"Surprisingly Refreshing"

"It's not every day that you bite into a biscuit and feel refreshed."

That's what my friend's husband said about the cookies we baked today. 

Let me start from the beginning... no wait, that will take too long.  Let me start from a beginning.

I had a "play date" with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and friends Mara and Andrew.  We 3 women figured we'd do something fun whilst we sent the boys (well, we kept the toddler with us) off to play with their cameras.

Lois was in the middle of making some bathtub crayons (really, soap with food colouring added), and she was using Mint and Lavender to scent them.  The mint tones down the "girly-ness" of the lavender.  It was really smelling delicious, so I thought... I bet that would be a great sugar cookie flavour!

Presto, our afternoon's activity, sorted.

This was the recipe we used.

We didn't have any of the fresh stuff, though, so we just used lavender essence and peppermint oil we had on hand.  Worked great.  (Note: We decided it was a little too much cornstarch.)  Also, we didn't add the lemon flavour to the dough.  When we originally thought of it, we didn't think we wanted the Lemon flavour.

Once the cookies came out of the oven, we had a little taste, and realised, the Lemon would have been a smash hit, so we added a Lemon Drizzle topping.  Just a bit of powdered sugar mixed with lemon juice.

The results?  Andrew's assessment was the best, "Surprisingly Refreshing.  It's not everyday that you bite into a biscuit and feel refreshed."  They were a total hit!

Thanks, Andrew, for taking the photo!

Grandma Growls

So, my mom just got home from a 3 week trip to Egypt. She's sleeping on my sister's sofa. My nephew keeps running up to her and growling. We could not figure out what was triggering it.

All the sudden we heard my mom snore.... And Ethan growled back!

Dad, Lois, me, we all fell out laughing. Ethan looks up at us like, "What's so funny guys?" So of course, we laugh harder. He joins us in "social laughter", though he obviously had no clue what was so funny.

Still Have an English Brain

So, I've been back in the US for a year and a half, more or less, And I have report, I'm still not acclimatised. This is either good news, or bad, depending on your preference.

My sister complains whenever I use a British phrase. "Adele, you're an American!" My lovely friends across the pond say, "No! That's the correct way to speak!"

Anyway, it's my mother's birthday today. She didn't want normal cake, so my sister arranged for a cream pie and profiteroles to be on hand. I was offering to serve up, and asked my sister if she wanted some profiteroles, she said yes. Then I offered some to my Dad. Blank look. So I repeated the offer, "Do you want some profiteroles?" Again, non-comprehension. My sister steps in, "Do you want some cream puffs?"

Oh. I didn't even know I wasn't speaking American!