Recipes: Great Chocolate Chip Cookies

This one is one of my favorites.  This is one of the few recipes I have found that turn out both slightly crunchy and chewy and moist (this is because of the mixture of white and brown sugars).  Be careful though, there is a lot of butter and are thus, very fattening but totally addictive.

Ingredients 

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips. At this point, I suggest you taste test some. (In my opinion, you should always taste test your food. It will help you know if you are doing it right, and help you identify if you've forgotten an ingredient... which I have done before)
3. Drop by tablespoon sized spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Makes about 40- 50 cookies (depending on how much batter you eat ;-P)

Wife & Life: Choosing Not to Have Children.... Even When You Desperately Want Them

So, after two years of marriage, baby fever has set in in full swing.  With so many married couples having children, being pregnant or are trying to have kids, it's hard to not want to join them.  Especially with certain parents putting the pressure on!
To be honest, my marriage is amazing! And if it weren't, we probably wouldn't feel so ready to have children.  But the worst part is, we aren't having children because of me. As much as I want them and feel ready, I am just not at a point in my life where children are an option.  choosing to be in the Army has made that difficult.

Now, I am not saying women in the military shouldn't have children, because the Army does some amazing things to help take care of their children.  But as an officer, I know that my days can be incredibly long regardless of my intent to get out on time.  And the longer I stay in, the longer days I will work.  When you work 11-14 hour days, babies don't fit in well.  Ignore the whole not being able to sleep part (though that is a deterrent as well), by the time I get home, my baby would already be asleep.  I would rarely get time with my child and even when I did, I would be too exhausted to truly enjoy it.

And though I could get past all of this, because most days aren't that bad.  But joining the Army is a commitment.  So long as I am in the Army, I need to expect deployments.  To join the Army and hope to never deploy nor fight for your country is saddening.  Even if we weren't at war in Afghanistan (as soon we won't be), you never know when America's Army will be called upon again and as long as I am in the Army, I want to be ready and prepared for that moment.  And I couldn't be a woman who leaves my children and husband at home to go and fight a war.  My heart wouldn't be in it, and I owe it to my Soldiers to want to be there with them.

So, I plan to serve my four years and get out.  I figure as I am close to my contract being up, we will quit preventing children and shortly after start actually trying.  Then I will get out when I have our first child.  At that point, I will be a stay at home mom, work on my MBA and start my own business from home, but that will come in a later blog.

As for now, I will live vicariously through friends and family (and I really look forward to being an Aunt!)