After a semester-long hiatus away from my blog, I am back. My papers are turned in and so are my finals, so now I am home for Christmas break. I’ve been enjoying the many comforts of home, including the small things: the wind chimes outside, the fireplace, the smell of wood fire smoke outside in the air, and our downstairs clock that chimes on the half-hour and hour. Most of all, I am enjoying being home with my parents. (I haven’t been home much at all this year.)

Today my Mom and I made cookies together. We made Chocolate Mint Thumbprints and Lemon Meltaways.

I found the mint thumbprint recipe over at Serious Eats. We didn’t roll the sugar on the outside, but they turned out great. (By the way, if you enjoy both food and science, particularly together, I suggest you start reading Serious Eats if you don’t already.)

We used a recipe from my grandmother for the lemon meltaways. Email me if you want it.

Side note: This past semester started rather quickly for me. I climbed (and summited!) Longs Peak with the Staffords on a Friday, flew home Saturday afternoon, then drove to Hillsdale on Sunday morning and promptly started with photography and meetings Sunday night. I didn’t give myself much of a chance to relax or even go through my photos from hiking in RMNP. The semester has been pretty busy overall, so I still have not edited those photos. Now that I have some time where I don’t have to worry about papers, math problems, reading old/middle english, or taking photographs for a newspaper, I intend to catch up on my blogging. I have photos from various ventures during the summer, the semester, and even a wedding to post. Stay tuned.