Friday's Letters

Early Mornings-
  I might not have always had a good relationship with you, but... I think I'm falling in love with you.

Dear Twinings-
  Your spiced Chai tea is nasty! I love your other ones though, especially your Irish breakfast. What happened to the Chai though, did I get a bad box?

Dear boots-
  I did get you on sale at Payless, and therefore am not surprised at your short lifespan. But why?? I've become addicted to your comfort, looks like I need to branch out to other stores for durable boots. Sad day.

Dear sick-people-on-the-bus-
  If you need to cough, do like I do. Hold it in even if it means your eyes pop out of your head and you tear up. Really. If I suffer so that I don't get my hands germy (and hold the grab bars) then you should too!

Dear Purell-
  Thank you for all you do.

Oatmeal-Banana (ONLY) Cookies.

Our stove has arrived, and is doing splendidly. Right now, potatoes are cooking for Shepherd's Pie for the family coming over. Nice to have people to cook for (and hopefully they like it). :)

But. I wanted cookies earlier this week. So I decided to cristen our oven's insides with this wonderful recipe form The Burlap Bag, where the recipe below is basically copy/pasted from.
http://www.theburlapbag.com/2012/07/2-ingredient-cookies-plus-the-mix-ins-of-your-choice/
They were amazing! I doubled the recipe, and it made 32 cookies. See below pictures.

Banana- Oatmeal (Only) Cookies

On Becoming a ''Morning Person''

This Tuesday (Monday was Veterans Day), I started a new schedule at work. It involved me waking at 5:45, washing my face and turning my phone on to take a few phone calls from 6-9am. Basically just being awake to answer it. So really, I was a little concerned I would fall asleep from boredom.

I used to work from 11-7pm, waking at 9am and going to bed at 1pm (if I went to bed on time).

I discovered that it is amazing to wake up early! And I've searched the web for the week leading up to it, to search for tactics (because waking up is like war??) on how to wake up early.

I've found a few things.

Drink Tea and avoid TV before bed, and go to bed on time.
  Duh, right? But I did it, and I went to bed sleepy, versus stimulated. And stayed asleep. And woke refreshed.

Wake up to a nice alarm. 
  I changed out my alarm (which was HORRID) to a favorite song. And as it slowly gets louder, I no longer scowl and attack it to save my ears. I actually kind of enjoy it because it's never loud. I have even downgraded from 10 angry-sounding alarms to 4 nice alarms.

Drink some cold water (OJ, etc) immediately.
  It replenishes you since you hadn't drank anything in about 8 hours. That's why you always feel so sick/blah in the morning. Drink some water. And it wakes you up.

Have something to wake up for.
  Apparently, I needed my work to demand an early wake up. I have for the longest time wanted to wake up with Tom, but never have. Now, I get to read my Bible, make us breakfast, put dishes away, play Scrabble on Facebook and read the news in the hour before he wakes. And he's a big fan of eggs instead of Cap'n Crunch, so I get major props for the breakfast thing.

Do something to help you later in the week.
  I accidentally made biscuit cookies my first day in. They were supposed to be cookies made with Jiffy Cake Mix (first day in, keeping it simple!) But, upon removal they appeared incredibly biscuit-like. They were still tasty though . Oh, and I discovered that I can't use my big baking sheets in our 24'' oven :(

Yes, they will slide all the way down..

And those have been my findings so far. I woke up today and couldn't stay in bed. I eventually tried luring Tom out at 8:30 with some coffee, which he sneered at, drank, and then went back to bed.


So, how has your week been? Any suggestions on making this new schedule continue to rock?

No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars

We have a stove! But it is sadly stationed in our living room until we get a hose, an adapter and bust a part of our wall apart. So despite these dire circumstances (considering I want to bake!) I improvised.
And while we do not celebrate Halloween and tend to stay inside the evenings surrounding it (people egg things in NYC on Halloween- no thanks) I did make one concession. I don't think it's a bad one either.
In an effort to enjoy the peanut-buttery goodness of the Halloween holiday (the only part I will partake in), I decided to surprise Tom with homemade Reeses' cup bars. I found the website on Pinterest, and followed the pin here. And then browsed around for along time before I had to close the browser or go buy cookies from the Hot 'N Tasty downstairs. And they have horrible cookies, so I my day would've been ruined if I hadn't pulled myself away from temptation.
I have fallen in love with Pepperplate- the web version and the app. So don't mind me if all my recipe's are copied from recipe on there.  But to get the exact same recipe, click the link below. I didn't change anything, didn't need to :)

From Jen's Favorite Cookies:

Peanut Butter Bars (No Bake!)
An easy no-bake recipe for peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting.
INGREDIENTS
  Bars
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
  Frosting
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
INSTRUCTIONS
1. In a bowl, melt butter and peanut butter together.
2. Add cracker crumbs, sugar, butter, and peanut butter. Spread mixture evenly into a 9×13 pan.
3. Melt chocolate chips with peanut butter in 30 second intervals in the microwave, stirring between each, until melted and smooth.
4. Pour chocolate mixture over bars, and frost evenly.
5. Chill for 40-50 minutes until chocolate is set.

Shoulda melted the chocolate more. Coulda took my time cutting. Woulda gotten better photos.

Whatever, they were amazing and I stand by the original recipe and vouch against myself. Bad blogger. Why don't I try harder to get nice photos. Because.... I was about to pop that lil broken piece into my mouth and forced myself to stick it back where it belongs for the photo. You're welcome...

BUT: We did find (in the final row of the pan of course) that the best way to cut and enjoy them were to cut mini cubes and pop em in your mouth. 

And try not to let them get room temperature. Because they tend to soften up- and as much as I love eating candy like a kid on Halloween, I don't want to look like a kid who ate candy on Halloween.