31 days of cookies . day 2. chocolate chip

Who doesn't like the good old stand-by deliciousness of a chocolate chip cookie? You can find a recipe on the back of any bag of chocolate chips. But around our house, we like them a little flat and chewy with just a hint of crispness around the edges. Our favorite recipe is one we adapted slightly from Martha Stewart's Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie.

2 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 C butter (I use either salted or unsalted, depending on what I have on hand. It doesn't seem to make a difference.)
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 C packed light-brown sugar
1 t salt
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
2 C semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F. In a small bowl whisk the flour and baking soda; set aside
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy
Add salt vanilla and eggs; beat until well mixed
Add flour mixture; mix until combined
Stir in the chocolate chips

Drop heaping Tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. (I line them with parchment paper.)

Bake 8 - 10 minutes, until golden around the edges, but still soft in the center.
Remove from oven and allow to cool and the baking sheet for a couple minutes
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.









































More cookies to come!

31 Days of Cookies . Day 1. Sesame Thins

For the month of October, I have accepted the 31-day challenge to write on a topic every day for 31 days. My topic? Cookies. You may not get a recipe every day (not that I'm lacking for cookie recipes...), but we'll definitely be talking cookies.

Cookies are the perfect afternoon snack with a cup of coffee (or your beverage of choice). Just hold them it in your hand. No plate, no fork, no spoon. Just a cookie.

One of my favorites growing up was my mom's Sesame Thins.  Perfect for Day 1.

Sesame Thins

1 C (2 sticks) butter

1 C sugar

1 egg

1 t vanilla

2 C sifted flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 C sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. 

Beat in the egg and vanilla. 

Sift flour, salt and soda 

Stir flour mixture into the butter mixture, half at at time, blending well to make a soft dough

Wrap the dough in waxed paper; chill several hours or overnight.

Roll dough, a teaspoonful at at time, into small balls

Roll balls in sesame seeds to coat lightly

Place on a cookie sheet
Bake 10 minutes

Cool completely

Makes 5 dozen

Enjoy!

Be sure to check back each day for more cookie goodness.
 

31-Day Challenge

A couple blogs I read started the 31-day challenge several years ago... well, maybe they didn't start it, but it's where I first heard about it.

One of my favorites was the 31 Days to a No-Brainer Wardrobe last year on Tiny Twig. It was so fun to see what she came up with each day for keeping a wardrobe streamlined. She even turned it into an e-book.

So the challenge begins again this October, and I'M IN! (that's only 2 days away...)

My subject? Something I'm passionate about, and could eat ten one every day... cookies. So I'll be talking about cookies every day for a month. If you share my passion, be sure to check back each day in October. It'll be fun. (and fattening.)

See you in a day or two,

Apples in September

Something about September makes me think apples. Maybe because summer fruit is fazing out of the produce aisle and apples and oranges and pears are back in season; or maybe the start of a new school year brings up the "apple for a teacher" saying.

There are lots of apples showing up on etsy right now. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Carnival Candy Apple (yum!)
2. Vintage Book Apple (clever)
3. Red Apple Fabric (wouldn't that make a cute apron?)
4. Apples Paper Pack (for you scrapbookers/card makers)
5. Apple Necklace (super cute... i'd wear that)
6. Apple Orchard Candle (fill your home with fragrance)
7. Vintage Vera Linen Towel (for my dishtowel fetish)

What are some of your favorite apples?

Happy Fall,

Succulents

 A couple Saturdays ago I got to help Amanda of Delighted Magazine with a photo shoot for the next issue. (It's due out the end of the month... I got a sneak peek, and you won't want to miss it. It's absolutely stunning!)

At the end of the shoot she let me keep some of the succulents she had leftover. In general, I have never been a big fan of succulents--I tend to prefer flowering plants--but she did such a beautiful job with them, I was happy to take them and try working with them myself. And it was fun!

Here's what I did:

Got some old terra cotta pots that I had spray painted white years ago. The paint was wearing off, and I kind of liked the rustic look it gave.

I put a coffee filter in the bottom of each one, covering the hole in the bottom. This keeps the dirt in, but lets the water drain through the hole, keeping the roots from rotting.

Then I filled the pots about halfway with a good-quality potting soil...

...and started adding a variety of succulents to each pot; then filled in between the plants with more potting soil. 

As it turned out, I loved the color variations and the original look of each of the pots.

I love potted plants because you can move them at will... from table, to shelf, to mantle, or wherever you want a little spot of green. 

The bonus with succulents: they don't require much water. 

White for dishes...

My favorite towel for drying dishes is a good quality flour sack tea towel. As a kid, I learned to embroider on those towels. My mom never had plain white, boring flour sack towels. Hers were (and still are) always beautifully embroidered and edged with bias tape.

some actual towels from her kitchen. aren't they beautiful?

When I got married, I followed suit. And then we had kids...

• they came in to wash up for lunch and dried their "clean" hands on those beautiful towels.
• they ate warm-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies and wiped their hands and faces on those beautiful towels.
•  they spilled some milk, and what did they grab to clean it up? Those beautiful towels.

So we made a new rule: white are for dishes and colored are for hands (and everything else). My kids knew the rule, my nephews knew the rule, I think every kid who entered our home knew the rule.

I no longer take the time to embroider my white towels, but I do embellish with some ribbon or rickrack or a ruffle, and still like to keep them white as long as possible. To this day, nephew Tim (now a doctor) comes to visit and says, "white for dishes and colored for hands," as he reaches for a towel from the towel bar.

Thanks, Tim, for following the rule! (Love ya!)



...and a couple of my embellished towels.