This is what you've been wanting

Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Food:

I figured I would fool TY when he asks me at 10 PM if I made any cookies today- he asks every night. Today I made 'em. I used the recipe on the back of the Bakers Semi-Sweet box, had 2 of them and the recipe called for 2 8 oz. boxes of chocolate- that's a friggin pound! Well, I thought, that will make a lot of cookies, right? Wrong. The total ingredients for these Chocolate Chunk Cookies were:

8 oz. melted chocolate
8 oz. chopped chocolate
1/4 c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 c. flour
2 c. chopped walnuts (I used pecans)

Melt chocolate, add butter and melt that too. Add eggs and sugar and vanilla, beat. Then add baking powder and flour and beat again. Last, add chopped chocolate and nuts. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes on an ungreased sheet pan.

There ya go. These are possibly the most chocolaty thing on earth, too too chocolaty now that I have lost my taste and interest in chocolate. I found myself picking out the pecans and sucking them until they were 'clean'. Too bad I can't give the chocolate part to Molly.

About Quilts: I worked on The Quilt, aka 'Dirty Snowballs', from 8:30 until 2:30 today, amazing since I thought it almost done yesterday. But I changed a few squares, added corner pieces that work, and sewed up all the remaining squares. I can't play with them yet because the design wall is busy, at least until tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, Teddy is supposed to be in MA with her daughter up in Bradford, wherever the hell that is. I haven't heard from her yet so don't know if we still have a plan for or not. We are supposed to go see Anita at the Quilt Museum for lunch, then maybe the Textile Museum if we have time. OR, worst case scenario, I stay home and get this off the wall.

About Upkeep Against the Tides: At 3:30 I went to get my nails done, a new habit that is beginning to annoy me- I resent taking time for something so...self indulgent. I decided not to go back to the guy I have been allowing to touch me from the knuckles down, and instead went to another establishment. They were undistinguishable from each other- same white room, same lucite case of hundreds of wrong polish colors, same herd of miniscule Vietnamese girls talking on cell phones, and one guy who does fills. There must be a kit they can buy from somewhere that sets up a manicure place overnight. This guy took time, and didn't talk to me which I like since I cannot understand them over 'The Price is Right' anyway. And now I have short and managable nails that look like I have been doing heavy construction because I dug in my bag for keys before I should have.

About Dinner: Dinner was spectacular- I had bought some fresh mushroom ravioli at Russos the other day, then 4 different kinds of mushrooms, oyster, shitake, chanterelles and plain old white as filler. I sauted up a few slices of bacon, the no-nitrate stuff from Whole Foods that just doesn't taste as good as the bad kind, with a little butter (still out from the cookies) and dumped in the mushrooms to brown. Meanwhile I blanched some haricort vert, pulled them out and added the raviolis in the same water. When the mushrooms were browned, I threw in a handful of thyme and maybe a cup of cooked chicken cubed up, then 1/2 cup of creme fraiche that I had made from the leftover cream the other day. Sure was a winner. TY told me not to lose the recipe- told him I wouldn't and here is is.

About Knitting--And tonight, pant pant, I did the third, out of 8 total , square on the bottom of the first sleeve- one more to go on that sleeve, then start the last one. Then, maybe I will add a few rows to lengthen the sleeves a bit- they are too big around to be short. Sure will be glad to get this one in the closet.

So, all this activity has sent me into inertia, time to hit the bed---which no longer squeaks and clatters when I climb in! I took it all apart this morning and found that SOMEONE had hidden a bone behind a pillow and it had wedged itself between the mattress and the headboard where it made a racket every time we moved. TY says it's not his bone.