Tag Archives: cookies

Cookies & Music

I made chocolate chip cookies today.  I had bought the necessary supplies to make them but could never muster up the energy to actually bake them.  So I of course wait to make them once it becomes 90+ degrees outside, as you wouldn’t want the oven’s heat to be comfortable inside would you?   Of course not.   They came out spectacularly, as per usual.  I finally have something for dessert.  Last time I made these was for Ken’s Oscar party back in January (?), which honestly feels like a decade ago.   Larry’s death is still so raw but it also feels insanely like it happened in another life.  Anyway, cookies!

Yoga status:  63 days straight!   For my own purposes, my first 30 days was Yoga w/ Adriene’s HOME program,  the second 30 days was her “30 Days of Yoga” program, and currently, I’ve embarked on her Yoga Camp program, and I like it a lot.  Can I straighten my legs yet while doing downward dog?  Nope, but it’s getting better.   And my back is feeling strong, and I love that.   I recognize I can probably add more to my daily routine, but having yoga to start it off every morning is nice.

The new Dyson vac is spectacular.   Stairs are clean, and the floors are also getting vacuumed much more often than before.

Video game status:  FF7R is simply superb, and I am loving it to death.   Of course, tragic events have occurred in the game and while those bummed me out, I’m still totally in awe of the game and can’t stop playing.   I think I’m finally in the home stretch, and it surprises me how well Square Enix was able to do in making this game.  So much fun.

Oh, and Wine.com has been a godsend.  I’ve become a charter member for the free shipping and then I’ve also gone and signed up for some virtual wine tastings – it’s something, right?   Last week, we had a Pinot Noir tasting between a California and a French one.   Definite differences.  Delicious.

Finally, music:  When I finish yoga in the morning, usually Youtube has recommendations for videos I should watch.   For some reason, the following video was waiting for me, and I couldn’t help but check it out:

It’s magical.  How have I not known about Postmodern Jukebox before?  Seriously, never heard of them, and their gimmick is totally up my alley.   The group’s main man, Scott Bradlee, is a master cover musician, but instead of decently straight-forward covers, he reworks the songs into various other retro styles.   The above, “Wannabe”, is done in 1940s style.   Not only that, but he has musicians and singers who just bring the charisma and talent to whatever it is they’re doing.  I think there are over 300 videos so far, and I think Postmodern Jukebox tours too (in pre-Corona times, obvs).  1940s style isn’t the only thing they do though – they do it all.  One of my other initial favorites is the following:

The tap dancer, on top of the Gatsby-esque rendition, is mesmerizing, not to mention I fucking love this song anyway and it fits this style so well.  I ended up watching/listening to a 1990s playlist they put together and oh man, it’s so good, and the Friends theme song “through the decades” is awesome.   One thing I’ll note is that the talent are all very attractive – the women are beautiful and striking, and the men are frequently distractingly handsome.   So yeah, fun music, hot guys, and entertaining videos?   Sure, why not.  The linked video below is for the 1990s playlist – it just happens to start again with “Wannabe”.

Other than that, it’s been an up and down week, emotionally.  I still can’t accurately predict when my mood turns south and I’m feeling utter despair or when I’m not really sad about much at all.   I typically get emotional going to sleep regardless of how the day went.   Still hard to believe Larry’s not sleeping next to me anymore.  I don’t like being alone.  Also having to manage my mom’s finances, and it’s definitely not easy to do much of anything with the Rona out there.   Anyway, I just wanted to get a post in while I had the energy.  I was going to make another of the pork chop recipe tonight, but after cookies today as well as waffles this morning, I’m kind of done with cooking for the day.

I did see the Guy Ritchie take on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” last night and oh man, it was soooo good.  Larry would have loved it, as it had all the 1960s Cold War style on a very fun spy movie, and jesus, Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer are hot as fuck in this thing.   It’s really surprising it didn’t do better in the theaters when it was out originally.

It Begins – and lots of other pics too

First, the stress of yesterday’s PwC event at Magic Mountain proved to be mostly needless.  Of course I’m glad that felt compelled to be prepared, so that’s good, but it was such a welcome relief when it was time to do it and then sure enough, I was done.  Even got decent feedback after the fact.   The reward for making it through was then we got to go enjoy Six Flags!   The weather was pretty much perfect for a visit to the park, and better yet, there were like NO lines.  It’s likely the slowest time for them as most schools have started back up and it’s not really a hot time for tourism, I guess.

Friday, Jan 12 – PwC at Magic Mountain

The rundown of rides this day was basically all extreme.  And a day later, I’m still kinda feeling sore.  But we went on X-2 TWICE, which holy hell.  Riding in the last row of that ride is one of the most insane things you can do.  Then we went to Viper, then on to Tatsu.   Tatsu…is ridiculous.  It’s almost more intense than X-2 as it really feels like if your harness were to snap, you’d just get flung out to your death.  And it would be quick as you’d be a splat on the ground before you know it.  But what a ride!   We then followed that up with Gold Rusher which is great, as always, and ended the visit at Twisted Colossus.  So Twisted Colossus ended up still being my favorite of the coasters and there was an insane thing that happened:  One of my coworkers was in the seat in front of us, and as the train went inverted, the carabiner he had his keys on disengaged!  He immediately realized this but we were also on a rollercoaster that was currently barrel-rolling.  The keys managed to get lodged into the area by his feet, which was a miracle, as it was still a small gap, but the thickness of one of the keychains saved him.  The carabiner was long gone, but his keys weren’t.   He said that as they were flying away from him, they had been floating in front of them for a moment like they were in space  Lucky lucky man.

Other Things!

Today, Larry & I took my mom over to see the model homes at the Glen LA so she could get to see for herself what the general layout of the house will look like.  It was the formal grand opening this weekend, so we of course saw most of the sales team, but we also saw plenty of potential homebuyers and actual homebuyers.  We ended up meeting a member of the family that will be living directly next door to us, and then we met a couple who will be living across the driveway from us.  All seemed very nice and it’s exciting to get the sense that this will be a fun neighborhood.  Fingers crossed.

Saturday, Jan 13 – At The Glen LA with Mom

Those are the most recent pics and I think it could be fun to try to capture periodic shots from the construction site in order to eventually capture a time-lapse of the progress.  Easier said than done, I’m imagining.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend should be nice and relaxing, hopefully.   I figure while I’ve got energy and the time, here are some picture sets from December, mostly from around Christmas stuff:

Mon, Dec 25, 2017 – Christmas at Mom’s House

It was a fun time to spend Christmas at Mom’s with Stacie and Trent.  The food was great (and happily, our overbuying for Thanksgiving helped as we just froze this ham and then used it a month later).  And wine is always a winner.

Making Cookies

I love making chocolate chip cookies as they turn out so damned good.  It’s just a lot of work.  I ended up making cookies throughout the entirety of watching Die Hard, which is a long time.  But so worth the effort.  The recipe for these cookies I’ve shared on this site previously and is slightly weird in how it does things, but the results can’t be argued with.

I think the last thing I’ll post about as I’m getting antsy and want to do something else besides type on my blog is the pictures from the Sperske Christmas Even that my cousin Erin held down in Carlsbad.   Happily, it was held in the early afternoon, so we didn’t have to stay down there overnight.  It also meant a LOT of driving for one day.  But it was worth it to see family again.  Erin & Eric’s house is perfect for these kinds of get-togethers and their recent renovations inside are fantastic.

Sat, Dec 23, 2017 – Christmas Eve in Carlsbad

And that’s that.  Time to play some video games and shoot some Nazis.

Game Night / Cookies redux

On Friday night, I hosted a game night with some friends, having El Pollo Loco food handy which is ALWAYS good and making some chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I’ve been using a new recipe found here:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/12/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe.html

I never think about making cookies a day before though, which is the amount of time recommended to refrigerate your dough after making it.  What I’ve read is that preventing the butter from melting to the bottom immediately upon baking will help keep your cookies to stay fluffy.  Maybe next time?  But even just putting the ingredients together as instructed yields a delicious cookie that is tweaked a bit from the standard Tollhouse recipe.

bang_4Anyway, the cookies were a hit as was the food.  The game fun was also great, as we played a few different games, including Bang!, a strategic role-playing card game (it’s hard to explain without playing), Uno Attack, Bullshit, and some crazy table rhythm games that annoyed my neighbors.  Good Times!

Pics from Game Night:

08-Aug-2014 18:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 3.8, 4.5mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400
08-Aug-2014 18:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 3.8, 4.5mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 200
08-Aug-2014 18:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 3.8, 4.5mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 200
 
08-Aug-2014 18:09, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 3.8, 4.5mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 200
08-Aug-2014 20:07, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 3.8, 4.5mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 1600
08-Aug-2014 20:07, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 3.8, 4.5mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 1600
 
08-Aug-2014 20:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 5.0, 12.777mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 1600
08-Aug-2014 20:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 4.0, 4.96mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 1600
08-Aug-2014 20:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 4.0, 4.96mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 1600
 
08-Aug-2014 20:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 4.0, 4.96mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 1250
08-Aug-2014 20:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 4.0, 4.96mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 1600
08-Aug-2014 20:08, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 5.6, 36.909mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 1600
 
08-Aug-2014 20:22, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 4.0, 5.494mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
08-Aug-2014 20:23, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 5.6, 30.012mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
08-Aug-2014 20:23, Canon Canon PowerShot SX600 HS, 5.6, 18.104mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
 

The Cookies are GOOD

Another day, another batch of chocolate chip cookies!  This latest is for today’s Super Bowl party at Mila’s house which I am very excited to go to as it’s been a realllly long time since I’ve seen the whole gang.  While baking today, and when realizing that this batch was going to be so excellent, I took pictures.  Then I got my local food photography expert to set up his studio and damn, my cookies look amazing.  This guy is really good at what he does….(hint, it’s Larry!)

Also, as these cookies are not at all made in some secret manner, I figure I’d share yet again the tips and tricks necessary to make the best chocolate chip cookie.  Obviously, there are even finer and exquisite ways to make cookies, but going with this method will no doubt provide a fantastic result guaranteed to make people moan with ecstasy…woah, is it hot in here?

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Tip 1: The recipe found on any Nestle Toll-House recipe works perfectly.  I just don’t put in death morsels as I’m gangsta that way.

Tip 2:  Make sure to leave the 2 sticks of butter out overnight so that it’s perfectly soft.  That perfect mushiness is essential to really being able to craft a delicious cookie.

Tip 3:  Parchment Paper Parchment Paper Parchment Paper. It’s amazing.  It prevents your cookies from burning on to the cookie sheet and even better, there’s very minimal mess to clean.

Tip 4:  Using a spring-loaded scooper helps create perfect mounds of cookie dough for baking a perfect-sized cookie.

Tip 5:  I found that patience is key.  Don’t try to cook too many batches at once.  I used to try to get two cookie sheets at a time done, swapping the trays at the midpoint of cooking time, and discovered that the batch on the top rack were always better and more perfectly baked than those on the lower rack.  Just cook one batch at a time on an upper rack and it’s going to produce better results.

Tip 6:  In my oven, 9 minutes and 45 seconds has shown to bake PERFECT COOKIES.

Pictures of Today’s Process, Including Behind-The-Scenes of the Master Food Photog at Work

COOKIES!!!!

Larry & I fell in love with Britney from Big Brother 12 (that would be two summers ago…yikes!) for basically being the most hilarious, snarky contestant ever on the show.  Ever.   But the line she said that has stuck with us for the last two years – literally, the LAST. TWO. YEARS – is a line she said when being interviewed by EW.com after the show.  She’s ragging on how crazy Rachel is, especially Rachel’s need to be on TV and how she literally  has two faces, one for the camera, one for real life.  Watch below.  IT IS SO FUCKING FUNNY.   Larry helped me cut the original video to just the line, but below that is the actual entire interview, which itself is utterly hilarious.  I wish she had come back for All Stars!

ReaganYouWantSomeCookies

Here’s the whole clip from Youtube (the clip above is right around the 2:43 point):

Why the hell am I talking about cookies?  Because we made some amazing chocolate chip cookies this weekend and whenever cookies are involved, Larry & I will always resort to, “REGAN, YOU WANT SOME COOKIES?????”  And so here I am, back posting, and I had to find this video.

Secret to Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

You want to know the secret to secret perfect chocolate chip cookies?  It’s twofold:

– You must have properly softened butter.  Leave it out overnight.  It’s essential.
– Second, use parchment paper on your cookie sheets.  This prevents the cookies from burning directly on the sheet, making them cook better plus it’s so much less messy this way.  ZOMG.  These are the best cookies ever.

I promise to be back soon with pics from the last two months or so.  I think I’ve found a great efficient way to show off my Picasa-hosted photos and not have them only show up in a teeny-tiny window.  I mean, seriously, who can see them?  I have a little bit of work fixing older posts just to get the photos to display better, but it’ll be worth it.