Cookie Monster

After my last post I received many suggestions and offers for cookies, to my great delight. If all the offers to send me chocolate chip deliciousness are true I will be one happy camper. However, I have read stories about mail being lost or stolen, and I mean who wouldn't steal a box of cookies? Luckily Tracie, who spent a semester in Africa, told me making cookies was not as impossible as I thought it might be, that I just needed to find a recipe without eggs (because of salmonella). I though no eggs- no problem.

Here is a recipe I am going to try this weekend, taken from egglesscooking.com. I will make sure to let you know how it goes, since you will be sitting on the edges of your seats in anticipation.

Butter, softened – 2 sticks 

Granulated Sugar – 1/2 cup

Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1/2 cup 

Vanilla Extract – 1/2 teaspoon 

All Purpose Flour – 2.25 cup 

Baking Powder – 1 teaspoon

Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips/chunks  – 1.75 cups

Nuts – Optional 

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
2. Grease baking sheets or line it with parchment paper.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and creamy (for 5 minutes).
4. Pour in the condensed milk, vanilla extract and beat to combine.
5. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder and combine well.
6. Stir into the butter mixture, then add the chocolate chips, nuts (if using).
7. Combine it well using a spatula. Don’t beat it.
8. Take a tablespoonful of dough, roll it and flatten it using your fingers. Grease the tablespoon, so that the dough will fall off easily.
9. Bake it for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown. (The color check can be done if using all purpose flour only. Mine were done at 17 minutes).
10. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes in the baking sheet itself. Don’t try to remove it. It may look unbaked but it will become hard on the baking sheet itself.
11. After 5-10 minutes, using a spatula transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

missing something

Getting ready to leave for the Peace Corps, well actually the entire application process too, allows room for guessing and making assumptions. It is an innate quality that everyone seems to possess, it makes coping with the unknown easier. I know that I have been imagining/ fantasizing/ pretending about living in Honduras and what life will be like, because no matter how much I read I really wont know until I am there.

In the same vein I have tried to guess what I will miss the most while I am in Central America. The obvious--friends and family-- jumps to the forefront, but what little things will leave a void in my day to day?

Here are my top 5 things (I think) I will miss the most:

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies

People who know me will understand why this is my number 1. Regardless of the situation I cannot turn down a cookie (except oatmeal rasin- gross). Maybe I will be surprised and find all of the ingredients that I need to keep my addiction alive and well.

2. Seamless Web

Non-New Yorkers might be confused as to what this AMAZING website does, in reality it saved me from eating peanut butter out of ajar for 3 meals a day. It is an online consortium of NYC restaurants, that lists menus, hours, prices, and gives a user the ability to order food right from the website. I could go on about how much I actually enjoy seamless web but that might being to sound pathetic.

3. Long Showers
                                       

I like to consider myself environmentally conscious, and strive to have the smallest carbon footprint possible. But, I have a deep dark secret... I adore long showers. I find them extremely relaxing and a way to clear my head. I know that I will not have the ability to linger in the shower, which I am slowly coming to terms with.

4. Sushi

                                          

This is pretty self-explanatory, the type of food that I will miss the most is Japanese.

5. Trashy TV (no judgement allowed)

                                         

 I know you might not want to admit it but, trashy TV is great to watch. It doesn't require brain power to watch, there is no overarching theme to grasp, and the dialog can be understood my a kinder- gardener. It is a great stress-reliever and pick me up, all rolled into one.

Getting a little anxious

Right now I am 11 days away from packing up my apartment in NYC and lugging all of it across the country to Colorado. Despite how fun a cross country trip sounds, I do not think having a U-Haul as your means of transportation is part of that idyllic journey. Trying to move all of my junk cheaply has left me with no other option but to drive across 3/4 of America, luckily my friend Anne has decided to trek the 27 hours with me. We are looking forward to our pit-stops in Cincinnati, Des Moines, and Omaha, where we can....

What is actually is making me the most anxious is packing, because I haven't started.

Right now I am in the time period where I still need things day to day so I cannot pack everything, but I am slowly creeping up on D day and HAVE to have everything packed.

Instead of getting anxious about the drive, I think that I am going to look up exciting destinations in the mid-west  to stop. Anyone have suggestions?

Haiti

I feel so helpless watching the images of the Haitian Earthquake and have been trying to figure out how I can contribute to the aid going to our neighbor. The America Red Cross has come up with a great way to raise funds for Haiti relief efforts, by texting Haiti to 90-999 $10 will be donated and show up one your phone bill. Through this effort they have already raised more than $3 Million as of 9am.

There are other ways to help and find out information about the progress of the recovery efforts at http://www.whitehouse.gov/.

Send me packing

In an attempt to control the millions of things that I have to do before I leave for Honduras, I have tried to create lists of what to pack, do, and prep. Needless to say I know have a pile of lists to sort through. I think that every volunteer wants to pack perfectly and efficiently, but there exists a paradox when trying to conquer "the packing list."

The more research you do, the long your list grows.

I have read to pack: spices, voltage stabilizers, pots and pans, radios, ziplock bags, duct tape, computers, cameras, batteries, a headlamp, a money belt, Leatherman, small travel alarm clock and extra batteries, a pocket-size Spanish-English dictionary, an ipod, an external hard drive, a convertor kit, binoculars, water bottle, umbrella's, sheets, boots, tarps, sleeping bags... and that doesn't even include clothing!

Right now my list looks like I am going to live somewhere that stores have not been invented yet. I obviously need to make some edits and think about if I am really going to use an umbrella. Now I just have to figure out where to draw the line.


ps- knit one, pearl two