Mother’s Day & Fudge Brownies & Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Mother’s Day.

I suppose this year, Mother’s Day was harder on some people than usual. For some people this was the first Mother’s Day they didn’t physically spend with their Moms. I feel for those people. This was my 6th Mother’s Day without my Mom. I know how it feels to have that emptiness in your heart on a day honouring that special woman that brought you into this crazy world. COVID-19 has upended all of our lives but holidays are when people are going to feel it the most. My heart breaks for all those people that didn’t get to spend Mother’s Day with their loved ones knowing that a small percentage of those people might not be here next year. I remember my last Mother’s Day with my Mom so vividly. It feels like a knife piercing my heart when I think about how low key I played it. They are going to be so many people that will remember this is the last year they were able to honour their Mother but were unable to physically be with them. That is going to be a hard pill to swallow next year.

I woke up on Sunday with a pit in my stomach. This is going to be TMI although I don’t know why, side rant… Women should be allowed to talk about their periods without people getting squirmy! It is natural and it happens to everyone. OK, sorry 😂 back to what I was saying, I am about to get my period this week. It will be the second time since we went into self isolation. The first time was horrible! I was completely out of sorts, emotional, and bitchy as hell. Throw Mother’s Day into this one and I feared the worst. When I woke up I was in my beautiful bedroom. It was quiet in the house. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and remembered SBean crawling in very very very early that morning and giving me a kiss and a cuddle and telling me that she loved me. It made me cry. Like big fat crybaby tears. Her cuddle and words made me so incredibly happy but… I miss my Mom. I found a picture of a super happy weekend when my Mom and I surprised my Sister with a Bachelorette trip to Seattle. It was such a great weekend! In fact, you can read all about it HERE. After a good cry, I put on my big girl panties and got up. Ninja had coffee made and instructions to head downstairs.

HBear prepared the most beautiful slideshow for me. It was hooked up to the big TV and we all sat there and laughed as giant pictures of me flashed across the screen. She mentioned all of my favourite things from television LOL to family. At the end she had a beautiful slide with words of love. It was absolutely incredible. I could feel the hot tears wanting to spill down my face, this time with happiness but I held them back because I knew it would make her sad and that she wouldn’t understand that my intense love for her was so overwhelming that all I could do was cry.

 

We headed back upstairs where HBear had prepared a brunch tea party! She cut vegetables, made a cheese fondue, had little triangle sandwiches, fruit, cinnamon buns, and a pot of hot chocolate fondue to dip our fruit into! It was amazeballs ❤️. She is so creative and thoughtful and honestly I am just so incredibly lucky.

 

 

After brunch and presents we went family golfing! Golfing is one of my favourite pastimes but we haven’t done much of it because it is a super expensive for Ninja and I to both go plus it takes up almost a full day and we don’t like giving up a full day with our kids when we haven’t seen them all week. This was super special because this was the first time that all 4 of us had our own clubs and that SBean was really old enough to truly enjoy a round. Her and I played best ball and she didn’t complain once plus she took a hit every single time! They did great! It was like a dream come true. I am so happy that my family enjoys golfing as much as I do ❤️

 

 

We did a social distancing visit with Grandma after golfing to wish her a happy Mother’s Day and to give her some much-needed new puzzles!

For dinner, Ninja ordered us the most amazing dinner from The Hooded Merganser! We had delicious stuffed chicken breast with steamed vegetables, scallop potatoes, roast beef, Caesar salad and a bottle of The Judge from Hester Creek! To end the day HBear joined me for my Beachbody barre class and then “let me” kick her ass a crib 😂. 

 

With Ninja away at work, science and math have been left up to me. Those are not my strong subjects so I have been using workbooks and what I know, cooking and baking! SBean and I spent an hour making delicious goodies for the family! We made super easy and super decadent Fudge Brownies and my absolute favourite cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. These cookies were soft, chewy, spicy and delicious. I had trouble only eating 1… or 2 😉. SBean read the recipes and did the majority of the work, the recipes are simple and they are quick. We started by making the cookie dough and while the dough was chilling, we made the brownies. I hope that you enjoy these, if you do, let me know! Share the recipes with your friends and like my post. Thanks!

Fudge Brownies
Adapted from Amanda’s Cooking

3/4 cup margarine, melted
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
7/8 cup all purpose flour (1 cup minus 2 tablespoons)

Preheat oven to 350 and line a 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper. Allow parchment to hang over the side to use as handles later.

Pour melted margarine over chocolate chips in a bowl and allow to sit for a minute to soften chocolate. Stir with wooden spoon.

Add eggs, cocoa, sugar and vanilla and stir.

Stir in the flour just until no more traces of flour remain.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Allow brownies to cool in pan for at least five minutes. Use the parchment handles to lift the brownies out and onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Adapted from Just So Tasty

1 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups oatmeal
2/3 cup raisins

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until fluffy (about 2 minutes).

Beat in the honey, vanilla and egg.

Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture on low.

Mix in the oats, followed by the raisins. The dough will be sticky.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, form the dough into balls of about 1.5 tablespoons and place 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheets.

Bake 1 tray at a time, on the middle rack of the oven for 9-11 minutes or until the tops look just set.

Remove from the oven and cool fully on the cookie tray.

  

This week the Girls KILLED at home learning! Ninja went back to work 😞, I started week 2 of Beachbody Barre Blend, we celebrated Nana & Papa’s anniversary, Grandpa’s 75th birthday, and Cinco De Mayo. We danced, the Girls had crazy hair day, we baked, the Girls had team meetings with their teachers and SBean had her weekly messenger date with SweetPea. On Friday we went out!!!!! Our dance studio organized a safe way to allow all the dancers to get dressed up and have their pictures taken in all their beautiful costumes! It was strange to be in the empty studio. I missed the laughter and music but I was incredibly happy that the Girls had a bit of normalcy this week. We had a relaxing weekend and ended it with a most amazing Mother’s Day. I am incredibly lucky 💛 It was a great week!