The Raisin Defense League

Alright.

That’s IT.

I like raisins. I do. I think they’re delicious.

SO THERE.

from the pedia of wiki

Know what’s even better? When raisins are in stuff: trail mix, cakes, oatmeal, granola, cinnamon rolls, strudel, and cookies. I just blew your mind, boom. You’re welcome.

However these days it seems that raisins have fallen out of favor. People hate raisins! No really, they despise raisins. Guys, they’re just grapes. You love grapes. Everyone loves grapes. People who don’t like grapes probably hate Christmas, mothers, snowflakes, and baby dolphins.

But back to hating raisins. Raisin hatred is endemic, no, it’s pandemic. “Eww, it has raisins,” people say. What, you don’t like little drops of sunshine in your food? They even pass on cookies because they have raisins. Not eating a cookie because it has raisins? That’s bananas. I’ve even seen raisin hatin’ plaques on people’s walls. There is ANTI-RAISIN DECOR.

Even my children have turned on me. “I hate raisins,” they say.
 “No, you don’t,” I answer.
“I don’t want that cookie, it has raisins!”
“But you just asked for ants on a log and that’s just celery with peanut butter and raisins.”
“Well, I just don’t like raisins in cookies,” My stupid four-year-old says. What does he know, anyway. 

(NOTHING. He knows nothing.)

I like to soak raisins before adding them to baked goods so they’re plump and juicy. I even like when one of those raisins gets to the bottom of the cinnamon roll and it’s a little hard and burnt on one side. My mother-in-law uses chocolate covered raisins in oatmeal cookies (tell me that’s not a stroke of genius.) If anyone asks, the Kirkland brand chocolate-covered raisins are the best. I think raisins in my curry are delicious (like this seena with raisin curry.) In Morrocan foods raisins are divine; sweet bursts in warm spiced savory tagines.

I don’t know how you can hate raisins, unless you also hate world peace. And golden raisins? You stop right there. I listened at "golden," but you had me at “raisin.”

Raisins do not deserve your hatred. They deserve your adequate respect and healthy snacking.

So let’s hear it for Raisins! Be part of the Raisin Defense League! Don’t let them get bullied into some sort of dried fruit purgatory. Stand up for raisins, because raisins are good and right and awesome.

Heck yeah, RAISINS!

About the New Girl Scouts Cookie: Savannah Smiles

The movie was better than the cookie.*

 ≠

Thank you.






*Disclaimer: I haven't actually eaten the Savannah Smiles Girl Scout Cookies, nor purchased any Girl Scout Cookies of any type in the past 18 months (broke,) and while I usually prefer Samoas and Thin Mints (who doesn't, Trefoils,) I can't tell you definitively that Savannah Smiles are delicious or not delicious, but that the name does offend me as someone who saw Savannah Smiles approximately one million times in the early 80s and considers that movie a wonderful example of the "bumbling kidnapper" genre, which genre name I just invented, and as a movie that still functions as a time capsule view of the area surrounding my hometown, I simply find it annoying that no one, especially not respected journalists, has even mentioned Savannah Smiles as being a movie FIRST and not a cookie.

Amen and pass the Oreos.

Freezing Time

In the chilly morning I’d pulled baby into bed to nurse with me while Proximo snugged in on the other side of Lulu. The three of us under a pile of warm covers and bright eastern light.

Lulu stops nursing, turning around to laugh at Proximo’s little tickling fingers, his now lanky arm crossing her chubby tummy and wiggling into her sides. One laughing meant the other would laugh, which meant that I would laugh, all of us in a triad of soft happiness.

“Let’s go camping!” Proximo exclaims, pulling the white sheet over our heads until the cotton brushes our cheeks and fingers.
 “Is this our tent?”
“Yes!” Lulu reaches out with her dimpled hands and touches the sheet, rolling between us, little toes tucked into a sleeper. She grabs at Proximo’s glasses. He giggles and says, “No, baby.”
She turns her attention to my glasses, smears them with tiny prints.
“I want to lay on your belly,” he says.
"Why?"
“Because it is soft. Move over so I can have the warm spot.” (This warm spot is his obsession, the place our bodies have heated, if we get up from the couch, or a chair, Proximo rolls into a ball and claims our seats.)

I oblige, moving to the colder half, a baby on one side and a child on the other, laughing over me, under a sheet, in a cozy house, the cold January winking at us from outside the window.

Keeping New Year's Resolutions

I came up with 5 ways to keep your New Year's Resolutions. This would only be helpful if you have a resolution to keep. NOT SO FAST, I came up with a list of resolutions to choose from as well. Look, I'm trying to be a better person, so you should be, too. Peer pressure. I think that's how it works. Maybe. I'm not really sure. You're probably already a better person than I am.

OK, fine, go have a cookie.

The Dreaded 2011 Recap

I posted a recap of my 2011 over at Todaysmama.com, because I thought you might like to read it. If you don't want to read it, I'm sure you can find something else on the Internet to read (if you look very carefully.)

Although I one of the promises I made to myself when I started blogging was that I would only post when I felt like it, and I'd never apologize for not posting, I'm going to do both right now. I've been happily buried with a writing project lately and haven't had much time for posting, and I am sorry. There are lots of things to share with you soon, but for now I hope you'll be satisfied with a thank you note of sorts:

Thank you for reading The Jet Set over the years. I spout a lot of nonsense and you routinely read it and, for some reason, keep reading.  I love your eyeballs, they're downright fancy. Now let's hug. I promised myself I wouldn't cry. *waves hands in front of eyes*

Caramel Biscoff Blossom Cookies

Last week I was invited to Jeri's Cookie Exchange, which is always one of my favorite events of the holiday season. I had an idea for a cookie to bring this year: something made with Biscoff Spread, since it was on sale at the store and I need to both have it in my house, and not eat all of it by myself.

But what? Then one night I got my answer through a plate of peanut butter blossoms left on our porch. One of J's favorite cookies, a neighbor made them for him as a thank you gift. E.G. found them on the porch and ran them upstairs to J in his office. Excited, he dove right into the cookies; they were delicious with a little extra crunch! Munch, munch.

A few minute later he went to the bathroom to help the boys brush their teeth for bed. That's when J noticed an ant crawling on his shirt. And another ant on his sleeve. He rushed back to his desk and found the pile of cookies crawling with ants. The rest of the evening he was flossing little bits of black exoskeleton out of his teeth.

Always inspect the porch cookies, gang, always.



Anyway, peanut butter blossoms have been on my mind, and I set out to make them with Biscoff Spread. In a stroke of genius, I decided that caramel-filled Kisses would be the perfect compliment. And in a stroke of horror, I had to make 120 of them for the cookie exchange (Jeri doesn't mess around.) When the votes were tallied I was named "Queen of the Cookies"! Hooray! My first year winning! I was genuinely thrilled and delighted. Couldn't stop grinning. It's your turn to enjoy these caramel-y cookies.

Caramel Biscoff Blossoms

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup salted butter
1 cup Biscoff Spread
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
3.5 cups of Flour
1/4 c evaporated milk
2 packages caramel filled Hershey Kisses

Cream the butter and sugars until light in color. Add the Biscoff Spread, then eggs one at a time, then vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients together and then add to batter, pausing half way through to add the milk.

Make your helper people unwrap the kisses. Best to keep them in a bowl in the fridge until you're ready to use them.

Scoop the dough with an ice cream scoop onto cookie sheets (I used a scoop that holds two teaspoons.) Bake at 375 for 8 minutes, remove and place a Kiss into the center of each cookie, put back into the oven for another minute or two.

Now you can win Queen of the Cookie, too!

Nom.

Deseret Book Giveaway

I'm giving away $100 in wishlist items from Deseret Book!

Go enter, and do it in a hurry, because I want you to have your things before Christmas.