It's Been Too Long...

I haven't posted anything in a while, mostly because nothing much new has been going on. Lots of cookie baking, training for my half marathon, and every once in a while staring at my Rubik's Cube until it makes my brain hurt. Nothing really worth writing about. But I'm trying to get back in the groove, so I'm posting a quick update (i.e. pictures of cookies that have been on my camera since I last wrote).

Chocolate Vanilla Moonstones:
Made these for February book club meeting. Nondescript, but tasty.

Cinnamon Toasties:

True story - I made Greg have his morning coffee in one of our prettier mugs so I could take a picture of the last biscotti. He drank the coffee, I ate the biscotti and almonds. Teamwork!

Oatmeal Walnut Crispies:

Made the version with chocolate chips for book club's March meeting.

I've made a few others in the past month or so that I didn't remember to take pictures of. So my progress to date is:

Cookies made - 22
Recipes to go - 132

Now that warm weather's coming, I'm excited to get some other things crossed off my list, like climbing the Bunker Hill monument, visiting the Boston Harbor islands, and maybe, just maybe, watching a Red Sox game from the Green Monster.

I Finished One!

Last weekend, friends from work and I went to afternoon tea at the Park Plaza in downtown Boston. It was a cold, windy day, so hot tea and good company were exactly what I needed. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera with me (even though Greg reminded me twice before I left), but I'll try to snag some from my friend Katherine and update soon.

The Park Plaza was hosting some kind of conference that weekend, so when we got there, all the open lobby and lounge space was full of very young people in suits. I was glad the restaurant where tea was being held was far away from the chaos. It seemed like the tea had been relocated because of everything else happening in the hotel that day, because we were kind of tucked away, and the staff wasn't the most responsive, but it was a beautiful dining room and the meal was amazing.

They started us off with a tea-infused port, which was stronger than I'm used to at two in the afternoon, but was surprisingly refreshing after the cold walk. The tea I chose was a light version of Earl Grey (my favorite), flavored with lavender, and it was absolutely delicious. Kari tried a version of Russian Caravan tea, which was unusual and smoky. That's one I may have to experiment with on my own. The meal included a still-warm scone with jam and clotted cream, four tiny finger sandwiches (though no cucumber...what's that about?), some really yummy little pastries, and lastly a tea-infused creme brulee.

In spite of how awesome the food was, I think my favorite part of the afternoon was the other group that was having tea at the same time. It seemed to be a mom with two little girls (seven? eight?), celebrating one of the girls' birthday. They were all dressed up, and completely adorable, and it was really cute when the staff brought out dessert with a sparkler in it. What a perfect girls' afternoon out in the city!

So I know this was something to check off my list, but I had so much fun, I hope to do it again. Maybe a yearly tradition has been born!

I'll never be this good...

Earlier this week I was looking up some author information on the Princeton University website, and the homepage had this amazing video about a student who organizes a Rubik's Cube tournament on campus. These folks are amazing! 

In other news, I'm three recipes ahead of my last post. Last weekend I made Cardamom Cornmeal Biscotti (not really photographable, but surprisingly tasty) and Snickerdoodles. I think these might be my favorite cookies from the book so far. Very easy, and so delicious!

Today I made the Chocolate Sugar Snaps. They were supposed to come out looking kind of like a chocolate version of the snickerdoodles, but they didn't really work that well. They're still tasty, but a little too fudgy for me. And I thought the dough was really hard to work with, even after having chilled. So even if I had time to remake recipes, I don't think I'd try these again.

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!

Making Progress on #3. and (Always) #11.

I've slacked off a little writing lately because our weekends (and weeks) have been pretty busy. I absolutely love the holidays, but I'm essentially a homebody and miss the quiet downtime of the rest of the year. On the other hand, plenty of excuses for baking!

Since it's still the holiday season, I only have time for a quick rundown of what I've been up to. More interesting (hopefully) posts to come after it gets a little less crazy.

#3. Book club ended for the year on November 30, and I have two months until the next meeting, so I thought it would be a good time to get into Anna Karenina. I'm only about 75 pages in so far, but I'm enjoying it a lot, and I'm actually a little surprised at how accessible it is. I'll post a full review when I'm finished.

#10. I've been a little thrown off in my workout schedule lately, which is frustrating because it really helps to keep me sane. But I'm signed up for another 5K on Sunday (pray that the rain and snow hold off!) and I'm determined that 2011 will be the year of the half marathon. I have a couple possibilities for May, and some back-ups for the fall, so it's definitely going to happen. (On this one, you should keep asking me about it. It'll keep me honest. (o:  )

#11. I've made two (very delicious) batches of cookies lately. For November book club I made the Giant Ginger Spice Cookies:

The photo doesn't do them justice. They might have been my favorites so far out of this book so far. And this weekend, just because I needed to get out of a funk and baking seemed like a good way to do it, I made Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies. I overcooked them a little (my family refers to this as Rachel's Cajun-style cooking), but they're still tasty.

I plan to do some more baking this week and next weekend, but probably out of Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook. Her gingerbread with coffee glaze sounds amazing. Plus I did an event at the store with her this week, and she was one of the nicest, most amazing people I've met in a while, so any chance I have to be more like her is well worth it!

More soon, but in the meantime, happy holidays!