Oatmeal Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

These cookies are VERY good! I found the recipe online and it says this about them, "These are so close to the Girl Scout oatmeal peanut butter cookies that you won't know the difference!" They are very close, although the texture seems a bit different. I like them if they're served cold (just store them in the fridge). The cookies are also very good on their, sans filling. Enjoy! :)


INGREDIENTS:
COOKIE
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick cooking oats

FILLING
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 1/2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream or half and half


DIRECTIONS:
COOKIE
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the egg and beat well.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add these ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir. Add oatmeal and stir.
4. Drop by teaspoons onto greased baking sheet, and press each mound down with a fork to make 1/4 inch thick cookies.
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until cookies are light brown. Let cool briefly (about 2 minutes) on baking sheet before removing to wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.

FILLING
1. Cream 3 Tablespoons butter with the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, and cream.
2. Spread filling onto half of the cooled cookies, then top with the other half to form sandwiches.

The Letter B with Joshua Chew

Christmas!

Here's a quick look at Christmas with the Chew's. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Snow Day!

It's snowing in Hartsdale today so we decided to go outside and play. Here are a few photos of Joshua, Hannah, and Becca as we ventured out in front of our building.

Bundled up and ready to go.

Trying to figure out what this snow stuff is all about. What I didn't catch was when he ate the snow. I'm not sure how he knew it could be "edible", but for whatever reason the very first thing he did was pick some up and put it in his mouth! :)

Maybe one day these self-portraits will actually work.

Joshua wanted to go back outside.

You Know You're a Parent When...

This was a fun exercise a friend of mine initiated a couple of weeks ago, so I won't take credit. However, it does prove to be quite entertaining!

You know you're a parent when...



You find a squeaky cat in the printer,

Pooh Bear "napping" on the windowsill,

a fire truck carefully "parked" on the living room floor,

napkins in your shoe,

and a friendly visitor in the kitchen drawer.


Not pictured here is the cell phone in the kitchen drawer, the favorite pancake turner/spatula in countless places including under the couch, between the couch cushions, in the bathtub...anywhere other than being used in the kitchen! The garlic press has been known to camp out in the entryway and the soccer ball sometimes thinks it's a baby and sits in the car seat awaiting our next outing.

November Highlights

Here are some notable and not so notable happenings from November...

-Joshua learns to walk backwards and on his toes, though not at the same time
-Hannah adds cooing to her impressive list of abilities
-Joshua says recognizable words such as "poo-poo", "go", "apple", and "diaper"
-Hannah goes to the Westchester Chapel Nursery for the first time
-Hartsdale has its first snow for the winter...it didn't stick but it looked nice while it lasted!
-Claude becomes Superdad as he single-handedly (or in this case, double-handedly) picks up, carries, and bounces both Joshua and Hannah on the exercise ball
-Becca ventures out of the familiar cheesecake recipe zone and tries something new...the old recipe is still better, though!
-We celebrate Thanksgiving. It was Hannah's 1st, Joshua's 2nd, Claude's 3rd, and Becca's 27th.

I will forego the pictures for the time being. But have no fear! There are plenty more to come.

Here's a Look at Hannah...

Joshua's First Cheesecake

Here are some photos of Joshua helping to bake his first cheesecake. White chocolate cheesecake for Thanksgiving dessert. In the words of the baker himself, "Mmmm!" :)

Mixing the batter.

More mixing.

"Wow!"

This is the finished product...too bad Mom baked it for too long.
But we think it tastes good!

Abundance

An abundant life is "marked by great plenty"...plenty of what? Plenty of everything!

In our first year of marriage we (at least I) felt like we lacked a lot. Very little income, fairly high living expenses (welcome to Westchester!), very little gas in the car, very little food in the fridge, very little...very little...very little...

Praise the Lord He has orchestrated and enabled our life circumstances and in the process has changed our hearts and minds to see that He has always given us everything in great plenty.

We have joy in great plenty through the Holy Spirit. We have peace in great plenty as we learn to rely wholeheartedly on the Lord Himself to be our Provision and Supply. We have authority in great plenty through the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We have love and life in great plenty because of the presence of the Holy Spirit working in us to bring Christ's life to the fore and our life to rear.

God has also given us every basic need and resource in great plenty. Now we have sleep in great plenty...maybe that depends on how you look at it! :) But we do have little ones which leads to a plentiful life regardless of how many hours we sleep each night. Who knows...depending on the Lord's will we may have little ones in great plenty!

But even if we didn't have every resource in great plenty we would still be living the abundant life because Christ lives in us and the Life He gives is always abundant! Praise the Lord!

Now with that short reflection on this abundant life, I'm heading back to the abundantly occupied bed to join all those in the Chew household who are sleeping...abundantly. :)

Sugar Cookies

Yesterday Joshua helped to make his first batch of cookies. I've been saying since he was a newborn that he "helps" with everything around the house from vacuuming to curriculum writing to baking. But this time he really did!

Here is a video of the culinary endeavor.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog!

This is a first for me, Rebecca, and for our family. Hopefully it will keep you, our friends and family, up to date on the latest happenings in the Chew household. Most likely this will mean that you hear a lot about the littlest ones in our midst (Joshua and Hannah) and not so much about us bigger ones (Claude and Rebecca). I doubt that anyone will mind.

Enjoy!