressing real, important, issues. Like discussing what books I'm reading and reviewing recipes I've tried recently.