"You're blogging everyday? That's worse than Facebook status updates"

Yep, that's what Mike said to me. Blogging is way different than a Facebook status update. It's much more informative, fun, inspiring, and useful. So there..... But as a side note, I may be taking a few days off next week since my friend will be visiting from the great state of Ohio.

After a restful night sleep, I followed the dogs downstairs to feed them their morning meal only to find an empty plate on the counter. "Mike, did you eat all the cake last night?!?" Yep, he did. After my morning chores, I quickly perused my cookbooks and decided to make the basic refrigerator cookies on pg 192.

Of course the mixer in action:

And then it said to roll the dough into a log to be placed in the refrigerator for a few hours. Here is my turd:

 

While it was refrigerating, Mike and I took a drive over to the store to get some things. As per Mary's suggestion, I re-potted my lavender in a bigger pot. I would have taken pictures, but the plants are all in the house tonight since we have a freeze warning in effect till 9am tomorrow. 26 degrees Fahrenheit is the low tonight. Yay! While at the store, I found this sweet silicon mat by Wilton. I have always wanted one and I finally decided to buy one, so I tried it with this batch of cookies:

Everything worked out as expected and I made way too many cookies:

 

They taste sort of like a mix between shortbread cookies and sugar cookies, but delicious and crunchy non the less. 

 

Dinner tonight was from another book I am borrowing from my Mom. The Connoisseur's Cookbook by Robert Carrier, circa 1965.

The dust jacket is missing but I am never a fan of dust jackets as they always get in the way and get ripped or crinkled. Tonight's dinner was centered around Steak in Beer on pg 220.

 

Sauces are taking quite a liking to me. To jazz up that fish the other night I made the white mushroom sauce. This recipe called for a brown mushroom beer sauce that I also drizzled over the brown rice I made to go with it. Mike liked this picture since you can see the steam rising off the plate.

 

Sauces make even boring dished better! We have breaded chicken patties in the freezer from Angel Food Ministries (I normally don't like breaded items unless I can bread them myself, but I will work with what Mike has graciously purchased for us) so I will be kicking them (as well as some broccoli) up a notch with a sauce.

I hope everyone is staying warm! Here is Pineapple trying to stay warm : )