Not Me! Monday!

It's Monday again, so you know the drill! It's time to confess all the things we didn't do this week. After you read about my week, head on over to MckMama's blog to read what she and everyone else have not been up to this week!

If you follow me on Twitter, you are, by now, well aware that I have not become completely obsessed with the Twilight series! I did not read all 500 pages of the first book in two afternoons. I am not falling head over heels in love with Edward and I certainly did not, even once, consider leaving my husband to marry Edward. Nope, not me!

I did not take a trip to the bookstore as soon as I finished, intending to buy the other 3 books in the series! Nope! I was definitely not disappointed to discover that Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (books 3 & 4) are not out in paperback yet, and as a result only walked away with New Moon because I'm still cheaper than I am obsessed! Nope, not me!

On a less obsessed lighter note, I did not bake a batch of the BEST cookies Saturday! My best friend made them once and I LOVED them, so I would never attempt to make them myself and risk going into a cookie coma. I have not eaten half of them by myself already! If I had, this would be the awesome recipe:

Lemon-Glazed Candied-Ginger Cookies

Cookie Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light-brown sugar (I only had dark brown sugar and it worked fine.)
1/2 cup finely chopped candied ginger (Warning: Unless you REALLY like ginger, do not attempt to pop a piece of this delightful looking stuff in your mouth. It does not taste as good as it looks!)
1 large egg
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Glaze
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup water

Sift flour, baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt into a bowl. In another bowl, cream butter and brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add ginger and beat for 2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. Add flour mixture and then beat on medium-low speed until dough just comes together. (I noticed that the dough is really sticky so be prepared.)

Shape dough into two 1-inch-thick discs. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 3 days.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out 1 disk on a lightly floured surface (I noticed you have to flour it really good and your rolling pin because as the dough warms up it gets sticky again.) to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out 2 inch circles. Place the rounds 1/2 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate rounds for 10 minutes.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are set and edges are light gold, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to wire racks. Let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Which confectioners' sugar, lemon zest and juice, honey, water and a pinch of salt in a bowl until smooth. (I thought 4 cups of sugar was a ridiculously large amount and divided all of these ingredients by 4, only making a quarter of what it called for and it was just enough.) Drizzle glaze over the cooled cookies. Let stand until glaze is set, at least 20 minutes. (Recipe originally from Martha Stuart)

And this is what they don't look like:

Yuuuum, right?!

And if, like me, you don't want to waste that 50 cent lemon that you barely used, you can use it to clean your microwave. Not that my microwave ever has stuck on, greasy bits in it, but if it did, I could squeeze the leftover juice in a bowl, throw in the lemon itself, fill the bowl with water, and stick it in the microwave for 5-10 minutes until it steamed up the inside. The lemony steam would make any of the stuck on bits easy to just wipe off and the microwave would smell of lemony goodness.

And then, if you still didn't want to waste that lemon, you could put it down your garbage disposal and grind it up, so that your disposal then smells of lemony goodness too!

I mean, if you had made the cookies and had the barely used lemon on hand that is! ;)

Happy Not Me! Monday, everyone!