YUM!

I am always making some kind of dish that I'm either craving or something different for dinner because I'm tired of the same old stuff, or we get invited somewhere...etc. Whenever this happens I like to share with other the things I've tried or how I spent my time cooking... did it turn out well..etc. So... in the style of an artistic friend, I decided to use my camera for something other than following my daughter around to document her every breath.

We were invited to a friend's house for dinner on Sunday and he is use to my "home made" meals... so he requested some kind of pasta dish "Jennifer Style". So, I decided to make this delicious cold Italian pasta dish that I found and made for a work party we had for the Olympics. It was a real hit at the office, so I figured he would like it as well.

The next treat that I was craving was SUN TEA!!! My step mom's sister was making it the other day when I had gone to pick up Audrey. She also gave me a wonderful tip when making sun tea... mix a cup of water with a cup of suger and stick it in the microwave to make simple syrup and poor it into the tea... PERFECT! There wasn't as much sun as I really needed probably, so it's not as strong as I would like, but it's close enough until my next attempt. (It was blue skys when I first put the bottle outside.)

Finally, I had found this great recipe for oatmeal cookies a few weeks ago. I had been looking for one since I am still nursing my daughter and "they" say that real oatmeal helps with a mother's "supply"... and I'll do just about anything for Audrey... make homemade oatmeal cookies... ugh, if I must, haha! I didn't flatten the dough balls with a sugared fork, and I used dried cranberries instead of raisins, and they turn out so very good. They have a great amount of vanilla and cinnamon, and they are soft and chewy. This second batch didn't turn out as well as my first... shockingly I think it's because the first time I didn't follow the directions and I only left the batter in the fridge for "maybe" an hour when it said AT LEAST an hour. Since we were leaving to go to our friend's for dinner, I decided to make the cookies after we got home... I have the other half of the dough left and will be leaving the batter on the counter for at least an hour before I make cookies out of the rest of it,... we will see if that helps.