A Very Smoky Kitchen

It's been kind of a terrible week, since I've been sick with a really bad cough. For some reason this season it's hit me a lot harder than it has in the past. Greg pointed out yesterday that I'd spent three of the last seven days in my pajamas, mostly on the couch, so that tells you something about how gross I've been feeling.

Luckily, last night I finally started to come out of it. To celebrate, I decided to make use of the Star Wars cookie cutters we got for Christmas. I made the Classic Sugar Cookies from Great Cookies, including all three of the variations.

The storm trooper is the classic recipe, Yoda is the pecan version (with obligatory green sprinkles), Darth Vader is chocolate flecked, and Boba Fett is cinnamon swirl. I actually think they came out much too dry and not very flavorful. They may have been rolled out too thin, especially the plain batch. And honestly, I just don't much like sugar cookies.

Today, still feeling much better than I had been, I tried the Chocolate Coconut Devils for tomorrow's book club.



They are just as chocolatey and delicious as they look. And I love the fact that they have a little bit of almond extract for an unexpected flavor. The only problem was that I didn't have any baking parchment, so I just went with wax paper, not realizing it would fill my apartment with smoke. Oh well. In my defense, the picture on the wax paper box is over a baking sheet covered with wax paper and chocolate chip cookies. But now I know for future baking projects. Wax paper ≠ Baking parchment.

An update on the cookie project:

Cookies made - 13

Recipes to go - 141

Yikes, I might be in trouble. New rule: Make cookies every weekend, and volunteer for every church bake sale I can find!

Mind Games

I mentioned last week that I recently dug my Rubik's Cube out of a drawer, and since then it's been taunting me. I made some progress on it a while ago, and kind of forgot about it. Here's how it stands now:

I remember reading somewhere once that the key to solving these was to go layer by layer, so I'm in good shape with one layer done. But I haven't been able to figure out what to do next. I've only spent about 5 minutes at a time looking at it, though, so I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out. And no, I really don't want hints or links to solutions. The math part of my brain that's been lying dormant since I left grad school almost three years ago is up for the challenge.

In other news, I've officially decided to do Boston's Run to Remember, the half marathon through the city on Memorial Day weekend. Originally I had been leaning toward the Wallis Sands Half Marathon at the beginning of May, since I have family who are running it. But I haven't been running much the last couple of weeks because of weather, traveling, and a nasty stomach bug, so I don't think I'll be ready to start a real training plan for another couple of weeks. Plus, doing one at home means fewer travel expenses, and I can rest up in my own bed the night before. So barring any major problems, 5/29 is the day I become a half marathoner!

Restarting

I really like to have a normal routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the gym, Wednesdays I go to ballet, on the weekend I clean, grocery shop, and cook. So as much as I love the holiday season, I also love getting back to life as usual in January. So far I've gotten back into my normal workout routine, and I feel like I'm able to cook and eat much healthier (and usually tastier) meals.

And now I'm getting back to blogging. I've made minimal progress on my Thirty Things over the last month, but I haven't forgotten them either. I'm currently trying to decide which half marathon to sign up for this spring, I recently dug my Rubik's Cube out of a desk drawer, and I'm about 200 pages into Anna Karenina. Even just reading over my list again tonight, I'm getting excited to do a lot of new and fun things this year, and I'll be sure to post here more regularly as I get them done. Here's to 2011!