Archive for August, 2010

BLUE MOON

I posted this photo of the moon over the mountains last winter when I took it, but I decided to post it again in honor of Jenny Matlock’s Summer School and the color blue….I just love this photo, it’s dreamy and misty and makes me smile…

Happy Rainbow Thursday!

GREENEST SUMMER EVER!

So, I know that I really whine all winter about this

But, because we had so much snow last winter and so much rain this summer, this has been the greenest summer I ever remember on the Wasatch Back. This area typically is very wet in the winter and has a short, green early summer and then it dries out and gets kind of brown. Not this year! It’s still green and I’m really enjoying it.

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

It’s been hot here in the mountains and as a result, I haven’t wanted to even look at my oven, much less turn it on! I don’t have (or usually need) air conditioning, so I try to cook outside as much as possible in July for the few weeks when it really heats up here. This weekend we had a thunderstorm and it rained like crazy for about an hour cooling everything off to the point that I felt like baking. So since my brain wasn’t up to the task of thinking up something creative to make with all of the beautiful berries that are available this time of year, I made chocolate chip cookies and they were amazing! The recipe is from Martha Stewart and you know that woman knows how to bake cookies! Here’s the ingredient list: (This makes a flatter type cookie, if you like a chewier type cookie, use the same method but the ingredient list at the end of the post!)

1 lb unsalted butter, softened
3 cups light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 t vanilla
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream the butter until smooth

add the sugars and beat until smooth again


Just a little side note here people, I have a rather common mental disorder called obsessive compulsive disorder (see the post about my yellow chalkboard below). As a result, when I looked on the screen of my camera and saw how cool the picture of my mixer in motion was, I had to take more and more and well, more. So it would appear that there are many more pictures of my mixer in motion in our futures (sorry)
Beat in eggs, one at a time and the vanilla



Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda




Slowly beat the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture

fold in the chocolate chips

then transfer the dough to a large sheet of plastic wrap

cover and refrigerate for four hours

Just look at all that buttery, chocolatey goodness…
When you take it out of the refrigerator, drop it by the ice cream scoop onto parchment lined cookie sheets


Then bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 8 to 10 minutes…

YUM..
 Print This Recipe

Ingredient list for chewier cookies: