Cat Naps

As a mom of a ten month old, I find myself sneaking in a little nap whenever I can. There's so much more to do in a day, but unfortunately, the same amount of hours in which to get it done. Up until the end of spring, I was getting a wonderful, and standard, eight hours of sleep per night. Then the days started getting longer...and longer. So, I stayed up longer and longer, until I now only get six hours of sleep at night. It's not that Azra is keeping me awake at night - no, she's out like a log until 6AM rolls around. It's just that my garden needs tended to, and the book I'm reading is really good, and the bottles washed, and - did I remember to put the clothes in the dryer??

I've never been one for naps, but it's amazing how a 5-minute nap can re-invigorate you for the whole day when you're short on sleep. So, I've found myself squeezing one in at any opportune time: while nursing Azra, commercial breaks, car rides to the store while Chris is driving, and apparently, working. Since I forgot to bring my book to work today for reading material while pumping in the lactation room, I was especially bored...and sleepy. I thought to myself, I might as well multi-task and just rest my eyes for a second...

I feel so refreshed!

Note to self: Avoid leaning your head against the palm of your hand for extended periods of time. It makes hiding the fact that you just took a nap at work a little more difficult.

Lemon Crisps - FAIL

A few weeks back, Chris had a food day at work. Of course, he didn't remember this until 9:00 PM the night before. I just can't bear the thought of taking in baked goods from the grocery store, so I was determined to whip something up with ingredients that I have on hand. It was slim pickins from my baking pantry, but I did happen to have some lemon cake mix and Rice Krispies that I got for close to free with coupons (yippee!). I've read some delicious-sounding recipes using cake mixes, so I decided to go on the hunt for a recipe which used a lemon-flavored one. I came across a recipe which only used four ingredients:

1. Lemon Cake Mix....check!

2. Rice Krispies....check!

3. Eggs....check!

4. Butter....check!

Lemon Crisps

From: AllRecipes.com

1 package lemon cake mix with pudding

1 cup crisp rice cereal

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter; stir in all ingredients and mix well. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place them about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Press flat with thumb. Bake for 9 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool on cookie sheets one minute, then remove to wire racks to cool.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, let's play "Guess What Kylee Did Wrong." Perhaps you've already caught my mistake from the picture above. I wish I would have! The batter seemed pretty greasy, especially seeing a pool of oil around the cookies after I placed them on the sheet.

Even though they didn't look right, I proceeded to bake them "until the edges were golden." It only took a few minutes until I smelled burning. Out came these beauties:

Sadly, the whole batch got tossed in the trash can. I tried to sample just the center of the cookies, but they weren't cooked at all. In case you didn't notice from above, 1/2 cup butter is ONE stick! Grrrr! Although the recipe sounds weird even if it were to come out right, I might give these another try only because it got such great reviews. Let me know if you test these out and get better results!