A Day Off in the Middle of the Week

I suppose today isn’t the middle of the week, its only Tuesday, but I’m sticking with it. Originally, I had taken off today to finally go to Lagoon for Husband’s birthday. His birthday was indeed 2 months ago, and we’re only now getting to it. Yesterday, near the end of the day, Husband texted me to ask if we were still going. I said yes, and he asked if the place was even open. Of course it was! … I thought, until I checked and found out that yup, they do close during the week after Labor Day, and are only open on the weekend now. Jeepers! We decided to still take the day off, we could find stuff to do.

Cut to today, and we didn’t ever think of what to do. Last night, we didn’t really think, and then this morning, no one could really decide, so we just sort of did…nothing. I set my alarm this morning for 6:30. There was no real reason to wake up that early, but I thought it was better that I didn’t sleep in too much, lest I was unable to sleep tonight. The alarm went off and I thought, meh, I don’t think I’ll get up, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up for reals, I went on a run, and then got ready for the day, and we finally went to breakfast at about 11. To the Village Inn. FANCY! Whatever, it was delicious, and I got a couple of slices of pie to go for later, so I’m happy. Then, we shopped around Barnes&Noble for a while, looking for any book that we wanted to get. I didn’t find anything I wanted! GAH! I just have so many unread books that I own right now, so it seems crazy to buy another that I won’t read yet also. Then, a trip to Walmart to pick up some supplies for dinner (namely, small tortilla shells)

We came home to rest up, (Husband has BAD allergies right now, thank goodness I don’t) and I watched a little TV while he did so. Then, we were finally going to go on a bike ride. We loaded up the bikes, drove down to the mouth of Provo Canyon, then proceeded to unload the bikes. And after we got mine off, we saw that Husband’s bike (even though it had been given a tune up 1 week ago) was broken. The shocks of the bike had completely come off, and the tire/’fork” part of the bike was essentially holding on by just one cable- the brake. So we loaded them back up again, and drove to the local bike shop, so that they could fix it. Dejected, we went home again.

After we got home, it was pretty near dinner time, so we got that started. I made Chili Dog Casserole. And if you want to know how to make it, I direct you to Chelle’s blog here, she has really good direction. I will leave you with a picture of mine after I pulled it out of the oven:

Yum!! This was seriously awesome. After dinner was eaten and settled, I decided it was time to paint my nails. It’s only been a week or so since I last did my toes, but they chipped, so I decided to do them again. Over the weekend, I bought a new paint color – Slick Slate! Here’s what they looked like when I was done:

I thought they looked pretty snazzy, I was pleased. The white stripes aren’t the same on both nails, and that bugs me, but not enough to start again. As those were drying, I got going on another quick project, making some cookies. A long time ago, I wrote about making 4 ingredient crinkle cookies, and today, I wanted to make them a little differently. I used a red velvet cake mix this time, and boy, these were a beast to make. The dough was stickier, so the cookies were harder to make, but I finally got them all on the sheet to put into the oven:

I thought they looked dang good, and was excited to pull them out! When I did, this is what I found:

Disappointing! So I guess, lesson learned, you can make chocolate cake ones, but not red velvet ones. I’m sure they still taste fine, but I am disappointed at how they look.

And that’s it! My day. Yes, it was pretty boring for a day off, but at least, near the end, I got some stuff done. And it was nice, to not have a stressful day, to just do whatever I wanted.

Best Chocolate Cookies Ever

I wish these had a better name, I really do. Unfortunately, the name of these delicious cookies is plain old ‘4 Ingredient Chocolate Cookies’. How boring. I found this recipe, as I do with all my recipes of late, on Pinterest. I’ve been wanting to make them for weeks, but not having any teeth to chew things really cut down on my baking. But – and this is exciting for all of us - I am really close to being back to full strength. I can eat some things now. Not anything super chewy or hard, but I’m doing good with sandwiches, breads, oatmeals, I ate some chips…the possibilities are endless, and they’re getting better every day, and it’s about bloody time, as I had this stupid procedure done a month ago now. Anyway, to celebrate being able to eat (mostly) I made these cookies last night, and holy cow are they the most delicious and super easy to make.


Ingredients:
1 pkg chocolate cake mix
1 8-oz frozen Cool Whip, thawed
1 egg
½-3/4 cup powdered sugar (I won’t lie, I didn’t even measure the powdered sugar, I just dumped some in a bowl)
Directions:
Mix the first three ingredients together until very well incorporated. The dough will be stiff.

Drop by teaspoon into the powdered sugar, rolling to coat the ball completely. Place the ball on a baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Press down the ball with the bottom of a cup that has been dipped in the powdered sugar. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cookie has cracked open and appears just slightly wet within the cracks. Cool completely, store in covered container. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Ok, that’s the recipe as it came from Pinterest; here are a few observations of mine. These things were really hard to roll into a ball. At first, I just scooped the dough straight into the sugar, so it was like, a glob of sugar and dough, but it looked awful. So I decided to roll them up in my hands before, and that created a holy mess of craziness that left most of the dough in my hands. I did what I could, but I only made about 22 cookies, so nowhere near what the recipe said. It still worked out, though, and I ended up with delicious cookies, so I think I still win.