Jazz girl (namely my daughter) wants you to help with this post. As I wanted to write a post but I wasn’t sure what to say, I decided to ask questions. Pick any or all and answer in the comments.
Are you reading or have you read any good books? Care to share?
I’m reading The River Midnight by Lilian Nattel; I found it buried in a stack of books at the Highland Park Public Library book sale on Sunday. It’s a novel about women in a shtetl in Poland: one in particular who has not been able to have children and her friend and neighbor who has many, more than she can handle.
When you think of a photo from any blog other than your own, which photo first comes to mind?
I had in mind one post of an old house by EG Wow, but somehow I landed on this house by Lake Ontario.
Can you name any recipe from a blog other than your own that influenced your cooking or baking?
It would have to be Batya’s cake recipe (from 2005!) – she no longer talks about cake. Last year she talked a lot about diets, and this year she has been posting about simple cooking.
If you are a lurker (someone who reads this blog but rarely or never comments), will you delurk and say hello?
By the way, my daughter danced with a different teacher tonight, and it went well. So we probably have a new dance studio for her for September. And if you haven’t yet visited my free postcard giveaway post, you still have a few days left to join just by leaving a comment on that post.
These cookies were a Mother’s Day present from my daughter. She had a school assignment to get recipes for a book that would be presented to the mothers on Mother’s Day. So she and my husband went looking for the “perfect” cookie recipe – actually, they took various recipes they found online and combined them into a Raspberry Oatmeal Walnut Cookie. Last Friday I decided to make the cookies based on her recipe, and I was wondering why the recipe called for 3 cups of whole wheat flour AND 1 cup of oatmeal – that seemed to be an awfully dry cookie. I modified the recipe as I went along, and I found out when my husband came home that the recipe in the book was a conglomeration of various baking recipes. Oh, now he tells me. The recipe below is my modified version.
Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar OR 1/2 cup white sugar + 1 Tbsp. molasses (I did white sugar + molasses)
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup oatmeal (old-fashioned rolled oats)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup flour (whatever you like – I used white, unbleached flour)
Topping (optional):
1/2 cup white sugar
6 strawberries or 20 raspberries (my daughter’s recipe called for raspberries – I improvised with strawberries – worked fine)
Heat oven to 375°. Mix coconut oil, 1 egg, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Mix well. Add baking soda. Add flour, oats and chopped nuts. Mix well. If it looks dry (which my mixture did), add the second egg.
Put spoonfuls of the cookie batter on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Put in the oven and bake for 4 minutes. While the cookies are baking, mix the berries in the food processor with sugar. Take out the cookies after 4 minutes, and apply a spoonful of berry topping to each one. Then bake the cookies for another 8 minutes or so. If you skip the berry topping, you can just bake the cookies for 10 minutes.
• • •
My husband and I loved the cookies, and my sons said they were okay. My boys would have preferred the cookies without the berry topping. My middle son is considering making peanut butter with oatmeal cookies. His current peanut butter cookie recipe is just eggs, sugar and peanut butter.
I learned through Twitter that the husband of Trip’n Mommy, sometimes known as Trip’n Daddy, has died after his battle with lymphoma. His name in real life is Barry Shuter. Sometimes, if you read enough of someone’s tweets, you feel like you know them. Trip’n Mommy has a blog called Trip’n Up, named after her triplets.
May his wife and children be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Bridge over Canal in New Hope, PA
We visited New Hope, PA last Sunday – we went on a train ride, visited the old Parry House and browsed in some shops. This photo of the bridge over the canal is my entry for Sunday Bridges.
FYI, Laura was right about the pickles: ours fermented a few days longer, and they were sharper and more sour! Yum. Use plenty of garlic, if you love the garlic flavor.
This graceful ballet dancer is performing a scene from Alice in Wonderland (she plays Alice). As the room was not well lit, I found it easier set the camera to take photos in sepia than in full color. You will have to imagine the white with a bit of pale blue dress.
Ah, she has fallen. Perhaps she has just come down the rabbit hole.
Would you like to win free postcards of your very own photos? Or postcards for your business or cards with photos of your kids. Visit Postcard Giveaway and Catchy Title Contest and leave a comment to enter.
