Blahg

Ever since I got married, the amount of cooking and baking I do has increased, naturally. I quite enjoy looking up recipes, borrowing some from friends (especially my mom and sisters!), and seeing what I can come up with.

Here, I’m going to insert some background. I bought some Oreos. They were supposed to be saved for “Dirt and Worms” treats for our Halloween party this week, but Tom asked for one at a weak moment, so I said “ok” and had one myself. Then, the next day, I had two more while he was at work. Then he helped himself to one or two. Then we had some with some milk. Before you know it, they’re about half gone. Before Tom went to work three days before our party, we decided “we can buy more Oreos,” and I packed him several for lunch and sent him on his way. I was determined to save him half of what was left for about half an hour. Stupid Oreos. As always, it didn’t take long for the guilt to set in. “What a terrible wife I am! My husband is going to come home to no Oreos!” Then I slapped my hand to my forehead: “Duh! I can make cookies!”

Nope.
No eggs, no butter, no cookies. I’d pulled it off without one of those ingredients, but I couldn’t do it without either. Or so I thought! I googled “cookies without butter or eggs” and the first link that came up asked “No butter?” I answered “Well, no…” “No eggs?” “No!” “You can still make cookies!” “Squeal!”

As I read the recipe, my heart sunk lower and lower. Attention all recipe posters: People who don’t have butter or eggs probably don’t have coconut oil…let alone know it exists. There were several other ingredients I didn’t have. Whole wheat flour, raw sugar, baking powder, heck, I didn’t even have chocolate chips.

Just as I was about to give up, I thought, “I just bought baking cocoa. I could make chocolate cookies without chocolate chips…and maybe canola oil will do just fine instead of the coconut stuff. Baking soda doubles for baking powder, right? And I’m not against using white sugar instead of raw or white flour instead of wheat. Well then, why not?”

So I got to work. I came up with a cookie dough-like substance that didn’t taste half bad, so I rolled it into balls, rolled those in some sugar, then threw them in 350 degrees for 10 minutes. They came out looking splendid.

I was pretty excited and almost positive I’d just conquered my butterless eggless situation. I took a cookie off the sheet, tossed it around a bit to cool it off, then took a bite.

Wow.

This tastes like…like…like cardboard with a hint of chocolate.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up just yet, though. “Maybe if I smear some peanut butter on it, it will taste like a Reese’s peanut butter cup. “

Nice try. Now, I’m stuck with 11 cookies that look waaaay better than they taste, along with dough to make a dozen more and I’m at a loss. I don’t even have milk to wash the taste out of my mouth.

Grocery shopping tomorrow!

Happy Fall!

What better time to start a blog post than 2 AM?  Tom is now working the night shift and evidently, I’m switching with him…but not on purpose. Emmitt is still on the normal schedule and everything is all messed up. I must say, though, I feel very blessed with a husband who works so hard without complaint and a sweet baby (who sleeps through the night!!!).

I’ve felt bad lately for taking pictures of just Emmitt, so here are some pictures of Daddy too. 

Ok, now smile on the next one.

*Sigh, Emmitt, don't encourage him.

Conference this October was great as always. I take for granted how available it is in Idaho and Utah, though. It wasn’t on TV or the radio here, and we don’t have internet in our apartment, so I waited for Tom to get done with work. We caught up on a few sessions every night till we’d listened to all of it via downloads. I’m so grateful for the technology that let us do that after conference was over. (Thank you lds.org!) Tom and I haven’t been able to watch all of conference together since we’ve been married due to work or a clinical, so it has been a special treat this time around. My favorite talk was by Elder Bowen who told the story of losing his 8 month old baby boy and hearing his story about finding the eternal perspective that he would see his son again made me so grateful that I was married in the temple for time and all eternity and that we have the power of sealing here on earth.

Ok, now I have to talk about Emmitt. He is grabbing things and picking them up now. He also likes to have little “noise conversations”, which I just love. 

Sometimes I feel like I go on and on about how happy he is, but that’s not always the case, so here are a few comical photos to bring us up to speed with reality.

He’s kind of spoiled. He gets to take his morning nap in Mom and Dad’s bed. This is the “conqueror” shot.

And you know those photos people take of their newborns while they’re asleep with their head in their hands? 

Sorry, whoever's baby this is. Thank you Google Images.

I missed the boat on the newborn part, but my friend bet me I couldn’t make Emmitt do it. 

BOOM! So there Stephanie! Just ignore my hand trying to get out of the way. And my bad skills at including his whole head. And here's what we had to do to get there. 

He’s a pretty cute little guy, even if I say so myself.

Tom and I keep pretty busy with our online classes. I’m starting to wonder how it’s all going to work out next semester when there aren’t any more online options for me, but it has all worked out so far and I know the Lord blesses us with the things we need. That reminds me, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and that was a boost to my spirits (don’t worry, I haven’t been down lately). I love the atmosphere that follows them everywhere. They shared a lesson about being a light to the world and it reminded me that I need to be better at reaching out instead of just staying in my apartment all day.

In other news, Fall is here! The weather here has really cooled down and I’ve noticed the leaves starting to change color. One thing that hasn’t changed is the rain storms. Here’s what I’m talking about.

Halloween preparations are underway! Tom and I are excited to have a party at our apartment that night. More on how that goes later.