Peanut Butter Cookies

Due to Christmas break, I forgot about the fact that I have no flour.  I remembered this fact about halfway through making a new loaf of bread.  I dug through the cupboard in hopes a bag of flour would magically appear.  I found a little bit of whole wheat flour - less than the bread recipe called for, but it was all I had.  As near as I can tell, it survived, but only a taste test will tell. 

I had also planned on making Peanut Butter Coffee Cake.  All week, I've been thinking about it, so by this morning, I was craving something peanut-buttery.  That's when I hit the no-flour-roadblock.  Instead of letting it ruin my Saturday, I did the only thing I could think of: I Googled it.

I found a recipe for Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.  Skeptical but willing to try anything once, I gave it a chance.  It's the easiest recipe I've ever found, and the results of the scientific taste test are conclusive - delicious!  Always a team player, I'm sharing the recipe with everyone else (or at least the 3 people that read this blog).  I found it in about 3 different places, so I'm not sure where the original came from or I would give that genius credit for it.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar (I used half white sugar and half brown sugar)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
(I added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips as a variation.)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat together peanut butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. Add egg and baking soda, and beat until well mixed.  (This is where I added the chocolate chips.)
4. Roll 1 teaspoon of dough into a ball and place on baking sheet.  Flatten with tines of a fork in a criss-cross pattern.
5. Bake until puffed and golden pale, about 8-10 minutes.
6. Cool on baking sheet about 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack.  (I usually ended up leaving mine for about 5 minutes - they are very fragile when still warm). 

Crumbly (especially when warm) and VERY peanut-buttery.  I suppose they would go down well with a glass of milk, if you are so inclined, which I am not. :-)

I doubled the recipe and ended up with over 5 dozen small cookies.  This picture makes them look huge, but they're really not.

The Firecracker Incident

I was awakened early this morning by a loud crashing sound.  I looked at the clock.  4:00a.m.  Fantastic.  I wondered, as any sane person would, what the heck had just happened.  Being curious, I cautiously opened the door to the hall.  I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  No broken windows, toppled piles of junk, or burning anything.  I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary.  I didn't hear anything more.  It was weird.  A noise that loud should have left some evidence.  I went back to bed, but my over-active imagination went wild.  I slept fitfully until my alarm went off 2 hours later. 

When I got up, I noticed that something smelled bad.  It didn't smell like smoke exactly, but I couldn't quite place it.  Still slightly spooked by the night noise and not wanting to get halfway through my shower and be interrupted by the (one working) smoke alarm, I decided to investigate.  I opened the door to the hall, and was shocked by the haze drifting up by the ceiling.  It was definitely smoky/hazy in the hall.  That scared me.  My biggest fear living in this building is the fear of fire, because of our lack of working smoke alarms.  The smell was stronger in the hall, too, but it wasn't a smoky smell.  I still couldn't place it. 

I knocked on the door of the apartment next door.  Of all the people to wake up, I felt least bad about waking up John.  He said that noise had woken him up to.  He also said that the smell was reminiscent of burning rubber, which was closer than anything I could compare it to.  Because nothing seemed amiss in the hall, we figured whatever it was, was probably originating from the basement.  So, we slipped on shoes and went exploring.

(A note about construction: Most buildings/houses in this area have an "arctic entry."  It is a small room between the outside door and the door to the inside.  Some stores in the lower-48 have this type of small area between doors.  The arctic entry to our building is where the stairs are.)

As we opened the door to the arctic entry, the smell blew us away.  Whatever was burning was definitely still there.  We rounded a corner and started down the stairs when we saw it.  A spent firecracker with its insides strewn across the doorway and bottom 3 stairs.  Of course.  The loud crashing noise and weird burning rubber smell was from a firecracker that someone had lit and launched through the door of our building.  Nothing was actually burning (luckily), so the smell and smoke were just residual.

I was feeling pretty foolish about waking John up because of fireworks.  He said the firecracker actually made him jump out of bed because it was so loud.  His apartment is just on the other side of a wall.  "I thought it was Armageddon," was his exact quote.  I found out later that he hadn't gone back to sleep after having the wits scared out of him, so I didn't feel so bad after that.

When I came home from lunch, someone had swept up the firecracker guts and propped the doors open to get rid of most of the smell.  The hallway still reeks, although not as bad as it did this morning, and I'm probably never going to get the smell out of my apartment (the outside door won't open - I'm pretty sure it's blocked by ice).  Let's hope this was a one-time experience, someone's bright idea of a joke, and not a pattern of harassment akin to what drove the most recent VPSO out of town.  

The Perfect Guy

My sister and I have come up with the outward characteristics of the perfect guy, if he were to exist.  I'm still thinking about the inward characteristics.

He would have the looks of Michael Vartan.  (Think the teacher in Never Been Kissed.)  (If you really think about it, that movie is wrong on so many different levels, but I digress.)

He would have the voice of Frank Sinatra.  (Or Bing Crosby)

He would have the dancing skillz of Dick van Dyke.

He would have the heart-melting romanticism of Jimmy Stewart.

Christmas Vacation

What better time and place to re-cap Christmas break than the Anchorage airport at 2:30 in the morning?!  And what better way to do it than through a series of pictures?!

This was on the bathroom door at the Aurora Inn in Nome.  They got the period at the end, but it still makes no sense. 

I'm pretty sure the cookie dough isn't supposed to do that.  But turning the mixer on high seemed like a good idea at the time.

It was requested that we not bake as many cookies as we did last year, so we were forced to restrain ourselves.  All the cookies fit on the plates, except one.  (Those are just the gluten-free cookies.  We also made fudge and non-gluten-free cookies.)

Gingerbread houses have become somewhat of a tradition around our house at Christmas.

Watching It's a Wonderful Life after church on Christmas Eve, Vicki was all smiles after Travis showed up.  Travis wasn't going to be able to make it home for Christmas and Vicki was devastated.  So, I arranged and paid for Travis to fly home, but we "forgot" to tell Vicki.  Operation Christmas Surprise: success!

Santa apparently has a flame-retardant suit (or so we hope), because we got a bit cold on Christmas Eve, and a fire in the wood stove was the result. 

Our matching pajama pants have also become a tradition for Vicki and I.

 Various family members on Christmas Day.  The highlight was probably making Mom cry with the new mixer to replace the falling-apart one that she was settling for. 

Apparently, I'm really bad at this game.  After two hours of playing, this was all I had.  The winner of the game accumulated at least 10 more cards than I did.  All I managed to accumulate was an interesting set of attributes (that I sincerely hope does not describe me, as some say.)


The break was too short, as it always is.  I'm heading back to the village before New Year's, which I've never done before.  It should be an interesting experience. :-)

What is Love?

I came up with an interesting thought about a week ago and it has been tumbling around my brain ever since.  It's puzzling to me, so I thought I'd share. 

I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying lately about what it means to love God.  What is the first and greatest commandment?  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)  The second commandment?  "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:31)  But what does that mean?  What does it look like in practice?  How do I love God with every ounce of my being, love other people, and what will that look like practically in my life?  I came across the answer in 1 John 5:2-3.  "This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.  This is love for God: to obey His commands."  So, we love people by loving God and obeying His commands.  Okay.  What are God's commands?

Love God and love people.

I love God and love people by obeying God's commands.  God's commands are to love God and love people.  I love God and love people by obeying God's commands.  God's commands are to love God and love people.  It's a never-ending circle that never really answers my questions. 

I know that there are about 3 people who actually read this blog, but I also know that those minds are greater than mine, so if anyone wants to enlighten me, please do. 

Field Trip

Thursday was the date for my annual utterly-void-of-any-educational-value-but-we're-doing-it-anyway field trip to find a Christmas tree for the classroom.  I could make it educational, but that would kill the fun, so we just focus on making memories and finding a nice tree.  I invited the kindergarten class to go with us - the more, the merrier. 

After two years of wind and clouds, I couldn't have picked a better day (considering I picked the date back in October).  Light snow falling with any wind, and temperatures in the 20's.  As soon as we were out the door and past the playground, the fun really started.  Kids were throwing themselves in snowbanks, chasing each other, and rolling around on the road.  I just let them go crazy, figuring they would settle down and start walking pretty soon.  Between the two classes, we had come up with two plastic sleds; pulling those gave the kids something to do.

We headed up the hill towards Baldhead.  It's the only road out of town and is lined with trees.  The school is up on a hill and the road slopes down to meet the creek and then heads up the hill.  Some of the girls decided they wanted to sled down the hill, but it's not a very steep incline, so the boys obliged by pulling them down the hill.

We veered off the main road before we got very far up Baldhead.  We started following a snowmachine trail, carved by people going out to get firewood.  It was fairly decently packed, and lined with trees of all shapes and sizes.  

We found a tree for the first-grade first.  It was a large tree that we cut off about halfway up.  It appeared fairly bushy and not too big.  We put it on one of the sleds, left it by the side of the trail and continued on in search of a tree for the kindergarten.  The kids spotted one that wasn't as bushy as the first one, but was a good size and not too scraggly. 

As you can see, they really are cute little trees (and cute little kids, too!).

We hadn't noticed as we were tree-hunting, but it had really started to snow in earnest.  As we started back, the flakes got big and started coming fast.  I'm not sure who started the trend, but pretty soon, most kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues.  It's difficult to walk, pull a sled, and catch snowflakes all at the same time, but some kids were managing pretty well.

We took our time coming back, due to the snow, trees, and fascination with catching snowflakes.  Even so, some of the littlest ones were dragging by the time we reached the school.  We had only been gone an hour, but they had walked a fair distance.

Wanda (the kindergarten teacher) invited our class to her room for hot chocolate and animal crackers.  It was a bit of an ordeal getting our tree in the stand, but we managed, and then headed next door. 

We came back to our room and strung lights and decorations on our tree.  That's when I noticed that it is definitely not standing straight up but leans a substantially to one side.  It seems fairly sturdy, though, so I'm not going to mess with it.  I love having kids that get along well.  All I had to do was put the decorations out on a table and they decorated without fighting over who got to do what. 

All in all, the kids had fun, we didn't lose anyone, teachers came back with tempers intact, and we found two beautiful trees for our rooms.  I count it as a successful afternoon.

Holiday Bazaar

Every year, the school hosts a holiday bazaar for teachers and anyone else in the community who has something to sell.  As an elementary school teacher, I am obligated to make and sell something with my kids.  I despise this fact.  Why?  Well, my kids can't make anything that is going to turn a profit.  I can only sell so many popsicle picture frames and ornaments.  The best I can do is have the kids put their names on what they make so that parents and grandparents will be guilted into buying what their children made.  It's pretty much a waste of valuable class time during a time of year in which time is precious. 

This year, the science teacher came down and asked if I had any ideas for the bazaar yet.  He said he would have his middle and high schoolers make birdhouses, and then my kids could decorate them.  I jumped at the chance.  A simple project (his kids did all the work) that wouldn't eat up too much time.

Here is the finished product:

 

I gave the kids free rein to do pretty much whatever they wanted, decorating-wise.  The best part came last night at the bazaar.  I've been exhausted all week - the result of one high-stress event after another.  I was really tired last night and not excited about having to spend the entire evening at an event that, for me, is pointless.  I sold all 4 birdhouses within the first 10 minutes and was done.  Yea for grandmas and aunties!  It was fantastic - a project that cost me 45 minutes of class time and 10 minutes of selling, and actually managed to earn a profit.