Peanut Butter Middles

I've been meaning to post this yummy cookie recipe since Christmas time. I found it in a Betty Crocker magazine called 100 Best Cookies. It's gooey peanut butter inside of a chocolate cookie, dusted with powdered sugar. Yum!


Ingredients:

Chocolate Cookie

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2   cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2   teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened 
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1   egg
1   tablespoon milk
1   teaspoon vanilla

Peanut Butter Middle

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter


Instructions:
1. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda; set aside.
2. In a large bowl (or Kitchen Aide) combine butter and 1/4 cup peanut butter. Beat on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the white and brown sugar. Beat until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in the flour mixture (if using a hand mixer, add as much as you can with mixer and finish with a wooden spoon). Shape into 32 balls.
**If you have a food scale, weight the balls. The chocolate balls weigh about 21-22 grams, and the peanut butter balls weight about 7-8 grams. I start by weighing the entire ball of dough and dividing in halves until I have 32 balls. 

3. In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and the 1/2 cup peanut butter. Beat until smooth, kneading by hand if necessary. Shape into 32 balls.**


4. For each cookie, flatten a chocolate dough ball; top with a peanut butter ball. Shape dough around peanut butter ball to enclose.

Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. (I use a Silpat). Flatten with spatula or a glass.

5. Bake at 350 F for 8 minutes or just until set and surfaces are slightly cracked. Cool for 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet and remove.


6. Dust with powdered sugar.

7. ENJOY!

Lake Powell...ROCKS

Last week I got toasted (by the sun) in Lake Powell with the Mattsons and the Watkins. 

The Mattsons - Carly, Rand, Cynthia, and Whitney

The Watkins - Camden, Lori, and Brooklyn 

Seriously...my skin sun had not seen sun since my last vacations with the Mattsons in May 2010 to Hawaii. Texas is SO hot - it actually deters me from getting sun in the summer. This is likely good skin cancer prevention, but unfortunately it also prevents me from doing fun, outdoor activities. I find my favorite Texas summertime activities include watching mind-numbingly stupid reality TV (SYTYCD, Project Runway, and Bachelor Pad...shamefully) and eating gelato or Blue Bell. Kind of sad, I know. But the good news is there are still some places in the USA that are comfortable (and beautiful) during the summer. 
LAKE POWELL may be the winner. I'm not extremely well-traveled, but who needs Martha's Vineyard or West Coast beaches when Lake Powell has cleaner water, no sharks, and fewer tools? Not me. 


A HUGE thanks to the Mattsons for inviting me this year. I tried to make myself useful be killing as many flies and spiders as I could reach. Truthfully, I was grateful that I was too short to get the ones on the ceiling. I found this beauty one morning and deferred to Rand (aka MAN) to kill it. So gross. His legs are striped.

Cam woke up one night shouting and writhing because he thought spiders were crawling on him. I don't blame him. I was also paranoid most nights. I think I just felt one on my leg right now, actually. Haha. Good thing we played hard enough during the days to crash pretty quickly at night.

The day usually went like this: wake up, eat breakfast, play on the boat (wakeboard, waterski, kneeboard, etc), head back to the houseboat for lunch, relax for a little while/play games/read magazines, books, kindles, etc, then back out on the boat or swim before dinner. We also cliff-jumped, did yoga on the top of the house boat, got root beer floats at Dangling Rope, oogled over the houseboats at Antelope Point, and tubed. The tube was going really flat. I tried to do a back flip off it, but the real challenge was actually standing up on it. Thank you, Whitney for capturing this flattering display of my skills.

Wednesday (August 17th) was the best day of the trip...it was Whitney's BIRTHDAY! Woot woot. This is how excited she was...

The Watkins added to the fly paper decor with some lovely blue and red crepe paper and Cam and Brooke sprinkled confetti on various surfaces - house boat tables, counters, and Whitney while she was still asleep. Whit opened gifts in the morning. I got her a gold, oval locket with her initials engraved on the front and pictures of us in the middle. I think she liked it...who wouldn't? :) She also got an apron sewed by Grandma Katee, a biking outfit, and Jeep mats (they obviously didn't make it to LP). So fun. Cynthia made a delicious Waldorf Astoria cake...

Camden wanted a ding dong instead of cake so he put a candle in one...too funny. 

Later, Whitney failed to make good on her promise to jump off a cliff, but she did show everyone up on the wakeboard. And by everyone, I mean me. All of the Watkins are really good too. I guess I just hate admitting to being the only unskilled rookie wakeboarder there. Sigh. I do think I improved as the week progressed though. I figured out fairly early on how to get up and get out of the wake, but getting back in was the problem. I kept getting to the wake and then I'd either eat it or chicken out and back off. I made it back in once, somehow, but couldn't figure it out again. Darn.

This is me, chickening out

But who cares...because Lake Powell is SOOOO fun and so pretty and makes me want to jump in the air multiple times and make Brooke try to capture it. Kudos to Brooke. And too bad for High School Musical for not casting Whitney and I :)

Unemployment...

Today was the first day of my "non-vacation" unemployment. This morning I volunteered at the LDS Employment Resource Center. 


Then I did two things that I've been wanting to do for a long time. 
1. I bought pasta/soup bowls. The ones with big rims. They were on sale at the Tom Thumb. I made a delicious pasta dish that looked even better in the pasta bowls. Regrettably, I didn't take a picture. 
Here's the link for the recipe: http://danideejkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/05/lemon-zucchini-fettuccine.html 
2. I signed up for the Dallas Flash Mob. 

Happy Birthday to ME

This has been a fun week for Jesse and me. Last Monday was my birthday! I'm pretty lucky because it fell on Memorial Day, the only holiday I've had off since Christmas. Jesse still needed to study, so I went to yoga in the morning. It was a 90-minute hot yoga class and I hated it. I'll be sticking to air-conditioned yoga. Later that day we went shopping at North Park Mall, one my favorite activities. I got a new pair of shorts and a top from Anthro with some birthday money. Keri also sent me these adorable Anthro earrings! I've already worn them 3 times :)

For dinner we went to Grimaldi's, which is the delicious pizza chain that's well-known in New York. I didn't even know there were other locations, but there are! It's the real deal. Pizza is one of my top 5 favorite foods. Yum. 

Jesse also made me a birthday cake (with very little instruction on the frosting :) and made an "A" with the candles.

This week was also my last week of rotations for my internship and my 4th week at the VA. I'm SO happy that I don't have to drive to the VA any longer. The VA stinks and south Dallas is GHETTO. And there are lots of ugly, stray dogs (not in the hospital of course, just on the way). One of them ran straight from the sidewalk into my car! I swerved to try not to hit it, but I did. I don't think it was hurt though, because as I was contemplating getting out of my car to see if it was hurt, I looked out my rear-view mirror and the dumb thing was running down the DART tracks across the street. I felt better that I didn't seriously hurt it. Stupid dog. Anyway, now I only have 3 WEEKS left of my internship and I'm staffing in Cardiology and the NICU at Presby Dallas. A 7-minute drive and free lunch will be so nice for the next 3 weeks.

Another highlight of my week was seeing Troy Aikman on the Katy Trail (a running/biking trail in Dallas). We (Troy and I) were running in opposite directions and as he passed I kept staring until my head had almost turned 180 degrees. Then I almost ran into this couple walking since I wasn't watching where I was going. So I stopped and said, "Sorry, but that's Troy Aikman, running. Troy Aikman, he's running!" They looked at me like I was really weird. Oh well.

Finally, today is mine and Jesse's 1-year Anniversary. To celebrate, I tried to re-create a delicious, creamy risotto that we had at a little Italian restaurant on Coronado Island on our honeymoon. We didn't know what risotto was and we tried to ask the waiter, (who didn't speak English very well) but he just kept saying, "It's a creamy risotto" in a thick, Italian accent. It was  really good, and I didn't do it justice today, but I'll keep practicing. I'm bound to have it down by the 10th or 15th Anniversary!

Yay for a fun week!

Holy Hail!

Last week during the crazy storms, we had some serious hail. We both have some pretty good dents on our cars. Kind of a bummer, but we're counting our blessings. We looked at the google earth images of Joplin MO the other night and I couldn't believe how much damage that storm did. Our prayers to the people of Joplin and to the Jones family (Jake and Matt Jones are friends of Jesse's from BYU - their family is in Joplin). 

That's pretty big hail!

On a lighter note, JESSE GOT A BUZZ! A hair cut, that is. And I got to do it! There's something so satisfying about cutting all of someone's hair off. Jesse spends the entire day at the library these days studying for the first board exam and has no professors or preceptors to impress, so why not? Plus it's getting hot here! And if Brad can do it, so can Jesse! Who wore it better? We'll leave that up to our followers...all four of you:) My vote is for Jesse, of course.

Houston

On Mother's Day weekend, Jesse and I drove to HOUSTON!!! We left Friday afternoon. The first 30 minutes of the trip were excellent...and then the plastic skid plate just under the front bumper of our car partially fell off and started dragging on the road. Luckily, the nearest gas station was only a couple of miles away. We bought some duct tape. The car was dirty. It didn't really stick. We stopped twenty-something miles later. Tried the tape again. But the car was still dirty. It still didn't stick. So an hour after we pulled onto the freeway, we were barely outside of the Dallas Metroplex. 
I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think Jesse would appreciate it. 


Anyway, we got to Houston and headed to Hayley & Jeff's wedding open house. We'd eaten breakfast, nibs, a Dairy Queen dipped cone, and chocolate-covered raisins. At the open house, there were more desserts, including red velvet cake balls, cheese cake, and peanut butter m&m's...yum. The open house was from 7 to 10, and as "kin" (commonly used term in Texas for "as close as family because we grew up in a tiny, rural town together") to the Mattsons, we stayed almost the entire time. 
I took pictures...with Cynthia's camera. Don't have them, sorry.


Anyway, Jesse was already annoyed about the car falling apart, and then I starved him all night. Poor guy needed some real food. At 10:30 PM we pulled into a little pizza place called Luigi's. We each ordered a slice, but then they said it was easier for them to just make a medium for us to share. We finished it in 10 minutes. 
I would have taken a picture, but I was too busy eating 4 slices of pizza. 


On SATURDAY, Jesse and I hung out with Rand and Cynthia. We shopped at a fancy mall (I got navy Sperry's!:), got BBQ for lunch, and then went to an international festival in downtown Houston. That night we met up with Hayley and Jeff and we all went to a ballet showcase at an outdoor theater with free grass seating. 

International Festival - lots of greasy food and sweaty people,  including us

Grass seats at the outdoor theater - Jesse is SO happy to be at the ballet

Not the best BBQ in Texas, but I guess it beats a meal of licorice and chocolate.

Jesse took the car to a tire shop and they took the skip plate off, so our ride home wasn't nearly as annoying as the ride down. Plus, we stopped for BBQ!

I love new shoes, nice weather, BBQ, Houston, the Mattsons and the Rosenbaughs, ballets, duct tape, picnics, people-watching, road trips with Jesse, and FUN WEEKENDS!!!!

We're back...for now

I apologize for not blogging...since 2010. It's already March. I don't know where our January and February went. Jesse has already taken two tests this semester and has another one on Friday. I've had a bunch of rotations, including four in-patient (cancer, heart stuff, stomach stuff, and diabetes), two weeks of outpatient counseling, two weeks of employee wellness at Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, and right now I'm at the Food Bank. Needless to say, we've kept ourselves busy with homework and studying, but we've also had little fun. 

Last Tuesday, we celebrated Jesse's 26th birthday. I got him tickets to the Jazz game (at the American Airlines Center) on the 23rd (the day after his birthday), which worked out quite nicely. You might be asking yourself..."How did you afford tickets to the Mavs/Jazz game at the AA Center on a medical student/intern stipend budget?" I'll tell you. I gave blood through Carter Blood at work, and I got a two-for-one ticket coupon to a Maverick's game (i.e. I partially purchased the tickets with a pint of my blood). If that isn't love, I'm not sure what is. :) The proof is in the ticket.

We were really excited to go to the game. Can you see it in our faces?

On Jesse's actual birthday (February 22nd), I made his requested dinner (Beef Tourtiere - a.k.a. meat pie). Based on his request, I've come to the conclusion that I make too much "girl food", but I feel like I've made huge improvements since we've gotten married. I make meals. Actual meals. I think I could count on one hand the number of times I cooked with fresh (or frozen) meat during senior year at BYU. If Keri and I got out a pan to make quesadillas, it was a good day. I'm telling you, I've made improvements. Here's the meat pie. Yum :)  

I went a little crazy with the slits in the crust. 

I also made Jesse the standard birthday cake - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I even topped it with all 26 of the candles it deserved. I even used a fancy, imported butter from the fancy grocery store across the street. Oh, Central Market, how I love thee.

Happy Birthday to Jesse!