Cranberry Orange Cookies

On New Year's Day, two of my cousins and my little brother shared dinner with us at our house (a seriously awesome way to kick off 2013).  Because I had half a bag of cranberries leftover from making neighbor gifts, I tried making some cranberry orange cookies.  They ended up being much more delicious than most of my try-a-random-recipe experiments, and there's been a request for the recipe, so I thought I'd post it here.  I was going to take a picture or two, but the cookies weren't around long enough for me to do so.  Given that the majority of my blog readership has seen (and eaten) the cookies, though, and all of you know what cookies generally look like, hopefully that's ok.

1 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c butter or margarine, room temperature
Zest and juice from one orange
1 egg
2 1/2 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c chopped fresh cranberries (the recipe book says frozen ones work too, but not dried)
1 c white chocolate chips
1/2 c chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 375.  Beat sugars, butter, orange peel, orange juice, and egg.  Add flour, soda, and salt. Stir in cranberries and nuts.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls, two inches apart, and bake 12 to 14 minutes, until edges just start to turn gold.  Remove to wire rack to cool.

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker Annual Recipes 2008.

New Year's Resolutions

Every December, I make a long list of things I want.  This isn't a Christmas wishlist, but a several-page list of New Year's Resolutions.  The list is impossibly long, and some of the items on it are irreconcilable.  I want to travel the world, to keep a spotless home, to garden, to write, to save lots of money for retirement, to throw fabulous dinner parties, to read all the books, to be a better wife/sister/daughter/friend/lawyer/driver/pianist/baker/Scrabble-player.  I always want this to be the year I finally sew myself a designer wardrobe, become fluent in five languages, run a marathon, and put an end to all the injustice in the world.  And so I end up making a list with literally hundreds of resolutions.  Twelve months later, I've inevitably achieved at least some of them ("find a job," "make bread from scratch at least once," "don't end up in the emergency room") but nevertheless discover these accomplishments haven't changed me into that person (witty, fearless, intellectual, tireless, fun, gracious, healthy, talented, vibrant, extraordinary) that inspired me to make the resolutions in the first place.  At the end of the year, it turns out there are never enough hours in a day (nor, I suspect, in a century) for someone as unfocused and tired as me to transform life into perfection.  But, as Elder Holland said in our sacrament meeting a few days ago, that's ok... the point is to keep trying.

Between launching into my career, becoming a home owner, and adopting a dog and two cats, 2012 brought a lot of new responsibility, so I'm mostly just hoping I'm up for the challenge.  Here's to 2013.  Whether or not I end up traveling to a foreign country, kicking my 3-a-day bottled water habit, or making a cheesecake, hopefully twelve months from today I'm a better person than I am today and, more importantly, that there's at least a little bit more happiness in the world because of my efforts.

Given that one of my resolutions this year is not to kill anyone, I'd better wrap up this blog post before things get any more suffocatingly cheesy.  Happy New Year!

21 months

Since I last blogged, I:

Learned how to walk in heels



Discovered I really love goat cheese and sushi (probably not together, though)



Moved to Salt Lake



Adopted a friend



Became a pescatarian



Was published



Found the perfect banana bread recipe



Forgot how to put in a zipper



Graduated law school, passed the bar, and found a grown-up job



In the next 21 months, I hope I:

Eat tons of goat cheese and sushi (probably not together, though)



Move back to Salt Lake



Adopt lots more friends



(ok, kind of kidding there)

Read a bunch of books



Remember how to put in a zipper



Blog at least once or twice



Finally see Europe



In the spirit of my cousin's inspiring blog post, stop letting fear keep me from being the person that I want to be...

(However, I am perfectly content to let fear keep me from spending a bunch of money for the privilege of jerking around upside down on little elastic cord - no thank you)

Merry Christmas, Friends!

TTMMH

(Things That Made Me Happy [this weekend])

Finding out I was 1,000 words further along on my 10,000 word paper than I had thought ~ hot cocoa with whipped cream and snowman-shaped marshmallows ~ putting up Christmas lights ~ over-hearing one first grader ask another first grader to marry him when they were both grown-up (she said maybe) ~ naps ~ watching Mike finish up the Christmas decorating

Better-than-anything cake ~ wearing ridiculously comfortable outfits ~ looking at apartments online and planning how I would arrange the furniture ~ toast with cinnamon sugar ~ finding potential job opportunities ~ getting sympathy from my awesome brother ~ stumbling across exactly the right quote for my paper ~ imagining life in 12 days (after my last final) ~ eggnog french toast ~ not crashing on the way to church, despite fishtailing all over the road ~ getting a boost on my paper from Write or Die ~ pretending I own this coat

And (finally!) 5 glorious, fluffy inches of snow!!

Being too lazy to go outside in the dark and take my own pictures, I hope you all enjoy this image taken from WikiCommons instead.  Quebec, South Bend... it's all the same thing, right?

You're (Unfortunately) Not a Kid Anymore When...

My sweet tooth and I are very good friends, and for a long time it has encouraged me to give it free rein in the mornings... preferably with some pie or cinnamon rolls, but, in a pinch, by munching on Trix, Reese's Puffs, or Cap'n Crunch.  Mike and I bonded over Blueberry Muffin Top cereal, and I've always stayed as far away from Raisin Bran and Rice Crispies as I could.


Lately, however, I've undergone a transformation.  While I still would NEVER turn down pie for breakfast (ok, so maybe I would if it was mocha or blueberry or a very mushy pumpkin without whipping cream), Reese's Puffs aren't so tempting anymore.  Instead, Mike and I load up on cereals with words like "almond", "grain", "oat", "morning" and *shudder* "fiber".  The worst part isn't even that we've been duped into buying them... it's that we're so deluded that we actually think they taste good.  I've taken to eating cereal just in the morning, but also again after I get home from school.  The dishwasher is full of bowls and spoons, proof of our new habits.


Clearly, we have a problem... and I think I've decided the perfect solution.  We'll stage an intervention this weekend in front of the TV - enough subjection to advertisements for sugar bombs and cocoa kernels and we might regain our sanity.  


P.S.  It has occurred to me that my face in the last picture looks far more MySpace than Chaplin, and definitely does NOT make me look ridiculously happy.  I must have been thinking about that parade :)

Three Reasons to be Ridiculously Happy

1.  It's still Spring Break, for another 48 hours and 4 minutes

2.  Thanks to the motivation provided by this delicious-looking photograph taken by my cousin, I have a giant container of homemade oreos sitting on my counter!

3.  At the outlet mall, I picked up this amazing hat for a mere $2.  I feel like a plaid Charlie Chaplain (despite the fact that this is most definitely a trilby, not a bowler - yay Wikipedia for clearing that up).

\

Granted, I can think of other reasons to be happy too, like having good health and a place to live and whatnot, but they're currently being cancelled out by the fact that it is literally raining on my parade.  Or at least on the parade that we would be downtown watching right now, were it not raining.

Yay!!

As you may be able to tell by the new layout of my blog, which manages to be cute and use my favorite colors (black, teal, and purple) without being overly girly, my brother rocks. Especially given the fact that during the creative process, I must have changed my mind about a hundred-million times. I would pontificate further on his awesomeness, but I just finished a reading assignment of death, and tend not to be at my most eloquent at 2:16 in the morning after reading over 50 pages on federalism, preemption, and jurisdiction.

Thank you, Bronson! I definitely owe you one.