Best Cookies Ever Recipe

So I made them again and considering that I usually make cookies once a year and now I've them twice in a month. I do love these. Though I made them to take to a Halloween get together this evening. The recipe is as follows:

1 Bag Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
6 Tbsp. (3/4 cup) unsalted Butter
3 Eggs
1 Cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour (the 2nd time i made these i used a 1/2 cup, which i liked better)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 bag Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup (4 oz) chopped walnuts

1. Use a double boiler to melt the bittersweet chips and butter
2. In large bowl use an electric mixer to beat eggs and sugar until thick
3. Stir in chocolate mixture
4. Mix in semi-sweet chips and walnuts
5. Take a sheet of plastic wrap and form dough into 2 logs, each 2 inches in diameter and wrap tightly.
6. Refrigerate log for at least 1 hour or until firm.
7. Preheat oven to 375 F
8. Unwrap dough and cut into 3/4 inch pieces (i then cut them in half to make smaller cookies)
9. Place pices on greased cookie sheet.
10. Bake for 12-14 minutes

Enjoy the deliciousness. And I wouldn't blame you at all if you wanted to lick the bowl.

Have a Happy Halloween.

Dancing Cookies?

I will be posting the recipe for the cookies! They were a big hit at the workplace. The husband’s birthday also was a fun time. We had dinner at Old City Hall with friends and had a good time.

Other then that this has been a good workout week. Made the gym on Monday and Tuesday and had a great workout last night after I finished teaching. Teaching this year is so much more relaxing this year knowing I only have to come up with 5 good ideas and with 3 of those I have an awesome co-teacher. Though I do miss the little ones, as I got to the studio last night one of the little girls from last year said to me ‘I remember when you were my teacher’ and I said ‘That was a lot of fun last year, wasn’t it?’ and she gave me a big head nod yes. Too darn cute. And the little ones give out so many hugs. I don’t have any huggers in my 8-10 year old class this year. But I’ve got some really smart, talented kids in there. One of the girls who just started dancing last year, who is not a natural at it at all, has completely amazed me this year with her dance memory skills. She’s got the head and heart for it but will really have to push herself on the technique and she’s so stubborn I have a feeling if she sticks with dance that in 5 years I will be completely amazed with who she turns into. I’ve now been at the studio for 7 seasons and it is amazing to see how some of the kids I had my first year of teaching have developed. What I found really cool was with the 8-10 year old class on the first week this year I only had 1 girl I had never had as a student before out of about 15 girls. Shoot, the owners oldest daughter was born the month I started dancing there and now she is a 2nd grader!!! Holy cow.

But as far as me dancing this year, I don’t know what I’m doing yet. I have not gone to teacher’s class yet this year as I no longer teach the night of class, I’ve been opting to go to the gym instead of going to class but I have been dancing with both the classes I teach. There is a hip hop class coming up I will probably go to and then we’ll see from there. Rumor has it that teachers are only performing 3 dances this year too so that alone is incentive for me to want to perform.

Hello Ghirardelli, U R my new BFF

A year ago the husband got me a subscription to ‘Food and Wine’ magazine and it has taken me a whole year to attempt a recipe from the magazine. I have to admit I am not a gourmet cook by any means. My specialties are grilled chicken, steamed veggies, tuna noodle casserole, goulash and chili. I’m not a fancy cook. I like quick, health, simple meals except on weekends I might make something that takes longer but is still easy to make. So most of the recipes in ‘Food and Wine’ are just way more complicated then I want to get.

Until the last issue, I finally saw a recipe that caught my eye and it was an ad for Ghirardelli chocolate. I saw the gorgeous picture of a double chocolate cookie that made me want to lick the page. I read the ingredients and the list was short. I checked out the directions and they looked simple even though I needed a double boiler to melt a bag of chocolate chips. I happened to mention it at work and a very nice person offered to loan me one. A quick trip to Wal-mart after dance on Wednesday and I had all my ingredients. So last night after dinner (tuna noodle) I made the batter and then made these little logs and put them in the fridge for an hour. I preheated the oven, sprayed my cookie sheets and starting cutting the logs into pieces. About 10 minutes later the smell of chocolate and walnuts started to creep into the entire first floor, at 15 minutes I pulled the first batch out of the oven. After about 5 minutes the husband came into the kitchen to sample one. He told me they were terrible and I wouldn’t like them. I tried one, and discovered by terrible what he really meant was terribly delicious and regular old chocolate cookies would never be enough again. These are so rich and delicious and chocolaty!!! I ate 3 and had a nice glass of milk. I packed the rest up to bring into work as a treat for the husbands birthday.

So happy birthday honey! You know I love you, but you are going to have to share me with my new lover, Ghirardelli’s double chocolate chip cookies.

Goodbye Summer, I'll miss you!

Well after a few glorious day of heat, the cold has now arrived and for now I'm ok with it. I mean it is nice to turn the AC off and break out an extra blanket at night. I sleep so much better when it’s cold. Growing up my parents never used the furnace. Instead, they heated our home with a woodstove. So if I wanted heat in my room, I had to leave my door open which I seldom did. I would just pile on all the quilts my grandmother had made for me and make a little cocoon for myself. I still love being under heavy covers like that. Unfortunately, the husband is more of the light as a feather type of bedding and I end up thinking I'm cold when I just want more weight on me. Don't worry I get even with him by cuddling all up to him until I'm hot then have to move away taking my hotness with me. You didn't know I was that mean did you? (Shhhh, I don't want everyone to know I'm mean.)

Now this being ok with the colder temps will be fine for a bit but as soon as we get some blowing snow I'll be thinking about hot days of summer that look a bit like this.



That is us in the boat going underneath the Mackinaw Bridge which is the connection between the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan. The bridge is also the line between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. I'd probably of posted this picture back in August when it was taken but I just got the CD of pictures from that weekend today. This is perfect when it is cold out to remind me that it will be 7-8 months before I get to do that again. We're seriously thinking about keeping the boat up in Cheboygan for a month next summer and just drive up there every weekend (about a 3 hour drive each way). The water is just so darn pretty and well not so polluted compared to Saginaw Bay. But honestly, there are months to decide before I need to worry about that.

Mmmmm Wasabi!

Happy Friday! So glad your finally here, I've waited all week for you. No big plans this weekend. Just some sushi with friends, a housewarming tomorrow followed by a going away party. Sunday, I'm hoping to enjoy some outside time since the weather is being fantastic. 80's in October! I love it.

Oh and I reread the last post and I must apologize for the description of my mornings. Ughhh. Rereading it I nauseated myself a bit. Just remember no one has yet showered and we have major coffee breath going on during that morning routine.

Have a great weekend!

Human Pin Cushion

So last week I went to my yearly girly exam and was given a lab sheet. Well, since on Wednesday's the husband and I drive seperately to work I decided that I would go get by blood work done this morning. I love our morning routine. We get up, he makes coffee while I feed the puppies, then we make our cereal together and enjoy it on the couch watch the news. I can't think of a better way to start a work day. So this morning, he makes coffee, I feed the puppies, then I get a big glass of water and try to ignore cereal cruches and coffee slurping. He did extremely well. I get ready for work and then make our lunches, he heads to work, I head to the lab.

I arrive at the lab and the waiting room is pretty full, there is also a sign on the door that they have a new computer system so please bear with them as they have to enter everything in. (Note to Covenant Medical, ever hear of a data conversion? Just wondering.) So I wait, and wait. Finally, after an hour they call me up to enter my data which then takes another half hour. Then they show me to a room. I take off my sweater and sit down (I am wearing a Tshirt) and then the search for a good vein begins. Then the first poke, then the waiting for the blood to come. No such luck, then they call someone else to come help my tiny veins. They decide that arm isn't going to work so they get the other one ready, put in another needle and I do bleed, a little, but not enough. The helper is called back in and they put the 3rd needle in. Finally, a small needle and they get what they need. I'm now sporting under my sweater blue tape on one arm and purple tape on the other with a total of 3 holes in my arms.

After that I rewarded myself to a cinnamon raison bagel and a cup of coffee from Tim Horton's. I apologize to everyone in advance for my case of the dumb dumbs that I will have today.

Sometimes I just need to escape

So I put on the headphones and here we are with another random 10 because I can not listen to what is going on around me for another minute.

1. Ciara - Pick Up the Phone. So I don't have an Ipod I bought a different brand 2 years ago because I was anti-ipod back then. I've changed my mind and am going to convert so I've been working on putting all my music into Itunes. It would be easy if where I back up my current MP3 player was the same place I'll be using the new Ipod when I get it, but no. Not to mention Vista and current MP3 player don't play well together at all. So it's a lot of work but I'm getting through it.

2. Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence - Could this song be more appropriate right now? I love it. Now, that I have the headphones on it seems to have calmed around me. Thank goodness.

So I've been thinking about the direction I should take with this BLOG. Right now, it's really random. I read a lot of fitness/health/weightloss blogs and I could try and focus on that I mean I did lose 25 pounds over 5 years ago on Weight Watchers and I have kept that off. I must of learned something along the way. I also enjoy reading beauty and fashion blogs but I look for the ones that are budget friendly and I may have a couple of my own little tricks up my sleeve. Or I could just randomly leave 10 songs here everyday. I also enjoy reading more of the journal type and some of the parenting blogs even though I have no intention of becoming a parent myself. That statement may need its very own post. Maybe I'll just cover it all.

3. Scandal - Warrior - Bang Bang I am the Warrior.

So anyone out there have any guess on what direction should I take this? Another thought I've had is to document the wildlife I see every day on my way to work. Sometimes alive, I see lots of bald eagles. Sometimes, roadkill, today there was a dead deer and possum. I know gross. One day, I actually had to drive around a turtle (it was alive). There is a pair of swans that had babies in the spring and now I see about 6 swans swimming every day. Though I'd need more pictured to document it. The cormorants are hilarious every day.

4. Janet Jackson - R&B Junkie

Maybe I should just leave AlreadyThere to my random whatever and start another blog to document the wildlife? Anyone want to vote? Chances are if you vote, you'll win as I have so many readers. (Did the sarcasm come through there?)

5. SheDaisy - Without A Sound - Honestly, I'm not picking these songs. I seriously, pulled out the MP3 players just to get some peace from the noise and some of the most appropriate songs are coming up. I really like this song. Gorgeous piano in it, granted it's a ballad and I usually want something more upbeat. I like this a lot, it could be a beautiful lyrical dance especially for competition. This would of been perfect for one of the girls I used to dance with who was hearing impaired. Gorgeous dancer with less hearing then the rest of us.

6. Trick Daddy - The Children's Song - I guess I could blog more about dance, especially if I'm going to do random 10 songs like this. This song I can see a lyrical type hip hop a large group with smaller kids and bigger kids, have everyone wearing all white and use their hoodies for visual effect with hands in pockets and such. I got lots of ideas, when I hear music I automatically try to picture how I'd want to represent it visually.

7. 3 Doors Down - Let me Go - Ok, so I probably wouldn't choreograph to this song, but part of that is radio really played this song A LOT. I try to stay away from some of those unless they are older tunes. If I groan when an over played song comes on, I know the audience just might too. Which doesn't mean there isn't already awesome choreography out there for this song that if I saw it, I'd probably fall in love with it.

So this year I am only teaching 1 night and just 2 age groups. Which is perfect. I haven't gone to the teachers class yet and am not sure if I will. Though I've been told they are only dong 3 numbers this year which is so much better then the 6 we've been doing. I haven't decided. Though I'm itching to take a class instead of just teaching.

8. Britney Spears - Don't Let Me be the Last to Know - So the news of the week for her is that she has to give up her kids to The Federline. I see one of 2 things happening, either she cleans up her act or she just loses it. I'm hoping for the cleanup, have my fingers crossed for the girl.

9. Dave Matthews Band - Cry Freedom - I have to admit while I know quite a few DMB addicts, I'm just not one. The music is good but I'm barely a fan, let alone a fanatic. Course, if I were to see them live, my opinion might change. I do need to go to a good concert. I love the crowd energy at a concert and really are there that many places where you can truly scream? I think that is what I need today, a good scream. Last night, I was feeling really anxious and I'm still not sure why. But it didn't affect my sleep thankfully. I slept fantastic, that was probably do to the 20 minute run and the chest workout I did at the gym.

10. Mariah Carey - To The Floor featuring Nelly - and on that note. I've given you my random 10 and a lot of random thoughts. Same time tomorrow?