Late night snacking never hurt anybody

Last night, Rich went to bed around his normal time, maybe a little earlier, but he didn’t go to sleep. We heard him talking for maybe an hour, maybe a little less. Finally, Karen suggested I take a drink in to him. It was water because we already brushed his teeth. He was happy to see me and we chatted in whispers while he sat in his crib in the dark. But then Karen suggested he might be hungry since we had a really early dinner, so I brought him in a blueberry Eggo waffle and we chatted some more. Uncharacteristically, he ate the entire thing. So I heated up another waffle and Karen and I joined him together. He ate the entire second waffle as well. He chatted in whispers with us and was very happy to see us. After some water and two waffles, the kid was out. Just another job well done in the world of parenting.

Hazel's tasty heels

Lately I’ve been visiting Hazel’s, which is a bread place in the eatery on campus. They sell a thick slice of bread with a topping for less than $1.50 and it’s amazing. Well yesterday morning, just before catching the bus, I went to Hazel’s because I was starving. On the counter, I saw a bag of what looked to be bread heels. I looked at the menu.

ME: So...this is two dollars?

LADY WORKER: Yeah. It’s a really good deal. You get every kind of bread, so it’s great for sampling if you don’t know what you want.

I purchased the bag, some raspberry butter, and some cinnamon honey butter all for less than $3! It was amazing. And the best part of it all is that Karen ate several slices when I got home because she liked it so much. She wasn’t able to keep much down today, so it was amazing that she could eat the bread and enjoy it.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, revisited

Every so often, I make cookies that look like this:

There were so many cookies that we couldn't fit them all in the picture.

They are the most delicious chocolate chip cookies you will ever eat. Karen wrote a post about these cookies a long time ago, but it's one of the few things I make often. Usually punches out about 80 cookies at half the recipe she put on her blog, so...yeah.

IF YOU WANT ULTIMATE HAPPINESS, READ THIS NEXT SENTENCE: Instead of just chocolate chips, try half chocolate chips and half butterscotch chips! We do this combo every time now and everyone says it is the perfect balance of awesomeness.

Brent's Ham Fried Rice

Dennis is in town, so we wanted to make a delicious lunch for him. Part of that lunch was Brent's ham fried rice, a dish that can act as a meal on its own. After some encouragement, I'm including the recipe here, with my edits to Brent's recipe in red. (Thanks, Brent!) This is the most delicious ham fried rice in all the land.

• 4 c Minute instant rice (brown/white)
• 3 1/2 c water
• Peanut oil (probably about 3 or 4 tbsp total)
• 6 oz finely chopped ham (cut a block of ham in half and dice it; it’s more than 6 oz, but we like more ham)
• 2 finely chopped or shredded carrots (or 1/2 bag of julienne/shredded carrots, but chop them into smaller pieces so they aren’t so long)
• 1 bunch green onions
• 4 eggs (I recommend 6 large eggs or their equivalent quantity, but only because we like more egg)
• Kikkoman soy sauce to taste
• 1 package frozen peas

Prep all veggies and ham prior to cooking. Microwave peas for two minutes and set aside. Bring water to a boil, then take off heat, add rice, cover, and let sit for at least 5 minutes (10 minutes if brown rice; also, there's no difference in flavor or substance between white and brown for this meal). Add 1 tbsp peanut oil to wok and heat. Add ham to wok, stirring often, add carrots, stir some more. And green onions and stir for 1 minute. Take ingredients out of wok and wipe wok with a paper towel. Add beaten eggs to wok, stir continuously until scrambled to liking. Remove eggs and wipe out wok. Add enough peanut oil to cover bottom of wok. Heat and add rice. Stir rice until fluffy and well heated. Add all ingredients except peas and stir. Add Kikkoman soy sauce to taste and continue to stir. Add peas. Stir and serve!

The peas are added last and stirred in so that they retain their own flavor and simultaneously bring out the flavors of the other ingredients.