2011 recipe #1

Mapled Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was an easy cookie recipe that sounded.. maybe slightly healthier than the usual, since they used whole wheat flour and maple syrup.  Another strange and interesting part was it called for cheap salted butter.  Said it was important to the texture or something.  Perhaps the higher water content helps the whole wheat soften.. not sure.

I think they were good.  I'd like to try them again.  The maple took the place of the brown sugar and vanilla and added a nice slightly burnt sugar taste.  They had a good crispiness that I like, but also stayed chewy.  I did notice the whole wheat a couple times, nothing bad, but there was a little more of a grain to it that hung around in the mouth longer than usual cookies.. but with the crispiness I didn't mind.

Due to the stomach virus, we ended up giving most of them away.. so I think I'll have to make them again to form a better opinion. (I bet adding walnuts would be even healthier)

Mapled Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes: About 2 dozen

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (1 cup) cheap salted butter  *for some reason the "cheap" part was important.. I think it has a higher water content*
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup real maple syrup (I used B grade)
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats and set aside.

Whisk the flours and baking soda together in a small bowl, and set aside.

In the work bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 1 minute, until well blended. Add the egg and maple syrup, and mix to blend. Add the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips, and stir with on-off pulses just until the mixture comes together.

Arrange 1 1/2” balls of dough at even intervals on the baking sheets and bake for about 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through, or until the cookies are light golden brown. Let cool on sheets for about 15 minutes, then serve warm.

The verdict ...  Make again!  A nice way to experiment with different sugars and flours which may be a tiny tiny bit healthier... maybe.

2 weeks - 2 bad

A time it would have been nice to have to have some tv viewing choices...  when you have a horrible stomach virus and can't do anything but lay on the couch and you are looking for something .. anything to distract you from how horrible you feel.

I guess the one good thing was.. it just forced me to try to sleep.  But, those wee hours, when I know I can't close my eyes because a sudden trip to the bathroom is just around the corner.  A couple options that I can watch and fall asleep to would have been nice.  Infomercials are not comforting or calming.  Luckily I found a few hours of "I love lucy".  Surprisingly we still have IFC, my usual late night go to (since they don't break up their movies with commercials.. I can usually casually watch and fall asleep)  But this night was a kung-fu action movie that made my stomach churn with every quick cut and flash. 

So "I love lucy" it was.  I can't say I knew what was going on at all in the show.  I had the sound turned down so low.  I just kept praying the famous chocolate episode was not up next.

One week down

Well, we've made it a week.  So far we are OK!

I can't say we have made it to the walk away from the TV part, yet.  But I think we have watched less TV... or at least I am noticing we are watching less TV.  (I have a feeling the amount we actually watch has been less since we've had the baby.. but it was always on in the background.. at least now we are paying the price we were for background noise)  We are going to have to work up to actually being productive with our time.  I feel a little bit like we are cheating.  for some reason a few of the channels I thought would be gone are still around.  Bravo, Syfy, IFC...  Not really channels I wished we had, but still something.  Of course Bravo is the channel that made it very clear to me that cable sucks (all housewives all the time)  I'm a little afraid that I will now replace my HGTV addiction with reruns of top chef.  (too bad they lost Project Runway)

I'm wondering if the cable company is leaving those channels as little temptations.  We're not out of the spiders web completely.  It's making it harder to totally break away.  We could get an antenna, but would we still have these channels?  I have to admit we were a little excited to see some unexpected channels.  Makes it feel like you are getting away with something (but not really, we are still paying $30 for basically the free channels)  Is bravo and IFC really worth $30?  Is being able to record on the DVR?  (I still don't get why we had to buy the dvr.. if it only works with their setup.  They should supply that.  What are we going to do with the dish and the boxes?)  The extra channels are little reminders of the world of a million channels... Come back.. remember when you used to watch Project Runway on Bravo? Now it's on a channel you don't get.   What about Mad Men?  The Walking Dead might be good next season.. and you always looked forward to Always Sunny...

** I'd also like to add that I have no problem with paying for TV.  The problem I have is when you pay for programing that stinks.  The few shows that I feel are quality are just too few and far between to make the cost actually worth it .  And $30 for local free channels?  Crazy.  I'll pay $30 for the local and say 3 or 4 channels of my choice.  That would be great!

Just to preserve my Facebook update from today:

Brian Newlin: knows you may not want to get this personal, but seriously: when a decent earthquake hits, the last place you want to be is on the toilet. And dear anonymous guy in the stall next to me, I hope my high pitch shriek of "that's a big one!" did not confuse the situation.

Boob Tube Rube

So as Jen's been writing about, we made the decision to reduce our tv channels down to the bare basic local networks, and fill in the rest as best we can with Netflix.

It's been a bit of trial and error and figuring out how to do this the best way. Mostly I wanted to reduce the amount of time that I personally spend just flipping channels instead of doing something constructive, like playing with Emmett or writing ideas, like I always say I'm going to do more of.

I think this experiment is going to be tough on both of us, but maybe more on me than Jen simply because I'm more prone to waste time than she is, but it's certainly revealed a few flaws in the plan. I think we need to research a bit more about Hulu or Hulu Plus or a web connected tv streaming option, so we at least have access to the handful of shows we really do want to watch. But it's also going to be a painful process of really letting go of the idea that we always need the tv on, which seems almost impossible in my mind, we've both gotten so used to having it just on in the background.

Hopefully with some time and research, we can come up with a combo of internet streaming service and antenna package that will let us watch a few good things, and we let go of the desire to just have crap on the rest of the time. It's going to be tough, but in the long run I'm hoping it pays off and we set an example for Emmett that surfing the 500 channels on cable isn't the way to spend a day.

Time and space

Day 1.2-2.0

Today I'm still feeling a bit weird about this whole no cable business.  I really don't understand why I am feeling grumpy about the situation.  Last night was really not very different from any other night.  I did the usual evening routine which the TV usually stays off.  Once we settled down for the night the TV came on and we quickly found nothing to be on.. which it nothing new.  So it was off to netflix to watch more episodes of pushing daisies before we headed to bed. 

Even if I know there is nothing on, it's difficult to feel like I'm not missing something.  Something COULD be on and we're going to miss it.  I expect just like any habit, it's not going to be easy to break and there will be some withdrawal.  I also expect we may watch some crummy TV for a bit (or else watch more movies) instead of walking away from the TV to do other things.  We still have a lot of viewing options and haven't put much thought into what other things we can realistically do with that time. 

One thing to think about is the fact that we are pretty beat by 9:00 these days.  I don't want to do much other than relax on the couch and watch TV.  Wish we had a better bathtub.  I nice bath every once and a while would be wonderful.  I'd love that time to work on art work, sewing projects or whatever, but space is also an issue.  I don't want to drag everything out, setup.. and then have 10 min to actually do some work, before it all needs to be put away again.  Maybe we should rethink the garage space.  Section off a storage area and then make a real space for projects.  We have the bones, but maybe we just need to really think  about and separate the storage section to free up a work space.  The actual work space might not be as big as we'd like it, but it would be a space.  A place we could lay out the projects we are working on and not have to always keep it put away every night (to prevent choking or stabbing or however else little Mr Grabby could send himself to the emergency room) Maybe if we keep a big bottle of vodka in the freezer down there, we'll use the room more?

Sigh... if we could only afford a larger house, right?

But getting back to the subject....  I think the hardest part about not having the TV to fall to, is it forces yourself to be conscious of how you are using your time.  It's easier to be lazy, it's comfortable.  Sometimes there is nothing wrong with that, but when it's too easy you forget to do anything else.  Now when there is nothing on, we'll have to think about what we want to do.  Continue to watch an rerun episode of Family Ties or think of something else to do.  Right now, I like the idea of that.. but when it is actually 9:00 and I'm tired and just want to veg, it's not going to be easy to get motivated.

Worse than crack

New Years seemed to be a fitting time to finally start our experiment of turning off our cable TV.  It wasn't going to be a New Years resolution, but it seemed like an easier time to break the habit after the holidays, when the weather was going to be crappy and we had no real plans of leaving the house.  1/3/11. we were going to be back to work and we wouldn't know what we were missing.

In the past we've talked about the idea of turning off the cable as a way to save money.  But I always came back to the reasoning that it didn't save us a huge amount of money.. and if we were going to cut out other things, we would want to have the TV around as entertainment Plus anything of quality worth watching seemed to be on channels you had to pay for.  But now I am starting to see it in another light.

Now with the kid we are starting to pay attention to just how bad the programming has gotten.  I don't want Emmett to grow up being glued to the TV. I want him to get out and see the real world.   I don't want him to idolized the idiots who all seem to have their own reality show or fall for the slick commercials and to just spend his life consuming.  I don't want him to mindlessly waste his days in front of a television.  If we don't want that for him.. then we have to set the example.

I have to admit the idea is a little scary to me.  I really do like to watch TV.  Even just having it on as background noise.  But when I really started to think about what shows I would pay for (if we paid per show we watched) a lot of things I was wasting my time on where things I'd never pay to watch.  So WHY am I watching them?  Why am I wasting my time... time with Emmett and Brian?  Why waste one bit of life on crap?  Time that I always say I don't have.  I'm excited to see what else we can do with that time.  I hope we find other things to do and not just fill it up with our other tv options (watching even crappier tv.. or just a bunch of movies)  Plus, we'll be saving money.  Maybe we should plan something fun to do with that money.  Save it for a trip or adventure?  How fitting would that be?

I want life to start being more about quality and quantity.  That is my theme for the year.  Food, clothes, entertainment.. time.. all (or most of it anyway) quality.  So here we go....

Day 1
 1/2/11 - 9:30 PM  Brian made the call.  Down to basic, local channels.  Instantly we lose what we are watching.  We learn there are plenty of fees to make the "free channels" $29 a month.  Seems crazy.  I get that they want you to bump it up to basic cable.. but really, don't they want to keep any business they can get?  If this goes well, we'll invest in that antenna.. and really start saving money.  I'm starting to have the same evil corporation feelings about cable companies that I do about banks.  I don't want give any of them my money any more.  I have a small panic attack.  It's been a long time since I've lived life cable free.   I've also grown used to having the DVR  watching shows almost commercial free ... what will we do if we go to antenna?  Brian sets up the channels .. we have maybe 19-20 channels.. 10 which me might actually watch every now and then.  We watch the end of the wonder years.  I notice how little Fred Savage is.  He looks so young.  1990... 21 years ago?  Crap where did all that time go?