Month: August 2013

Almond Butter Cookies

This wonderful recipe was passed on to me by one of Jimmy’s co-workers when she found out I was baking cookies for my brother’s wedding. She told me that she bakes a batch or two for special occasions and people always rave about them.

almond cookies

These cookies are easy to make, pretty, and freeze really well!

Almond Butter Cookies
Recipe makes 3.5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400*. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and almond extract.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet until a dough forms. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Flatten dough balls to about 1/4-inch thickness with the bottom of a buttered glass. Sprinkle sugar over top of cookies.
5. Bake for 7-9 minutes, or until cookies are set and edges are slightly brown. Cool completely before glazing. Glaze recipe follows.

Almond Butter Cookie Glaze
Ingredients:
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
4-5 tsp. water
3/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions:
1. Combine powdered sugar, almond extract, and water in a large bowl and mix until a smooth glaze forms.
2. Glaze cooled almond cookies and place a sliced almond on top. Enjoy!

cookies

Sharing, working, and working out

Hey!

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I feel like I have a lot of random things to share. I’m going to try to be organized and share everything in a list!

1. My brother and sister-in-law are home from their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. My brother developed some sort of stomach bug, and I feel really bad for him. They shared some photos with me. The resort they stayed at is gorgeous!
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2. I visited my dentist today for a cleaning, and he said my dry socket is slowly closing. Hurrah!
3. It’s Shark Week. Enough said.
4. School is starting up for me in a few weeks, so I’ve been savoring my last bits of extra free time by baking nonstop. Baking makes me so happy.lemon cookies

On working:

I resigned from my position as a Spinning instructor a few weeks ago. It’s not that I didn’t like teaching Spinning–I really did. It’s just that I wanted to work for my family’s business.

My dad is a real estate broker and owns his own real estate company. My mom and brother are both agents and work under my dad. Since I quit teaching Spinning, I’ve been doing real estate marketing work for my family’s business and I love it!

On working out:

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Working out kinda fell to the wayside for a bit this summer while I recovered from my wisdom teeth extraction and subsequent dry socket. Then I was busy helping prepare for my brother’s wedding.

At the beginning of the summer, I planned on training for this fall half marathon, but I can’t really see that happening now, and I’m totally okay with it! Life happens. Unexpected things come up. It’s all good.

I’ve been running a little bit lately, but nothing longer than 5-7 miles. I’m hoping to run more in the coming months, but I’m not sure how busy I’ll be at school with my new position and some tough classes coming up (senior research project, I’m lookin’ at you.)

Whether I get to up my running mileage more in the coming months or not, I’m not too worried about it. If it happens, awesome. If not, oh well! At least I have an awesome stretching buddy.

stretching buddy

Have you ever quit a job you loved for a better opportunity?