Up-to-the-minute advice from Chef Dave. “When your cornmeal baked chicken comes out a lot dry and not a lot tasty, remember your secret weapon. Butter to the rescue! Slather on a stick and wonder of wonder, the dish not only becomes edible, but sort of yummy.”
Butter, I think I love you.
Wanted: A grocery store shopping companion. Must tolerate my incessant banter. Will reward with a doughnut snack and a Hot Wheels car. Apply online at www.CookiesbyDave.com.
There they go. The full set of Paulsen boys headed off to school. This means plenty of time for me to contemplate contemplating a second part-time job, in addition to all of the daily tasks I used to do with my kids. Typical tasks include laundry, home maintenance with my limited abilities, and groceries. I have however found out that these tasks are different on your own. Yep, it’s a new world. I have been granted a whole new perspective. This new perspective is mainly due to me standing upright. I used to barrel around the store, hunched over listening to someone two feet shorter than me, while I explained my every move in advance. “Okay, we got the yogurt. Now, onto the bread aisle. I promise that we are almost done. Hold it together for another fifteen minutes.” With a doughnut in hand, my boys and I would conquer the grocery store in a survivalist fashion. Now, I need to slow down. Look around and actually compare prices, rather than throwing the closest item, as fast as possible into my cart.
Standing upright, you notice new things. For instance, people tend to be less tolerant of my running around the store, when there is not a little person in my cart. I also have to stop myself from talking to myself. Also, passing the Hot Wheels cars, I really have no certainty as to which ones we have already purchased. A brave new world.
Now, I can also go to multiple stores on the same shopping trip. Yes, cost savings, plus a chance to see new and exciting places. The grocery store and Target in a single trip? No problem. Yep, new discoveries all around. For instance, did you know that there are roving packs of moms in Target? Yep, it’s true. Looking up leads to all sorts of new observations… and dangers. Dangers such as one wrong turn, while looking for shampoo in Target, and you find yourself in the cosmetics aisle. I have no problem with the concept of makeup on others, but I had no idea that the aisle housing these products was brighter than the sun. Holy light bulbs, Batman! I’ve been blinded! Yep, this brave new world is not without dangers. That’s why I’m looking for a new shopping companion, sort of safety in numbers. Sure, I may talk to myself, but I promise to buy you a new Hot Wheels car.
It happens every year. The temps drop. The boys are asked to wear their jackets to school. Chaos ensues.
Where is the jacket that was on the chair? Check the closet.
Where is my jacket? Check the closet.
Jacket? Do I own a jacket? Check the closet!
Good Lord, the answer is closet! Closet! Closet! Closet!
Until you check the closet, I don’t want to hear your voice!
2014-15 School Year – Early Report Card
School Work: A
Problem Solving in the Morning: F
Next up, what do we have to eat for breakfast? (Hint: the answer is “Cereal!”)
Settling in to watch my son’s little league team take the field, I was pretty pleased with myself. I had by my side a refreshing bottle of grape flavored water that I had picked up at the gas station. It was going to be a beautiful day watching baseball, while sitting in the sun, and enjoying a delicious beverage. Life was good.
Watching the game through my sunglasses on a gorgeous Fall day, I reached for my grape-a-licious water. Twisting open the lid, I anticipated the refreshing rush. A cooling sensation awaited my parched lips, but as the drink spilled into my mouth, I was shocked, saddened, and disgusted. The drink was foul, wrong, and nasty. Not the wonderful grape flavor I desired, but something very different. Something ungrape. Had my drink turned? Can flavored water go bad?
Frantically looking at the bottle through sunglass covered eyes, the color looked right, but something had to be wrong. Reviewing the label, I saw the problem. Not an expiration date, not the unveiling of a new “Putrid Blast of Rotten Grape” flavor, no what I saw was the answer. Clear as day. “Fruit Punch.” I had purchased the wrong flavor. I had expectations that would never be met. I was blaming the innocent drink, when the only guilty party was myself. The man who grabs beverages in haste. The man who has previously unknown grudges against fruit punch.
Settling in to watch my son’s game, while sipping on my inferior beverage, I had learned a valuable life lesson. Through sunglass darkened lenses, fruit punch looks a lot like grape and one small sip can lead to a bottle full of sadness.
There are those special moments, when you see yourself reflected in your child. The color of their eyes. The way they move their hands, when expressing themselves. Their choice of beer. What? Wait a second. Don’t judge me (just yet, anyway). Allow me to explain.
As the Paulsen clan enjoyed a post-doubleheader dinner out with my 10-year-old son Jacob’s baseball team, we heard reports that his 5-year-old little brother Ben remarked, “This place has good beer.” It was at that moment, when I was not sure if my heart should swell with pride or wallow in shame. My youngest has developed an apparent ability to evaluate a restaurant’s beer selection, even before he can read. Time well spent with Daddy? Hum, open to debate. Sure the waitress had never heard of a Black and Tan, but they did have some quality brown ale on tap. Good job, Ben. I’m not sure if we want to add this skill to your early resume, but it will still come in handy (later, much later, in life).
[Blogger’s Clarification: upon further investigation, it appears as if young Ben was referencing the restaurant’s many advertisements for root beer floats. Kudos to the restaurant for effective marketing to kids. Joe Camel, take note and grab a cold one.]
Sometimes even silly little train of thought bloggers, like myself, experience writer’s block. It know it’s hard to believe. A trained monkey could write this stuff, but sadly, last night as I crawled into bed, this was the case. No real ideas. The tank was empty. Tomorrow’s edition of www.CookiesbyDave.com had no theme. No path. No light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, the frustrated thoughts drifted from my head and I began to head toward sleep. Then it hit me, well more like landed next to me. The idea for today’s post seemingly fell from the sky and hit the bed with the force of a duffle bag full of rocks.
You see, Kirby our 1½-year-old beagle has been a bit of a challenge to train (major understatement). He does not have a mean bone in his body, but he tends to be flighty. Sort of living life in a haze of “Did I just destroy that?” and then bounding happily off to chase faint smells left by squirrels, who had passed through the yard hours ago. We have been trying to break Kirby of his barking habit. We’ve tried all sorts of gadgets with limited success, so we figured we would try behavioral training. It takes a lot of work, but when Kirby begins barking outside, as a punishment, we bring him back in. When he quiets down, he can go back out. In. Out. In. Out. All day long. Tiring, but he sort of gets the idea. Unfortunately, this greatly cuts into his exercise, where he would normally be running around outside, instead he is inside in sort of a clueless doggy timeout. Reduction in workout time has led to Kirby putting on a little weight, so he now has the solid build of a lean doggy football player. Not overweight, but packed in there. The full force of Kirby’s mass can now make you sit up and notice.
Yesterday evening, we spent the night with some friends around a beautiful autumn campfire and poor Kirby spent the evening in his crate. Returning home, he was a bit out of sorts, but seemed to settle down just fine. After finishing a movie, we headed up to bed and Kirby trotted up the stairs after us. Entering the bedroom, he slithered on his belly under our bed, his usual early nighttime spot, and I cuddled down under the covers to contemplate my writer’s block. As I drifted off to sleep, with the subtle smells of campfire smoke still comforting my senses, the inspiration for the post hit me. It almost hit Charlene, as well. You see Kirby usually tiptoes into our bed unnoticed during the night and we wake up to find a dog curled up between us. Well, last night, Kirby decided to throw caution to the wind and with his newly developed stocky physique, he attempted a vertical jump between us. Like Mary Lou Retton sticking her land off the vault, Kirby plummeted onto the bed between us. After Charlene and I landed, we realized that our furry child had briefly turned off his mind and directly violated bed time protocol. My pup had provided me a final gift for the day, as the shattered remnants of my writer’s block lay scattered across our comforter.
APPETIZER
September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month and the Willmar Public Library (www.willmarpubliclibrary.org) is sponsoring a contest, where you need to take a selfie with your library card. Never one to turn his back on a fun competition, here is my first submission entitled, “I love my library card, but would not recommend eating it for breakfast.” Brace yourself and enjoy.
MAIN COURSE
Holy spoiler alert! In an attempt to scoop “Entertainment Weekly,” I am happy to announce that I have entered into talks with the Willmar Public Library to play (hold onto your seats) “Batman” at their October 28 children’s program, “Superheroes.” No word on whether or not Ben Affleck will endorse me in the role, since my belly resembles that of Adam West’s Caped Crusader. The announcement of my portrayal of the Dark Knight comes after me attending several library story hours dressed as Batman by the side of my youngest son, Ben, who wore his Superman costume. By the way, Ben asked that I dress as Batman, while attending story hour. It was not my idea to creep out other parents. Honest, it really was not my idea. I just hope my turn as Batman does not ruin my relationship with Jennifer Garner.
DESSERT
“Although my boys gobbled up several, I found the chocolate to be a bit of a distraction in this Madeleine cookie recipe. While the cake portion of the cookie was delightful, the chocolate layer seemed to be a little overkill. With that being said, Madeleines still reign supreme as the ultimate breakfast cookie. ” – Cookie Dave
Chocolate Covered Madeleines
2 Eggs
½ cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest
½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ cup Butter
1 cup Cake Flour
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
½ cup White Chocolate Chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Butter and flour a Madeleine pan.
Mix together the Eggs, Sugar, Lemon Zest, and Vanilla Extract, until light and fluffy.
Alternate mixing in the Butter and Cake Flour, until combined.
Place 2 teaspoons of batter into each mold.
Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Butter and flour the Madeleine pan, again, and repeat the steps above, until all of the batter has been used.
Melt the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.
Dip the top half of each Madeleine in the melted chocolate and cool on wax paper. This will leave you with the bottom half of each Madeleine to hold, while eating.
After the melted semi-sweet chocolate has cooled, melt the White Chocolate Chips.
Drizzle the melted white chocolate over the cooled semi-sweet chocolate portion of the Madeleines.
Makes about 21 Madeleines.
Revised Source: “Crazy about Cookies” by Krystina Castella. “Chocolate-Dipped Madeleines.”
Man, Mixer, Mission. 332 days until the 2015 Kandiyohi County Fair.
[Blogger’s Note: although I think about cookies every day, some days I don’t bake. I know, “Gasp!” Well, on those days, I tend to write about random observations. Sort of mental mind wandering, so I can go about the rest of my day. So, if you are visiting and new to my posts, just sit back and enjoy the ride. Oh and by the way, remember that today is a great day for a cookie. Yours in all things bright and beautiful, Cookie Dave]
Yesterday, in addition to my youngest son going to Kindergarten, there were also changes at work. It was my first full day at a new desk. You see, in my world of part-time work, I did not really require the desk in a room with a door, so I was relocated to a workstation. No problems, although it did create a tense moment, when I used the word “flummoxed” on the phone. Could people hear? Was it the wrong use of “flummoxed?” By the way, “flummoxed” is a perfectly good word, but it certainly sounds wrong. Perhaps some ill-conceived word association immediately places it in a category with gastrointestinal ailments. “Honey, I’m headed out to Walgreens to pick up some Zantac to deal with this nasty flummox.” Oh well, anyway, my one regret, before I moved to my new desk was that I did not look further into this mysterious ceiling tile, which was located over my old desk.
Cool, huh? It sort of looks like something from the “Da Vinci Code: Office Edition.” What does it mean? Where does “D 52/53” lead to? What treasures await? If only it were still in fashion to wear fedoras to work, I may have crawled up there and found out.
Any who, I really like my new work space. Plenty of light and open air, plus my new chair is super cushiony. Cushiony to the point of being almost bouncy. Plus, the walls are made of this cool bulletin board-like fabric, where you can stickpin stuff to the walls. Unable to resist this new feature, I started pinning Post-it Notes of things to do on the walls. Sort of a contradiction using pins to hang Post-it Notes, but it was fun and effective, so back off. Fun until I noticed the length of the stickpins in my new desk drawer. These stickpins are super long. Not hypodermic needle type long, but still really long for a stickpin, almost to the point of being intimidating. Well, there I was pinning “to do” Post-it Notes to my new wall, when I was struck by a fear, “What if these super long pins are going straight through the wall and endangering my cubical neighbor?” Was I really that type of a bad co-worker? Borderline “Flummoxing Thought of the Day.”
Things were working out well in my new office space, with one exception. My workstation is second in on the aisle and when I scurry back from the shared printer, with my head down in “looking very efficient at work mode,” I accidently wander into the first cubical and not the second. Fortunately, the first cubical was vacant yesterday morning, so when I rushed in three or four times by accident, I did not actually run into a cubical neighbor. This however is the least of my concerns. What if my fears about the stickpins extending into the neighboring cubical are true? What if I accidently impale myself, with those extra-long stickpins, when I rapidly wander into the wrong cubical? I live on the edge. On the flummoxing edge of danger.
Okay, I pride myself in excellence in cookies and… well, cookies and… okay, at least I pride myself in excellence in something. Any who, I was so excited about the launch of www.CookiesbyDave.com that I completely forgot to review today’s cookie selection, “Worm Cookies.” Please, forgive me. So without further ado, I present to you, “The Official Cookies by Dave Worm Cookie Review.”
“Worm Cookies are certainly cute and that helps make up for their lackluster flavor. Top with gourmet jellybeans and you’ll be hoping that this cookie isn’t ‘The One that Got Away.’” – Cookie Dave
PS – Thank you to everyone, who helped make this the most successful day in the history of www.CookiesbyDave.com! Now, you are saying to yourself, “Wasn’t this Day One? It had to be the most successful day, duh!” Well, sure it was Day One, but with 173 page views, you helped set a new standard and exceeded any of the page views for the web site’s advance publicity and promotions. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy a fresh cookie. You deserve it.
The big day is finally here! Welcome to www.CookiesbyDave.com. Please, take a moment to enjoy that new blog smell and feel free to help yourself to a free copy of my cookie cookbook (located along the top tabs).
I know you are asking yourself, “Does the world need another blog?” and “Will the Internet never be the same?” The answers to your questions are “Yes!” and “Yes!,” because there are both stories to be told and yummy cookies to be baked and together they make a delicious pair. So grab a cup of coffee, enjoy a fresh cookie, sit back, and enjoy the new reality, because the Internet will never be the same.
Today is a big day in the Paulsen house. In a little while, I will walk my boys to school and my youngest, Ben, will enter Kindergarten. Big day and big changes. Our three boys will all be in school and a new world will open for this stay-at-home cookie baking dad. For the last eight years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to be home with my boys and see them grow into young men. Along the way, we have baked thousands of cookies together and have shared in life’s simple moments. Indeed, today is a big day, with big changes. A day with a fresh blog, a quieter house (until 3:20PM), and a new mission. It seems like the perfect time to regain cookie dominance and focus on winning next year’s County Fair, but first time to talk cookies.
Yesterday, I tried my best to make Ben’s last day before Kindergarten special. Since it was raining, this involved baking cookies, dancing together in the kitchen (which really involves me swinging him around upside down), “window” shopping for toys at Target, and lunch at a restaurant of his choice. Ben selected “Worm Cookies” from his favorite Sesame Street cookie cookbook and we set about making a batch. This cookbook has never been a favorite of mine, since I have had only mixed success with the recipes, but Ben loves the cookbook and as luck would have it, the “Worm Cookies” have potential to fit in with my planned “Lake themed” cookie entry in next year’s County Fair. Baking the cookies, they needed some time to cool, before frosting and decorations, so we headed out to lunch.
Dave, Ben, and cookie dough
Considering that Ben is 5-years-old and that our neighborhood McDonald’s features a nifty touchscreen kid game counsel, he succumbed to temptation and selected Micky D’s for lunch. Settling into our table, by the touch screens, I set his Happy Meal contents on the table and he of course set about playing with the football player action figure Happy Meal toy, rather than eating his lunch. Seconds later, our table was approached by a little 5-year-old-or-so girl, who was a stranger to us, but who could not resist the temptation of a toy sitting on a table. The stranger child stood uncomfortably close, but Ben seemed fine with it and the two of them played, with Ben’s lunch growing colder, just inches away. About the time that I started to wonder if the unknown child visitor actually had a parent, plans on ever returning to her table, or both, she let out a big sneeze on our lunch. Yes, she did attempt to cover her sneeze, but it still left plenty of misdirected virus to be desired.
Looking down at lunch, I was now more concerned with the incubation period for the mystery virus than the enormous calorie count of our lunch. I also reflected back to cookies cooling at home and how they would feature the new mystery virus, as part of their recipe, as we later applied the frosting. No bother, young Ben will experience among other joys, during his year of Kindergarten, the joy of random illnesses. So this morning, as I walk hand-in-hand with my precious boys to school, I can focus on how blessed I am to have them in my life and be a little less concerned about virus incubation.
WORM COOKIES 
1 cup Butter
½ cup Powdered Sugar
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1½ teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 cups Flour
Powdered Sugar, Milk, and Food Coloring for frosting
Small Jelly Beans for decorations
Mix together the butter, powdered sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Mix in egg and vanilla.
Gradually mix in the flour.
Chill the dough for at least one hour. You can get by without chilling the dough, but it will be easier to handle and won’t spread as much during baking.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Take 1½ Tablespoons of dough and form a “worm” about 6 inches long.
Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in “worm” like squiggly shapes.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown at the edges.
Let cool.
Combine powdered sugar, milk, and food coloring into desired frosting consistency and color.
Decorate cookies with frosting and jelly beans.
Makes about 18 cookies.
Revised Source: “Sesame Street. Yummy Cookies. Baking with Kids.” Recipe for “Wiggly Worms.”
Man, Mixer, Mission. 334 days until the 2015 Kandiyohi County Fair.
Sam, Ben, and Jacob digging for worm cookies.