About the Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies is my favorite cookie recipe right now! They're chewy, have big chunks of chocolate and are very spicy & ginger-y. I like to use Baker's semi-sweet chocolate squares for the chocolate ingredient. Yesterday I used a flat bar Ghiradelli, so the chocolate chunks were a little smaller -- not my preference. Either way, they're pretty tasty stuff. I'll leave the nutritional profile up to your imagination, but keep in mind that they have ginger in them (good for tummy aches & may provide antioxidant benefits).
Oh yeah, I actually finished sewing something on Wednesday! Another yoga mat bag. I'm mostly satisfied with it, except I want to reverse the cargo pocket and make it a Lefty, and figure out a way to keep the bottom section from bunching when I'm carrying it.

Yu-um

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.

4. Heat oven to 325°. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

-A

Tell me about the time you almost got arrested...

Hey, I almost forgot my wild Wednesday from 3 weeks ago. BBC was invited to play a little role on a P-land morning show, Good Day Oregon. So a bunch of crrrazy moms and us instructors went to the Oregon Zoo @ 5:30 am to be filmed working out during the live show. We did squats, triceps, biceps, lunges, and push-ups in front of the Polar Bears, otters, Sea Lions, and Starfish (and a bunch of old people watching TV - & hopefully some moms too). It was pretty fun, but lasted forever -- I had hurry to make it to class @ PSU. I hopped on the Max light rail at the Zoo station and rode downtown to class. On the way there, I realized I'd forgotten my wallet (Uh-oh, no public transportation pass, no cash, etc.). I made it to class on time after catching a bus for the rest of the trip.
After class, it was back to the zoo to pick up my car & go home. I was tired from all that smiling, working out, and bus catching. So, guess what? After I got back on the Max, the fare checker came on board to make sure everyone had a valid fare (they use the honor system, mostly). I, of course, knew I was screwed, but decided to pretend that I had just realized that I didn't have my fare/pass with me. "Oh! I guess I forgot my wallet - so I can't show you my pass," or something like that.
Well, I was surprised that little guy didn't lead me out of the train by my collar or my ear! Standing on the sidewalk between the busy eastbound & westbound tracks, I got the 3rd degree. He was an old pro. "What's your name? How do you spell that? What's your DOB? How old are you? How do you spell your name? What's your birthday again?" Man, I'm glad I didn't have to lie about that stuff!
Anyway, since I didn't have my wallet, I didn't have an ID either. Mr. Fare Checker, who is used to people lying to him, of course, says that he's gonna have to get a police officer down there to "verify my identification." And if the officer couldn't, then I might just have to go to jail. OhmyGod!
Yeah, well, I didn't even have to cry or anything. I was so pathetically honest that he had no choice but to believe me. I got a warning ticket. I guess instead of a fine, my payback was that I had to walk up the hill back to the Zoo -- took me an hour. I counted that as my run.


-A-

Double D in Portland

Last Friday, we had a couple of friends from Mississippi come up for a visit. It was great to see Dan and Dominic a little over a year after we moved up North. While they were in town we hit all the major Portland sights. The first two pics were taken at Multnomah Falls (and yes, it really is that green there). We hiked a loop that was about six miles. The only downer was that we hit by a few rain showers. But hey, without the rain it would not look the way it does.






On a day where Anne had to do her school thing, Dan, Dom and myself headed out to Cannon Beach. On the way back we stopped at Saddle Mtn. and hiked on up. Its about 3 miles to the top and I think we got an elevation gain of about 1800 feet. It was pretty amazing. The views were great and despite the occasional light rain, we got some great views. The trail was not for the faint of heart though. It was slick and pretty narrow and steep in parts. Just check out the sign. I guess we are all now experienced hikers.... I really do wonder though how they get all the railing and trail material up there. There is no way they hike it all in. I'd have to say a helecopter was involved.

After all those days of hiking we usually took part in another one of Portland's offerings, brew pubs. I think we got to 3 of them, Tugboat, Rock Bottom and McMenamin's Kennedy School. Now if I can only get them back up here for the Brewers Festival. I have heard rumors that another friend from the South, Jay will be heading up this way. That's a future entry though...
-P

Spring Break, Pt. 2

Wow, how behind we are...I guess Anne is pretty busy now that spring break is over, so I'll do a couple of postings. After Dad and Grandma left, we headed out to Sunriver for a weekend of skiing at MountBachelor. We got to hang out over the weekend with our neighbor Sarah and a few friends. We got a really nice rental house complete with a hot tub. On Friday night we got some snow which helped out the conditions on Saturday. Mt. Bachelor is much better than Mt. Hood as far as skiing goes. The snow is much drier and easier to ski on. Needless to say, Anne had a much more enjoyable time skiing than when we went to Mt. Hood. I managed not to poke any more ski poles in my face and even managed not to fall at all. No pictures for fear of breaking our camera, so you'll have to take our word that it was a great day. We finished the weekend off by going to Bend for dinner at a brew pub. Really good food and beer. What could be better?

We left Sunriver on Sunday and headed back to Portland. Sarah convinced us to make a stop at Smith Rock (a little north of Bend for a quick afternoon hike. We climbed to the top, enjoyed the amazing view of the Sisters (more of the Cascades) and headed down. I must say though that Anne gets pretty nervous any where near an edge as you can see in the picture... We even got to see a few people doing some climbing. It was a great trip. It's really amazing to see how diverse Oregon really is depending on which side of the Cascades you are on.

Spring Break Report

Ew! Sorry everybody's had an extreme close-up of my face for the last 15 days. I had #32 pulled, by the way. My mouth is finally back to normal, after getting my 'stitch abscess' taken care of on Wed. (3 words you never want to hear your doctor say: "Ooooo, that's interesting.") -- but that's another story.

So I spent the first part of my Spring Break week wallowing around being a baby when Paul was around, and digging in the dirt & shopping when he wasn't. That was pretty fun.

Then on Tuesday evening Paul's Dad John & Grandma Ellen came to visit. John was on his Spring Break too, yee-haw! They drove all the way up from Paradise, CA, which is near Chico. That night we took them to the Kennedy School, and we only had to wait 30 minutes for a table. Everybody enjoyed their meal; Paul's dad got ribs. He prefers the goop on the side. I remember at Paul's graduation dinner he had ribs, and maybe a couple other times too. MY new standard is Bread Pudding, which I ended up having in lieu of my noodle dish. (the little pieces of noodle & veggies kept floating into the 'danger zone,' and I wasn't allowed to fish them out with my tongue yet. It was rough eating.) Thankfully, John let me get dessert even though I hadn't finished my dinner. It was sooo good -thanks for dinner (dessert)!
On Wednesday, we got up, hung out, and then headed over to Ellen's friend Lila's house. They've been friends for about 60 years! They talked about their families, trips they'd taken together, and Lila played one of her two grand pianos for us. She can rock & roll! Ellen treated us to lunch, and then we visited a little longer before taking off toward home. There we had another great meal (if I don't say so). Having family visit was an excellent excuse to grill a huge salmon & make one of our favorite salads (thanks Jeanette). Stuffed again. The next morning everybody took off early: Paul to work @ 5:50 & our visitors to home @ 6:30. Early birds! We had a nice time visiting, even though it was a short one.

-Anne

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Or this one...


If you said "nothing," you're in trouble!
Nevermind, I guess it's a little hard to capture the full effect on camera. I got my one little wisdom tooth pulled yesterday morning. It went okay, but now I'm ready for some real food and some non-sitting activities.
Hurrah for ice cream!
-A

What we did LAST weekend - never gonna catch up!

On Saturday we jogged, went to the grocery store, and then... hmmmm.
Anyway, somewhere in there I studied, Paul cleaned the bathroom, and we watched the latest Harry Potter DVD. It was fun b/c it was one of the first times Paul was able to balke at the poor justice movies versions of great books do for the story.
Sunday was a beautiful day! It was a little breezy, warm, and sunny. In the morning I studied some more, and Paul tried to fix the baseboard in our living room. He'd have to tell you about how that went. After lunch he wanted to go to a local park to practice throwing his lacrosse ball and readjust the new laces on his stick. I went with him (to study) & took the camera. It was great to get outside & not get dripped/spit/misted on!
After taking this picture and some others, I decided that maybe it's time for a more powerful camera. We got our 1st digital six or seven years ago. The megapixies are holding me back (I like to crop)! Anyway, this one turned out okay w/o cropping. I think if you click on it, you can see a bigger image. I was on the wrong side in relationship to the sun, Paul is teeny, and those stupid posts were in the way (other than that, I like it!). But, he's on the R-H third and the lower 3rd line. I learned that the third lines are good positions for subjects at my Creating Keepsakes send-off mega-crop last weekend (that's scrapbooking, all you non-crafters). That's worth another whole post; but now my study break's up!



-Anne

What we did last weekend

Before this weekend's over:

We had a pretty normal weekend, but in case you're interested...

Paul made another batch of beer. In 2 weeks, we'll have 10 gallons to suck down: an amber and a pale ale. He's sparging the pale ale here.

I studied, mostly Epidemiology, but also did some QR (qualitative research): interview transcriptions. My left foot fell asleep after a while. See Why?
He's such a big fat baby.

This is finals week. Then comes spring break!

-Anne

Holy Crap!

I got a letter from the governor - NOT the Gov-uh-nay-tah! Haley Barbour never replied to me before, not to mention my local representative...

"Thank you for sharing your ideas and concerns. I believe citizen
input is vital to a strong and healthy society and I urge your
continued involvement.   Should your comments
require an additional response, appropriate staff will contact you.
I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,
Theodore R. Kulongoski
Governor"

WOW!
This was sent in response to a letter that I sent to him about a serious subject and South Dakota. With the assistance of one of the tons of web pages out there, YOU TOO could write your governor (and maybe even get an auto-response), whichever side of the issue you happen to be on.
So go exercise - your rights!

- Anne

Hi Mom!

Wow, I was on TV last week! That was an odd, interesting, fun little event. Being someone who used to hate getting my picture taken when I was younger, I can't believe I went with the intent of doing that!
AM Northwest is a local morning show on the abc channel KATU2. That lady in black on the left was the interview person - she's about 6 feet tall! Then Erin, right next to me (not the Munchkin), the Baby Boot Camp Director, is about 5'(+1"?) tall! That was a fun interview to watch.
It was pretty fun, but we must have done about 30 lunges on the same cheek for the long segment (they don't want any 'down time'). OW!
If you come visit us, you too can see the exciting footage.

Okay, good study break!

-Anne

The dorks went over the moun-tain

To see if they could ski!

Mt. Hood is a popular destination, especially on federal 3-day weekends. We jumped into the Mt. Hood Meadows caravan & got to the top in less than 90 minutes. The parking lot was neary full at 8:30; the park opened at 9:00!
I was a little tentative at first, and then lost all confidence as we got off the Cascade lift, only to find ALL blue ("harder") courses. I fell down 4 times, & snapped my ski out of the binding once. Whew! We spent the afternoon skiing green ("easier"), which I enjoyed much more.

Paul experienced a little drama too - had a close call. He slippedand almost fell, jamming the butt of his pole into his eye instead. Luckily he was wearing his goggles, so it deflected onto his cheek. The rest of the day he looked like this:











...except he only had one rosy cheek, and a bloody letter "D" was imprinted smack dab in the middle of it! Lucky for him, it didn't affect his skiing. He didn't fall down once!

We took the "Fruit Loop" road home, driving through Hood River to catch the interstate. In June or July, there is a huge Fruit Loop drive promo - so many roadway miles of fruit farms & stands, arranged in a big loop. We couldn't tell what kind of fruit they were growing, b/c all the signs just said "Fruit," and their orchards were bare. What grows in an orchard? Apples, cherry, pears, ??? Maybe we'll get to find out this summer, potential visitors & sightseers.
In Hood River, I made a quick stop at *$$ (Starbucks, notated in the checkbook log - it just takes to long to write it out every time), and we were home by dinnertime.
That was our fun, bank-breaking weekend!

- A

Oh My.

The sun is out...


































Rahrrrrrr!



































Waaaaaaaaaah!


-A

We paid to do what?

Wow, it's been a while since I've put something on this thing. Just thought I'd drop a little something on something Anne and I are planning. While at work one day, I got a news letter type thing. Turns out that the Corps of Engineers has a Hood to Coast Relay team (called the Dam Runners, it's a work thing...) and they were looking for people to join up. Having heard of it before, I thought it would be a pretty cool experience. Long story short, Anne and I are going to take part. It's a 197 mile relay race from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast at Seaside. It's the largest relay race in North America with 1,000 teams (each with 12 runners). We'll each be running 3 legs, probably averaging about 6 or so miles each. Anne has a leg up on training seeing as how she is training up for a half-marathon in a couple of months. No worries though, I'll catch up soon enough... More to come on this one for sure.

The Whole Family,

We had visitors recently - well, now its been a couple weeks, but we're still excited about it!
Anne's dad, step-mom, & brother visited partly during the week and over the MLK weekend. It was good timing, since I (Anne) had just started back to classes, and didn't really have any homework yet.
We had fun hanging out, going to the coast, and visiting the Pearl. Sandi got to visit my camups, PSU while I was there, but I didn't have my phone with me (so I didn't get the message - literally). Blah!
Enjoy our pics of the trip, plus a little digital 'evidence' that our little BSL house pretty much survived Katrina - the only 'sweet spot' less than 3 blocks from the beach w/in 90 miles!



Our House in Bay St. Louis. It reads, "Water Damage," assessed in October!

- A

Merry January

We had such an amazing holiday that "we" forgot to post for a while! Paul & I had little whirlwind tour of the Midwest Triangle, mobilizing from Chicago to Iowa to Missouri, back to Midway. Airport food is yucky, and Chicago rush hour going INTO the city on Friday afternoon is worse than Portland going out! We saw EVERYBODY on Anne's side except for Grandma V., Matt's girlfriend and Aunt Jeanne, Uncle David & Scott (thanks for not passing on the Bug). The not-so-great part was that I already had my own bug; caught it on my Birthday. Now that I'm "ancient," a 20-day cold doesn't seem so odd. Anyway, I spent much of our time sitting around sniffling , sipping, and groaning. I felt a little 'out of it.' In fact, the picture of Luke & I in his trench coats was taken before I got the only exercise I would experience on the entire trip: a walk around the block with Bobber. It was strenuous.

The kitties had a pet sitter (very good - rainy day pets, Portland), so they got some attention while we were away. Luckily, we had other pets to hang out with: Sarah, Boo-Boo, & Emma the cats, and Bobber (with Paul). I brought each cat a little home-made catnip toy with special White Lightning catnip in them. It appeared that all of them adored their new toy. It makes them swoon, drool, fight, & carry it everywhere like a blankey... or crack.

Christmas was way bountiful. We received sweet treats up the wazoo (yahoo), a few things to wear and a few things for the house. It was Merry! Kudos to the Blog Wishlist. Try it out...
Well, now it's January and the heart-shaped 'stuff' has already replaced red & green goods. Hopefully we'll survive that one too. Wonder when they'll start making chocolate busts for President's Day.
- Anne

Oh, to be 29 again!

Last night was wonderful! (don't worry, you can keep reading.)
Paul said I could open my gifts before we went out to dinner, so I did! I loved all of them, noting several times how thoughtful everyone was, especially with Christmas right around the corner. I'm okay with getting dryer sheets or hotel soaps, if that's what's financially allowable. I got some really cool exercise clothes and gear, a neat recycled clothing kitchen rug, and a little spending $$.
For my B-day dinner, Paul took me to the Bombay Cricket Club, a restaurant on Hawthorne Blvd. that serves excellent lamb & other Indian dishes, and shows cricket games on TV for atmosphere. The meal & service were great, but their desserts didn't sound too spectacular. We headed out to the cat store to pick up some White Lightning Catnip, and then on to Trader Joe's for travel snacks & some REAL dessert, chocolate in pure bar form.
When we got home, I made 2 little catnip toys for the boys, and then we watched them go wild! Catnip has crazy powers over cats, sort of like the ring & Gollum; Gatsby attacked Bosco like a wild animal, just so he could have both toys. This morning the toys are drenched in kitty drool. I've never smelled such potent stuff - really primo at only $5/oz.

So now that I'm closer to 40 than I am to 20, what's a girl to do? I feel like I'm in limbo. I've compiled this list recently, and added to it today.
- Annoyed by the person next to me in the restaurant saying, "Shut the F-up!" to her dining buddy on several occasions during my very nice birthday dinner (linen tablecloths & napkins and everything!). Should I scold her?
- Doesn't particularly jive with Old Navy-style or Eddie Bauer/Land's End-esque clothing. What can I wear?
- Can't get down with clubbin' (just one, for that matter). What is hip-hop fusion?
- Fervently searches for & plucks her 6 gray hairs. It costs how much to color?
- Senescene. It starts @ 28, not 30.

That's it for now. I've only been 30 for a day!
-Anne

B & Me

Wonderland!

As a new Portlander, one thing became resoundingly clear to me yestarday afternoon; snow is not normal!

Hmmm, this is the confusing thing.
Freezing rain: no big deal. Snow: pandemonium.
Around Portland there are semi-San Francisco-like elevation changes, ranging from 100' to 1000'. This is especially true in the West Hills, or suburban Beaverton and beyond. Well, that's where I was on Sunday, at a Baby Boot Camp (BBC) holiday cookie exchange. About an hour into the party, the first few flurries started to blow in (50mph gusts!). Mine and most the BBC moms' cell phones started lighting up. We traded cookies, took a picture, and split. I had about a 30-minute drive in front of me - back through City Center, across the bridge, and home.
Annoyingly (to put it lightly), suburban roadways don't tend to follow any sort of North/South-East/West format, and they also aren't straight - at all (in retrospect, I think its b/c of all the hills). Having no map or idea of which way was North, I promptly got lost. With my gas tank nearly on E, I pulled into a gas station to fill up and get directions. By the time I became 3rd in line, they closed, saying that they were out of gas. So I trolled on down the road toward some other promising major intersection, hopefully in the right direction. It turned out to be the right way, but no one could get up the last hill before the highway. So... I turned around. After going another wrong way for a couple miles & turning around again, I finally found a gas station and was pointed in a different direction, which turned out to be another traffic jam. So 2 hours and 2 miles after I left the cookie party, I was sitting in traffic with my bladder about to burst (2 cups of coffee at the party had set in), when I saw the Max (metro train) fly by. Ureka! Paul had suggested the same thing earlier, via our neighbor's intelligent suggestion, but I didn't know where it was. I called Paul a 4th time for directions, this time to get to the Max station (Paul says it's hard to give directions when I don't know where I am).

By 4:15, I was on a train, speeding by the very highway I was trying to find! It was crawling, and the next major road I saw (I-405) was totally jammed. By 5:45, I was home. My toes were like little rocks! Brrrr! The two best things about this adventure was that earlier that day, I had decided to take my jacket at the last minute, and that I had a whole bag of yummy cookies to snack on.

I took these pics this morning, pre-dawn (Impressed? The sun rises at 7:50). Now the ice is melted, and it's misting, but there's still some slushy snow leftover (good for snowballs).
I'm getting a ride back to Beaverton today with my neighbor, to pick up the car. Hopefully, it didn't get towed!

-Anne

Merry-Merry

The day after my final final, I made this wreath! It's hanging right next to the front door, facing our neighbors to the north. I got most of its contents off the ground at Laurelhurst Park, a local green space. The Gorge Winds had been blowing, so there were lots of conifer sprigs all over the place! I did stop at Portland Nursery to pick up a few pieces of Holly (I later found that I could have picked that up for free too!), and cut a live wreath circle from the frame that this wreath now sits upon. So I made a $3 wreath; does it show?
-Anne