Reindeer Games

Mr. Bach

"If I can't drink

my bowl of coffee three times daily,

then in my torment I will shrivel up

like a piece of roast goat."

J.S. Bach from the Coffee Cantata


Today in the break room, I brought up a question that has been puzzling me for a while.  A popular parlor game/ice breaker is posing the question "If you could meet anyone alive or dead, who would it be?"  However, there are many missing parameters that trouble me.  For instance, if you chose to meet Joan of Arc, would it be necessary to be fluent in Medieval French?  Or what if I was eager to meet Queen Victoria only to find she was scandalized my my loose hair and visable ankles.  Where are am I meeting this person?  What place?  What century?

You see the trouble.

Cloud Nine Banana Cream Pie

Homeschooling traditionally is hands-on learning.  My experience was no different.  For everything we studied, there was an accompanying hands-on project that generally included food.   A study of Jewish holidays would not have been complete without latkes.  When we were studying the Dark Ages, we all tried some cow tongue.  And I was extremely jealous of my sister Rebekah the year she decided to do a science fair project on leavening agents in brownies. 

Some of these experiences were of epic proportion.  When we studied Queen Victoria, we made queen cakes.  Mom mixed up the batter and let us fill the cupcake tins.  After about ten minutes in the oven, the cupcake tins overflowed and the bottom of the oven caught on fire.  

Army Day: The Celebration of Bad Puns

Mom

My mom and her father love puns.  They also play with their hair.  Naturally, my cousins, my sisters and I all play with our hair.  My sisters and cousins also indulge in the pun habit.  For the most part, puns elude me. 

I attribute it to being grounded in reality and far too literal, but I cannot effortlessly find alternative meanings in words.  At gatherings, over plates of brats and Grandpa's legendary potato salad, family would throw puns around like tennis balls.  I would sit quietly and muddle over a word in an attempt to come up with a tortured word play.  But before I could throw mine in the mix, someone else would use my word - only they'd use it better! The celebration of puns, however, is something I partake in with enthusiasm.

Grandpa started it.  On March 4th he and my mom would wish each other a "Happy Army Day!"  Do you get it?  March 4 = march forth = Army Day (I warned you it was bad).  After my mom moved out, she and Grandpa would call each other on March 4.  It became a joke between them to see who could call whom first.  When I was little, I thought March 4 was a nationally recognized holiday.  Obviously, one of the hazards benefits of homeschooling is growing up with your own holidays. 

Chicken Soup with Spinach and Orzo

A number of years ago, I called my mom and boasted, "I just roasted a chicken!" 


She was nonplussed.  "Anyone can roast a chicken.  It's taking the meat off the bones that is the hard part."


There is something to that.  Deboning a chicken is greasy, mindless work.  When we were kids, my parents would scare us into doing homework by regaling us with stories of chicken factories.  Now I pull meat off the pokey bones off a chicken and mutter, "I went to college...I went to college." 

To: New Mom, From: Working Girl

Being honest on the internet is tricky.  Assuming you successfully walk the line between too much information and vague rambling, there is always the good chance you'll come off either whiney or self-satisfied (see, even in saying that there is a certain smugness).   However, I am going to risk it, and write (briefly) about something that has been difficult for me: benevolance.

When I was growing up, there were a lot of new babies in our house .  And where there are new babies, there are benevolant people bringing hot meals and well wishes.  In turn, my mom took meals to new moms and others in need.  In the foggy future I envisioned for myself, I knew I'd be taking meals to people as well.

I never thought I'd be 29 and working full-time (let's face it; I never thought I'd be 29); but while most of my friends are raising babies, I am working at a desk from 8:30-5:00.  I appreciate the differences - they serve four people supper at 5:30 or 6:00; I serve two people supper at 7:30.  They run errands during the day with children; I run errands on the weekends with my favorite adult (and many, many more differences).  But I am a competative person, and it is easy for me to feel like I am less than I should be when my lifestyle doesn't align with their's. 

Rebekah's Brownie Pillow Cookies

In addition to being a busy tax accountant, my sister Rebekah is also a wonderful baker.  She kindly agreed to do a guest post on how to make her brownie pillow cookies.  Bake carefully; I can verify what she says - they are addicting!

During my junior year of university, I moved into a house not far from campus with my sister, Elizabeth, and our friend, Beth.  After two years of the exuberance of the dormitories, it was nice to have a little space to spread out and study in peace. Plus, we had a whole big kitchen all to ourselves!

It became a weekly tradition for my wonderful and adorable friends, Bekah and Rachel, to come over on Sunday afternoons for lunch and to study.  With The Corrs crooning in the background, we always lunched on the same thing, procured from the Fresh Market down the street--hot shaved ham, drizzled with honey, on Ciabatta rolls and sliced Munster cheese. For dessert, we would get brownie pillow cookies--a moist brownie center enveloped in a smooth butter cookie. They were pretty much heaven on earth.

After I graduated, I moved on to the wonderful world of tax accounting in Atlanta, rarely eating shaved ham for Sunday lunch, and (as impossible as this sounds) quite forgetting about the glories of brownie pillow cookies.

Until one day in December. 

A friend from work had suggested a pre-Christmas cookie bake.  We invited several other mutual friends and each submitted a recipe for the group to make.  To my chagrin, none of the recipes submitted were of a chocolate variety. Not having chocolate at a cookie bake being paramount to criminal activity, I planned to rectify the problem by submitting a chocolate cookie as my recipe.

And with that decision, the brownie pillow cookies popped out of some buried subconscious and into my brain.

I had always figured they were made by magic, since how else were you supposed to get a brownie inside of a cookie!  But since I had to have them (and I couldn’t very well bring else-where baked cookies to a cookie bake), I decided to see if my dear friend Google could help me out.  And, lo and behold, someone else had also experienced the wonder of Fresh Market’s brownie pillow cookies; and--like a scene from one of those antiques shows where someone finds they are holding a priceless treasure long-buried in a distant relative’s basement, attic or, in this case, recipe book--she had found a recipe.

I did make the cookies.  And I took them to work so I wouldn’t eat them all.  My co-workers now also dream in brownie pillow cookies.

Since the recipe Bakerella posted made pillow cookies big enough to dress a bed, I modified it some to make a more bite-sized variety. The recipe also contains chocolate chips in the cookie dough, which she and I both think adds something, but which can be eliminated for a cookie closer to those from Fresh Market.

Tomorrow, I am attending a get-together with several of the ladies in my neighborhood.  We are supposed to bring a snack and a beverage. Since these are the people who keep an eye on my house for me when I am out of town, I figured I’d better make them like me.  So I am taking brownie pillow cookies.  Because, after all, it is a brownie inside of a cookie.  What is there not to love??

Brownie Pillow Cookies

For the brownies

1 package brownie mix for an 8x8 pan (you can make brownies from scratch as well, but since I’m eating, sleeping and breathing taxes at the moment, that’s really not an option for me, no matter how much I love my neighbors).

Make sure the brownie package is for a small square pan (8x8 or 9x9).  Prepare brownies batter according to package directions (I also like to add chopped pecans to my brownies, just make sure to chop up anything added to be very small so you do not wind up with large chunks on your brownies) or your favorite recipe.  Pour into a 9x13 pan.  It will create a thin layer, so you will need to spread out to the corners and smooth.  Bake just until set (about 7 minutes).  Cool to room temperature and then put in the freezer.

For the chocolate chip cookie dough

This amount of cookie dough will make about three dozen small (1.5”) cookies and will use up half the pan of brownies.

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. bag miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat butter with a mixer until creamy. Add brown sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs, yolk and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl and stir together with a wire whisk.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until combined. Stir in mini chips. Let dough chill covered in the refrigerator for at least an hour. This will make it easier to handle when you’re wrapping the brownies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the pan of brownies from freezer and cut into small squares (about a half-inch square).  I do cut away the very edges first so as to not wind up with any harder bits in my cookies. I was worried about the edges going to waste, but somehow they manage to disappear, so I stopped worrying about it.

Cover each brownie square with a thin layer of chocolate chip cookie dough.  I do this by rolling a small ball of dough (1+ tsp) and then creating an indent with my thumb into which I put the brownie piece.  I then work the dough around the rest of the brownie piece and form it back into a ball. If I’ve done it right, I won’t be able to see the brownie at all (See! It is magic!).

Place the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet (I line mine with parchment paper) and smoosh them down (they do not spread much).  Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake until light brown (about 7 minutes). 

Cool on cooling rack.

Try to refrain from eating them all in one sitting.

Newly Organized Cotton Swabs

For the past three birthdays, my mom has given me a year subscription to Martha Stewart’s magazine Living.   Usually, I get most of my information (news, recipes, organizational and decorating ideas) from the internet.  But nothing can replace the magazine experience – from finding it in the mailbox to turning the glossy pages to passing it along to someone else.   I make a point of doing at least one thing from each issue whether it is trying a recipe or craft or following some quip of advice. 

This month, an organizational idea caught my eye.  For one thing, it made cotton balls and q-tip easily accessible.  For another thing, it used glassware.   When you get married in the South and invite 700 people, you end up with a lot of glassware and crystal.  I am thankful for all my pretty things, but until I have a tea party for 1000 people most of it goes unused.