Do any of you feel like a trip to the grocery store is a vacation? Especially if you have kids and they’re not there?
You can wander up and down aisles, picking things up at leisure and putting them down. You can try free samples. You can hunt for new products. And if there’s a Starbucks in the store, you can do it all with a lovely hot cup of beverage.
Camp starts next week. Thanks be to all the powers above. I’m totally destroyed.
Listen, I love being a mom. But part-time mommyhood is kind of my thing. I need to be elsewhere during the day to fully appreciate all of the stuff my kids pull, like covering the walls in sidewalk chalk or leaving raisins all over the house like animal droppings. I wish I were strong enough to handle them 24/7, but I’m just not.
Summer is a great wake-up call for me about my job and why I love it. I get to be an at-home mom for two months while not teaching, and then I can fully appreciate being with my kids all day. But man, is it ever the most exhausting job in the world. That’s why we need cupcakes!
Okay, I admit it. You dragged it out of me. It’s time to come clean.
The truth is, I’ve been known to hoard…truffles.
Oh, I’m so ashamed. You see, I love throwing things away. I know it sounds wasteful, but it makes me feel like I’m finally getting organized and cleaning up the constant mess that my kids throw around the house each second they’re home. I don’t save anything except the rare, unquestionably special school project.
And truffles.
I’m back from sunny Williamsburg, VA, where my husband and I had a mini-vacation without kids. It was magical. If you’ve never been, you need to go! I’ll be sharing some of my favorite parts of the trip over the coming days. But first I have to share something else with you, and I’m excited.
Oh, my goodness. Hold on to your hats. Because I never realized that bark, one of the best treats ever, could be made in cookie form. Guess what? Epiphany time, people!
I was in the grocery store minus my children (wow, am I ever with them?) the other day, which is known in my world as a vacation. It was so lovely. I was wandering up and down aisles, looking at packaging without having to tune out a baby shrieking in my ear or feeling harassed, when I came upon the Brownie Brittle display. Have you seen that stuff? Basically, there are several different flavors of these thin, crispy brownie pieces. Some of them have chocolate chips, others toffee. It doesn’t really matter. The point is, when you bite in, you taste brownie. And I wanted to do the same thing, but with a cookie instead. So cookie bark was born!
When I was a kid, people didn’t worry about raw cookie dough. So I happily licked the beaters, knowing in my soul that eating batter was the best part of baking anything. But then the dark forces moved in and exposed the dangers of eating cookie dough.
I know a lot of people aren’t afraid. But me, I live in fear. I get nervous around fire and water, I wash my hands obsessively during flu season, and I always wait for the walk sign before crossing the street. Eating raw cookie dough used to be absolutely taboo. Until, of course, everyone realized it was possible to have your dough and eat it, too. Just don’t put in the egg, add condensed milk, and you’re good to go!
