I filed my taxes sooooo early this year, i.e. today

Gold star for me.

And another.

And another.

A thousand gold stars.

Springspringspring

Let's see let's see.  

Have been doing some fun stuff - going to MIT museum, working on crafts and art stuff, seeing old friends -  and lots of regular stuff. 

I got these new running shoes.  They have a super thin sole, and pretty much no support.  The idea I guess is that your foot and leg will build up those muscles as you slowly ease into running with the shoes.  I think it's working because whenever I use them the next day my calves are KILLING, way more than normal running.  

There's little crocuses and snowdrops and stuff everywhere. It is starting to feel like spring is really on its way.  Last week I planted these (ITALIAN CHOICE - how you know it's a good brand):
 

in a little box on my window:

NOW look at them!  So cute. Someday I'll eat them.

What else are you gonna do?

Let's imagine for a minute that you're tidying up and you find this:

(a Valentine/birthday gift from one Beast) 

and this:

(impulse purchase from Christmas Tree Shop ages ago)

...what would you do?  I am guessing you would do this:

Goodbye Week, Hello Weekend

This weekend we have a baby* party at my apartment for Kaci + Tom.  My littlest sister sings in West Side Story.  I get to see almost my whole family.  And dear dear dear Rachy comes to stay for a few days! 

Goodbye week, hello weekend. 




*That baby's gonna be here so soon...

To-do

My to-do list:

• Pick up library book
• Bring yellow shoes to cobbler
• Eat kale

It's actually written on a sticky note right here on my desk.  Seems doable.

Modified Sugar Cookies

We wanted to make sugar cookies, but didn't have all the ingredients AND we didn't want to refrigerate the dough for 2 hours. Also we didn't have an electric mixer.  Here's the modified recipe.  Delicious.  Not too sweet, a tiny bit biscuit-y, and the icing adds a nice touch of sugar.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (we substituted 2/3 cup whole wheat pastry)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• Scant cup brown sugar, not packed
• 1/4 cup mashed ripe banana
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Combine butter and sugar (since the brown sugar was pretty much solidified, we put it in the microwave with the butter and kept stirring occasionally until the sugar and butter had formed a warm brown liquid - then we had to put it in the freezer for a couple minutes).  Add banana and cream.  Mix to combine. Add flour; mash with fork and then with your hands until it's all mixed.

Plop dough onto parchment paper and put in freezer until it feels cold when you touch it. 

Bake ~9 minutes.  Makes about 30 cute little cookies. 


Icing 

• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon cream
• 1 tsp vanilla

Mix it all together and add food dye as desired.