Thumbprint Cookies!

Another wonderful recipe from the kitchen of ME!

Thumbprint cookies, Makes 4 dozen


Ingredients

• No-stick cooking spray  
• ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar  
•  1 cup or 1 stick shortening  
• 3 large eggs separated  
•  ¼ cup water  
•  1½ tsp vanilla extract  
•  ¼ tsp salt  
•  2 cups all purpose flour  
•  2 cups finely chopped pecans  
• 1 cup preserves or jam, any flavor  

Heat oven to 350°F. adjust rack to middle position. Spray 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray. Beat brown sugar and shortening until fluffy. Scrape sides of bowl, add egg yolks, water, vanilla, and salt; beat until well combined. Add flour on low speed until well blended.  Beat egg whites in shallow bowl until foamy. Place pecans in separate shallow bowl. Divide dough into 48 equal portions, roll each into a ball, dip each in egg whites, roll in pecans, and place on cookie sheet. Make indent with thumb on each cookie.  Bake cookies for 10 minutes, then take out of oven. You may have to thumbprint again. Fill each cookie with a scant tsp of jam, then bake for another 5-7 minutes. Remove and let cool. ENJOY!!

Letr me know how they are! Better yet, invite me over so we can whip them up! Have a good week everybody!! Stay out of trouble!

P.S. check out the irony

Whats Happening RIGHT NOW?!

Right now I'm listening to "Little Shop of Horrors", but it just ended so now it's Fifteen by T-Swizzle. My homework is done (I hope). I can't really remember if I finished everything, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow, right? Kitten is spazzing like she always does right before I go to bed. :( My room is partially messy and- OH SNAP kitten just climbed my chair! It always freaks me out when she pops up out of nowhere and climbs my desk chair. Anyhow, I just need to put aways some shoes and clothes, tidy-up, and organize so it will look decent. I'm working on a pillowcase for charity at school, and I'm, really happy! Not really about the charity thing, even though that is totally math in its own way. I'm just excited that i got to use a sewing machine for the first time!! Sewing machines are so cool, I even learnd how to drive! lol, not really. It's called "driving", because you have to steer the fabric around to get the line right, and the farther down you push the peddle, the faster the needle. WAIT! Kitten wants to type!!!

Kitten: 
.k,kjuhhh21hm 0000000000000000000333333333333333333333333333aaaaaaaaaa

Kitten kept on deleting her writing, the smart little girl :) Anyway, It's Rachael's bedtime. Guten Nacht!

Book Reviews!

Here are some books that I have recently read and wanted to share how they were with you. Read them like your life depends on it! Leave what YOU think of these books in the comments!

• The Silver Kiss, Annette Curtis Klause  five stars

Zoe is wary when, in the dead of night, the beautiful yet frightening Simon comes to her house. Simon seems to understand the pain of loneliness and death and Zoe's brooding thoughts of her dying mother.
Simon is one of the undead, a vampire, seeking revenge for the gruesome death of his mother three hundred years before. Does Simon dare ask Zoe to help free him from this lifeless chase and its insufferable loneliness? (copied from Barnes&Nobel.com) This is my FAVORITE  book! A love story with an actually plot! What a novel idea!

• The Wish List, Eoin Colfer  four stars

 Meg Finn is in a tough spot. Really tough. For her last act on Earth, she committed a crime - and lost her life as a result. Now Meg's spirit is stuck in limbo, due to a dead-even tally of good and evil deeds. Meg's only chance at salvation is to return to Earth and stack on a few more good deeds - namely, helping the old man whose apartment she was robbing during her last appearance. For better or worse, that man needs a lot of help. In fact, he has a whole list of wishes he wants to fill before he dies. And it's up to Meg to make those wishes come true - before her own time is up.... (Copied from B&N because I'm lazy) A really good book. I have always believed that the Irish write the best books, and this book is proof. (PS, Thanks for lending me this book for my birthday Carrie!!)

• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne  four stars

If you star to read this book you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno. ( Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you will never encounter one. (From the Back cover) This book is very good, although you may think it slow at first. Towards the end this go into hyper drive, and things happen quickly. It's a great read, with a surprising ending.

Happy (early) Birthday to Me!!

My birthday is tomorrow!! I'm really excited! I know that my brother is going to get me a hair dryer, because mine burnt out today. I went with my mom to buy the pair of converse that i wanted for my birthday gift. Of course at the same time my sister also got a pair of Sperrys shoes. Pfft. I decided to post a day early because 1) I am really excited 2) early is better than late and 3) by the time i can post tomorrow, my birthday will be half over :(. So, in honor of the occasion, i am doing a temporary "happy birthday!" themed blog for a couple days, then i am re-doing the layout! Starting fresh! I will post again tomorrow so you can know what i got, how the cake was, and everything else.

Friend of mine: But wait! Why didn't you invite me to your birthday party?!
Me: What do you mean? I didn't have a party.
Friend of mine: ?????

That's right! i didn't have a party, so you could not not be invited. So don't get mad! No madness directed towards me! None! No frown! STOP FROWNING! Good, smile :)



ps. Check out the new Video's Page! Full of the old music video's and just cool vids!

Two Minute Mysteries!

Now for a new segment i like to call, Two Minute Mysteries! I have this battered copy of Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol. He wrote the Encyclopedia Brown books. So, I will write out the mystery, and you can leave your answer in the comments.

The Case of the Open Door

Working calmly and efficiently, Greg Verner hanged Brendon Trom in the attic of Trom's rented house. It was not until Verner tried to shut the front door that he hit a snag. The lock was jammed.

"Better get out of here," He thought, casting anxious glances at the dense woods surrounding the house.

Two hours later he was driving back to the house with Dr. Haledjian.

"Brendon's been morose since his divorce. I should have visited him, but nobody knew where he was hiding out. I got his address this afternoon when he telephoned me to say he was contemplating suicide. I thought you'd better come with me and perhaps have a talk with him.

"He said it was a white stucco house, 621 Delaware Avenue, over the phone," went on Verner. "Here we are."

Haledjian left the car first. Finding the front door ajar, he entered and switched on the lights. Five minutes later the two men found Brendon Trom in the attic.

As they stood silently staring at the body, a door chime sounded downstairs.

With Haledjian right behind him, Verner hastened to the backdoor. There stood a teenage girl. "Mother asked me to return this bottle of Milk to Mr. Trom," She said.

Haledjian took the milk and after she had gone he called the police.

"You'd better arrest Mr. Verner on suspicion of murder," He said when they arrived.

Why?

Leave your answer in the comments :)

Update on my Life: At the Beach!

Again, I am posting when i have to go to bed in the next ten minutes. I meant for this to be a long post on my time at the beach, but my computer was being slow. I swear to god, if it got any slower it would be running backwards. I went to the beach this past labor day weekend, which doesn't seem like a good idea because of Hurricane Earl. But it was actually pretty cool, because I got to see my Aunt and my cousins. Earl was basically a big cloud, not even that much rain. The beaches were closed when we got there because

the lifeguards didn't want to risk anything. It was funny, because the next day on the blackboard behind the lifeguard chair they had a little swirl drawn and a message of  "We miss you Earl!" I was having a moment because i was like "Oh no! someone died in the storm!" I asked my Mom, "Who's Earl?" because I thought she  might know who the guy who died was. She just looked at me with a "Are you serious?" expression. I was then like "OH!!" and proceeded to explain to her what made me think someone died and blah, blah, blah.

Because we couldn't swim on that day, we walked the beach and i took some random pictures. On the right is this neat picture I took of birdie footprints. There were a few seagulls and these mini-gull birds that were walking around. I thought it was just THE COOLEST THING that they made footprints. Usually the sand on the beach is dry, but because the tide was in, the water came all the way up to the fences. As you can see in the first picture, the beach looks less fluffy than usual. It actually kinda scared me, i thought the island was going to flood. I don't particularly care to drowned.

On the left is a broken shell, which I think makes a great picture. This reminds me that i can never find the swirl shells on the beach, only these clam shells. It makes me sad :(  OOHHH! Another thing i want to say! You know how some people have pebbles on their driveways? And some playgrounds have wood chips, or rubber bits? Well on the beach they use broken shells! Broken shells! I haven't really been to many beach communities, so perhaps I'm making a mountain over a mole hole, but i think that this idea is pretty neat! Anyways, on the right is another picture of a shell. I don't know what kind of shell it is, but it's purple. The glare kind of takes aways the color, but i still like it. But the coolest thing about this shell is the most obvious, it's shaped like a heart! It's not a perfect symmetrical heart, but that just adds to the cuteness! Ahhh, love it!! Remember me mentioning the birdies? Well, i took a couple picture of them too. So nice. AHHH!! The time has just raced by! Last thing, i bought a couple thing while at the beach. I bought two pins from the chocolate bar, on says "Hot Stuff" and the other is the Chocolate bar logo. The chocolate bar is a pretty neat play. There is one in NYC, so if your going there on vacation go there. And go to Dylan's candy Bar. Back to what i was talking about! The second thing i got was a pink metal water bottle with a cartoon octopus on it. In the water bottle it says "I *heart* Water". I thought it was cute, plus i wanted a water bottle for school, so my sis and i went halvsies on it. You might be able to see me with it at school! Ok, i really have to go now, so bye!!