I can't believe vacation is over

Well, that was a quick 9 days. I can't believe my vacation is already over. Bummer, that's all I can say. Between my new job and back when my old company got bought, life has just been crazy. We shut down for Christmas week 2009 and I haven't taken any serious time off since then. I didn't even take off time between jobs since I carry the insurance and didn't want to risk something happening.

Oh well, it is what it is. Time to recap the week, watch a little tv, and then rest up for tomorrow. My hope for vacation had been to play with my kids, do some cooking (baking), get caught up on some chores, and other misc stuff. Nothing too fancy really. My wife has only been at her new job a month (it's not usually the best time to ask for a week off), so we didn't plan any trips or anything.

The weekend started off with these cinnamon swirl pancakes. Yes that's a stainless steel pan... and yes, I realize it's a terrible way to cook pancakes. This was made painfully clear when I flipped over this pancake and the cinnamon swirl started burning. Sometimes it's the dumb mistakes that make for the quickest lessons in life.

Lesson: Buy a griddle


Monday was another lesson. My buddy came down from New Hampshire with his two little girls. It's been awhile since they've seen my daughter, but things clicked back into place after 15 minutes and all was going pretty well. After lunch, I explained to his kids that we have like 12 different ice creams in the freezer, and all they need to do is tell me what they want. "Do you have vanilla?" How quickly my ice cream castle comes crumbling down by the simple question of a first grader. Oh man. So, I got creative and made a sampler plate of Black Raspberry, Double Cookies n' Cream, Cookie Dough, and Chocolate Nougat Crunch. Thankfully that did the trick and I wound up scooping out bowls of Black Raspberry and Cookies n' Cream.

Lesson: Can't go wrong with simple (i.e. Plan Ahead)

So I was cooking dinner this week ofcourse, had some nice corned beef and stuff like that, but Friday it was time to cook a nice breakfast treat. This is an A.P. Cake, a breakfast staple from my childhood (recipe is here) You may notice it looks kinda puffy, well.... both my kids were talking and I kind of lost my scoop count... Yeah, I wound up with an extra half scoop of flour in the mix. Whoops!

Lesson: Pay attention

Ok, time to finish up the week with a little early morning cooking today. My daughter was sad we didn't do more baking this week so this morning we made double chocolate cookies for her (recipe from Mrs. Fields cookie cookbook). The first tray came out looking like they did 3 years ago. On the second tray, I doubled up my scoop size and flattened them a bit to create the giant cookies you see. Hmmmm, what to do with all these cookies?

Mmmmm, Black Raspberry ice cream sandwich, so tasty

or the slightly more traditional cookie dough version

for our non-fruit-loving friends

and my final secret is....

FREEZE 'EM!

They froze surprisingly well last time, so the only real difference here is that I used a thinner cookie. I also put these individual sandwiches in a big zip-lock so they are double wrapped. They will last a long time and should be great for whenever the mood strikes me. It's not like we could have finished 4 dozen cookies anyway, so it's a win win.

I was thinking about this and I don't know why scoop shops don't all sell these. Easy to do, lots of possibilities, and should have a good profit margin. Something to keep in my for my shoppe someday.

Ok, I'm off for a little TV time before my day is done. Good night!