Sorry about the late shop re-opening, everyone. Lemony’s only two months old, but she was born with teeth and this past week has started teething in earnest! Because she’s still so tiny she can’t grasp and hold things very well, so guess who has to hold the chilled teething ring? We can’t use baby Oragel or anything like that on her yet because of her age, but this phase of it shouldn’t last long. Things should be back to normal soon.

I know I’ve been pretty silent these past few weeks, but it was for a good reason…

Meet Lemony, our new baby girl! She was born on May 11, at 1:11 in the afternoon. She was 19 inches long and weighed in at 6 pounds, 6 ounces with a full head of dark hair and (as you can see) big dark eyes.

She’s our first, and we’ve been spending these past weeks getting to know her and figuring out this whole “parenting” thing. And now that we know her schedule and have figured out one of our own, I can get back to chainmaille and blogging! ^_^ I’ve got some pieces that I made before she was born that I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of then, so expect those to pop up here very soon.

Okay, so this has nothing to do with chainmaile, but I wanted to share. This also gives me the added bonus of an on-line record in case I ever lose the original my mom wrote out!

A bit of an explanation, though. Brian LOVES cookies, specifically chocolate chip. He doesn’t have birthday cake on his birthday, and hasn’t for the vast majority of his life. He gets a giant chocolate chip sheet cookie with frosting on it. His birthday gift from my mother before we were even engaged was a glass cookie jar with the words “Brian’s Cookies” sandblasted on it in his favorite Celtic font. It was, of course, filled to the brim with chocolate chip cookies.

Being a lover of these wonderful treats, Brian has of course developed a very fine taste for them, and has conceded that my maternal grandmother’s (and possibly great-grandmother’s) recipie is the best ever! He might be biased, but I’m tempted to agree. It’s really similar to most other recipies, but from what I can tell it’s how and when everything is mixed that makes the outcome so different. My scientist friends agree that it’s the order of operations that can make or break a lot of things, so that could be what’s happening. I did once make a batch without following the mixing instructions exactly, and the cookies were edible, but nothing different than what you’d get from a box or a bag. And here I thought I was being all smart and saving prep time by tossing everything in the bowl and stirring. So follow the instructions exactly, and you will get extra-yummy cookies every time!

Brian’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Equipment
A spoon, a large bowl for mixing, measuring cups & spoons, cookie sheet, a spatula, newspaper or paper towels for cooling (Not racks! The cookies will sag through!)

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Take:
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
- Cream these together in your bowl
Add:
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon water
2 eggs
- Mix all these together
Add:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
- Mix together; viola, you have cookie dough!
Add:
Chocolate Chips! Semi-sweet or milk; your choice. We prefer semi-sweet because these things are rich and make your teeth hurt when you use milk chocolate chips.
I like to use a whole small bag of chips (I think it’s like 12 oz or something) and my mom uses a half of a large bag of chips. Go with whatever you prefer.

Baking
Put small chunks of your cookie dough on your cookie sheet – I like to keep them to roughly tablespoon size, and there’s no need to grease the pan, trust me. Slide your loaded sheet into the oven and let them cook for around 7 minutes, but check after 5. This is where the instructions get a bit nebulous because it really depends on your oven. When you see the bottom edges getting a bit brown, take out your cookie sheet and spatula the cookies immediately onto whatever you’re cooling them on. If you don’t do this the bottoms will burn, and that’s no fun.
And here’s a secret – Set your sheet aside and let it cool until it’s warm/cool to the touch (ie – you CAN touch it) before you add any more dough on there. If you use an aluminum one it won’t take long. I’ve found that immediately putting dough on the sheet means that the next sheet will have the bottoms burnt, no matter how carefully I watch it. So let your cookie sheet cool before adding any more on it.
You cookies may look a bit underdone and be kind of squishy when they come out, but don’t worry – They’re fine so long as the bottom edges are brown.
Now just wait a few minutes for them to cool and solidify, and then enjoy your yummy cookies! ^_^

*Odd Note – The uncooked dough honestly doesn’t taste that great, but the finished cookies are awesome.

Tell me if you tried these and liked them!

I hope everyone out there in Internet Land had a safe and fun St. Patty’s Day! I had an insanely busy weekend, due in no small part to my birthday. Mine is the day before St. Pat’s, so you can mark it for next year as an excuse to start the party early, if you want.

But I did get a nice heap of chainmaile done, and Brian got his bonsai out of their mulch pile and onto benches. The weather is nice enough we can start our veggie garden soon, too. I can’t wait for that! We both grew up in the middle of nowhere, and we’ve been missing it terribly. I spent half my time growing up visiting my grandparent’s little farm, and his family has an orchard, and both of our families had big vegetable gardens every year. Now that we’ve got a nice-sized lawn, it’s garden time!

I just realized that we will have the oddest hanging baskets on our deck. Everyone else is getting pretty flowers and vines.

So yes – I am excited about the prospect of eating homegrown food again. I’m sure our impending Little One will enjoy it as well. Although I never did learn how to can, so we’re going to have to learn how to do that. I know I always overplant and the neighbors can only use so much.

Making chainmaile outside with rabbits playing in the lawn is one of the best things in the world.

This could just be me, but it seems like our little girl is learning how to communicate already!

It also seems like she knows exactly where my sciatic nerve is. >_<

I’ve noticed that when I sit or lay in a position that squishes her or makes her otherwise uncomfortable, she starts to kick. Last week she discovered my sciatic nerve and learned to maneuver herself into a position where she can kick it and give my whole leg a nasty jolt. It gets a faster reaction than a lot of normal little kicks! It’s been a week of that, but now I’ve figured out how to recognize the “positioning” movements; they’re very specific. I either stand up or change position and that stops her and she calms back down.

I would just sit in a baby-friendly position all the time, except she’s really active and what’s comfortable for her now might not be in ten minutes.

Oh, well. This is the third trimester and it’s starting to get really cramped in there, so there won’t be much more of that, and at least she seems to be learning a bit about communication, if only on a reflexive level. So in a way, I’m pleased. ^_^ Maybe she’ll be one of those babies that’s really obvious about her needs. That would be nice.