Double Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter, oatmeal, and peanut butter cups... 3 ingredients leading to positively perfect peanut buttery heaven.  Add in those other cookie ingredients (flour, sugar, etc) and we have a cookie that tempted me to hide the batch and not share with a soul.  Caught in the act, Liv and her brother twisted my arm eagerly grabbing what they claimed to be their "fair share".  Needless to say, this batch didn't make it to morning.

Have you tried these Trader Joe's Mini Peanut Butter Cups??  Let me just say we had to return to the store more than once as they somehow seemed to evaporate before we actually got the cookies made.  Little bites of peanut buttery awesomeness, they added an outrageously incredible bite to the soft, puffy cookies.

I must also note that the cookie dough test (we do test all of our cookie dough, but we suggest you do so at your own risk due to the raw egg content...) was unquestionably amazing.  I may or may not have maneuvered my spoon gathering a few extra mini pb cups during the test, but I can without a doubt proclaim perfection.

Peanut Butter Lover's unite!!  This cookie is for you!

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Lentils

Learning to fly isn't easy, but I think I'd have to say landing is even harder.

Stepping outside yesterday morning, my eye immediately went to something floating in our pool.  Stepping closer, a baby bird floated, wings outspread, feet dangling with his beak barely above water.  No bigger than a mouse, I scooped him into my hands and nestled him in a soft towel.  And then I held him.

Mama??

With the towel hopefully soaking up some of the water and the warmth of my hands pushing away his chill, his eyes closed and we sat.  Shortly his body began to tremble, but amazingly his feathers slowly began to puff up and dry.

After some 20 minutes or so, he opened one eye and peered into my staring face, and slowly the trembling subsided.  Feathers drying, he began to look around and uttered a small "cheep".  Closing his one eye he puffed his feathers again and huddled deeper into the towel.  Apparently content.

Then suddenly, his head popped up and an amazingly loud "Cheep!!  Cheep!!  Cheep!" came from his tiny body as a larger version of himself fluttered close by in a tree answering with "cheeps" of her own.  Setting the little baby under the tree his Mama darted close by and I left them alone.  An hour later he was gone, hopefully flying a better course than his first one.

My first (and last!) flight attempt... circa 1992

As for his landing, I totally get it.  You see, some 20 years ago my fighter pilot husband attempted to teach me to fly.  Amazingly caring and patient, he guided me through the basics I had learnt in flight school and we embarked on an adventure north to my parent's house.

Taking off wasn't too difficult, though his guiding hands probably had something to do with that.  And turning right wasn't too difficult either, however left-hand banks somehow caused the wing to dip and a loss in altitude.  Luckily, my husband handled anything on the left.

Then came time to land.  Making right-handed turns into our approach I actually had us decently set up for final.  Following a glide slope that seemed fine to me, we made our way towards Grass Valley with a runway set up on a bluff.   Patting myself on the back I settled in and prepared for the rest of our descent as my husband calmly asked, "Does it bother you that you can no longer see the runway?".

"Nope!" I responded, "Should it?", to which he calmly stated, "My airplane."  And he skillfully took us back up to where we had the runway in sight, something I've learned is fairly important when not preferring to land into the side of a bluff.  ;)

So my little birdie friend and I have something in common.  Flying, and landing, are not some of the easy things in life.

This Grilled Mahi Mahi dish though, is fabulously easy and anyone, experienced or not, will be able to maneuver their way to a fantastic meal with a few simple steps.

Enter Trader Joe's, my all time favorite store.  Always friendly and fun, TJ's also provides quality ingredients that many times work together like magic.

Mixing together Trader Joe's Steamed Lentils, Fresh Bruschetta Sauce and a handful of Mediterranean Feta, these simple ingredients blend into something other worldly, something beyond fantastic and totally gush-worthy.  Adding a piece of grilled mahi to mix serves to make the dish a complete meal and will have your guests asking for your secret recipe.  You can just tell them, it's all in the landing...