Chocoholics Anonymous-My life savers

Have I ever shared with you a great talent of mine? It's a great one, I'm extremely proud. I have the ability to spend years and years believing, thinking and miss understanding what someone says or sings and then make a fool of myself in front of tons of people by stating what I think to be the true name or lyrics. Yes, yes, I know you're completely jealous. Just contain yourself.

Growing up and well into my adult life, until Duane so graciously corrected me, oh who am I trying to fool, he had a hoot at my expense, believing that Light Sabers, the light wielding swords of Luke and Vader were really called.....

these! Lifesavers! Well they can save your life, made sense to me. So after my chocolate fiasco I turned to my life saver, not Luke's sword or a cherry confection.

Not even the kind that would really save your life, but the kind that would save a chocoholics soul.

A simple box of Dove chocolate and a yummy chocolate chip cookie recipe, loaded with 3 types of chocolate.

First, after burning 2 batches of goodies I needed a little pick me up, my old standby, my emergency chocolate Dove kit. Every true chocoholic should have one. Mine was a gift from my sweet Duane, he knew the inner desires of my heart.

Second, after burning chocolate chip cookies I was determined to jump right back into the game and bake another batch, which had to be good, they were for a baby shower. I visited my cookie guru, Katrina at Baking and Boys! for a yummy cookie recipe. I did alter the recipe and add mini chocolate chips, 60% dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips. It was a very decadent combination, lovin' it!

The Ultimate Chewy and Soft Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1 cup tightly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsps. pure vanilla extract

3 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

16 oz. flavorful bitter or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or lightly butter them, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or a large bowl if mixing by hand, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. 2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks. 3. Using your hands (I used my cookie scoop), shape knobs of dough about the size of a large walnut and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Stagger the rows of cookies to ensure even baking. Bake 12-15 for smaller cookies (I found that 10-11 minutes was perfect), 14-17 for larger ones or until the tops are a light golden brown. If the cookies are neither firm nor dark when they are removed from the oven, they will cool chewy and soft. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Thanks for the recipe Katrina!

Give me a break!

It's a Dog! It poops outside, licks it's butt and sniffs other peoples butts! Give me a break! Not the day to read a lame article like this:

Fla. couple pick up their cloned yellow lab puppy 01/28/2009 02:45 PM MST Associated Press Writer

MIAMI -- A Boca Raton couple got a new dog, and it's just like their old dog. Not just the same breed and gender, but the same DNA. Nina and Edgar Otto picked up their cloned yellow lab puppy at the Miami International Airport Monday night. Lancelot Encore was cloned from the DNA of the Ottos' late dog Lancelot, which died of cancer in January 2008.
Guessing that pet cloning would one day be possible, the Ottos had DNA samples of their dog frozen five years ago.
The Ottos paid $155,000 in a San Francisco biotech firm's dog-cloning auction last July.
BioArts International created Lancelot Encore in South Korea, where he was born 10 weeks ago. The Ottos say he's the first single-birth, commercially cloned puppy in the United States.
___
Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com

Bad Combination

Dear Chocolate,

Hello yummies! You are so good and delicious, yes I dream about you, drool over you, yes basically I'm addicted. But dear sweet turtle bars, dear sweet best ever chocolate chip cookies I have created a bad combination and I'm sorry to say have ruined you today.

Baking + Anger = Burnt Chocolate

Today started out with sadness, then quickly changed to just being plan old p.o.'d. My poor children, they've been hearing a lot of grouchiness comin' from this momma. So in attempt to mellow my mood I decided to bake the yumminess that I love to eat. Bad combination, everything I have baked has been over done, maybe even qualified as burnt. So I give up! I can't ruin my lovies any more. Harness me, tie me up don't let me bake another morsel when I'm angry, I can't burn you anymore.

Love,

Your Devoted Chocoholic

P.S. Playing Disney Scene It adds to frustration when you realize just how much you know on the Disney Chanel. I should not be a Zack and Cody efficienato!

Needing a John Walsh intervention

Everyone please tell me that you've had stupid moments like this, and even if you haven't just lie to me.

Look at that sweet freckly face. Now before you finish this sentence go look up John Walsh's number and schedule an intervention for me please. Did you do it? Oh well, I warned you, anyway...

Last night the doorbell rang. The monkeys go scurrying to the door(because they have never seen another human being before) and when no one opens it I realize it's a stranger and come to the door. When I open the door this kind looking man looks down at Copper and says "Oh, ok he's not yours" and then proceeds to tell me about a lost dog he found while jogging. Are you getting the jest of my story yet? When he describes the dog, which does sound like a golden retriever, I then loose all brain cells and motherly instincts and say to Katie, that cute freckly faced girl, "Go out and see if that's Laura lee's dog". Every lecture about not falling for the "lost dog" trick or walking up to a strangers car flew out of my naive, trusting mind! Can you believe it? I am too dang trusting, and just a tad bit dingy.

Of course I instantly changed my mind and went out with her, still stupid. What was funny, not until he opened his car door to show us the dog did it dawn on me what I had done, or what we could have just walked into. Have you called John Walsh yet? Then for the next hour and a half I balled my eyes out because I had just won the crappiest mother of the year award, not one I wanted to win. Let us all pray now for the safety of my children!

Duct Tape Use #371

Use #371- Keeping diapers on Emma, a.k.a. "The Stripper".

In the beginning her little strip tease was amusing, shall we dare to say, funny. Nothing is cuter than a naked baby, those little bum cheeks are just so dang squeezable. Even the occasional tinkle on the tile was funny. But dear, sweet Emma you have crossed the line. Whipping off a poopy diaper TWICE drew a line in the sand.

Thank you duct tape inventor, you are my hero!

Chocoholics Anonymous-Shhh! It's a Secret Brownies

This is how I want to eat my chocolate this week, or should I say bath in my chocolate. How I envy Emma, AAAHHHHH! Why is chocolate so dang gum addictive and delicious?
So far so good on weight watchers, but seriously how many days have I ventured into this "new" lifestyle? When I read/drooled over my blog friends Katrina's recipe for low fat brownies I knew it had to be this weeks Chocoholics Anonymous recipe. Brownies made with black beans! Yes friends, beans, beans that musical fruit, the more you eat the more you .... anyway made with black beans. I have to confess, my brownies were a little drier than I like them, probably the ovens fault ;), so watch your baking time, but as a whole very yummy for a low fat brownie. Just think of all the fiber and protein that is now added to your chocolate, an even better excuse to devour, I mean reasonably consume your brownie. Enjoy!

Black Bean Brownies

1 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/3 c cocoa
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c sugar
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/2 nuts
3 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 T oil + 2/3 c black bean puree(1 can black beans, liquid and all, pureed in a blender)

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Spread into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for about 22 minutes.


Just because! Isn't she a stinker. Emma's popeye impersonation, "What squinkie eye?"

Oh, to be a dog

This week I started Weight Watchers. Yes I've reached a point of personal disgust(mine just happens to be on a lower scale of standards than others) and a need to keep up with my children better. It's tough! I love to eat, nibble, munch and crunch anything yummy and delicious(carrots and celery not included).

On the same day I started my "new way of eating" my big oaf Copper went to the vet for a butt boo boo. Now everybody knows about my carb junkie dog, he and I were cut from the same cloth, just different species. He loves all things cakes, pies, donuts, a real Homer Simpson of the Golden Retriever world. Copper also was discovered to have a thyroid problem, maybe part of the reason he topped out at 135 pounds. Since starting on his thyroid pill big guy has lost about 20 pounds, with just a pill!! Sickening huh? Makes one think how sweet life would be if you were a dog.
Seriously got me thinking. If I were Copper I could eat a whole loaf of bread, people would laugh and say "what a cute fat girl, that Becky!" Or how about laying around the house all day long, only getting up to eat, poop, and get an occasional scratch and a "who's a good girl, you are, you are!". Quite the life.

But then again, I take all that back. When I have a butt boo boo I wouldn't want to be caught dead in this cone head contraption.

The Return of an Old Friend-Chocoholics Anonymous!

It's been such a long time since I posted a Chocoholics Anonymous recipe that I almost forgot about my love/obsession for the deliciously smooth and creamy confection called chocolate! I've been drooling over this Paula Deen recipe for over a month now and am almost giddy to have made it, and of course devour several. It couldn't have been more simple, really, premade cookie dough, caramel sauce, how easy breezy can you get. I had a little help, Hannah(my chocoholic-in-training) wanted to cook with mommy; she did a GREAT job!

Chocolate Chip Turtle Bars

(a.k.a. goo bars because this chocoholic couldn't wait long enough for them to cool properly and they are ooey gooey when warm!)

1 (16.5 oz) roll refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

1 c butterscotch morsels

1 c chopped pecans

1/2 c butter

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1 (12.25 oz) jar caramel ice-cream topping

1 c quick oats

1 c semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 13x9 pan with aluminum foil, letting edges of foil hand over sides of pan. Spray foil with nonstick spray. Press cookie dough evenly into bottom of prepared pan, completely covering foil. Sprinkle evenly with butterscotch chips and pecans. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Stir in brown sugar and caramel. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; boil for I minute. Remove from heat; stir in oats. Pour butter mixtures evenly over pecans. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until edges are golden brown; cool completely. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Please Read

I'm not sure how many of you pop over to my other blog, My Superman's Kryptonite, but please click on the large thank you to read the much deserved thank yous for so many family, friends, strangers, anyone who helped me and my monkeys during these first 2 months of our new life without Duane. Caution, it is a big long and void of pictures of Ben looking like a dork, but it is straight from my heart.

My Seven Super Summers Holiday Hilarities

Let the seven super summers now entertain you with there version of the classic Sesame Street Christmas pageant. Do you remember this all you children of the '70's? I loved it and have passed this love on to my nut heads. Poor Hannah, definitely feeling the part, channeling Bert quite well.

Bert(Hannah): Oh, wow. Oo oo, what do I play, Ernie? Santa Claus. No, no, an angel. The spirit of Christmas past, right? Well, who, who, who, who?

Ernie(Katie): A tree.

Bert(Hannah): I knew it.

Ernie(Katie): You just stand here and hold your arms out, sort of tree like. Hold out your arms there, Bert.

Bert(Hannah): I knew it.

Ernie(Katie): Oh, that’s good. Um hm. Now don’t move, Bert. Keep your arms out and try to think like a tree.

Bert(Hannah): Ernie.

Christmas Eve brought matching jammies and lots and lots of laughter, oh it was a hoot. This is what happens when my voice of reason, a.k.a. Duane is gone, the summers children all look like Santa's elves. Ben was tempted to glue his ears together(thanks Anderson Family!) to play the role even better.

These moments have been the lifeline of my entire holiday season, could not have made it with out wacky moments like The Year Mother Went Off Her Rocker And Bought Us Matching Jammies, as it shall now be known.

Awesome! Black mail at it's finest.

Could Santa's helpers be any cuter, I think not!

New Years Eve + Rock band + Apples to Apples + Spoons = A ton of fun, bad singing, stinky rhythm, sore knuckles and some pretty funky pictures of Katie!

Ringo Starr, just watch out, Helga the Horrible is taking over the drumming world.

Did you know that clay was energetic, according to grammy, and that if Martin Luther King Jr. is chosen over Texas Ben will cry? Aaahhh, nothing like playing games at 11:30 at night. As much fun as we had I have to say that by the end of the night all 5 big kids(Hannah and Emma are automatic criers) cried about loosing one game or another. Tell me what I've done wrong? When the last child had cried it was hilarious, they of course did not find the humor in it, evil I guess to laugh at their tears.

One down 49 more to go. That's the new phrase my mom came up with to count down the holiday seasons until I will be with Duane again. Sorry to plug in some sorrow, it was hard to make it through this holiday. You never know how much a person does until they're gone, Christmas and New Years were just not the same without my love.

Enjoy your families, kiss your babies, cherish all you have, and have a wonderful 2009.