Coconut Joy Cookies

Oh. My. Goodness! The only thing better than eating these cookies with a glass of milk would be eating them with a scoop of "Coconut Joy" ice cream from the BYU Creamery. I wish I lived within 100 miles because I would definitely make the trip to buy some.

Here is the recipe for these DELICIOUS coconut, chocolate, almond cookies:

Coconut Joy Cookies

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. butter (softened)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. coconut extract or flavoring (buy it from Amazon or another online source, it will be much 

      less  per ounce and you will want to have a lot more of it on hand to make these cookies often)

2 eggs

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 pkg chocolate pudding mix (large box) or 1 ¼ cups dry pack cannery pudding

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz.)

1 pkg. (10-12 oz) coconut

1 cup almonds, chopped or sliced (measure, then chop)

Preheat oven to 325°F.  Beat together brown sugar, butter, vanilla, coconut extract and eggs in a large mixing bowl with electric mixer until creamy.

Stir in flour, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt.

Stir in chocolate chips, coconut, and almonds.

Drop dough by large spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 13-16 minutes until cookies are a tiny bit gooey. Remember they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet once removed from the oven.

Cool 1-2 minutes and remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

"Keep Calm" Stackers

 The poster and phrase from the British "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" morale campaign of World War II has become popular in recent years. Many facsimiles and parodies have been created. See Keep Calm and Carry On Wikipedia.

I decided to use the phrase, logo and a bit of a knock-off to create some convertible stackers. I gave these to a couple of my friends. The block with the logo has the crown on one side and the Salt Lake Temple on the other. The "CARRY ON" block also says "KNEEL DOWN" on the other side. I painted these brown to match my friends' decor, but I am making another set for myself and painting those red, like the poster.

These were created using my Cricut and the "Make the Cut" software. I found the "Keep Calm" font free online (just do a search). If you want the .svg files of the crown and temple, email me (rbitrbit@gmail.com) and I will send them to you.

....Almost There! The Kitchen, That Is

This looks like the same view when I painted the cabinets back in November, but this is a view of my old counters and the kitchen prepped for new counters.

First comes tear out and haul away (free!!!). Tim and Kenny were AWESOME!! Yay FloForm Counters!

I have always lamented that the counter should extend almost to the window. Well, now is the chance. This is the "build-up" necessary to support the counter extension.

The wood framing is the support structure for the Corian. The product expands and contracts and this kind of support allows it to do that. We just can't stand on the counters (I do that from time-to-time...shhh!) ...anymore.

The first counter went in easily. There were no seams.

The right side needed to be seamed. You can see the seam in this picture, but you sure can't see it now.

Kenny buffing out the seam and scratches from transport.

All installed. Now it is time for Bruce to re-install and re-plumb the sink and for me to haul everything back into the kitchen.

They set the sink in but elevated it on blocks so we didn't need three people to lift it back up (it weighs over 150 pounds). The padding under the blocks is necessary because this Corian color (Medea) shows scratches (boo!).

When you marry an engineer you get someone who just knows how to figure things out. Bruce decided that it was going to be very hard to mount that sink by himself without scratching the Corian and incurring my wrath. He rigged up this jack on blocks and it worked PERFECTLY! Bruce caulked the counter, I lowered the jack as he adjusted the sink with not one mark on the counter.

Last minute measurements

A little "nudge" here and it is installed. The plumbing wasn't as easy.

It looks so good!

Here is my extra counter space.

It is sooooo long!!

The finished view. Now, just imagine the whole kitchen with a white subway tile back splash that goes from the counter to the cabinets and medium dark engineered hardwood floors.

More Bathroom Progress

Yesterday there was a knock on the door, when we opened it there was a bathtub...two days early!

Can't wait to have a bath!

The custom drain assembly arrived today. Now we have everything we need to get the tub installed!

The granite arrived tonight (long story). We already had the sink and the faucet.

Bruce set the sink and faucet in the little holes just to see what it looks like all together.

...and so I could take some pictures. In this picture I see that when I matched the vanity paint at Home Depot, I really DIDN'T match the paint. I will need to paint the doors after all.

Making Progress with the Bathroom Redo

The vanity area

Do you like the new recessed lighting? I do!

Tub/Shower with new valve and taller shower pipe. Now the water will hit people on the top of the head, instead of between the shoulder blades.

Detail of the new valve and criss-crossed pipes with all the fittings to correct the "hot is cold" and "cold is hot" problem that we have dealt with for 26 years.

The light switch for the tub/toilet area

The toilet area (see the flange under the aluminum bench?)

Hall Bathroom Destruction

The bathroom demolition began last week when Bruce removed the tiles from around the vanity in preparation for the new counter top which is to be installed on Friday, August 31st. He talked to Lorin about doing the bathroom remodeling job. Sunday night Lorin came over and looked at it and by 7:30 Monday morning Robbie was tearing down the sheet rock with the tile. Tuesday the floor came out and Tuesday night Lorin came over and cut up the tub (into little pieces). Did you know that burning fiberglass has a floral smell? Talk about a whirlwind of destruction!

Here are pictures of the demolition so far. Note some pictures have spots. The spots are where the flash reflected off of dust. Ugh!

Aw! She's broken, and in a trailer headed to the dump.

Trailer Trash!

These pictures are out of order. This is as much demo as I thought we were doing for now.

The hot on the cold side and the cold on the hot side will be remedied.

See the dust in the air?

More dust here, too.

The wooden box over the vanity is going to go too and I will pick a chic new light fixture...any suggestions?