2022 Seasons Salivations

Happy Everything!

IMG 2041CookieChick and Squirrel Girl have been hard at work creating yummy treats for everyone. Chewy gingerbread, Mexican wedding cakes, and kg*m/sec2 have gone back into the vault, and snowballs and peanut butter kisses are making a repeat appearance. My choice this year, Salted Peanut Miracles are just like a Pay Day Bar, but better! Eris has chosen Elvis cookies - a chewy-soft cookie with peanut butter, bananas, chocolate, and bacon! Gluten-free choices for my favorite niece Amelia includes chocolate meringues and no-bake peanut butter clusters. CookieChick's kitchen was upgraded with a new stand mixer this year and it is the Cadillac of mixers - the Kenwood Chef titanium. It's very powerful and has all the bells and whistles. 

2022 has been a WILD year! CookieChick had a new job (and a commute) to get accustomed to, Eris moved to Albuquerque to start college, and Randal grew a beard! Hey, nobody call Randal a slacker. Growing a beard is a lot of work.

I've been with Loyola for a year now and it has been a whirlwind. I am way busier in the office and the acuity (complexity) of patients is way higher. I have more than one patient who've had lung transplants. I had not known any before that. I am also spending a lot of time teaching students, both in the office and in the classroom. I teach Principals of Clinical Medicine, which is a second-year med school class for physical exam skills and clinical reasoning. It's been exciting and fun. 

Eris has finished her first semester of college with 4 As and a B. She survived a terrible teacher and Covid but has gotten soft living in the pleasant southwest. she's been complaining nonstop of being cold since she got back to Chicago. Kids!

Click Read More for a slide show with Christmas preparations and cookies!

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A Very Covid Christmas

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Greetings loved ones! 2020 has been quite something, hasn’t it? Well, I for one, am glad it’s almost over. We hope everyone has remained safe and healthy this year. Cookiechick and Squirrel Girl have been hard at work creating goodies for your holiday enjoyment.

Mexican wedding cakes and chewy gingerbread have gone back into the vault for 2020. Thumbprints have been elevated to a semi-permanent status, for now anyway. My pick this year, in keeping with my obsession with chocolate mint cookies, is Chocolate Mint Crackles. This is a typical chocolate crackle cookie topped with a mint patty. I think will be my go-to in the future. They are very fudgy, rich, and minty. Eris’ pick this year is a twist on the elf-made Fudge Stripes, made with a peanut butter base. The two gluten-free treats are Peanut Butter Coconut Fat Bombs and Salted Caramel Chocolate Squares. 

IMG 1411In other news, I finally finished my MPH this year, completing my final project remotely with my advisor. One of the classes in my last semester was totally timely – Outbreak Investigations in Epidemiology. I had hoped to use this to transition to a new type of work in public health, but the pandemic has thrown a wrench into this. Our research has also been put on the back burner because no one is approving new IRBs right now. I have been very busy working as a doctor during this pandemic (got my first covid vaccine 12/21!). I hope to start looking for something new soon.

Eris and Randal have been working (and schooling) from home since March. This has been actually pretty good for Eris. Her grades have improved since she is not being poisoned every day in her school building. Her school is planning a hybrid model for the next semester, but Eris has chosen to remain remote for the rest of the year. She has started the college prep process and starting to look for colleges. Randal and Eris have been playing with a 3D printer. The bust of Ceasar in the slide show (click more) was her present to her Latin teacher. Erat victoria!

IMG 1357We had the privilege of rescuing an orphaned squirrel this past summer. Randal found him on the ground near a tree one day when he was out on a bike ride. We took care of "Rocky" for about a week before handing him off to a wildlife rehabilitator. 

I have had this unfinished piece of Mamie's needlework for many years, since just after she died. I had only the piece to work with, no yarn or instructions. I had to find matching yarn and figure out what stitches to use where. Finally finished it a couple of months ago and had it framed. 

IMG 1343On a sadder note, we had to say goodbye to Rizza this year, just before Halloween. She was 17 and with us since she was a kitten and she followed me to my car at the hospital. 

So Merry HanuRamaKwanzamanalia New Solstice everyone. Stay safe and healthy. 

Click to see lots more pictures of the best parts of 2020.

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2019 - Happy Saturnalia

Greetings loved ones! Cookiechick and Squirrel Girl have been hard at work creating goodies for your holiday pleasure. Cookiechick and Squirrel Girl are truly a dynamic duo now working together to leap tall sheet trays in a single bound and dip cookies faster than an oven timer. We even finished early this year and cookies went out on Christmas Eve, so expect them a couple of days earlier than usual.

Click Continue Reading for LOTS more 2019 details and a slide show!

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2018 Seasonings Greetings

Happy Saturnalia everyone! We have had a very good fall, but a crazy bad December and almost didn't get cookies off the ground. A last-minute viral monster ravaged its way through the household felling everyone in its path. We hope everyone is well and happy and have had a good year.

CookieChick has finished another semester at gradual school and survived my SAS course (that's statistical analysis software for those of you blissfully unaware). I am getting excited to get prepared for my field experience in epidemiology next summer. I am planning on doing infection control work at my own hospital.

Squirrel Girl (Eris) finished her first semester of high school and has been on the honor roll! She generally loves high school (except physics) and is even in the sci-fi club.

On to the cookies. Randal said we should stop doing Grandma Gertie cookies for Christmas. They go stale quickly and don't travel well. This opened up a place for something else. So, the core group is down to eight. The returning favorites this year are kg*m/sec2 and snowballs. The new choices are lemon tea snaps, linzer cookies, and Cox's salted peanut bars.

Click for more images of Christmas 2018!

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