Back to the basics: cookies

Okay, I admit it. I've been slacking a bit. For good reason though.

I was looking at my calendar and was really excited to see that I had nothing due next week. Super exciting, right? But moving on to the next week, it pretty much looks like the week from hell. My project runs (eek!), I have to send the Jayhawker (double eek!), I have a test in my lower level politics class and then a paper/presentation combo for my harder politics class. Um, crazy. I will be a hermit all week. On the good side of things, my project is nearing its edited completion. I just need to chop about 800 words off of it. Ha! I have a whole bunch of siders as well. Basically, it will be a behemoth. It will be super satisfying once it runs. I will totally post a link to it too.

It's really hard for me to believe that I graduate in five weeks. College has flown by, although right now it couldn't end fast enough. I'm really sick of homework and school when I'd rather be doing journalism stuff. I'm sure I'll miss school after I've been out of it for a while. Who knows, maybe I'll go back! Anyway, I'm excited for graduation weekend. My mom will be coming from Michigan and my dad and stepmom will be coming from Salina, with Grandma in tow! She turns 90 this year — can you believe it?! She used to live in Baldwin City right near Lawrence, but since we took her to Salina she hasn't been back to the area. So she hasn't seen me as a college student in Lawrence. I'm just happy she can come. I made my own graduation invitation because it was cheaper and prettier than those normal white ones. I'm glad I got that done before my big rush of stuff. Anyway, if I didn't send you one and you want to come to graduation, you're more than welcome :) I'm going to make KU cupcakes to celebrate, complete with red and blue polka-dotted cupcake papers and red and blue sprinkles I got from Bake It Pretty and then some KU pennant cupcake toppers. Red and blue frosting too, of course. If you have any flavor suggestions I'd love to hear them! I think I'll do some basic white and chocolate, and probably red velvet because it's my favorite, but maybe something else too. Hmmm.

Also, I got to see Mary this week! I haven't seen her in a couple months, and so we went to lunch at Free State with Kelly and Tara, then wandered around downtown, then visited the newsroom. Later was dinner at India Palace with Mark Dent (in town from Dallas!) and later she and Kelly watched Chuck while I attempted homework. I'm told I MUST watch the show. It's first on my list for post-graduation free time.

Speaking of free time, I've had very little, but I've still tried to bake a bit. Last weekend on Easter, Taylor, Liz, Sonya and I did a cookout. Chicken kabobs were yummy, as was the salad. I made basic chocolate chip M&M cookies, per Taylor's request. I don't often make simple cookies like that anymore, and I'd forgotten how tasty the dough and finished cookies are. And they were Easter M&Ms, so that counts as celebrating, right?

I made Rice Krispie eggs last week, and then found this great recipe on TasteSpotting (I really shouldn't check sites like this and foodgawker very often, because my recipe list piles up and I don't have time right now to make them all! Oh well). Anyway, it was a really yummy twist on Rice Krispie treats: Golden Graham treats. Basically the same thing but with chocolate drizzled on top and chocolate candies, for which I used Easter M&Ms again (they're kind of hard to resist, the M logo is made into a sheep or bunny or duck or chick!). It's basically a version of a s'more and super easy to make.

So then I took a bit of time to work on my project. I've kind of been scrambling to finish the draft completely, so on Wednesday, after skipping both classes, I just got up and wrote. It was the first time I was in my groove, which was really nice. For celebration's purposes, I went out to the Sandbar since I can't really go out on weekends right now and was tired of sitting at home. It was a nice night, with me, Liz, Sonya and Taylor again, but the male-to-female ratio was like 80-20. Kind of interesting. So when I got home from that at 12:30, it seemed like a good idea to make more cookies, this time Smitten Kitchen's peanut butter cookies again but with only Reeses Pieces stirred in. I think this is my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, and the dough is super yummy. I took these to the newsroom, which is still the best way to get rid of food.

So we'll see how much I bake this week. Probably not a whole lot. I got my new Martha Stewart magazine in the mail yesterday (my Valentine's Day gift from Mom!), and it has this recipe in it that I really want to try: rhubarb upside-down cake. I'm a big fan of rhubarb. When you cook it with sugar it's like nature's Sweet Tart. And it's a super pretty color. I did some hunting, and I guess rhubarb isn't in season until May, so I guess I'll have to wait. Boo. Luckily, though, the Farmers' Market opened this morning, so when I get off from work on a Friday in May I'll just go over there and get it right at opening! It's actually quite convenient. There's no way I'd be up otherwise.

Well, it's off to work on that pile of responsibilities I have!