The Cookie Bribe

Thursday, September 25

So Sydney has had a change of heart regarding school. She has informed us that she is not going to Spanish school, only Oregon school. So yesterday I stayed with her for several hours, hoping that she would get settled and to convince myself that it wasn't an awful place. I guess the novelty has worn off and she is fed up with the communication barrier. By 11:30am I was planning my escape, but there was no good way out. We played with Kyla at recess, but she still would not say goodbye. So when all the kids went back inside I had to kiss her, say "see you at 2" and walk away. There was a lot of crying, but with only two hours left, I knew she would be OK. So the cookies weren't really a bribe. But they were a reward for staying at school by herself for two hours. I've been collecting the ingredients over the last two weeks. I never did find an acceptable baking sheet. I did find a silicone baking sheet for a good price (it even came with a cake pan and a muffin tin). Of course I discovered that you still have to put something under those very floppy silicone sheets. So I used the broiling pan in the oven to support it. Kevin had to make a special trip home during lunch to replenish our oatmeal (only found at the fancy grocery store) supply since we had eaten most of it for breakfast over the weekend. I never really looked for chocolate chips since we lugged a bunch of Belgian chocolate all over Europe. Chopping the milk chocolate was fine, but the dark chocolate was not as easy.

We thought that using both kinds would make up for the fact that we didn't have semi-sweet. They turned out great, not exactly the same, but close enough.
The recipe is no secret, just good ol' Quaker Oatmeal. I'm realizing that I should have a photo of the girls enjoying their cookies, but I don't so this will have to do.

Another food related news update: We finally found cheddar cheese! It's even at the nearby grocery store. Now, if only they sold it in a money saving 5 pound Costco size block. We've gone through two packs since Monday.