Promises, promises.

Okay so I know I promised you recipes and pics of firemen and you may be wondering where those are. Well, terribly sorry, my scanner is throwing a fit and won't scan the entire calendar pictures. If you want pictures of a fireman's nose though, I got ya covered. So here's my compromise, I'll give you a recipe and show you a picture of my uncle who is a fireman. Deal? Great! Oh let me disclaim this picture a bit, I took it nine months ago at our family's Easter barbecue, he's wearing the goofy girly sunglasses because he's a goofball. He took them from his little sister (the blonde lady next to him). Ain't family fun? As for your cookie recipe, this is brought to you by Fire Chief Robert Pereira of Murphys: Mint Chocolate Cookies 2/3 c Butter, softened 2/3 c Sugar 1/3 c Dark Brown Sugar 1 Egg 1 tsp Vanilla 2 (1 oz.) Squares Unsweetened Chocolate, melted 1 1/2 c Flour 2 (4.67 oz) packages of Andestm Creme de Menthe Thins, coarsely chopped Preheat oven to 325F. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and melted chocolate at med-high speed until fluffy. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour; increase mixer speed gradually and beat until just blended. Stir in Andestm Creme de Menthe Thins. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough 2 1/2" apart onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 17 minutes or until tops look dry. Place cookie sheet on wire rack for 5 minutes to cool then transfer cookies to racks for complete cooling. Makes about 2 dozen cookies Okay now let me just say, they sound fussy but they're not. The most important thing about these cookies is they do NOT taste right just out of the oven. They need to be room temperature to really be good. I actually like to keep them in the fridge or freezer. Also, the dough for these is OUTSTANDING. If you can't make chocolate chip cookies without eating all the dough, you will be in trouble with these. Lastly, I don't make them as big as the recipie says to, I find it just doesn't work. I use a teaspoon to put them on sheets and I get about 3-4 dozen depending on how much of the dough I eat. Okay, I still get 2 dozen.

Cashmere, Alpaca, and Cookies.

The first paragraph shall be called "Link Overkill": Two balls of Panache and two of Andean Treasure, both in Moss. In real life the colors are a bit closer which is good since they're going into the same project: Elizabeth by Kate Gilbert. Erika's Christmas present. I can't wait to start working with this beautiful stuff, though in retrospect I wish I'd ordered Suri Dream instead of one of them. I think it would have worked better with the pattern. Alas, that's not to be. Well, maybe I kinda want to order some Suri Dream anyway for another project but if I do that Red Todd Kidd might just kill me in my sleep. Probably by suffocating me with the yarn. Which may not be a bad way to go if it's Suri Dream... Anyway, as you can see I also got some wool wash that comes very highly recommended. I'm excited about it. Being excited by a laundry product is a little scary but I'll work through it. Anyway, I mostly bought it to wash Wavy with before it goes to RTK's grandma. I'd like to see if the yarn blooms and softens a bit plus I want to make sure it's clean and nice not to mention free of excess dyes. I don't think I'll block it though because I have a feeling Wavy won't want to be blocked. It's a "don't pin me down!" type of scarf. I like getting stuff in the mail. Uh... So... I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies last night. What a mistake! They're SO GOOD. I think I weigh 20 extra lbs today. Want the recipe? No, you really don't because then you'll weigh 20 more lbs tomorrow. Oh okay here it is (you see when I go in the kitchen for the recipe I can get another cookie): Super Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies by Firefighter Mariano Elias Jr. (this came off a fireman calendar) 1/2 C Peanut Butter 3/4 C Butter (softened) 1/2 C Brown Sugar 1/2 C Sugar 1 Egg 1/2 tsp Vanilla 1 1/4 C Flour 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 1/4 tsp Salt 1/2 C Chocolate Chips Beat P. Butter, Butter, Sugars, Egg, and Vanilla together until well blended. Stir together dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients slowly into butter mixture until well mixed. Fold in Chocolate Chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonful on ungreased cookie sheet (preferably parchment lined but it's okay not to use it) approx. 2" apart. Bake 12-15 minutes at 375F, then allow to cool for 2 min before removing to baking rack. Makes 3 dozen.