Not So Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (And Palmolive FreshInfusions Review)

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Coco

February 1 marks the official start of lacrosse season for my son.

Matt at Delaney

While I am excited about cheering on his college team, I am not looking forward to spending two hours freezing my ass off in the bleachers! Still, I plan to suck it up and go to the first scrimmage next weekend.

This week, my Mom and husband decided to go watch this weekend’s intra-team scrimmage. My Mom wisely noted that my (freshman) son is more likley to get some playing time against his own teammates. But, I had a rough week at work and felt like I was fighting off a sinus infection, so I decided to stay home. The weather forecast (high of 30ºF with a wind chill “feels like” temperature of 9ºF) didn’t do anything to change my mind.

To allay my guilt, I decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies to send up in a care package. I used the Nestle® Dark Chocolate Morsels that I found at Target a few weeks ago, and added some finely chopped pecans to sneak in a bit of nutrition.

With 53% cocoa, do these have more or less cocoa than semi-sweet morsels?

I was surprised by how large these morsels are–probably 2-3x regular chocolate chips!

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Does anyone else still use a hand mixer? I have yet to invest in a KitchenAid® stand mixer.

The cookies baked up nicely.

Cleanup was easy with Palmolive® FreshInfusions liquid dish soap.

I was given the opportunity to try out this new line of liquid dish soap through Influenster. While I love the light floral scent of the Ginger White Tea variety, I’m not sure I like my dish soap to smell like flowers. I feel like I need to rinse my dishes more than usual to make sure my next meal doesn’t take like a florist shop. I think I just expect dishsoap to smell like lemons–maybe I will like the Lemon Thyme variety better. (I tried the Lime Basil variety, but it reminded me too much of lime Jell-O®, so I gave it to a friend.) The product itself is great–it foams up nicely and its concentrated formula cleans a lot of dishes with a few drops. I’m interested to see what other people think.

FTC Notice: I was provided a free sample of Palmolive® FreshInfusions liquid dish soap to try. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own.

Do you put nuts in your chocolate chip cookies?

Posted in Food, Product Reviews | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Coco

One of the Bible verses that I am most convicted by is Matthew 7: 1-5:

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.
For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.
Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

It is so easy to see the faults in others. It is so easy to jump to conclusions and pass judgment. The fact that Jesus had to address it must mean that it is part of human nature, but it is an ugly part that I am not proud of.

I mostly find myself judging strangers. Since I don’t know any part of their story, it is easier for me to make up my own narrative and convict them of being selfish, rude, stingy, etc.

I often find myself judging strangers when I’m driving in traffic. (Can I blame the fact that I commute to the city with the worst traffic in the nation?) The person in that car must be so self-important to cut me off. The person in that truck must be so rude not to let me merge. Never mind that I may change lanes too quickly (inadvertently cutting someone off) or resent a car trying to get in front of me (and purposefully make it hard for them to merge). When I’m behind the wheel, I often am the pot calling the kettle black.

This week as I was driving to work I noticed a fancy BMW sports car with a license plate that referenced Jesus Christ.

BMW Car

I can’t remember the exact letters, but they included JSCHRST, and the Ichthys bumper sticker reinforced the Christian connotation.

Ichthus

I instantly passed judgment.

How hypocritical to proclaim your Christianity while driving a fancy sports car!

I bet Jesus could think of better ways for him to spend his money! 

How Christian could he (?) be if he spends so much money on something so ostentatious?

And then I caught myself.

I thought about the car that I drive.

BMW X3

Yes, that’s a BMW (X3)

I thought about my own Christian faith and how important it is to me.

I thought about my weekend plans, which include serving dinner at a hypothermia shelter.

I thought about how mad I would be if anyone ever questioned my Christianity based on the car I drive, the clothes I wear, the fraction of my time that I spend helping others, or the portion of my income that I donate to charity.

I realized that I was a black-BMW-driving-pot calling a silver-BMW-kettle black.

Do you catch yourself judging others?

Do you have a personalized license plate?

Posted in Life, My Faith | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hellhound, Maple Pecan Porter, And Edamame Hummus

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Coco

Last weekend we went to Dogfish Head for a happy hour that blended into dinner. I love their Raison d’Etre, and was leaning toward ordering that as a safe bet, but I decided to live on the edge and try something new.

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It is a deep hoppy beer with a whopping 10% abv!

Dogfish Head Hellhound Label

The description says that it is made with “lemon juice and flesh.” Hopefully that’s lemon flesh, but with a name like Hellhound I have to wonder ….

Did you ever see this movie? I used to love horror movies.  

For the Superbowl, my husband got a variety pack of Sam Adams, and I discovered this yummy variety.

Sam Adams Maple Pecan Porter

It has a nice dark caramel color and it really does have a hint of a maple pecan taste.

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I used the Superbowl as an excuse to make an “edamame hummus” recipe that I clipped out of a magazine ages ago.

Edamame Hummus
16 oz. shelled edamame
15 oz. can garbonzo beans, rinsed and drained
6 oz. plain nonfat Chobani yogurt
2 Tbsp tahini
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
lemon juice to taste

Dump everything in a blender or Cuisineart and puree until smooth.

The recipe didn’t call for the yogurt, but without it, it was very dry. I could have added more olive oil, but I thought the yogurt would make it light and creamy–and it did!

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It was a big hit with our guests.

Did you have chips and dip while watching the game?

Posted in Food, Life | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

One Space Or Two?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Coco

The style sheet for my work blog mandates the use of only one space after a period, and I follow the same practice here, but I still use two spaces when writing for printed documents. I had been wondering what others do when a friend posted this Slate article on his Facebook page.

old typewriterYes, I did have a typewriter like this when I was younger!

According to the author, the typewriter and its monospaced font is to blame for the two-spaces convention. Since we aren’t using typewriters anymore, he says, we should stop wasting space–and time–with double spaces.

newtypewriter

I thought it was so cool when my Mom got a typewriter like this at her office. 

While I had heard that only one space is needed when using a proportional font, I didn’t realize that I was committing such a typographical faux pas by using two spaces with my favorite Times New Roman font.

What do you do? One space or two?

Posted in Life | Tagged | 14 Comments

Magic Words

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Coco

Wouldn’t it be great if you could wave a magic wand and say the magic words and transform yourself into the person you want to be?

magician

The person who craves kale, the person who loves to do burpees, the person who prefers a tall glass of water to a pitcher of beer iced tea, the person who bites her tongue instead of gossiping, the person who cheerfully offers to help a friend, the person who doesn’t gripe about carrying her fair share of the load ….

Well, I don’t have those magic words, but I am using passwords as motivational words to remind me of my goals throughout the day.

When my goal is to drink more water, I use variations of water, H2O, agua, eau.

post workout woman

When my goal is to stretch more, I use variations of stretch, move, reach, twist, bend.

yoga woman

When I am training for a race, I use variations of the race name, distance, or running words.

woman runner

With all the password-protected devices and accounts I have, I can cheer myself on throughout the day with my own, personalized motivational words. They may not be magic, but they help me keep focused on my goals.

Do you get creative with your passwords?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , | 1 Comment