♥
Ever seen a girl who has not
seen her boyfriend, family and friends from home in over six months, and gets to go home?
♥ 

Well, that's Yuan right now.    She is so excited, you wouldn't believe it.  She leaves tomorrow morning, and I think she's going to burst.  The anticipation is killing her and everyday, mundane tasks become less and less important.  I ask her every so often, "So, Yuan, have you done your reading for today's class?"  She grins: "No."  I understand.  I was absolutely the same way right before David came home from Iraq.  And I'm so excited for her, too!  Which brings us to the cookies...

You know those Pillsbury Ready to Bake Shape cookies?  Well, she and I are addicted to these things.  They are so yummilicious!!  Unfortunately, though, they aren't sold in China (or, at least she never saw them sold before), and she wants to take some to her man back home. 

So she baked some for desert for us last night, and saved the rest to take home to Haotian (her boyfriend...who I hope is not reading this!).  She also had some more from the package that she had not cooked yet, and she popped those in the oven before I left last night.

She gives me a call a little later and said she burned the cookies.  I didn't believe it until I saw it: DaMN!! She really did burn those cookies!!  She sounded so sad, so I did what any good friend would do: I whipped out my unopened box of cookies and set about fixing the situation.  I'm a big fan of so-soft-they're-gooey cookies, but I cooked the cookies just a tad bit longer.  I think that the directions on the box tell you to bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes at 375°F.

I cook them for 6 1/2 minutes tops.  That's my secret, and boy do my cookies turn out tasty!!

PS: If anybody tries out my method of cooking the Pillsbury cookies, just remember to let them cool for at least five minutes...otherwise they'll all break apart, and not to mention burn you with cookie goo in the process.  Believe me, once they cool, they're no longer gooey...just extraordinarily soft and yummy!!

Ciao!!