Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson's Blog, page 28

Neiman March $250 Chocolate Chip Cookies: My Version

The week before Christmas I was reading Jane
Green's wonderful novel, Promises to Keep. At the end of each chapter she
provided a recipe that was relevant to the story. One such recipe was a copy of
the infamous Neiman Marcus '$250 cookie', which we all know by now is an urban
legend that is actually several decades old and has traveled as far as South
Africa in its origins.

That said, what intrigued me about
the recipe was the use of ground oatmeal with the regular flour. I was also stunned by the enormous size of the batter the recipe would produce, given that it called for a total
of nine cups of ground oatmeal/flour to a relatively lower proportion of butter
in the traditional Tollhouse recipe.

Since I wanted to send cookies to
friends and family for Christmas, I decided to give the recipe a try with some tweaks
on my part. My changes are the addition of the three different types of
chocolate for the chips, a teaspoon more vanilla than the original recipe, and the
use of sea salt.

Urban legend or not…these are some
of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. I believe the addition of
the ground oatmeal adds a lovely fulsome texture and nuttiness to the cookies
that is not found in a flour only cookie. It's similar to the effect you get
with the use of whole wheat flour.

Give them a try…..and be prepared to
share with the neighbors. I ended up with 80 generously sized cookies.

Ingredients:

2 cups butter 


4 cups flour 


2 tsp. baking soda 


2 cups granulated sugar 


2 cups brown sugar 


5 cups blended oatmeal (measure
oatmeal and blend in blender or food processor to a fine powder) 


3 X 12 oz bags of chocolate chips
(one each milk chocolate chips,semi-sweet chunks, dark chocolate chips) 


1 tsp. sea salt


4 eggs


2 tsp. baking powder 


3 cups chopped nuts (your choice, I
like walnuts) 


1 Tablespoon vanilla

Directions:







   Cream together butter and sugar until
fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Then add vanilla.
 . Sift or mix with a fork flour and ground
oatmeal, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
   Combine flour mixture with butter
mixture. Fold in chips and nuts.
  Roll batter into balls and place on
parchment lined cookie sheets.
  Bake at 375 for 10 – 12 minutes.
.  Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!

On this first day of 2012, I resolve to do and be better than I did in 2011 with the intention that I will progress closer to being the person I was created to be.



Please take a moment to watch this video. It not only makes me incredibly happy, it reminds me that we are capable of so much more than we ever imagined. If we'll only get out there and try.



God bless you and keep you throughout the coming year. May all your resolutions be fulfilled.

2011 Year in Review

We started the year in our new home. 







There was a lot of open space to fill.







Flowers of congratulations arrived from Mr. Weaver.







The first of many beautiful dawn skies I captured from my bedroom window.







The big bull elk that came to visit. Always a sign of good luck.







Our furniture finally arrives from Florida after 15 years in storage.







We baked a lot of cakes this year.







And then one on my birthday. March 19th.







Minutes after we adopted Henry, he jumped in the back of my car for a six hour ride home from Nebraska.







Mom's the best co-pilot for any road trip. Coco chose to ride up front for this first trip with Henry. None of us knew quite what we'd gotten ourselves after adopting the world's largest dog.







We quickly discovered that Henry was not only a counter surfer, he was a brilliant thief.







Spring arrived and I began gardening in the front yard.







And then realize why we are advised to wait until after May 31st.







We still managed to have some beautiful flowers in the garden.







The social highlight of the year was Mom's 84th birthday.







The whole family was there along with 40 of her friends.







It was the perfect time for a family portrait.







We even managed more than one.







With family in town, we hit our favorite spots. 

David and Henry enjoyed Echo Lake.







John enjoyed Vail.







John, Victoria, and David enjoyed the weekend. 

We can't wait to do it again.







I walked in my first Evergreen 5K.







My friend Beth came along for the fun.








I entered the Big Chili Cook-off and my chili won 3rd Place!







With big help from John and Heidi who cheered me on (and added more spice while my back was turned.)

They were rewarded with a quick trip to Crested Butte.







Where we enjoyed our first views of the beautiful fall colors.







Our first picture together on the night that George joined our family.







He quickly became Henry's best pal.







I started decorating the house on the day after Thanksgiving.







It took a lot longer than expected.







Mom entered her chicken soup in the 1st annual Chicken Soup Challenge.







And won 6th place!

She's already planning her entry for next year's contest.







We hosted our first annual Christmas party to benefit the Echo Food Bank.







And then enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home.







Surrounded by our own loving family.







And one little scoundrel.







It's been a good year. 

We are so very grateful.

What the Dogs Were Doing While We Opened our Presents

While we opened presents on Christmas day, Henry and George enjoyed their Christmas presents out on the deck. (Sorry for the glare. If I'd opened the door to take the picture, the dogs would have gotten up like the gentlemen that they are.)







They each received a bag of frozen beef bones, which they love almost (okay more) than Mommies homemade peanut butter doggie biscuits.







One large bone will bring hours of contented chewing. And from what I've been told, the enzymes from the raw bones are good for their teeth.







And then there's the added pleasure of watching the dogs revert to their wild wolfish ancestry.







Of course Coco enjoys a good bone as well. And is often seen carrying the big boy's castoffs. Hilariously, the bone is nearly as big as she is.







She growls as she runs around the room in an endless loop, just daring you to take her prize.







Her self-confidence is awe-inspiring.

Mom's Favorite Christmas Present

A few weeks before Christmas I received an email from Megan Edgeller at EasyCanvasPrints.com offering me a free 11 X 14 canvas print of a photo of my choice with the hopes of a mention on my blog.



After looking at their work on a couple other blogs, I decided to give them a try.







For the photo, I chose a picture taken by Kimberly Anderson (no relation and no compensation for this link) who did a beautiful series of family photos this summer when everyone was in town for Mom's birthday. If you live in the Foothills area, I highly recommend Kimberly, she's talented, patient, and very fun to work with.



I chose the picture above for the canvas print because I knew it would mean so much to Mom. Her 'big boys' expressing their love, and her obvious appreciation, just perfectly captures the wonderful memories I have of that birthday weekend.



Megan even expedited the shipment so that the canvas would get here in time for Christmas.



I was delighted by the result. The canvas print of the photograph is crisp and the colors are vibrant. The canvas is mounted around a wooden frame that we can later place in a decorative frame.







It should come as no surprise that this is Mom's favorite Christmas present. She loved it so much that she wants me to order copies of this canvas so she can give them to John and David.



Thank you Kimberly Anderson Photography and EasyCanvasPrints.com for creating a memorable gift.

Merry Christmas! 2011

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;













The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;


















The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,






When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.











A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."



Hope your Christmas is filled with joy!







Thank you http://www.christmas-tree.com/stories...

Dec. 22, 2011 Snow Day: Winter Bird Watch

Dec. 22, 2011: 20 inches of Snow: Part One

Party with a Purpose: A Christmas Party to Benefit Our Local Food Bank

Last week I hosted a Christmas party at my house. I asked each of my guests to bring something to donate to the Evergreen Christian Outreach Food Bank.







What I discovered is that we live in an incredibly generous community.







Instead a can of this or that...My guests brought bags. And bags. Of wonderful quality food that anyone would be proud to have in their pantry.







You may remember that I said I'd put up multiple Christmas trees around the house.











They were soon crowded with bags of donated food.







It was a wonderful evening. Good food, nice wine, great conversation with some terrific new friends. The evening was such a success that we've decided to make it an annual event.







The following afternoon, volunteers from the Food Bank came to our house and picked every bit up and took it away where it will become part of the larger Food Bank Pantry.







What a great little town we live in!

Book Review: Empty Arms by Erika Liodice

From the back cover of Empty Arms:




Catharine Chase's entire life is built on a secret. In 1972, at the tender age of sixteen, she got pregnant. An embarrassment to her parents, Catharine was exiled to a maternity home to carry out her pregnancy far away from the watchful eyes of their tight-knit community. What they didn't tell her is that she wouldn't be allowed to keep her baby.

With her daughter's screams still echoing in her ears, the medical staff told Catharine she'd move on with her life and have more children, they promised she'd forget. But they were wrong. Catharine never forgot Emily. And when she and her husband, Paul, learn that they can't have children, she risks her job, her marriage, and her family's reputation in a desperate attempt to find the daughter she never wanted to give away and reclaim her only chance to be a mother.




I will freely admit to a bias going into this review. I've known Erika through her blog Beyond the Gray for two years. During that time I've followed her journey to publication with its many trials, obstacles, and as you will find today, triumphs. (To read more of her journey, in her own words, please see our interview below.) However, familiarity is a double-edged sword, as I dipped into her debut Empty Arms, I wondered, would I like it? Would I be able to review it without bias?

The answer on both counts is: yes.

I can happily announce that Empty Arms is the second book I will award five stars. Erika writes about the heartbreak of adoption and infertility with sensitivity, without being smarmy. She creates a complex moving story, that has a satisfying, not predictable, ending. Her characters are realistic and fully drawn, they are well rounded individuals instead of cardboard cut-outs. All of this is remarkable because a book on this topic could have gone horribly wrong and descended into a Hallmark movie channel knock-off, a feel-good bit of fluff with characters who reveled in an happy ending, but which readers would only be able to dream about rather than relate to. Instead, Erika has shown an incredible depth and maturity for a debut novel by writing characters who we could expect to meet at our neighborhood diner or a high school reunion.

1. When did you first decide that you wanted to become a writer?


I've had a passion for writing since I was a little girl. In fact, I wrote my first book when I was five or six years old - it was about a little girl who had 18 brothers and sisters, which is funny in retrospect because I was an only child at the time (and apparently trying to send my parents a message!).

I decided to seriously pursue writing about six years ago when I realized that I didn't feel fulfilled by my professional pursuits. In the three years that followed, I continued working full-time and writing my first novel, The Ardent One, in my free time. When it was done, I spent the better part of a year trying to find an agent and publisher...with no luck. A few kind agents took the time to tell me that though they liked my voice, they felt there wasn't much of a market for my book. So I rewrote it, made it stronger, and sent more query letters. No bites. Ultimately I decided to listen to their feedback and move on to the next book. It was tough to see my first book banished to a desk drawer but it taught me 2 important lessons: 1) that I was capable of writing novel-length fiction and 2) what not to do the next time around.


2. Where did the idea for Empty Arms come from? And how long did it take you to write?


The idea for Empty Arms came from a story that my Nana told me about a family friend who got pregnant when she was a teenager and was forced to give up her daughter for adoption only to later learn that she couldn't have any more children. This story inspired Catharine's character, and through my research I discovered that 4 million women went through a similar "forced adoption" experience between the 1940s-1970s, and I just knew that this was an important topic that I wanted to explore.

The first draft of Empty Arms took me two years to research and write. Then I worked with an amazing developmental editor who helped me see how I could make the story stronger. The only problem was that implementing her advice meant rewriting most of the book. That revision took an additional year but in hindsight, it was definitely worth the extra time and effort.

3. Why did you choose to self publish Empty Arms? What was the self publishing process like?

A lot has changed in the publishing industry since I started following it six years ago, and as a result it feels like there is less room and fewer resources for emerging writers like myself. On top of that, I wasn't convinced that "traditional publishing" could offer me what I want: creative control of my books and writing career. So I decided to approach things a bit differently and I started my own small press, Dreamspire Press, which is currently publishing Empty Arms with plans to add more titles next year. In addition to writing, my dream is to be able to work with other passionate writers and help bring their work to life.

4.What's next? Do you have an idea for your next book and have you started writing it?

I do have an idea for the next book, but it's so premature that I can't reveal it just yet. All I can tell you is that, like Empty Arms, it's another work of "social impact fiction" (which is how I like to think of the fiction that I write).


5. What is the most valuable lesson you've learned from launching your first novel?


Do it right. There were so many times during this process when it would've been easier to just cut corners and publish the book faster - the major rewrite that took me a year, for example. I also had the book copy-edited not once but three times to make extra extra sure that it's error-free. I've learned that despite how tired I am or how eager I am to start working on the next project, going the extra mile and making your book the absolute best it can possibly be is the most important thing you can do.