Jennifer Lyon


Monday, August 9th, 2021
Weekend Roundup

A weekend came and went exactly as my calendar predicted :-)

So I’ve been stress baking. My latest thing had been working out how to build a chocolate peanut butter stuffed cookies.

And make it lactose free.

It’s like me writing a book, I can’t just do simple, straightforward storyline. Nope. I must complicate it to the max. Which, in case you were wondering, I have done with Primal Magic and now that book is so not working and we are back at page one.

But I’d rather talk about my cookie win. I did it, I figured out a lactose free chocolate peanut butter stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Tada!

 

Shoot, I just realized I should have taken a picture of the inside of one to show you the creamy chocolate peanut butter center. I only kept a couple and gave the rest away. Oh well. Trust me, it worked and got the approval of youngest son :-)

If anyone cares how I did this, here’s the basic steps:

  1. I melted a 1/2 cup non diary chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life dark chocolate chips), and mixed in a cup of peanut butter, then added in a little sifted powdered sugar (I don’t know how much, maybe a couple tablespoons).  I let the mixture cool, then formed that into balls and froze them for a couple hours.
  2.  I converted this CakeBoss Soft & Thich Chocolate Chip Cookies to nondairy, but swapping out a 1/2 cup lactose free margarine and a 1/2 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening for the 1 cup butter. I also increased the salt by a 1/4 teaspoon to compensate for not using salted butter. I took a couple tablespoons of dough and formed that around the frozen chocolate peanut butter balls, and then froze all the cookie balls over night.
  3. I baked them frozen at 375 for 15 minutes and I’m pretty happy with the results. I bake them frozen so they hold their structure without spreading too much or the chocolate peanut butter center melting too fast and breaking through the outer shell of chocolate chip cookie dough.

The cookies made me happy.

And yes, I have been procrastinating on the book. Majorly procrastinating. I don’t want to go back to the beginning and start over, but…maybe I need to bake something else. Like a life-sized cake of the Statue of Liberty.

How was your weekend?

6 comments to “Weekend Roundup”

  1. Silver James
    August 9th, 2021 at 7:41 am · Link

    Those look yummy and totally worth all the effort. Bet Youngest loves them! And yes, the calendar did advance a couple of days. It happens. ;)

    Lawyer Guy was funny on our anniversary. We didn’t make plans and decided on sandwiches at home–to hot to cook or go out. Still, he had to make a store run (he forgot to buy cards! LOLOL) and he decided to get “fancy” so he bought “cut crystal” plastic plates and Stella Artois beer because it was the closet to Harps (my fave beer/ale) in the grocery store. So we ate sub sandwhiches on “glass” plates using our “fancy” Christmas napkins (instead of paper towels), drank beer, and watched baseball. It. Was. AWESOME!

    We did siren test on Saturday then hit Alvarado’s, our fave Mexican restaurant, for lunch with the kids. Jake was a jewel as always.

    Sunday was “get ready for Stormy” day. He’s here all week as his school doesn’t start until next week and Baseball Boy has meetings then classes starting Wednesday. I got more junk sorted in the old office and we’re almost to the point where we can rearrange the table in there and actually have space for crafts and stuff.

    I did get some new words written though I spent a lot of time “driving” Google street view to find a location for a setting. I finally did and got a chapter finished. I’m almost to 20K words so yay.

    And that was my slightly less than exciting but that’s okay weekend. ;) Have a great week, all!



  2. B.E. Sanderson
    August 9th, 2021 at 1:33 pm · Link

    I love you and I love that you did these for your son and they look awesome. And I am all about the stress baking – even when it’s so hot I can’t stand to have the oven on. In fact, I think I need to make a batch of cookies… maybe a cake… something. Sorry you didn’t get to keep a lot of the cookies, but that’s probably for the best. I know I’d be better off if I had someone to give my baking efforts to than sitting here eating them all myself (or letting Hubs eat everything… good thing his metabolism lets him eat what he wants without expanding.) Sorry the book is being a turd for you. I wish I could just say ‘send it here and I’ll whip those characters into shape for you’ but I can’t make my characters do anything, so what luck would I have with yours?

    The weekend was fine. Hot. I made granola bars and pizza. I did a bunch of edit note stuff. Other than that, laying around in the AC watching the Olympics and vegetating.



  3. Viki S.
    August 9th, 2021 at 2:37 pm · Link

    Your cookies look and sounds very good. It’s great that you are able to convert recipes to lactose free. Bet BLB loves it :).

    Do I understand you correctly and that you’re going back to ground zero with Primal Magic? That stinks but if it makes for the book you want to write we get it.

    I like the life size cake idea but man will you need a large oven :lol: .

    Got my hair done Saturday. The product she wanted to put in my hair she’d never used before and it spilled out and made a mess. It also made my hair a grease slick. It looked like my hair was soaking wet until this morning when I was able to wash it. Looks okay now ;).

    Have a great afternoon!



  4. Jenn
    August 9th, 2021 at 4:55 pm · Link

    Silver, your anniversary sounds perfect! We enjoy both stay home and going out celebrations. It just depends on our mood and Real Life stuff at the moment, and I’m guessing that’s what you guys are like as well. Yay for the special plates and napkins, LOL!!

    Jake is a jewel :-)

    Busy week filled with Stormy time! And I’m impressed with how much work you are getting done in organizing your house. Soon you’ll have it all done!

    Awesome on the news works! I go down the google hole daily (followed by YouTube too lately). But it sounds like
    you made real progress.

    It was an exciting weekend and again, Happy Anniversary! I think those of us who are marriage long-haulers need to celebrate more!



  5. Jenn
    August 9th, 2021 at 5:02 pm · Link

    B.E., aw thank you! I know how much you love to bake, so you get it. It’s just so satisfying to do a project from beginning to end in a matter of hours or a couple days rather than the endless feeling of writing. Plus…baked goods are delicious.

    I wish you could help on the book too. But I need to figure out some re-occurring roadblocks that keep cropping up. And some of it is my lack of laser focus concentration on the book–other things in life are distracting me. It happens.

    I hope your characters shape up soon!

    Your pizza always sounds so good. And I wish I made granola bars like you do. Glad you got some down time and worked on editing notes too. That’s the best of both worlds!



  6. Jenn
    August 9th, 2021 at 5:10 pm · Link

    Viki, I enjoy converting some recipes for him because he appreciates it. But there are times when he’s left out because I didn’t have time to make an extra dessert and he’s always a good sport about that too.

    To answer your question, I’m going back through the 3 version of the first part of the book to see what works best, or what combination works. I should have a better feel in a couple days–if I can stop getting distracted. We had to drive 40 minutes away to see a specific floorplan of a house even though we’re not buying yet. Just researching but it takes a lot of leg work that gets in the way of writing. Sorry for the long answer :-)

    Hmm, the oven might be a problem, LOL.

    Whoa, that most have been a shock to both you and Cassie. I’m guessing she’d already color treated it so your options were limited at that point. I’m sorry it wasn’t the best experience for you. I hate when that happens. At least you’re happy with it today!

    Hope your week is off to a good start.



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