My Favortie Cookies, plus HP7 (no spoilers) and Piper's 13th Bday!
This year for Thanksgiving, I'm heading up to my grandma's, and there were no chocolate desserts on the menu. Well, that doesn't fly. So I made my favorite cookies and froze up a huge-ass bag of them to take w/ me to my grandma's house, aka the Land the Internet Forgot. Also, yesterday we went to see the 7th Harry Potter (non-spoilerish squee below the cut) and this weekend is Piper's 13th birthday! Sweet doggy!
Okay, the recipe is basically just doubling what you find on the back of a bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips. And then I add a couple of things:
4 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. margarine
1 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 oz. dark chocolate, shredded
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag medium milk chocolate M&M's, chopped
Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Cream the margarine and shortening together (sometimes I use a stick of butter and a stick of margarine instead of just margarine). Add the sugars, stir well, add the eggs and vanilla (this time around I also added about a teaspoon of chocolate extract, too). Mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time. Then add the chocolates and go to town! Plop 'em a little bit apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about ten minutes at 350.
(I did the shredding and chopping while watching SPN the night before.)
The shredded chocolate kind of blends in after a bit. Really, you can never have too much chocolate in my book.
I feel like I should say something deep here, about the formed but uncooked dough and then the new cookies and there's life and creation and Misha Collins and a fanfare for the common man, but all I can do is eat a cookie.
So I did! Hee.
And then we went to see Harry Potter, w/ cookies in our handbags. Yeah, baby. I loved it. I thought it flowed really well. Ron has really grown as a character, and I liked how they handled his story arc here, plus Hermione kicks ass, as she always does. I love Hermione so much. This is a dark and difficult tale, but I appreciated the little moments of levity they were able to stick in. M and I loved the way they told the tale of the three brothers; it was very cool. To top it off, there was this dude in the front row (we were sitting in the absolute back row) who, I don't know if he was there w/ a blind companion or if he just liked narrating the events, but kept up a running commentary for the whole movie. I'm so glad we were so far away b/c I would have clocked him if I could hear the whole time. It was just a low buzz for most of the time and I could ignore that. Although it WAS helpful that each time there was something that would cause me to cry, this dude made this hacking snorfle that sounded like this: SNAUGHRAWR. Cheered me immensely! M and I almost lost it several times. He sounded like Piper!
Speaking of Piper. Eight years ago this week we picked up our little girl at Washington Animal Rescue League. Our best bet is that she is now 13. She's my first ever dog, and if you were to guess she was named after an episode of "The X-Files" you'd be right. Last year at this time, Piper had a bout of pneumonia and had to go to the hospital for a couple of days, but knock on wood, she's fairly healthy. Piper likes: food, walks, naps, food, being told she is beautiful, her brother (and okay, her sister, too), and food. She is a very determined lady. She may have a limp now and sometimes her hind leg shakes, but that does not slow her down. You don't mess w/ the Pipester! And you always pay her her due in pretzels, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, popcorn and fish. Plus all her doggy treats. She adds color commentary to anything we watch by snorting or snoring loudly during tender moments. In her old age, she has gotten rather flatulent. This is another way she expresses her opinion. She's not a big cuddler, but she waits at the window, looking for me to come home and runs and greets me at the door. I love her!
Piper just did not want to sit still to get her picture taken! There were treats just waiting to be eaten!!!
Milo shows her how it's done! Willow stuffs her face.
And there you have it! Happy Birthday, Piper! I'll eat a cookie in your honor!
Okay, the recipe is basically just doubling what you find on the back of a bag of Tollhouse chocolate chips. And then I add a couple of things:
4 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. margarine
1 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 oz. dark chocolate, shredded
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag medium milk chocolate M&M's, chopped
Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Cream the margarine and shortening together (sometimes I use a stick of butter and a stick of margarine instead of just margarine). Add the sugars, stir well, add the eggs and vanilla (this time around I also added about a teaspoon of chocolate extract, too). Mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time. Then add the chocolates and go to town! Plop 'em a little bit apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about ten minutes at 350.
(I did the shredding and chopping while watching SPN the night before.)
The shredded chocolate kind of blends in after a bit. Really, you can never have too much chocolate in my book.
I feel like I should say something deep here, about the formed but uncooked dough and then the new cookies and there's life and creation and Misha Collins and a fanfare for the common man, but all I can do is eat a cookie.
So I did! Hee.
And then we went to see Harry Potter, w/ cookies in our handbags. Yeah, baby. I loved it. I thought it flowed really well. Ron has really grown as a character, and I liked how they handled his story arc here, plus Hermione kicks ass, as she always does. I love Hermione so much. This is a dark and difficult tale, but I appreciated the little moments of levity they were able to stick in. M and I loved the way they told the tale of the three brothers; it was very cool. To top it off, there was this dude in the front row (we were sitting in the absolute back row) who, I don't know if he was there w/ a blind companion or if he just liked narrating the events, but kept up a running commentary for the whole movie. I'm so glad we were so far away b/c I would have clocked him if I could hear the whole time. It was just a low buzz for most of the time and I could ignore that. Although it WAS helpful that each time there was something that would cause me to cry, this dude made this hacking snorfle that sounded like this: SNAUGHRAWR. Cheered me immensely! M and I almost lost it several times. He sounded like Piper!
Speaking of Piper. Eight years ago this week we picked up our little girl at Washington Animal Rescue League. Our best bet is that she is now 13. She's my first ever dog, and if you were to guess she was named after an episode of "The X-Files" you'd be right. Last year at this time, Piper had a bout of pneumonia and had to go to the hospital for a couple of days, but knock on wood, she's fairly healthy. Piper likes: food, walks, naps, food, being told she is beautiful, her brother (and okay, her sister, too), and food. She is a very determined lady. She may have a limp now and sometimes her hind leg shakes, but that does not slow her down. You don't mess w/ the Pipester! And you always pay her her due in pretzels, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, popcorn and fish. Plus all her doggy treats. She adds color commentary to anything we watch by snorting or snoring loudly during tender moments. In her old age, she has gotten rather flatulent. This is another way she expresses her opinion. She's not a big cuddler, but she waits at the window, looking for me to come home and runs and greets me at the door. I love her!
Piper just did not want to sit still to get her picture taken! There were treats just waiting to be eaten!!!
Milo shows her how it's done! Willow stuffs her face.
And there you have it! Happy Birthday, Piper! I'll eat a cookie in your honor!