my nieces are delightful, exhibit a

Today, I got to read books and "talk about things" with my 3 (almost 4) year old niece, M.  We read two books: the Cat in the Hat and King and King*. 

At the end of the book M asked me "Why did the two princes get married?" To which I responded that sometimes princesses and princes fall in love and get married, but sometimes princes fall in love with princes, and princesses fall in love with princesses.  Side note: It's really difficult to say the plural of "prince" while also saying the plural of "princess" and have it not all run together. I should have said "boys" and "girls". Oh well, lesson learned.  :)

She seemed satisfied with the answer, and moved on to more pressing issues like: "Why do women have a uterus?"

After a very long talk about things related to the uterus (thankfully her mother fielded most of these questions), she then contemplated if she should have a baby. We told her she didn't need to make any rash decisions. She thought for a moment, and then must have concluded that she needed more information before deciding because she asked that a list of Dr. Seuss books be compiled. Very sensible.

My niece is awesome, by the way**.

* It's an okay book, although not as good as And Tango Makes Three, (M loved this book), which is about two boy penguins falling in love and raising a baby penguin
**I have 4 smart, hilarious, energetic and delightful nieces, they are actually all awesome, not just this one. 

pin 11: barley chocolate chip cookies

The Pin: Barley Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Verdict: Yum, yum, yummy. These definitely have an oaty taste, but I approve.
Nutritional Label

My barley obsession continues. I recently made a pot of stew and threw in some quick cooking barley for good measure, and it may have been the best part of the stew. Well, okay, maybe not, but it was darned good addition. Okay, on to the cookies!

I want to be clear, just because these cookies are made with barley four instead of white flour, they are still cookies. So while they might be healthier than regular cookies, they are still in no way actually healthy. A lot of sugar and butter went into the making of these cookies. But, white flour did not! I made a nutritional label (linked above) for those curious about that sort of thing.

The dough smelled and tasted good  a( little grainy as opposed to smooth), and it was not as creamy looking as regular cookie dough - defiantly denser. In fact, when I put the dough on the cookie sheet I just used my hands, there was little stickiness.  They cooked up great, smelling wonderfully as they were baking, but did spread out a little more than I'm used to with my cookies.

I am often critical of chocolate chip cookies. So, I was wondering if these would meet my standards.  Luckily they did.

While they have a slightly different taste from normal chocolate chip cookies, it's a pleasant taste - almost like oatmeal cookies, but not quite that strong.  I would still make my normal cookies for parties or functions, but if I just have a hankering for some home-made cookies, I would make these again in a heartbeat.

**If you make this with margarine, it will cut the fat by 1/3. I usually use butter, but I know some people aren't picky and may like that information. **