Sunday, August 24, 2008

Back from Baltimore

Hi! Our Baltimore trip was full of fun, here are some highlight photos...

Me and Laur at lunch


Lauren and Allan at Camden Yards


Allan and Charl at the Aquarium

This is probably the tank with striped bass and blue fish. They are probably talking about fishing.

The weather was really beautiful and it was fun to be around tons of Yankee fans all over the city! The Yankees won Friday night and the game was full of exciting plays. Charlie and Allan shared hours of laughs discussing Family Guy episodes and me and Lauren enjoyed the peaceful hours that they had each other to talk to. We are really glad they guys get along so well and that we have one big happy family!

When we got home, we celebrated our parents' anniversary. Ryan was there for the weekend and we got to spend some time talking and playing with him. He's really into trucks, planes, big messes, etc. While out with Babcia, he saw a big dump truck and a huge pile of dirt. He was saying "dump truck" but without the "p" in dump and with an "f" instead of "tr" in truck. =0

Bye!
Sandra

Monday, August 18, 2008

Long Time No Blog

It has been SO long since I posted a blog. I collected a bunch of photos over the past couple months and never made it to the computer.

I've been working at camp every day but I took a few days off to go down the shore with Charlie. We had SO much fun doing everything beachy under the sun!

Riding the roller coaster up

And down

And down some more


Charlie and Mom eat fudge and play a mean hand of Rat-A-Tat-Cat


I sink the 100 point holes in Ski Ball


Mom and Uncle Johnny ride the coaster


Yesterday my sisters and I got together at our parents' house. Lauren brought Ryan and we walked down town for lunch.

Walking to town under a blue sky


Subs at Hershey's


Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!


Then our mom called later to say she was heading home from the beach and she watched Ryan while we went to Rita's for a refreshing treat and to Target to see if there was anything good to buy. I got a coffee pot to keep in my class room so I can brew fresh coffee all day :)
The depressing part is that I just left it in my car since I'll be back to school in a few weeks :(

I've been crocheting a lot and posted a new blanket on www.potluckdesigns.etsy.com.

Tulip Frills


I also made a blanket as an engagement gift for a "friend of a friend of a friend" and the engagement party turned out to be a surprise wedding...the girl who asked me to make the blanket wound up being a bride's maid!


The summer just flew by and we have one last hurrah planned...Me, Charlie, Lauren and Allan are heading to Baltimore to see an Orioles/Yankees game on Friday. We'll also do some sight seeing and I promise to blog about our trip.

I also promise to have PLC with Rachel this Fall and to cook, craft and blog like we set out to do! But for now its all about camp and the kids are sucking up all my energy!

That's me at the sink


We're painting a mural too!


Kisses
Sandra

Chocolate Snickerdoodles

When you invite yourself to crash on someone else's sofa for the night, it's always polite to show up with cookies. That, plus the request of my couch hostess (please bring cookies, no nuts!) is what prompted me to bake these on a 90 degree day in August.

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A basic chocolate dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar... how can you go wrong? The recipe, which I found at Cookie Madness, says to place the cookies 2-inches apart. I found that they didn't spread or flatten out much, so after the first batch I pressed them down lightly with the bottom of a measuring cup. If you're like me and your patience runs out after two trays go into the oven, feel free to cram more than 12 onto a sheet. Like I said, they don't spread much and I easily fit 16 onto one tray.

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These are good, but basic. My major issue with snickerdoodles is their tendency to become rock solid after cooling off a bit. But fresh off the tray, they were chewy and soft, with a little spice and a nice crunch from the sugar. I hope they earn me my keep on the sofa for the night!

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Chocolate Snickerdoodles

(Adapted from Yankee Magazine, I found it at Cookie Madness)

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.

In large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Add flour mixture and stir, do not beat, until mixed.

Combine the 2 tablespoon sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to make cinnamon sugar. Shape dough into 1″ balls; roll balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 6-9 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheets immediately. (I baked mine for 8).

Makes about 36 cookies

Sunday, August 17, 2008

We're still here!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes from VCTOTW

This summer got away from us pretty quickly. Sandra has been working at a Summer camp as an art teacher, and I've just been... working. Sandra finishes up camp this week, and I finally left my job on Friday so hopefully we'll both have a little more time for cooking soon!

In the mean time, check out Sandra's Etsy shop... she's listed a new project for sale.

And I want to say thanks to Clumbsy Cookie for pulling my name out of a hat! I won a pretty cake lifter, so I guess that means I'm going to be baking a cake pretty soon.


(ps - those cupcakes are Peanut Butter with Chocolate Drizzle, and I baked them on December 8th, 2006. I dug one out of the archives to post... what good is a blog without a photo???)