Author: Mae @ Rainydayinmay

Desert native who claims the Pacific Northwest at home, while currently residing the Northeast. Lifecoach, Podcaster, PR writer, essay author, imaginary poet and every day dreamer...

Cookies…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay7 Comments
So, maybe I had a half a dozen, or so, people disappointed to learn that I’m not technically a food blogger when they became acquainted with me through the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I’m sorry if that’s you… I heard about the swap, initially, on another (non-food) blog and my youngest daughter Genny emphatically felt that we should take on this challenge together. 
Did you read that last word??? 
TOGETHER… 
I am not a big fan of baking. I LOVE to cook, and I hear I do it well. I especially love to have people over and cook for them. Baking though, I don’t know. I can make some beautiful coffee cakes and about 45 different (and equally perfect) cheesecakes. My baking confidence ends there though… i get nervous, and impatient. 
Two things though, about this swap, intrigued me. 
1} spending torturous time in the kitchen, baking a batch of cookies and ending up with three different kinds. 
2} doing it with Gen. 
It was not until after I received my first update email, from the swap, that it even dawned on me that it was a food blogger swap. 
if there is anyway i can clause in as an honorary food blogger for the sheer reason that I subscribe to more food blogs than any other type- that would be swell. 
Moving on… 
Due to many unforeseeable events- our cookie making morning was not only pushed off until the last possible minute- BUT it also became MY cookie making morning. Genny was sick. I became depressed. It was all ugly and sad, but I survived and have lived to tell the tale- complete with photos and the recipe. 
Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies… 
  • 1/2 cup, plus 6 T. unsalted butter, softened. 
  • 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 t. vanilla
  • 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1/2 t. salt 
  • 3 cups old fashioned oats
  • 1/2 c. chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
  • 1/2 c. white chocolate peppermint morsels
  • 1/4 c. chopped candy canes
Heat the oven to 350. 
in a large bowl/mixer, cream butter and sugars. 
Add eggs, one at a time, beating each until blended. 
Mix in Vanilla.
  
 Gently wisk dry ingredients (except oats and mix ins) together in a seperate bowl and then add to creamed mixture.
{this is when i checked on her and she was pasty, grey and deeply sad that she- who loves to bake- was in bed reading while I slaved away over tasty cookie dough in the kitchen. Life truly is not fair.} 
 Stir in the oats. 
 When the dough is well blended, add in the chocolate and candy pieces. 
Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls on to ungreased cookie sheets. 
Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden. 
 While they baked and cooled, I made up little Christmas cards to accompany the cookies. 
 Ta da! Not so bad… Actually, this recipe is one of our family’s FAVORITE Christmas cookies. I am not sure how fresh they stayed, or how well they shipped, but we love them here at home… 

Also thought i’d share with you the blogs of the three amazing bakers who sent us DELICIOUS cookies! Kathy Can Cook, Girls Can Tell and My Fiance Likes it…… 
And the three bloggers who I sent to… CakeFYI, Urban Sacred Garden, and Azucar Means Sugar. {and yes, all things considered- I really was intimidated and sure my humble little cookies were far inferior to anything they make!}

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Real quick…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments
sorry for my silence, this week. It can be blamed on one giant episode of the stomach flu- which violently affected our entire household- and then turned into a massive migraine for me. 
Sigh… 
Plus, on top of make up work from the school Genny missed earlier this week, we had a drum concert and her winter band concerts to consume our evenings. 
It’s been a bit chaotic… 
After the winter concert, last night though, we took the girls to fondue at our favorite local place- which is devastatingly closing later this month. 
thought I’d share some photos… 
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It’s my right to choose…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments
This morning I logged on to facebook and saw more than one status update talking about how sad and alone that person was feeling. It made me sad… 
We are entering into the loneliest and most hopelessly felt season of the year. People are facing divorces, unemployment, ailing parents/grandparents/children, foreclosure, their own failing health and deployment of a spouse or child and countless other sadnesses. I hate to know when people I care about are aching or feeling empty. 
At the same time though, i logged on to comments on a silly facebook status that I had about my husband. Even though I’d been present for the 80+ comment conversation late last night, (as had Chw… it wasn’t anything behind his back.) the major coolness of it hadn’t really dawned on me until this morning. There we were, having this banter with friends from here in Idaho, a friend from Seattle, a friend from West Virginia and a friend from Germany. Even the biggest Facebook hater has to admit that is a pretty cool thing. 
So, this morning as my heart weighs in with sadness for some, it felt a little light and upbeat leftover from last night’s talk. And that’s really how it works, though standing in the core of the sadness- it’s kind of near to impossible to realize it. Those of us who’ve lost loved ones do find a way to live beyond it. People who lose jobs, do find them. People who are losing homes will be in that place only temporarily. I mean, while Chw and I are still FAR TOO jaded to consider buying a home- we have good friends from our old neighborhood who lost their home at the same exact time we did. They just closed on a great (HUGE) house… Sure, the other part sucked- but I think we have to remember that these hard times are but a season- as are the great ones. i think the most important thing is to remember we aren’t alone. There are people who care- and even if we look around and see no one- there’s ALWAYS Facebook. :) 
That’s my moral for the day. And great life circumstances or utterly crappy ones- today I am choosing to be happy. Happiness is a choice…
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Sad and beautiful all at once…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay4 Comments
The evening before Thanksgiving, Chw took us to dinner. It was his noble gesture, knowing how exhausted I was from cooking. I was absolutely willing to take him on it… 
I was so grateful for the break, and for someone else to do the cooking and cleaning for an evening that spirits were pretty high. Then, while Genny and I bantered about something that evades me now, I looked over into the restaurants party room and suddenly began to cry. 
The party room had been rented for a girl’s baby shower. In her early 20’s, the young soon-to-be-mom was heavy with baby and absolutely radiating. The room was decorated with pink streamers, and atop the 8 tables there were scattered rattles and bottles for decor. Over all, it was a super cute shower complete with an adorable pink cake and a 2 table buffet line crammed full of homemade mexican food. The young momma sat in the room, chatting with 2 ladies- one I presumed was her mom. The other was obviously the one throwing the shower as about 15 minutes later- and checking her watch for the 40th time, she got up and grabbed the bucket she’d used to store her baby shower games… 
Aside from those 2 people, no one had come to her shower. 
I asked our waitress about it and she shared that the pregnant momma actually worked back in the kitchen. She said that it was really a sad thing because she was super supportive and always attending everything everyone else hosted, and that she knew for a fact that at least 12 “friends” had RSVP’d for this shower. And yet, no one showed. While our waitress told us that most of the girls on duty that night had brought in a little gift for her, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to point out that a handful of girls on a waitress salary aren’t going to meet the needs this new mom has. And with the purpose of a baby shower being to shower that new mom with love- I’m thinking she didn’t feel very loved as she sat staring at those empty and adorned tables in that suddenly enormous room. 
My heart was so sad for her. 
Her heart- on the other hand- at least on the outside, was fine. 
She smiled and truly glowed up until she packed up her gifts and turned off the light… 
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A matter of persuasion…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay8 Comments
Actually, i don’t carry a purse. I carry a handbag. I just think it sounds better. Purse is something one does with their lips when thinking, or criticizing… My best friend carries a pocketbook, which incidently is something I feel I carry in my handbag, to write in. 
I’m special… 
Anyway, last week when I got the last minute call to head down to the federal building where my daughter Amanda was swearing in for the Reserves, i made the rash decision to dump out my handbag so that it only contained my wallet and my canon rebel. You know, I take pictures of everything, and it just seemed easier when considering security. 
Hours later, when we got home, Genny glances the bar where my handbags insides sat piled high and she laughed- “Is that what came out of your purse? Really? You should kinda tone it down to one or two of each.” 
I totally see what she’s saying…

*DISCLAIMER… I am moderately embarrassed… I feel like this post leaves my OCD tendencies completely vulnerable- until the last photo anyway, when I have a ridiculous amount of unnoticed hair lingering on my hair tie… *sigh*

Better safe than sorry, right? 
What do you A) call your handbag, and B) carry too much of, wherever you go? 
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