White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Image coutsey of: http://www.recchiuti.com

Had these absolutely delicious cookies today cooked my friend Tasha. Seriously good. Gooey and soft cookies. Loved them.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Yield: About 2 dozen cookies (depending on size)

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, melted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1½ cups chopped macadamia nuts
2 cups white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg, then beat in the egg yolk, then beat in the vanilla.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just moistened. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips by hand with a rubber spatula.

5. Roll into balls or drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets, and press down on the cookies with your palm a bit to flatten (not too much!).

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown and the middles don’t look quite set. Allow to finish cooling on the baking sheet.

Another Finished Project

Fuzzy's much longed for telly quilt is at last completed. Have decided 2010 is going to be a finishing off year for me. So first project off the the UFO pile is this quilt.

Sent it off to Fran from Willow Patch Quilting for machine quilting. Given how busy I am, I also got her to do the binding strip (highly recommended, as this step sucks!)

He was overjoyed to snuggle under his quilt. Lasted like 1 minute as he doesn't feel the cold and it is stinking hot here at the moment.

So cute together...

Here are my three, hanging out together as you do. Squealy is so tired after swimming 2 fast tracks, back to back + his normal weekly lesson that he crashed out on the couch!

Fuzzy ran down to tell me all about how Squealy 'was so cute. You have to come look Mummy!' String Bean was busy stroking his hair. Fuzzy was right: Squealy is cute when he's asleep... and not squealing :-)

OMG!!! It's a Spider!!!

Squealy found a spider in our lounge room and much excitement ensued. He examined it, decided to squash it with his sandal. He them picked it up and had a good look.

Totally confident in his bug killing skillz!

This little guy is growing up so quickly. He'll be at 3 year old preschool this year and real preschool the year after.

He's having a great time with the older kids home on school holidays. They are all playing beautifully together!

Wow How Exciting!

Our Canuck gal pal: Kelli has made it onto the front page of her Uni newsletter. She'll be a torch bearer later this year.

The little snippet reads:

Support our Olympic torch bearer - Put on some red and come out to support Capilano University’s Olympic torch bearer and Paralegal student, Kelli Jennings, as she makes her historic run on Wednesday, February 10 at 12:36 p.m. on Mountain Highway from 18^th Street to 2032 Mountain Highway.

So very proud of all that you do and are Kel. Miss you and wish like crazy that you didn't live so far away... sob. I hope we get to see some photos of you while you're running! Can't wait.

Playing at Our Place

While at IKEA last week, I purchased this gorgeous set of prints.

Had fun framing and hanging them yesterday with Mal's help. They are hanging just outside String Bean's room which has lovely natural light and you can see them when exiting the bathroom/laundry.

Really pleased with this lovely addition to our home.

Playing at Mal's

Tonight was the night. Dinner at Mal's to set up her new TV and Billy bookcase (purchased at IKEA earlier in the week).

Husband Deluxe handled the TV and bookcase. I then got to set up the CD's, DVD's and books into he book case.

All fun, I guess, BUT the best part of the night was putting this display together.

Mal has travelled the globe extensively, collecting art and photographs along the way. I convinced her to get everything out of the trunk, get a few pieces framed and then let me muck around with it all.

To say we are both wrapped in how completely gorgeous it is, is a huge understatement. It is stunning.

There are still some unframed pieces, that are in position with good old blu-tac, that will be framed next pay. I want something like this at our place but we've only been o/s twice!

Bugs and Robots

The kids have been having fun these holidays so far. They have rediscovered our set of Cat Lego building robots non stop. String Bean makes fabulous robots and this is probably one of her simplest designs. Pretty cool huh?

My little String Bean has grown so much these holidays. She is taller than ever and looking oh so grown up all of a sudden.

The boys have also had fun playing with a huge beetle they found in our front garden. They weren't afraid of it at all, letting it crawl all over their arms and hands. We kept the beetle for about an hour before returning it to the garden so it could continue to have it's "bugs life". How cute!!!

Op-travaganza #9

Fuzzy: master treasure finder.

We visited Salvo's Fyshwick today as we were out that way and found lots. But we didn't need it, so I left it for someone else. Upstairs is getting to be expensive, unfortunately :-(

In the bargain basement, downstairs though, we were lucky to score the following:

* Harrods Teddy Bear
* Happy Feet Penguin (brand new with tag)
* Cherry blossom Saki cup (which will look beautiful in my kitchen)
* A Tarot deck (the love tarot hahaha)

Total spend: $2... AWESOME!

Fuzzy Wuzzy always seems to find the good stuff finding both toys.

Op-travaganza #8

I visited the new Salvo's store today in Mitchell (just down the road from the old store) on Hoskins Street.

A much nicer store. Pros include:

*Better lighting
*More logical layout
*Bigger space
*Heaps of stock
*Video's, DVD's and CD's are set up really well
*plenty of room to get around with a pram or stroller.







Cons:

*Books have just been shelved where ever. (The best op shop for book by far is the one next door to Rubee's in Belconnen.)
*Trickier to park the car
*furniture is still a cramped space. Couldn't even get in with a small stroller.


I managed to grab this time:

*gorgeous candle $1
*brand new Christmas t-towel $1
*puppy toy .20c
*Tonka truck for Squealy $3
*brand new Bob the Builder set: $1
*Lord of the Rings book $3 (husband Deluxe was impressed!)
* 3 kids books $1

Total spend: $10.20

Salvo's have 3 kids books for $1 at the moment.