I wrote this post before leaving England and didn't get a chance to post it. Its still interesting to me so you bet I'm sharing it with you too.
You guessed it, another batch of cookies! After my brownies and one batch of cookies I thought I might try a second. This time I made No Bake Cookies because, well, they are no bake! Tasty and easy, that's my cup of tea. Or I guess not really because my cup of tea is my cup of tea, literally. But you know what I mean.
If you have never heard of or made No Bake Cookies I suggest its high time you check out the recipe. You can't go wrong with these babies! Delectable in most every way. :)
You know a sweet treat is going to be worth it when you use chocolate by Cadbury. I sooo wanted to bring this back in my luggage with me but alas, I had no room!
Now we are cooking! The sound of boiling sugar and chocolate and the smell of their melding together is dreamy. Or at least it was for me.
Remember, I'm an imperial girl working in a metric kitchen. I was not sure how this would turn out but it couldn't be too bad considering the simplicity of the ingredients. Things were looking good.
Who said using a small juice glass wouldn't work as a 1 cup measuring cup?! Worked like a charm, though its all relative anyway so maybe it wasn't that difficult in the first place. As much as I wanted to bring these with in my luggage too, I hoped my coworkers in Harrogate would have eated all of them first. I'm glad I made them while I was there and had the craving because they probably wouldn't set up as well in the hot, humid weather of Wisconsin this summer.
A little chocolate can warm the heart and the warmth is even more welcome when the weather isn't scorching hot.
Dessert is one of my favorite things to eat. Have you noticed? :)
Hi there. Hello. Hola amigos. Good to see you.
Why yes, yes I am still alive and yes I would still like to say I contribute to this blog. Where have I been, you ask? All over. And it only gets worse (well really its better actually, but worse from a blogging perspective) from here.
Its summer time so my days are full of the usual work, people, sunshine, exercise, food and traveling to see family and friends for fun get-together events. I've been busy doing fun things not involving the Internet so often that I don't think I have even clicked a blog link for the past two weeks. Wonderful, isn't it?! I think so. Except that most of those days it doesn't even cross my mind. Also an alright thing because I am filling my time with things that don't only exist online. No no no, don't get me wrong about blog and things existing online, I'm just saying that my life currently contains a lot of things that take me away from spending time on my computer or the Internet and I'm perfectly ok with that. You see?
I hope to give a quick recap post to show you (and document) what "Rachel's first weeks back in the US" looks like. At the rate I have been going I guess we might not see that until Thanksgiving! Or at least the first snow storm when I'm stuck inside. No worries, I'll share soon.
In some ways I feel bad for not writing often because I like how this is a place I can come back to and see my organized memories and thoughts and work through things. In other ways I don't mind one bit because I'm enjoying myself and keeping my memories in a safe place so that I can write everything down when I get the chance.
One thing I have realized is that its not half as fun or convenient to take pictures of your surroundings when what you are surrounded by is always the same! I have taken a total of maybe forty pictures in the last month since being back in Wisconsin compared to the thousands I took while in England. It makes sense to me though.
I'll leave you with this one. Lets look at it as a disclaimer to remember to drink plenty of water during these hot summer days. Remember to hydrate yourself!
Now for the real explanation: my coworker, his sister and I were on our way to Leeds, England to shop for the day and enjoy the city. While waiting for the train we decided to stop at the train shop to get some snacks and rehydrate after what we like to call a fun night. Similar to needing to rehydrate while exercising, right? I asked them to take a picture of me with my water because I liked how the bottle was square, which I can see now is not very obvious from this picture. Bahh, that doesn't matter to me - its all about the memories! And good ones come flooding back! :)
Hope you are enjoying your summer! See ya 'round, mi amigos.
I tried soaking in everything I possibly could the last few days I was in Harrogate, England. Food, friends and fun. As. Much. As. Possible. It worked pretty well! Though I think it also made it tougher to leave the city. Here are photos of some of the occurrences of the last few days.
Our last ride to work with our new friend.
Sunday lunch. Fish and chips from a proper fish and chip shop.
Hanging out with all our friends, including a jam session!
Not the world's greatest pictures but that doesn't make them any less important to me. :) What would we do without cameras and photos?!
I couldn't resist. I had to make chocolate chip cookies. Partly for myself, partly to share with coworkers, specifically one who cannot eat nuts (because I wanted to make another type of cookie with peanut butter but didn't want anyone to feel left out - more on this soon).
Have I told you about cooking and baking in a metric-system-filled kitchen?! I had so many computer windows open converting g to ml, kg to c and so many more. Nearly every conversion needed to make chocolate chip cookies!
I bought most of the ingredients myself but borrowed flour and vanilla from a friend because I knew I wouldn't use all of it before leaving. I thought this way it would be a fair trade since said friend would (hopefully) be eating most of the cookies. Sounds great, right? Wrong.
I completely forgot baking soda is used in cookies! Ahhh! What do I do now?! I quickly emailed two friends who were soon to be arriving at our apartment to see if they could bring baking soda with them. Fail. No such luck. I pondered knocking on a neighbors door but chickened out. I thought it would be such a story to share, telling people I borrowed baking ingredients from my neighbor in England! Oh well, the story about not doing it is fun to hear too, right?
Ta da! The cookies turned out just fine without baking soda. I googled like crazy to try and find an alternative to baking soda but was left empty handed. The flavor was still delicious (uh, yeah, because baking soda doesn't really affect the flavor, hello Rachel!) and the texture didn't seem any different than other chocolate chip cookies.
Wait, they were chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Double chocolate! Wahoo! Technically chocolate chocolate, white chocolate chip coconut cookies. But they're still chocolate chip cookies to me. They may look a little different but they were tasty as ever! My coworkers thought so too. Or at least they were polite and ate them without complaints!
