Cookies and a Cushion

This past week has been one of movies, staying inside, and running the occasional errand (but of course trying to avoid them due to the extreme heat wave). Most days we sat around inside enjoying the air conditioning and relaxing while George valiantly went to work every day.

One of the highlights of the week was making cookies. George and I were surfing our favorite food website and found a picture of these great looking chocolate chip cookies. Apparently it's a recipe from the New York Times.

They turned out great! You have to make the dough a day before, but the wait is well worth it. Here is the recipe from the New York Times:

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)

Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Totally worth it!

And, to end, just a couple pictures from the week.

The boys were playing in their room and Jude crawled right over to Lance and cuddled up on the pillow. I love my boys!

Here is the cushion part of the post. So, one evening after a long day, Lance was downstairs and wanted to watch a(nother) movie. I was upstairs checking my email on the computer and when Lance yelled upstairs that he wanted to watch a movie, I mistook his tone as defiance and immediately countered with an angry "no, and you can't talk to me that way" response. George came to Lance's rescue and explained what had happened. I sheepishly went downstairs to apologize to Lance (who was crying) and when he looked up from the cushion he was crying on, we saw this:

We both ended up laughing really hard and I ran to take a picture. You can even see where his nose was running... yuck. I can't say I'm proud of the fact that my actions caused this response, but you have to admit, it looks pretty funny.

Just another day...