The Boy, nearly The Man

When I was young, I would hear adults talk about how time moved so quickly, how years fade into moments and a lifetime can go by in the blink of an eye.  I honestly thought they were crazy.  Days dragged on forever when I was a child and each year Christmas and my birthday seemed to move further apart!

Now that I'm an adult, I see exactly what they meant. Today we celebrate The Boy's 17th birthday and no matter how hard I try to remember, I don't know where those years went. 

As I sit here trying to write this post, my eyes keep welling up with tears.  Maybe I'm just extra emotional lately, maybe I'm just so tired that everything is either hilarious or tragic or maybe it's just that my tiny little baby is now the same age as I was when he was born.

That little angel grew up into a man who:

• took driver's training and now has a learner's permit.
• is expanding his cooking repertoire to include more complex dishes and desserts, but he still doesn't like to make bread or work with dough at all.
• continues to read voraciously.  We visit our local library at least twice a month and he always finds at least half a dozen books to bring home and he's raided my bookshelf on more than one occasion.
• loves to watch DVDs and probably misses commercial television more than any of the rest of us.
• plays video games every day, rotating systems on a schedule that he set up for himself.
• gave us a birthday wishlist that was almost entirely games, DVDs and books.
• can now reach the top shelf of the kitchen cupboards without a stool and often puts away the dishes that belong up there, even if it's not his turn to do dishes.
• still draws a lot, mostly aliens and fantasy creatures.
• loves to go to the range and is particularly fond of shooting Bryant's rifles.
• can often be found shooting hoops in the driveway in the afternoon and early evening.
• plays Wii Sports Resort with me at least a few times a week - we usually bowl or play Frisbee golf.

Here's a link to last year's post.


Happy birthday, Baby!  We love you!

The end of an era

Over a decade ago, when The Boy was just a little guy, we bought a bike for him.  It's a cute little black bike that says Tomcat on the side.  We put training wheels on it and he rode it until he was too big for it.  Scooter rode it a little, but moved on to a bike without training wheels pretty quickly. Pibb rode it until he was too big for it and then Midge did the same.

Pookie started riding it last year and this spring we realized he was nearly too big for it already.  Last week we made the bittersweet decision to buy him a larger bike.  As I watched him ride Tomcat for the last time I couldn't help but feel a sadness in my heart; my babies are growing up.  At the same time, I am so proud of them that sometimes I feel like I might burst open from it!

When Pookie pedalled away on his new Rock-It bike I felt my heart sink and then expand with love and pride.  Tomcat will be rehomed to provide years of fun for some other family and my kids will continue to grow and amaze me with their intelligence, love and humor. 

Sad as it sometimes makes me, then end of an era isn't always a bad thing!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Blogging is something I think about often, but rarely while I'm actually doing a project.  In the planning stages I usually think to myself that I should set up the camera and make sure to take lots of pictures, but I almost never actually remember to do it!  So today's post is the recipe for the Peanut Butter Cup Cookies so many of you have asked for, presented without photos.  Enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Makes 32 cookies

1 ½ C all purpose flour

½ C unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ C butter, softened

¼ C creamy peanut butter

½ C granulated sugar

½ C packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ C confectioner’s sugar

½ C creamy peanut butter

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350*.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and marvel at how pretty the mixture looks with the brown marbled throughout the white; set aside.

In a large bowl combine butter and ¼ C peanut butter.  Beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds or until mostly blended.  Add the ½ C granulated sugar and brown sugar.  Beat until well combined, scraping sides of the bowl occasionally, if necessary.  Beat in egg, milk and vanilla until combined.  Add in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer, then add the rest by hand or stir it in with a spoon. 

On a sheet of waxed paper, cookie sheet or counter, roll the dough into a thick log and cut into 32 even pieces (I cut the log into fourths, the cut each slice into 8 even pieces).

In a medium bowl, combine the ¾ C confectioner’s sugar and ½ C peanut butter by hand until it resembles the texture of play-dough.  It will feel like it’s too dry and it’ll never come together, but keep working it and I promise, it’ll happen.  Repeat the rolling and cutting step. 

You should now have 64 globs of dough, 32 dark brown and 32 light brown.  Take a ball of the dark mixture and roll it between your hands, then flatten it into a disc.  Place a piece of the light brown dough in the center of the disc and gather the dark dough up around it, then roll it into a ball. 

The finished dough balls should be placed about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet (no need to grease it).  Using the bottom of a glass, a hamburger press or whatever you have handy, flatten the cookies gently, dipping the glass into the 2 T sugar to coat the cookies and keep the glass from sticking. 

Bake about 8 minutes or until the surface is set and the edges are cracked a bit.  Let the cookies cool on the pan for a minute or two; transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

The original recipe said these would last at room temperature for up to 4 days, but honestly, these cookies are such a hit that I’ve never had them last more than 24 hours!  They can be frozen (between layers of waxed paper) for up to three months, though, so you could feasibly make them last longer if you really wanted to.