Cookie Monster

I am a cookie monster.

I will eat cookies like they are nobody's business.

Especially if they are chocolate chip.

Last week, at work, my manager brought in a platter of cookies from the Safeway bakery. I devoured about 6 of them in one day. There were some left over the next day- I ate 3 more. Then I took 5 of them home. Yeah, it's a problem.

So, I decided to give this awesome recipe a try that I found on Pinterest, from Baker Girl.

Chocolate Chip Cookies for 2

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
A pinch of salt
A pinch of cinnamon
2 tablespoons shortening
2 tablespoons brown sugar 
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon beaten egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix together the shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add the tablespoon of beaten egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Roll dough into four cookie balls and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet (you can also bake them in two lightly greased tart pans, a muffin top pan, cupcake pan, whatever you desire). Flatten them slightly with your hand. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Makes 4 chocolate chip cookies. 

Mine looked like this:

And they were delicious and perfect portions. I put some Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream on top and served it to James while he was in the second bedroom studying for his test tomorrow morning. He was quite appreciative considering they are a combo of my favorite and his favorite desserts. Yay! I'm so glad these turned out. This is perfect for portion control (just don't add all the ice cream and chocolate sauce like I did).

I also know another cookie monster who is way cuter than me. His name is Rex. I know I have blogged about him before. He is the son of Ixchel & Than Fairbanks, our very close friends here in Arizona. The other day, Ixchel called me "Aunt Chelsea." I feel so honored! A couple weekends ago I celebrated Rex's 1st Birthday with him & his family! Ixchel did an amazing job with the party decorations. Guess what the theme was? Cookie Monster! Well, Milk & Cookies with Cookie Monster. I was privileged to make 50+ chocolate chip cookies for Rex's guests. I received several compliments & I know that Rex loved them because he was eating so many of them! Who knew a little guy could eat that many cookies and enjoy cake and frosting too? Here are a few of my pics from the party as well as Ixchel's pictures taken by her brother-in-law.

I love this little guy so much! Happy 1st Birthday Rex!

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2nd Year Send-Off

Last Friday night we attended an event at James' medical school called 2nd Year Send-Off! It's a party that the first year students put on for the second year students as a good luck & farewell for them to go off on their rotations for 3rd & 4th years. It's kind of like med school prom, but no dancing. Cocktail attire, live music, casino games, prizes, photos, & food! This year it was a 1920's theme, but not everyone dressed up. The food was decent--chicken, pasta, & potatoes, catered by Oggi's. I was a little hesitant about going just because of the casino games, but James told me they play with fake money to get raffle tickets to win cool prizes like an ipad mini! I don't even like the concept of gambling, but I was interested in winning the ipad mini, so James & the boys played Texas Hold'em for the majority of the night. James won a lot of "money," so we entered a lot of raffle tickets into the ipad mini jar, and put a few into the Target giftcard jar, and AMC Theater gift card jar. It was fun hanging with the girls and watching the boys be boys haha. I am excited for the professional photos to come out...we are posing with mustaches on sticks props, hats, feather boas, etc, and we should have a cute couples photo and group photo as well.Also, they haven't emailed the names of the winners for the raffle drawings yet. I will let you know if we won the ipad mini! It was a memorable night though, I'm really glad we went :)

James, Nicole, & Chad showing off the
orange wristbands = no drinking.
Pink wristbands = drunk.

Playing Blackjack 

Live 20's music from the band

Trevor

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Disneyland

Our first trip to Disneyland together was so fun! I'll tell the story through pictures:

We drove to Anaheim on Thursday and encountered stop-the-car-on-the-freeway traffic for about 20 minutes due to a car accident 2 miles ahead. James met a new friend. Also, as we were driving into LA, we noticed a humongous fire! The smoke and the sunset was beautiful but I feel bad for those who were affected by the fire. We made it safe and sound to our extended stay hotel. We loaded up on some groceries (hot pockets, ice cream, cereal, milk, and snacks for Disneyland) and spent a relaxing night in our hotel.

Friday we woke up early and walked over to Disneyland. We got there before they opened the park, which was great for us because we covered about half of the park in our first 2 hours there! 

We first went on the Finding Nemo ride which was super cool because we went underwater in a submarine and got to see Nemo & Dori! Then we did the Star Tours ride (I got a little motion sickness towards the end but not as bad as I thought I would get). Next we did SPACE MOUNTAIN--the most fun "thriller" rollercoaster at Disneyland. I really liked that one. I couldn't stop laughing because it was pitch black and so loud with the music and everything, but ask James, he could hear me cracking up haha. 

In the submarine for the Finding Nemo ride

Next we hit up It's A Small World. Yes the song did get stuck in my head for a good remainder of the day. It's fun to see all the different dolls singing in the different languages in all the different countries...but it was the most fun for me when we got toward the end of the ride...we turned a corner and all the dolls are dressed in white and there's a huge smiling sun...James turns to me and says completely serious, "Is this heaven?" BAHAHAHA I laughed so hard! It's true. All the children from the different countries dressed in white all singing together "It's a small world after all" with a huge smiling sun = HEAVEN. But for real, it totally seemed like it was symbolizing heaven. Kinda cool. And awesome.

 

 It looks pink but it was all white and glorious haha

Next we went on Alice in Wonderland's spinning tea cups. Not sure what the exact ride is called, but you know what ride it is--it's the spinning teacups! We had fun trying to spin as fast as we could. I especially like these pictures~we just look so cute in our teacup.

We then proceeded to ride the Matterhorn (bobsleds), the Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse, and then INDIANA JONES! The Indiana Jones ride is James' favorite since he was a kid. He went with his dad when he was like 9 and he got the driver's seat in the jeep with the fake steering wheel. This story is so cute: James was nervous and told his dad "dad I don't know how to drive." Aww so cute! He was all nervous about the ride because he didn't know how to drive. Good thing the ride does all the driving for you, that is a bumpy crazy adventure! I LOVED this ride too, I was totally giggling and laughing the whole time. I really felt like I was on an adventure. After Indiana Jones we had a $20 not-worth-it lunch of a burger, fries, and salad. After lunch we went to Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, walked around the Main Street shops, then sat down on the sidewalk for the parade to begin! I saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Aladdin, Genie, Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Belle, Tiana, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Tinkerbell, Mary Poppins & Burt, and the chimney sweeper dancers (my favorite)! 

The last ride we went on was Splash Mountain! Oh my goodness we waited forever in this line because they closed the ride during our fast pass time and we watched the parade, blah blah blah so we had to wait in line for about 40 minutes. The family in front of us spanked their kids...and I started getting bad allergies from the mildewy moldy water from this ride. My nose was driving me crazy & I kept sneezing. We finally got to ride it and we got a little bit wet, nothing too crazy thank goodness. It was fun though and I took a snapshot of the screenshot picture they took of us. Sorry for the poor quality!

I loooove James' face haha!

We rode all the rides we wanted to ride, our feet were killing us, and we just wanted a little R&R, especially since by this point my allergies were dripping down my throat (ick). We walked back to our hotel, James was kind enough to make me some Kraft mac-n-cheese, butter & milk & all, and we relaxed & went to bed after an exhausting but super funtastic day at Disneyland!

Here are some more castle pics, all similar, that I just love:

We slept in the next morning and then drove to the beach! Lemme just tell you, the weather was PERFECT for a beach day! We took the advice of the hotel concierge & headed to a non-touristy beach. We drove to Newport Beach and camped out at Crystal Cove State Park. It's super cool because this is the beach where they filmed Treasure Island, Herbie Rides Again, and Beaches! So pretty! The waves were rolling and surfers were surfing, the sand was warm, there were rocks with mussels we could explore on, and there were only a few people on the beach. We had a beach picnic of hoagie sandwiches and sour cream and onion Pringles and Gatorade. We layed out, we went for walk on the beach, and we dipped our feet into the ocean (it was freezing, no wonder the surfers wear full body wet suits). Oh I was also blowing my nose like crazy because my allergies were killing me even though I took Claritin and Advil! I sat there with a box of tissues and a plastic bag haha. We were there for 3 hours...during prime time...wearing very minimal sunscreen....YEP we got burned! Poor James' legs & poor Chels' arms & ankles! Haha we look absolutely ridiculous, pink as a flamingo! Oh well, hopefully it turns into a tan.

Saturday night we tried a new place for dinner! From the tv show Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives--Mama Cozzas! Check it out here! It is a really tasty family-owned Italian place. James ordered a sausage pizza and I had the lasagna with minestrone soup, salad, and garlic bread dipped in Mama's sauce! It was very tasty! 

After dinner we walked around the Anaheim Garden Walk. It's an outdoor mall with shops, restaurants, and a movie theater. I was still feeling a little under the weather due to the crappy allergies so we went back to the hotel, finished our ice cream, and watched Inception!

Sunday (today) we drove back home. We had a wonderful time in Cali with our Disneyland and beach adventures. We are glad to be home, and guess what? My allergies are 99% gone now. 

Home sweet home.

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