A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking back to 2002 through 2006: my college days.  While I have loved (for the most part) every stage of my life, those days that I spent at Otterbein held something for me that could never be replicated.

I was so wonderfully naiive, and carefree, and absolutely enthralled by life and all that it held for me.  I went on walks around Westerville at 3 am, layed in the soccer field to watch stars, spent afternoons in cemetaries and on roofs, had picnics, wrote poetry, walked barefoot around campus, layed in streets, jumped in lakes (in February), had my heart broken and fell in love.  My only job was to learn, and I learned so much.  Most of it was outside of the classroom. 

The other night, Funnel and I were driving down Broad Street, and we were talking about our college days.  “I miss that Jen,”  I told him. 

He said to me, “You still are that Jen.  You just are around different people and different places now”.

I’m not sure if it’s true, but I hope that I am.

I know a lot of you prayed for my cousin Lauren and her family when her 3-year old son, Corey, passed away last year.   I wanted to share with you a picture of her sweet twins, Courtney and Jordan, that I had the priviledge of meeting this past weekend:

On my mind again today: how crazy it is that our world can contain so many joy and sadness all at the same time.

{ My sweet husband }   I don’t know if you know this, but since the end of October, I’ve been working as a front desk receptionist.  Do you remember the episode of “The Office” where it’s Valentine’s Day, and all these wonderful flowers and plants and teddy bears keep coming in for everybody but Pam Beasley, the receptionist?  And Pam has to sign for all of them? Poor Pam.  Funnel made sure that was not me this year… on Friday he had a wonderful suprise delivered to me at work: the softest, sweetest teddy bear with a little bouquet of roses, a box of chocolates and a wonderful note that may or may not have made me tear up a little. What a sweet guy. 

{ The Olympics }  Funnel & I have been glued to the TV.  I am generally not a big tv-watcher, but I think the olympics are one of the only times it is acceptable (and should be encouraged) to be a couch potato.  I’m not even going to watch LOST tonight. 

{ Europe }  We are less than three months away from our trip and judging from how my life has been lately, I think it’s going to come up really quickly.   So far, we’ve sent away for our passports (mine’s already been rejected once due to the crappy washed-out picture I got taken at Walgreens), we’ve booked a really great photographer to do a shoot of us in Paris, and found a travel agent to help us book hotels and our rail passes.   Someone asked in an earlier post where we are going… our tentative itinerary is: Paris, Nice / Monaco, Venice, somewhere in Tuscany (trying to work that one out with the travel agent) and Rome.  

{ Lifetime To-Do List }  When I was younger, I decided to make a lifetime to-do list.  When I started it, I decided it would have 100 things on it, and it did.    But the problem was that I was too concerned with coming up with 100 things, and not concerned enough with making goals that were meaningful to me.   In fact, I can’t even tell you anything that was on that list.  So I am starting over, and only adding things when something really strikes me.  So far, I have two things on my list.  The first is to go to the olympics.  Every olympics that I can remember, I’ve always thought, one day I want to go and see this live.  I remember knowing people who went to the Salt Lake City olympics and I was so jealous.   This is an expensive goal, but I think we can swing it someday.  Especially the next time the games are held in the states.  My second goal is to win a food challenge.  I know that sounds rediculous and not serious enough to be on a lifetime-to-do list, but I don’t care.  Funnel & I have started watching this show called “Man vs. Food” and the host, Adam, goes all over the country visiting the best restaurants in each city, and each show ends with some kind of food challenge.  The food challenge he does for the Columbus episode is at a little place called The Ohio Deli.  There’s a sandwich there called “The Dagwood” and it is the size of my head.  Funnel and I have split it a couple of times.  For my birthday, I think, I am going to attempt to eat the whole thing myself.  If I do, I get my picture on their wall of fame.  

{ Sad & Happy } I have felt so conflicted this week.  One of my best friends from college got engaged to a guy who is absolutely perfect for her.  Happy.  A good friend of the Frederick family passed away after a fight with breast cancer, leaving her husband and son.  Sad.  Our friends from church met their precious three-year-old son for the first time yesterday in Ethipoia and will be bringing him home soon.  Happy.  This family, that I’ve been following through my mother-in-law, are having so many roadblocks to their being re-united, on top of their child dying of cancer.  Sad.  And so much more that I can’t write about on here.  What a crazy world we live in, where one person can be having the best day of their life and at the exact same time, another’s world has been torn apart. 

{ This } “We’ll never be as young as we are tonight.”

For the past… I don’t know… 3 years, I have been on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  I’ve tried everything: the recipe on the back of the Toll House Chocolate Chip bag, my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, all my favorite cooking blogs.  And I finally found one to be my go-to recipe.

This recipe is different from other chocolate chip cookie recipes, in that it uses melted butter.   I think that’s the key to it’s goodness.  There are a few hints from me at the bottom:

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (from Cook’s Illustrated)

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
¾ cup (5¼ ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whish for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use a #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

* Modifications from Me: Instead of using Chocolate Chips, I took a few squares of Semi-sweet Baker’s Chocolate and chunked it up.    Also, I’ve found that if you refrigerate the dough for a couple of days, they’re even better.  I think it gives the ingredients some time to mesh together.

If you have a favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I’d love to try it.  I’m still open to the idea that there is a recipe floating around out there that is even better than this one.

I’m so excited that I can hardly stand it. 

Today, Funnel & I bought plane tickets to Paris.  After years of dreaming, we are finally, officially, going on our trip…. fifteen days in France and Italy in May. 

Springtime, please come soon.

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

- – - Erica Jong

After work last night, I was exhausted.  I just wanted to lay on the couch under a blanket and watch some  movies on Funnel’s Xbox that I had queued up through Netflix.   As I started my movie, my hands felt empty as I lay there.  I needed to do something – sew, knit,  journal.  I was rummaging through my little sewing closet for ideas, and found a bag of felt from when I used to make little robots and birds.  So I used my scrap felt to make a new little friend: Oliver the Valentine’s Day Owl. 

Crafting + “Dirty Dancing” + homeade salsa & chips = a pretty decent night.

A heart garland I made from some fabric and lace scraps:

(( it’s beginning to look a lot like Valentine’s Day! ))

I want to live my life differently. 
I want to live like life doesn’t owe me things.

I was looking through some older photos tonight, and found these from a wedding in October that I was the 2nd shooter at, with my friend Amber Walsh.  I enjoy being a second shooter: I get to practice and learn without all the pressure of having to make sure I get all the perfect shots.  In fact, I hardly had any portraits from this wedding – just details and guests and adorable little kids. 

Here are just a few: