Jonah went on a Scout campout and rode his bike 35 miles. Yup, 35 miles. 10 miles Friday and 25 miles Saturday. In the middle somewhere, they camped! I'm dying. Jonah said he was a little sore, but loved it. (His favorite part was that they batter-fried Oreos in the Dutch Oven one night. He said it was soo good, he ate 5 of them. I'm thinking, if I rode 35 miles, I'd eat a whole sleeve of batter-fried cookies. Holy cow.)
Oh, and for those of you that are looking for photos of Jonah on the blog, they are hard to come by these days. Now that he's 13, he's truly got more places to be than Dave or I! Being a teenager is a FT job. (I'm sincerely going to have to take some photos while he sleeps in order to keep him in the loop.)
In other news, it snowed Saturday. While our family in So. Cal. went to Spring Baseball, we were inside our home staring out the window--yet again--at snow falling.
As part of my NY's resolution #4, I'm trying to see everything with a new attitude or "eyes." So, when the snow bugs me, I try and just change my perspective. So, I thought--oh, it's a great day to bake something. That makes the day fun. (Yes, I'm resorting to eating my way through the winter.)
So, I got on my favorite site, RecipeZaar, and found these Andes Mint cookies--a homemade cousin of the "Girl Scout Thin Mint." Different, but definitely in the same family. It was tasty (as Jamie would say). Here's the recipe. I highly recommend it!
Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies Recipe #12849
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter (not margarine)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
Andes mints candies, broken in half
Directions
1. Over low heat, combine butter, sugar and water.
2. Heat until melted and add chocolate chips until partly melted.
3. Remove from heat and stir.
4. Pour into large mixing bowl.
5. Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.
6. Beat in eggs one at a time on high speed.
7. Reduce mixer to low speed and add flour, salt and baking soda.
8. Beat until well-blended.
9. Chill one hour (dough is almost liquid before chilling but hardens and is easy to shape after chilling).
10. Preheat oven to 350 degrees--and roll dough into balls, place two inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
11. Bake for 10 minutes.
12. Place an Andes Mint half on top.
13. Allow to melt slightly and spread with a spoon.
14. Cool until chocolate is hard. (Cookie will be the consistency of a brownie, but the chocolate will be hard on top).
