Magic Peanut Butter Middles

Complain. Complain. Complain. Okay, so my last post was whiny. And really sewing has not been friendly to me lately, but baking has (except to my weight loss goals!).

Last week the kids and I made a batch of Magic Peanut Butter Middles and oh, they were yummy. Now usually I shy away from chocolate cookies and cakes. I love chocolate, but chocolate cookies and cakes are always too dry for me. These could have been dry, but I took them out of the oven before they stated time. I also typically make chocolate chip cookies, rarely do I make another kind. Chocolate chip aren't even my favorite, but they seem to be my stand by.

The hardest part of this recipe was rolling the chocolate dough around the peanut butter. I think I will chill the peanut butter mixture next time before rolling it into balls. It was a little soft and squishy.

The kids wanted to help, but Littlebit was having trouble rolling them into balls. "I can only make snakes, Momma!" So I finished the rolling and let them smoosh the cookies. They take awhile, but are quite easy and we will be making these again.

Secret Dream Jobs

I have to confess that as of this moment I have two secret dream jobs. The first is to be a farmer. What?! I know, you'd think growing up on a farm where I helped hay in the summer this would not be a secret dream of mine, but I love growing my own food and picking it just before dinner and we do quite well. The spinach crop is wonderful this year. The lettuce is not doing so well, but should improve with the weather and maybe some compost. (Yes, one of our Christmas presents this year was a composter.) The zucchini should yield a nice crop again and hopefully we'll get a pumpkin this year. The onions, shallots, broccoli, and carrots are growing slowly, but the peas and beans need help.The strawberries have pretty much taken over the second bed and three of the four pots of blueberries look fantastic. (Now if I can just keep a little boy from eating all of the fruit, we'd be golden.) We've acquired a new huckleberry bush and the 4 combo fruit tree has fruit! All of these wonderful things have just caused me to dream of owning acres of my own fields with lots of vegetables, but the truth of the matter is that I never will. I will always stick to my little backyard garden, even if we buy lots of land. Why because I am kind of lazy. Lazy as in, I would much rather sit and read a book all day (which I have been known to do). I also don't like to get dirty. I don't like the feel of being dirty, um, gloves please. Even then I feel dusty and dirty, so I guess being a farmer will have to be a dream. My second dream job is to be a fancy baker and own my own shop. Now I have taken cake classes, but they are not anything amazing. I just wish they were. I wish I had tons of time to practice baking desserts and making fancy cakes. I also wish that I had the money and storage space to buy all the fancy things for baking (like the cupcake cake pan I am drooling over at Williams Sonoma - I just may have to use my Christmas gift card to buy it). My problem is that I can't cook or bake without tasting and heaven knows I don't need anymore sweets, nor do my kids who seem to move in fast forward. So again I leave this as a secret dream and hobby for when there is a need or time. It feels nice to have dreams.