cook it: not your kid's chocolate chip cookies

I was stalking, I mean lurking, I mean oh-so-casually browsing Facebook when I saw that my friend Jordan was suggesting to my friend Hef that they make Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since Josh is our resident cookie monster, I figured I try out the recipe.

Wow, the cookies are simply delish. I think the bittersweet chocolate and light sprinkling of sea salt on top make this a cookie that any true dessert connoisseur (uhm, or any girl with a craving) would enjoy. So get your workout clothes on friends...you're going to need to burn a few calories so you can enjoy these delectables. Or you can just enjoy an elastic waistband to eat a dozen or two---trust me, you're going to want to!

Recipe:

2 cups minus 2tbl cake flour

1 2/3 cups bread flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tbl granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate (min of 60% cacao)

sea salt

1) sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into bowl. set aside

2) cream butter and sugers together until creamy (about 5 minutes)

3) add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition

4) add vanilla

5) slowly add in dry ingredients. mix until just combined.

6) stir in chocolate chips/pieces

-------now the hard part-------

7)cover the dough with saran wrap (not just the lid, but pressing saran wrap over top of dough)

8) refridgerate dough for 24-72 hours. the longer you wait the more the flavors increase. promise its worth the wait!

-------bring dough back to room temperature------

9)bake rounded tablespoons of dough at 350degrees for 10-12 minutes (don't worry about pressing the rounded balls down, they'll make perfect shapes without you having to do that!)

In true cheapo fashion, I used the ingredients we had on hand. Meaning, I used a mix of 60% and 100% cacao (I had to chop the 100% by hand) and only used swan's cake flour because I didn't have any bread flour. I did make sure to have the eggs and butter at room temperature, a trick I learned from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. This was my first time using the cake flour. I had no idea that it was so much finer than traditional all-purpose flour---it certainly made a difference in the cookies. Josh didn't love the 100% cacao chips....I think it was because I had a hard time getting the chunks to be small without just ending up with shavings. Next go round I think I'll just use the 60% cacao morsels in the bag.

oh-so-yummy

craft it: upcycled art

Josh helped me with this fabulous free upcycled art project. This project was inspired by my friend (and college roommate, go tigers!) Maury. You should totally check out her blog, its all about the fantastic projects she and her husband are doing to transform their new house. She's got tons of great ideas!

Maury had this project recently about using toilet paper and paper towel rolls to create fun free art. She said she got the idea from pinterest. So here's our version of her project. Straight from someone else, to pinterest, to Maury, to me to you

It didn't take too long to collect the paper towel and toilet paper tubes. Apparently we go through a lot of tp and pt at our house. Hmmmm, might have to look into that. Anyways, all you need after that is some hot glue (my current crafting obsession), spray paint and small finished nails for hanging.

Here was the wall I chose. You can see this wall (in our bathroom) from our bedroom. It hasn't every really seemed too bland to me before. I thought this wall would be a good place to test out the art. If we didn't like it, then no one else had to see how bad it turned out. And if it turned out great....then we'd just make another one for somewhere else in the house!

I don't have any "during" pictures of this project. Just too much playing with Elliot I guess! I 100% copied this design that was on Maury's blog.

I cut the pieces and glued them together. Josh and I agreed on using silver spray paint because a) we already had it at the house and b) we thought it would give it a iron-filigree kind of look. Josh did the spray painting (and came up with this ingenius way to get even coats!)

and where was the babe while we were doing all this crafting?
why right here of course!
(side note: elliot does have hair. it is just really blonde on top!)

Here's Josh in the tub. Hahaha, had to write that :) We used the very precise technique of eh-i-think-this-looks-ok-here-so-we'll-just-throw-a-few-nails-up-here-and-hope-for-the-best to hang up our new art:

here's an up close and personal shot:

15 toilet paper tubes: free!
shiny silver spray paint: free!
finishing nails: free!
hot glue: free!
grand total: free!
now that's the kind of math this mama likes

Josh and I stayed at home this past weekend. It was nice to have a weekend together where we weren't driving all over creation. Don't get me wrong---I have a lot of fun on our weekend adventures, but sometimes just staying home is nice.

You know what else is nice? When your husband takes care of the baby so you can craft! He sure does know the way to my heart.

I'm kind of obsessed with these super easy no-sew fabric flowers. I even included a template...hope it works!

You will need:
scrap fabric (i had tons left over from different projects)
glue gun
glue sticks
felt (or other scrap fabric)
scissors

Step 1: fold your selected fabric into a nice stack and trace your desired flower pattern

Step 2: trim your pattern. layers=petals...so the more layers you use the more petals you'll have. and the more petals you have will give you a more full flower

Step 3: fold your petal in half...then in half again. put a small spot of glue on the corner and adhere to small felt square

breaking free!

Elliot has been a bit...difficult. Well, difficult as far as sleep goes. Here's an update:

Week 1-12: aka typical newborn sleeping and eating
8/9pm bed
11pm feed
3am feed
7am feed

Week 13: aka (mean) little sneak peak at dream sleep for parents
8pm bed
10:30pm feed
7am wake

Week 14-16: aka up all night to party!
8pm bed
10:30pm feed
3am wake
4am wake
5am wake
6am wake
7am feed

Week 17: aka sneak in a few days of sleep just to keep us on our toes
7:30pm bed
10:30pm feed
6am wake
7am feed

Week 18: aka yep, back to the all night routine!
7:30pm bed
10:30pm feed
2am wake
3am wake
4am wake
5am wake
6am wake
7am feed

Last night: aka sleep, blessed sleep!
7:30pm bed
10:30pm feed
6:30am wake

Like I posted last week, we're on a bit of a spiral with Elliot; two steps forward and then one step back. I am so thankful for all your prayers and advice. I am convinced it was the Lord that let us get some sleep last night!

Last week, Elliot was getting so upset in the wee-morning hours that she'd break out of her swaddle. Josh kept suggesting that it was time to wean her off the swaddle, but I wasn't convinced. She was napping so well in her swaddle and I'd heard horror stories about weaning off the swaddle. But in the wee hours of Saturday morning, I caved. Completely sleep deprived and not sure what to do with my fussy four month old I unwrapped her swaddle and zipped her into a sleep sack.

The result? She slept just as horribly as she did in the swaddle. She hit herself in the face repeatedly and woke up shocked, as if someone else was doing the face-smacking to her. But patience/Josh prevailed. We used the sleep sack for her naps and bedtime sleep for Saturday and Sunday.

I was praying so fervently that Elliot would sleep through the night last night. I woke up at 5am this morning and couldn't believe it! Elliot was still asleep! I wanted to leap out of bed and shout hallelujahs--but I didn't, because Josh was sound asleep next to me. So I sat there grinning from ear to ear. I hope this is the start of a good transition into really sleeping through the night.

So far Elliot has done great with her naps at work in the sleep sack. Here's a picture of her asleep at work. I love how she has Leo the Lion (blanket from Lauren) and Smokey the Bear (pacifier+animal) tucked in right beside her.

Thank you for your continued prayers for this baby girl and her sleepy parents!!

elliot weekly: week 18

18 weeks and trying to push con queso out of the picture
already wants the spotlight for herself!

What we've been up to this week:

Braves Game! We met up with my sister Lauren and her husband Jon in Atlanta for a Braves baseball game. It was so fun to meet up with them and share Elliot's first game with them! We met up at Flying Biscuit for lunch and then headed over to the game. Lauren has a bunch of pictures on her camera, but I've only got this one of E (while we were waiting outside for our table):

Something to Chew on: Elliot has been putting everything into her mouth lately. She's usually content with her hands, but she's been pretty keen on Sophie too. Sophie is her new giraffe.

She sounds and looks like a dog chew toy. But hey, our little girl loves her!

Fort Time: Elliot built her first fort this week. Somehow I thought she'd build it with Amy, Kate or Kay. But she said she was ready:

Sleep...or rather, No Sleep: Well, it seems like we need more prayers for sleep around here! Elliot had a 12 day streak of sleeping from 8pm-6:30am (with a dream feed at 10:30pm.) Elliot has now been on a 10 day streak of sleeping from 7:30pm-3:30am and then waking every 30-45 minutes until 6:30am. It is making for a very tired set of parents! Elliot doesn't seem to be minding all that much. She'll cry, I (or Josh) walk in and give her a pacifier and she back to sleep immediately. She'll sleep for about 30-45 minutes (maybe an hour!) and then the process repeats itself. I've heard that babies have a "progress spiral" when developing. In that, they take two steps forward, and then one step back. I knew it was too good to think that E was just going to sleep through the night for good....but, man--I'm ready for a break! This is what we've been feeling around our house:

like father like daughter

Elliot has been a foot-grabbing champ lately. It seems like nearly every time she's on her back she's trying to grab her toes. Here's how I caught her on the sofa the other yesterday:

I was wondering how she just all-of-a-sudden got to be so stinking good at grabbing her feet. It just seemed like one day she was trying to reach for them...and then the next day she was grabbing them with a firm grasp. Then I walked in on this:

i'm so glad he's teaching her all the important life skills
next thing he'll probably teach her is the proper way to dunk a chocolate chip cookie
or who makes the best sausage biscuits
yes sir. we're imparting all the necessary life lessons here!

typical morning

Eeeek, I didn't get to Elliot's weekly post last friday. My bad! I'll get it ASAP.

Until then, I thought I'd share my morning routine at work. I am so very blessed to be able to take my sweet baby girl to work with me. My boss is beyond amazing to let me have her with me. It sure doesn't hurt that she's so dang cute!

So, I walk in the door to work and put Elliot down for her morning nap in the conference room:

Then, I go outside and water the garden. Yep, we have a garden at work. We're currently growing tomatoes, basil, green beans, bell peppers, squash and zucchini. We had lettuce early in the season.

Then, I go and feed the chickens. Yep. You read that correctly. I go and feed our sx chickens.

Apparently, instead of working for a new home subcontractor I now work at a small farm. It certainly is interesting work around here!