Free Association

Some random thoughts from my day so far -

1. Please visit my post from December 4th again to see the new and wonderful addition.

2. Jason and I have been playing more scrabble recently. Usually I excel at scrabble. Jason does ok, but he's so slow that in a rush to keep up, he doesn't do as well. Now that he and I have been playing and I've worked on curbing my "anger issues" and impatience, he can take his time and he is KILLING ME! I've played scrabble for a long time and only scored a handful of BINGOS. (aside - why is it not called a SCRABBLE when you use all your tiles?) So few that I've recorded each one in which ever journal I am currently writing. Jason has gotten scrabbles EVERY game we've played for the past 5 or 6 games. Last night he had the audacity to get TWO! And his scores are getting closer and closer to 400 (to my measly 200 something). As an English major, as a lover of books and words, as someone who claims to do crosswords without mistakes, this is a huge blow to my ego...and I'm not taking it well.

3. Before we played scrabble, I was sitting watching Scrubs, the musical episode and working on my cross stitch project (I've got the bird and one tree done, doot doot) when my phone rang. The number showed as restricted so I knew it was my mom. I picked up and it was my mom, my brother John, and his son (my nephew) Riley.

They were all singing Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer together and needed my help for the last lines. Not only that, but I could hear Riley playing my piano (aka banging on it), something I taught him to do when he was a wee little sprout. I thought my whole self would bust at the perfectness of this phone call...the only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been if I were there with them too. Picture this little guy with a cute little chipmunk voice singing with my mom's off key Mommas-and-the Poppas sounding voice, and my brother's low off key support...

The way this little kid brings out my undying and unfaltering love is still amazing and incredible to me.

4. I started watching Half Nelson last night. Not done yet, but already it has me thinking. If you don't know the premise, here it is in a nutshell with no spoilers - A young teacher is found smoking crack by one of his students. Imagine this happening to you. The girl is portraying a13 year old who's mom is an EMT and works a lot, her brothers in jail, and she kind of has to make her own way. Then for her to discover her history teacher/basketball coach is smoking crack, whoa. It got me pondering how some kids can hold adults on pedestals, some demonize adults, but mostly, they are looked to as guides and teachers. How would this affect a kids' world? Has anything like this ever happened to you? When did you first see an adult as a "real person" and not just an authority figure?

5. One more week-end before I am off to NH for the family holiday celebrating to begin! So one more week-end to squeeze in more holiday cheer with a card writing session and a cookie baking marathon on Saturday. Here's one recipe I am SO making -

Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons freshly ground espresso powder
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking soda
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
3/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup natural cocoa or cacao powder (Scharffen B or Dagoba), not dutched

1 cup organic unsalted butter, room temperature (soft to the touch)
2 cups fine-grained natural granulated sugar (evaporated cane sugar) – for example, I love alter-eco brand, OR do 1 1/2 cups sugar + 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 large organic eggs
3 teaspoons high-quality vanilla extract

3/4 cup cup organic semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 ounces chocolate covered espresso beans

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Assemble dry ingredients: In a medium bowl whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cacao powder. Set aside.

Assemble the wet ingredients: In a big bowl or with an electric mixer beat the butter until it is fluffy and lightens a bit in color. Now beat in the sugar – it should have a thick frosting-like consistency. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg gets incorporated before adding the next. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as well. Add the vanilla and mix until it is incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix in about four waves. Stir a bit between each addition until the flour is just incorporated. You could add all the flour at once, but it tends to explode up and out of the mixing bowl and all over me every time I do that. At this point you should have a moist, brown dough that is uniform in color. Stir in the espresso beans and chocolate chips by hand and mix only until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Drop the cookies onto baking sheets: I like to make these cookies medium in size (they are rich!) - and use roughly one heaping tablespoons of dough for each one. I leave the dough balls rough and raggy looking - I never roll them into perfect balls or anything like that - this way each cookie will have a bit of unique personality.

Place the cookies in the oven: Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes on the middle rack. You don't want to over bake these cookies at all or they will really dry out. If anything, under bake them just a bit. When they are done, pull them out to cool.

Tip: If you don't want to bake all the cookies at one once you can freeze some of the dough for quick cookies later. Instead of placing the cookies in the oven put the cookie dough balls into a freezer-quality plastic bag and toss them in the freezer. You can bake straight from the freezer at a later date, up the baking time by a couple minutes to compensate for the frozen dough.

Big Batch: 2-3 dozen chunky, medium cookies.