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Thankful Thursdays #35: a clean house

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Veronica

I made a thanksgiving resolution to find something to be thankful for every day until next Thanksgiving. Here’s what I am thankful for this week!

Thursday: I was able to wriggle out of helping my hubby help a friend of his move. OK, so I’m terrible, but I’m still thankful for the time to myself.

Friday: Pay day! ‘Nuff said.

Saturday: Got to see the final Harry Potter in 3-D at the IMAX theater, and had a gift certificate to help pay for it!

Sunday: Dark chocolate. It helped me through a day of feeling yucky.

Monday: Little boy voices. Sure, little girl voices are sweet, but I’m especially fond of little boy voices. It’s kind of like how I think large-breed baby animals are cuter than small-breed baby animals. Boys will lose that precious tiny voice and develop a deeper one with time. So will girls, but not to the same degree. And maybe because I have a nephew, I just find their voices enchanting. And I love how they misuse pronouns, saying things like, “why is her doing that?” and “why did her say that?” I heard a little boy that sounded just like my nephew at Wendy’s and the sound of his voice was so much better than anything else in my entire day. Love little boys. I miss my nephew.

Tuesday: I took the day off to go to a motivational seminar, but I skipped it so I could stay home to clean. I thought I would regret it, but I don’t. I missed Bill Cosby and Terry Bradshaw, among other VIPs that were speaking, but I now have a (fairly) clean house and no regrets. Besides, Dennis went so I’ll be motivated by the motivation he got from the seminar. :)

Wednesday: I finished the house cleaning by attacking the floors. Yay for clean floors! See, I’m motivated enough without going to a seminar. If I’d went, I’d be running for president and believe me, nobody would benefit from that. :)

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Posted in Thanksgivings and tagged 3-D, bill cosby, clean house, dark chocolate, Deathly Hallows part 2, floors, Harry Potter, IMAX, little boy voices, motivation seminar, moving, pay day. Bookmark the permalink.

Dark Chocolate Chunkies

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Veronica

*Update: I won 3rd place for this cookie in the chocolate cookies category at the fair!

https://i0.wp.com/a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/86/5ee83875b9284e808dd05e1615dfa78d/l.jpg

I invented this cookie shortly after my first Chunky experience. I think those candy bars were most popular during the 1980s, but as we weren’t allowed candy growing up, my first taste came as an adult. I was surprised by how tasty the odd combination of milk chocolate, peanuts & raisins was and one day decided to put those same elements into a cookie. I thought using regular cocoa powder made them look too bland so I used dark cocoa instead, and I think that not only helps the visual appeal, but gives the cookies a deeper chocolate flavor as well.

I suppose it’s up to personal tastes as to how much you will like this cookie, but they are my second favorite cookie of all time. I like them more than the candy bar!

Dark Chocolate Chunkies

Kansas State Fair 3rd Place Winner, Chocolate Cookies division

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

½ cup light brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

¼ cup Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup dry-roasted, salted peanuts

½ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugars together until blended and fluffy, about five minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking soda and mix just until combined. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Mound large spoonfuls, about ¼ cup per cookie, onto an ungreased, parchment-lined, cookie sheet about 2″ apart. Flatten with a spatula until each cookie is almost 2 inches in diameter. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges have just begun to firm. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for one minute, then transfer to a wire rack.* Repeat with remaining dough.

Makes about 16 giant cookies.

*I always underbake cookies to ensure that they are soft and chewy after cooling. Depending on how soft they are when I remove them from the oven, sometimes I have to leave them to cool completely on the cookie sheet so they can continue baking while they cool and set them up a little more without over-baking. If you try to remove a cookie to a cooling rack and it’s too doughy, just leave them to cool completely on the sheet. If you can remove it easily, do it or they will not be as soft after cooling.