I wish I knew how to quit you....

You would not believe the shit that comes up in a google image search with the search term medicated cookie.

First of all you get a whole bunch of natural and marijuana stuff.

You also get a lot of lip balms.

Then eventually you get vaginal and psoriasis creams.

The images then go into a series of several types of toiletries, a wounded duck, a random picture of Bill Nighy, an anti-semetic cookie (gross), and various shots of assorted dumbasses, 2 spider pictures which I'm really  not happy about, and pictures of children with or without cookies.

Why am I writing this?

Well, as I mentioned in the mini blurb about myself, I have mental health issues.  Yep, I'm gonna all out and say it.  I'm apparently Bipolar II with mild Borderline Personality Disorder.

And guess what?  We're  re-organizing my meds again.

I thought it would be funny to get a cookie picture of some sort of silly medicated crazy cookie.

The best I could do was this...

Not only does it tickle me but we're going to attempt to taper me off of a  med that I've been on for 12 years and the withdrawals are a bitch.

I ain't gonna lie.  I'm nervous.  I've tried to come off it before and failed.

I have a much better team on my side this time.

So this is my note to myself to read when I get the panic attacks and other lovely withdrawal symptoms.

EVERYTHING IS FINE. 
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG.
BREATHE.
THIS IS TEMPORARY.

Are we ready for a rollercoaster ride folks?

I'm sitting in the first seat and ready to go.

"I want love to walk right up and bite me, grab a hold of me and fight me..."

I freaking love this song.

This is the grossest baking picture I've ever taken...

I know it looks bad but I was soaking raisins in a mixture of white rum and water to plump them up.

I picked up a trick of the good 'ole internet somewhere awhile ago.  Put the desired amount of raisins in a microwave safe bowl.  Just cover with water (or water and alcohol of your choice) and zap 'em for about 4 minutes.  Let them stand covered for at least 5 minutes after that then drain and use.

My raisins, unfortunately are old and cheap and did not plump up spectacularly well.  They went from dry and woozled to wet and gross looking.

They did, however taste better in the oatmeal raisin cookies I made tonight with the magic cookie dough that people have a hard time replicating.

So here it is...my oatmeal raisin cookie recipe that is based on a really old Chipits chocolate chip recipe.

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Plump up between a cup and a cup and a half of raisins.

In a smallish mixing bowl combine:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 level teaspoon of baking soda  (actually I'm so paranoid about  baking soda flavour that I barely make it a full level teaspoon)
3-4 tablespoons of cinnamon powder (honestly, I don't measure, I just dump a whole bunch in until it changes the colour of the dry ingredient mixture)

In a medium to large mixing bowl:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1-2 tablespoons of vanilla extract (use less if you've got the good stuff or more if you've got the cheap stuff)

-cream the softened butter and sugar with electric beaters
-add boiling water and mix
-add vanilla and mix
 -Mix the dry ingredients into the wet
-drain the liquid from your plumped raisins and add raisins mixing thoroughly with a spoon.

-Your cookie mix will be a bit too liquidy so let it rest and firm up a bit
-firm dough looks like this:

-with firm dough you should be able to almost  "cut it" with your spoon
-Once it stiffens up a bit drop teaspoonfulls of the cookie dough onto greased/sprayed cookie sheets

See my dough dollops?  Aren't they nice?

FYI, these are a bit too close together and will spread out and stick together but tonight I didn't seem to care so much.

Here's the firsr pan spreading out and baking away :-)

-bake for about 15 minutes.
-I still recommend baking only one pan at a time for consistent results.

You know what I forgot to take a picture of?

THE FINISHED COOKIES.

Imagine them all golden brown and yummy....and in a ziploc on my counter....

It was one of those days where I just had to bake.

So I did.

Why am I cursed with fat feet and no money?

When there are shoes like this out there....

Black polka dot pin-up girl pumps with RED FREAKIN' BOWS

I really dig that retro pin-up girl thing.

*wistful sigh*

Can I possibly be this cool?

I have an issue.

It's getting warm.  In fact tomorrow it's supposed to be 25 degrees celsius.

Now normally I don't stray from wearing black shirts every day.  Seriously, every day.  I don't feel comfortable in anything else.

But in summer....well I ease up a bit.  For some reason, I have several summer shirts that are purple.

So where's the issue you may wonder?

Well, since January I've got bright scarlet red hair.

Can someone with scarlet hair wear purple?

Then I saw this...

Is it possible?

Could I pull it off?

Could I really be that cool?

You be the judge.

Dang.  That's one way to stand out in a crowd.