chewy chocolate toffee cookies

I just don’t feel like there is enough time in the day.  Mornings quickly are turning to evenings which are succumbing to earlier and earlier bedtimes because I seemingly can not keep my eyes open long after 930pm, that is, unless you offer me popcorn and another episode of Downton…but even then, I sometimes struggle to say ‘yes’ and before the final credit has drifted across the screen and the final notes of the theme song have reached my ears, I am up the stairs, buried under the covers, awaiting sleep…

 I finally just sat down for the evening, it’s going on 9… I spent a fairly normal day at the hospital, where I walked in and the fire alarms were going off and yet, everyone was going about their normal business…which is pretty par for the course in terms of fire alarm conduct.  It always worries newbies and students … coming out of their tiny conference room wondering if they should be darting to an exit somewhere.  I am curious if there is a different/louder/ominous alarm when there is a fire in which we do actually need to evacuate the hospital.  I pray we never have to learn this.

Traffic to and from work was not shabby, however the potholes created by this winter weather may swallow my car if the city of Cleveland doesn’t take action soon…and I spilled coffee on my car seat  – turns out my down parka is a suitable rag and warm winter coat.  Another reason why I only wear dark colors…I am a walking disaster.  I threw together a chicken mexican casserole that did not contain a cream of something soup and put to use leftovers that otherwise would have found themselves in the trash tomorrow morning…which reminds me, tomorrow is trash day.  As the casserole was bubbling over in the oven and the sharp cheddar cheese was browning to a lovely golden hue, I ran.  Three miles.  Nothing crazy, nothing fast.  But something.  Squeezed in.  That is what it has become lately.  Squeezed.  Scrunched.  Smooshed.  The fix to this – morning workouts.  Hahahahaha…I have tried.  I have turned off alarm clocks.  Alarm clocks in different rooms that required me to stumble out of my bedroom, the goal – wake my ass up.  Laughable.  I stumble back to bed and over sleep and just run while dinner is cooking or forgo a proper dinner and insert the go-to egg sandwich or bowl of popcorn.

It is well into the evening, dinner and shower are checked off the list, dishes may be done or I am putting those off until the following day because I can still see the counter and well, that means I still have spoons and a drinking glass or two, however just last week I caught a certain someone drinking out of the creamer cup (the one with the spout)…sadly, he wasn’t using the spout.

It is dark outside and has been since I left work at 4:30-5 and now is the time that I have to tinker around in the kitchen and here, my own small corner of the Internet…but the light is gone.  And I haven’t learned how to properly take pictures in my house with artificial light.  I know there are bells and whistles to make this easier, however I am stubborn and well, I just like my natural light and you wanna know what is so crazy?  I adore winter light, however I experience so little of it nowadays.  She describes it just perfectly.  A dish that in the summer and fall I could whip up and snap pics from start to finish in one evening during the week…takes me well, all week or something I can only accomplish on the weekends.

Winter just takes a whole new schedule that I never ever plan for and never organize until about Valentine’s Day … just when the days begin to become noticeably longer and the light reaches further into the evenings.  Just about the same time, energy begins to seep back into my bones and I begin to feel more like a human and less like a sloth in full hibernation.

Some nights though…some nights I get everything in plus a batch of cookies.  And I am satisfied with iPhone pics of the process…filters make a world of difference and with few other options, it just has to be OK.  In all honesty, it took me 2+ nights to bake them all off…because once it hits 9:30pm, I shouldn’t have the oven on, because I can’t keep my eyes open and I don’t respond to fire alarms.  I don’t like to live life so close to the edge.

I used leftover toffee that, well, didn’t exactly work out.  Don’t ask…Just know, you can’t win them all…but screwed up/leftover toffee or peanut brittle works wonders when stirred into cookies and brownies.  A change in expectations…that is all.  Don’t have screwed up toffee because you are a freaking rock star and you would never seemingly waste 2+ pounds of butter before succumbing to the fact that perhaps your mother’s stove just isn’t suited for candy making…well you will need to crush a few Heath bars.