Citrus White Chocolate Cookies

Dress - Mossimo // Shoes - Mossimo (via Marc's closeouts) // Belt & Scarf - Thrifted

This is the second time I made these cookies this week. And yes, it's only Tuesday--they are that good. Anyways, I don't really do a lot of baking or cooking. But, I just needed to share this recipe with you!

This is just in my mom's recipe binder and I have no idea where she got it from--normally there's a name on it or a note or something. Or at least a website. But, there's nothing on this recipe. So, to whoever gave this recipe to my mom...I love you. Really, I do. And I'm just trying to spread this citrusy love around by sharing this amazing recipe.

Citrus White Chocolate Cookies

1 c. Butter
1/2 c. White Sugar
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
1 Egg
2 1/4 c. Flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 T. Grated orange peel (I think lemon would be delish too)
1 12 oz. Bag of white chocolate chips

Instructions (Real Instructions below this):
Once you have a reason to bake these cookies (mine was making dessert for company coming over the next day) begin to put off baking said cookies. Do laundry or anything else except for baking. Then find a good movie to watch while you bake 'cause you can't bake without entertainment. I recommend Tower Heist, but pick something you like. When you have the movie, find your computer to watch it on. Then, once you have your computer, proceed to check all email, facebook, and do all your blog reading. Heck, while you're at it, you might as well even write a blog post. At this point it should be around 9:30PM. You may now start the baking.

Rummage through some cabinets until you find several kinds of sugar and add that with the butter to the mixer. Stop the mixer every 15 or so seconds so you can taste the batter--this is the best part of the batter. Put off adding the egg as long as possible so you can continue tasting the batter. Forget about exercising and accept that medium is a great clothing size...and have yet another taste. Finally add the egg and taste just a little bit of that batter. Periodically eat several handfuls of white chocolate chips.

Mix the dry ingredients together and add that slowly to the mixer. But, make sure to get flour and stuff all over the counter and floors in this process. Pause to grab someone else's apron and then continue spooning the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Grate some orange peel on the side of the grater that's hardest to wash. Wash the grater. Realize you only grated half of what you needed, get the grater back out, and repeat. Add this orange peel and chocolate chips to the bowl and mix in by hand.

At this point, you've completely forgotten to preheat the oven. So sit and watch the movie while you wait for the oven to heat up. Eventually the oven will be the right temperature and you can bake those cookies! You must sample at least one each time a batch comes out and put the rest on a wire rack. Lastly, clean the kitchen while taking several breaks to eat more cookies.

And that's how it's done.

Real Instructions: Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl or mixer. Beat in egg. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl and then spoon it into the mixer and mix until it's a good, cookie consistency. Then, stir in the orange peel and white chocolate by hand. Place small spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes (I found 12 minutes is usually good) at 350 degrees. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy.

Note: Hershey's chocolate chips are much better than the store brand for these cookies. Normally I don't really care about the difference, but with these cookies it's very noticeable and worth the few extra cents to get the Hershey's. And DO NOT use Smart Balance. Regular cookies are amazing with smart balance, but these taste much better with regular butter. I normally use Smart Balance for everything, but I would recommend butter for these.

Monsters U!

Dress - Pink Owl (via Modcloth) // Belt and Scarf- Thrifted // Shoes - Mossimo (via Marc's)

So I finally saw Monsters University today! We've been trying to see this movie for several weeks...but every Monday ($5 Monday at our theater) something's come up! Anyways, no spoilers here. But I will say it was an adorable movie! Pixar really knows how to do sequels (well prequel in this case I guess...). I thought this dress was perfect since it had like every monster colors on it :p Oh and it's my first Modcloth dress! Have you seen Monsters University yet? What did you think of it?

Back to Pymatuning

Dress - Thrifted (Ulterior Motive) // Cardigan - Thrifted (New York & Company) // Belt - Corey P. (via JCPenney ...came with a dress) // Shoes - Faded Glory

I don't know what happened, but for some reason there were about 20 pictures missing when I uploaded everything. Aaaand, they happened to be the pictures that I had Catherine take of my outfit while I was standing on the dock. It's really frustrating 'cause they were on the camera on the way home, but when I went to upload them....they were gone. So yeah, not happy. Oh well, still got a couple good pictures I guess.

Anyways, only Laura, M, and dad were running in the 5k today and, since they were there, A and D ran in the 1/2 mile kids fun run. But, for some strange reason we all got up between 5 & 6 to go to a race an hour away...yes, that early in the morning. Now, I'm all for supporting family members in their athletic endeavors, but I'm pretty sure there's an clause in there somewhere regarding early mornings. Technically, I'd prefer to attend sporting events after noon (or perhaps not at all...) but the fact that we drove several hours, sat through two races, and stayed for award ceremony all before noon disturbs me.

They actually did really well in the race though. Laura and A both placed second in their age categories and D placed 3rd in his. It was hilarious 'cause we all stood by the finish line waiting for our people and my mom was just there cheering everyone on. I, on the other hand, wasn't. Cheering people on, that is. If you remember my previous post on running you'll remember that I hate running and I spent the entire time venting my frustration by yelling at Laura (jokingly, not angrily ...sarcasm clause). So, as a joke, to balance my mom's  ridiculously enthusiastic encouragement to people we didn't even know, I would say...well, not very encouraging things. Ya know, only so she could hear. But then when our family members came to the finish line I had to yell....not encouraging things at them. Don't worry, Laura thought it was funny. Just things like, "You look goofy when you run!" "You'll never make it" and "Turn back now!" And then I thought of ..."The end is near!" So now I actually want to go to another race with them just so I can bring a sign saying "The End is Near." That way I can be encouraging and still retain my slightly disturbing sense of humor. It's a win-win. Oh, I did cheer on one runner though. The guy dressed as Wolverine. Yes, a guy dressed up as Wolverine for the race--I couldn't help but cheer him on!

 And before I forget, the pictures of Catherine in goofy poses are her mocking me. In exchange for her taking the pictures  that interestingly disappeared, I took pictures of her mocking me. Actually I'd totally take the pictures anyway, 'cause she's thinks she's funny.

That's it! I leave you with the most creative store name ever--The Store. Yes, just The Store. I had to take a picture of this incredible example of creativity.

100th Post!

Hey there! I don't know about you, but I am so excited that this is my 100th post! I am so amazed that I made it this far! I know 100 posts isn't technically that much since I've only been blogging since March, but for me it's a lot. Mostly because I have started other blogs before and, well...let's just say I never made it past 10 posts before I got bored and quit. So yeah, accomplishment for me!

First off I must apologize for not a lot of posts this week! I actually have several written, but I couldn't post them 'cause I really wanted to spend time making this post a darn good one! And I want to have some scheduled for when I'm at camp. And I was so busy all week with ...well, everything. But, I won't waste time on that now. Lets just say that I had zero time for picture taking, but I was extremely productive in non-blogging things!

I guess I could have posted during the week and then this post...but it wouldn't really have been my 100th post. It would have been like my 105th or something. My OCD (it should be CDO so all the letters are in order) kind of prevented me from doing that though 'cause it would have been out of order! I'm twitching just thinking of it.

Yeah, I know none of the pictures below are new. But, it was fun for me to see some of my older pictures and see some of my favorites! And you get to see some awful pictures from my beginning days of blogging. Well just one actually. Eh, I don't even want to look at it. But, it sure makes my current pictures look even better! If you want to see more awful pictures just go to the first couple posts in March in the archives.

Pictures by me, R. Parker, CT, Laura, Mom, and siblings.
Went from this (cell phone with a homemade tripod)...

To this (friends taking pictures)...

To finally this (taking my own pictures!)...

And here's a couple more of my favorites! (in chronological-ish order...)

I owe a huge thanks to my friends and my family members who all helped me with pictures when I first started blogging--I really couldn't have done it without them. You can see pictures of them on the Photographer Page! Anyways, thank YOU so much! Thanks for sticking with me as I've been blogging these past couple of months. Thanks for reading all my random thoughts. And thanks especially for your comments! I know everyone says this, but seriously, I LOVE reading them! It's so nice to know that someone took the time to read a post that I took time writing. Sometimes they say Hey, I liked your blog and took the time to comment other times they say Hey, I'm hoping that by commenting on your blog you'll come and check my out (which I really don't mind at all...and I almost always check said blog out) and still other times they say Follow me and I'll follow back xoxox ;) ;) I think my eye started twitching as I wrote that last one... Back to you guys though! I really do appreciate all of y'all who read my blog--means a lot to me!

Well, here's to the next 100 posts! Hope you'll stick around!