country fun

Miss Riley...enjoying the outdoors in MD.



sweet Mister

My parents' cat, Mister, is the best!

He's so good with Riley.

She loves him!

with Grandma Pat and Mister

hugs!

pics

Here are some pics taken the last couple weeks that I haven't shared with you yet!

Riley playing on laundry...

Riley's new (used) boots...

My friend, Rachelle, reading to Riley...

Riley playing with styrofoam...

Riley looking cute & coloring...

we sent this to Dada!

her face cracks me up here!

...and here!

 Riley's new teddy...

has a pic of her Daddy on it!

she's hugging her "Dada Bear" here but you can't really see it...

 Acting serious...

Hugging Leo, the lion...

print button

I added the print button to my blog!

Check it out...it's under every post.

Woot woot!

blog changes

Have you noticed a few blog changes?  If not, let me point them out for you!

1. There is now a contact page for all my (six) readers to visit.  If you ever want to message me via my blog, feel free!
2. I just added my cool new signature tonight.  Nice, yeah?  It's not my actual signature, but it's pretty darn close to how I write my name.
3. I also added labels under each post.  If you click on one of the labels you'll get sent to a page that has all posts under that label.  It's a nice way to categorize my posts.  Guess which label has the most posts?  Umm...yup, you guessed it!  Riley.  I should just name this blog after her.
4. When I post recipes there will be a nice handy feature under the recipe name that has a link that reads "Printable Recipe."  Click that, and you can print just the recipe and not any of my other nonsense from the post...like dumb photos of me eating my own food, etc.

I also want to add a print button to each post.  This way if you want to print just a post of mine to save or to share with any family members or friends it'll be easy for you to do that.  I had it on there but when I added my labels, it got all screwed up.  That's another day, another night, kind of project.  The button I had was cool too because it gave you the option to print the images or not.  I'll try to get that back up and running for you soon.

If you have any other ideas or comments for me, please let me know!  There may be something you'd like to see on my blog that I haven't even thought of yet.  You, as readers, may notice more than I do.

I am really starting to get into this blogging thing.  I seriously enjoy doing this.  If I didn't, I wouldn't be on here.  That's a fact.  Lately I've been spending more time blogging during my free time than anything else.  TV, what?  Laundry, what?  Shower, what?  Ha.  Seriously though, it's giving me something to focus on.  Besides, my hubby is gone.  I have time to put into this right now so that's what I'm doing.

If you have not added your email in the button called "follow by email" I really recommend that you do.  It's so nice to get the posts straight to your email.  That way you don't have to remember to check on my blog periodically for a new post.  Sweet!

Hope you all are having a great week! 

Thanks for sticking with me.

Riley's 18 mos stats

Riley had her 18 month appointment today.
(Can you believe it?!)

She's 22.6 lbs (slightly under the 25th percentile) and 34 inches long (97th percentile).

If she keeps this up, she's going to be as tall as her daddy!
Ha ha.

The doctor said she's doing great.

And, today she did not even cry when given 3 shots! 
Amazing.

I'm so glad it went well...

Our little bug doesn't have to go back until she's 2 years old.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dare I say it?

I made another kind of cookie yesterday.

Oh yes, I did.

It was a rainy day, and my daughter was napping...so what was a momma to do?!

I had been wanting to make these chocolate chips cookies that I've seen floating around the web.

They looked delicious and I had to give them a try, to decide for myself.

They are made with a secret ingredient of cornstarch.

Not your average chocolate chip cookies. 

Different.  Chewy.  Soft.  Special.  Yummy!


Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Printable Recipe)


Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
*1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

*If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour, don't sweat it!  Just use all purpose flour.


Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream together butter and sugars until smooth and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla, combine.
• Mix in flours, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
• Stir in chocolate chips.
• Drop by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden brown around edges.
• The cookies don't brown very much, and the tops are soft when you take them out.
• Cool on the baking sheet for a good 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on wire racks.
• Again, the cookies are soft when you take them out so they need to firm up a bit before removing.  I had some casualties the first batch.  (Don't make my mistake...you end up eating way more cookies than you intended to!  Ha.)

Source: slightly adapted from Anna Olson; Food Network Canada

FYI - these are a serious, no joke cookie.  The real deal.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

I know.  I'm weird. 
I take pics of myself while eating.
who does that?!

So, are you wondering what I do with all these cookies I bake?

Well...we eat them.  We also freeze them.  We even share them!

I promise to post a non-cookie (or even non-sugary) recipe soon.  I do more than just cookies...one can't survive on cookies alone!  DUH.