Things I do instead of working on homework

Yes, I should be finishing my quantum mechanics homework. Instead, I will post cookie pictures, plus a bonus cute item!

This past Saturday I had some extra free time, so I took advantage of that time to make bulls-eye and spiral cookies (18). The dough is just a basic sugar cookie dough, with cocoa mixed into half of it to make it brown. I ended up with something that seems a lot like the dough you can buy to have Christmas tree shapes or something.. basically a log of dough that I cut and baked. It was good times.

Even better times were had last night when my friend and I got together to make hors d'oeuvres for our much-needed Physics Girls' Night In. This is a project I found here and have been wanting to try for a while. If you decide you want to make these too, let me warn you it's messy to stuff the olives with cream cheese, and it's also a little challenging at first to get the carrots set for the beaks. However, the carrot, cream cheese, and olives go together well (that is, assuming you like olives) and the presentation is nothing short of adorable.

I'm thinking this Saturday I'm going to have to opt for something pretty simple - I have a lot of work in the week coming up, plus a group of us are getting together for a Pre-Thanksgiving potluck. It should be mad good times.

All this after a course in ethics in science

This past week was awfully busy, culminating with a musical and two parties last night.

I went with a couple friends to watch Jekyll & Hyde, which was being put on by the UIUC students. The singing and acting were very good, but the lighting and sound was a complete disaster. I've done lights for a show before, and I realize it can be challenging, but there are some mistakes - such as bringing up the house lights in the middle of a song - that really shouldn't happen at all. But yes. The costumes were gorgeous too.

Unfortunately, the show itself was all over the place. The songs were nice, but (I never believed I would ever say this) there were too many of them. The plot happened too slow and then too fast, and just didn't give the kind of character development that I've grown to expect out of a musical. There were nice moments, touching moments, and several disturbing moments, but no coherence.


Unlike the musical, the cookies I made today go together very nicely. Today's project was pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing (17). And yes, they do taste as good as they look. The recipe calls for many of the same ingredients as a pumpkin pie: pumpkin (obviously), nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, evaporated milk... These have less butter in them than most cookies I've made (3/4 C for 7 dozen!), so I like to imagine they might be healthy.

Well, at least I like to imagine that without the icing they're healthy. The icing is pretty basic - browned butter, evaporated milk, LOTS of confectioners' sugar, and vanilla. I've never made anything with browned butter before, so I was worried that I would do something horrifically wrong, but nothing went wrong and the frosting is some of best I've tasted.

For a first cookie of November, I'm satisfied both in terms of taste and seasonal appropriateness. Once we get into December I'll probably do a lot of ginger-heavy cookies, but that's still a few weeks away.