Whine Wine...

I consider my husband and myself to be pretty intelligent people. We usually put great thought into things, and are pretty observant of the things around us. Enter "The Bug" while he is the best thing ever, his needs come first all the time and we sometimes overlook the stuff around us. 

Enter my wine sitting in the cup holder of the Bug's stroller. Opps. 

We went to a party at a friends house on Saturday night. (Side note to my son) You see  Bug, we took you to your first "kegger" (note, no Keg involved, but there was a pot of hot wine, Glogg if you will)  when you were 5 months old. We ARE the cool parents you just won't think when you internet stalk me someday and find this. Anyway, we bundled the kid up and took him to a fire. I got a glass of mulled wine and decided it was too hot to drink right then. I put it in the cup holder of the stroller (we have one of those strollers that the car seat clips into-super convenient.) After an hour or so (and past Bug's bed time) we decided to head out. My sweet husband grabbed everything to take it to the car. It was late and dark, and opps. My wine spilled into the car seat, and all over the car seat cover. Luckily Bug wasn't in it, but he still smelled like a booze hound when we got home from the little bit that made into his seat. Talk about feeling awful. I continue to win at parenting. 

Today was beautiful and since we couldn't go anywhere (see previous paragraph, car seat cover still drying after being washed.) I decided to build some raised beds for gardening in the spring. I drew out the plans and showed them to my husband who said "okay" despite the fact that they are HUGE and are going to cost an arm and a leg to fill with dirt/compost/etc. They are both L shape and one is 16X8X4  and the other is 8X8X4. I don't think that's the way you explain it, but I'm not an architect. ANYWAY, Guess what! They actually fricking turned out! Bug napped through the first one so my husband cut the wood for me, but by the second one Bug was up so I cut the wood by hand. I successfully built the whole thing myself with only TWO swear words. (I was trying to do the whole thing without swearing, which is why I know it was two.) 

I'm crafty, who knew! 

While I was building it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. When I finally finished the garden beds, I came in to my darling husband who was figuring out how much it is going to cost us to FILL the beds. Opps. Well, financially I think the beds will start making it worth it in about two years... I'll take a better picture when they aren't COVERED in snow. Maybe May? I still need to Moose proof the garden.

Our driveway...which is gravel..which makes shoveling a PAIN IN THE @ss!! 

I shoveled the driveway and had to laugh at the fact that it's September 22nd. Not what I was imagining. I baked more cupcakes. These ones look and taste how I'd like them too. I need to stop baking because I just want to eat them all. Not a good thing. Great weekend overall.

While my husband (aka The Saint) was giving Bug his bath, the whole house shook hard. I thought that one of two things happened. A moose ran into it, or B. our Tenant hit our house or his in his new car (which is stick shift, and he can't drive it yet.) Nope, neither. It was an Earthquake. Sigh. Only my second ever. We had a 6.8 Earthquake while we lived in Denmark. THAT one was crazy, watching the walls ripple. This one, this one felt like a Moose. All I ever think about with Earthquakes is this episode of DuckTales (and you can thank me later for including the ENTIRE episode.)


DuckTales - S01E54 - Earth Quack Full by 2dcartoonsbox_blogspot


 Last week someone asked me for my Crack Cookie Recipe (they are actually called Double Chocolate Banana Cookies, but if you make them you'll understand why I call them Crack Cookies.)

3-4 extra ripe bananas peeled
2 cups rolled oats (I used about 3, see below)
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I just use salted butter and skip this)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups butter, melted
1 cup almonds, toasted (I did not have nuts, so I added more oats instead)
2 cups chocolate chips

I will give you the disclaimer now. These need to sit in the refrigerator for a while, I left them overnight. Don't do what I ALWAYS do and start baking just to find out that they need to sit. Back to the cookies.

Preheat Oven to 350

1. Puree the bananas in a blender and measure 2 cups for this recipe.
2. Combine oats, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until well mixed. Stir in bananas, eggs, butter until blended. Stir in almonds (or more oats) and chocolate chips.
3. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour (mine still wasn't ready after an hour, so I gave up, drank a 1/2 a beer and went to bed) or until mixture becomes partially firm, batter will run during baking if too soft.
4. Measure 1/4 batter and drop onto greased cookie sheet. Flatten the top with a spatula. DO NOT TASTE THE BATTER!! Whatever you do, don't taste it or else all of this oven work will be for nothing. You'll just end up with the bowl, a spoon and your sweatpants watching reruns of the Golden Girls on TV. Um...not that I've ever done that....err...back to the recipe.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown (I checked them at 15 minutes, because I always worry I'll burn them.)

These seriously are SO good. Let me know if you make them.