Cookies and a giraffe

What a title, I know. You see, the hubby has a thing for giraffes. I don't know when this love for these animals started, but a few years ago he saw this stuffed giraffe in a gift store in Northfield. He asked for it for two years. I finally relented and went to buy it. It is four feet tall. And it was $80-for a stuffed animal. For a 40 year old man. Over the years I have some fun giraffe stuff, including a set of old salt and pepper shakers that he got for Christmas. I was looking for an organizing file for my resolution for being more organized and budget conscious. While at the store I saw they still had some Christmas clearance going on, so myself and Drama Queen wandered on back and saw it was all 75% off. And there, in the midst of wrapping paper, single boxes of shiny glass balls and yards of garland in odd colors-he stood. A lit giraffe with a Santa hat and a present hanging from his mouth. It made a long-legged leap into our cart. We put him together and put him out on the lawn with the lights on so when the hubby gets home from work he will see it, although the first words in his head will be "who left the lights on again?" Of course, the trip to town was not for me; I had already been to town to go grocery shopping on our way home from work. No, Drama Queen informed me when I picked her up from practice that she need to go get Mexican candy to bring to school so she could get some extra credit points. Why would the teacher decide to give them one day's notice? It was their first day back and I know in this small town, none of the 10th grader's parents had various Mexican food products in their cupboards, with maybe the exception of taco shells. I know PW would say that wouldn't happen in home-schooled kids since you make up your own lessons. I don't know that home-schooling would work for me. I can't teach them how to put their plates in the dishwasher, how will I teach Trig?


These are breakfast cookies. I got this recipe from my husband's Mom and sister. I tweaked it a little and had to substitute today as I didn't have any Corn Flakes on hand.

Breakfast Cookies
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, room temp
2-3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup Spanish peanuts
1/2 cup butterscotch morsels
1-1/2 cup crushed corn flakes (I used Honey and Oat Blenders since it was the only flaked cereal I had

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter and shortening. Mix in both sugars, then eggs one at a time, and then vanilla. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Mix in slowly until incorporated. Stir in oatmeal and cereal with mixer on medium as it is a dense dough. Stir in peanuts and butterscotch morsels with a spatula. Shape into balls (I use a cookie scoop) and place on baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool for a couple of minutes on baking sheet and then transfer to cooling rack. If you move them right away, they will fall apart.

I love to listen to music when I cook and bake, or pretty much anytime except when I sleep. My niece gave me the Idina Menzel CD for Christmas and I have listened to about 20 times since I received it. It is called "I Stand" and it is great. She is the actress who create Elphaba on Broadway in "Wicked". Which is an awesome musical, and I would have sat in that cramped seat for another 3 hours and watched it again, but I digress. If you are looking for some good easy listening music (not elevator), you should check her out. Oh, and she is married to Taye Diggs-can we say yummy?