12.20.2010

#7 (plus a recipe)

Many bloggers are taking Christmas break off - congratulations to them and we hope they find the rest, recuperation, and (w)riting time they need. But, here at erica and christy, the show must go on (or we'll never finish this countdown). Thanks for stopping by!

#7 on our list of best/worst things about being an aspring writer - eating chocolate (or whatever your vice is) while writing vs. trying to remain taller than you are wide.

we figure this is self-explanatory

As you know, erica lost her muse this weekend. But she did make some great cookies. Basically what happened is, she took her kids to program practice Saturday where she was informed (well, reminded, but it had gone completely out of her mind, so it seemed like informed at the time) that she was partly responsible for the church coffee hour the next day. If you don't know it, erica lives in a really, really small town. The kind of town where you actually need to call a neighbor for a cup of sugar on the weekend or you won't find one.

So she quickly compiled the ingredients available to her in her own kitchen. This was not her finest hour.

However, some basic ingredients and an internet connection (along with her friend "Google"), erica made no-bake cookies with her kids. This is especially good because, well, erica doesn't bake. AND because these are pretty filling and just-sweet-enough that you only want one at a time. Not to mention they're drop cookies, so make them as small as you want. Yum, yum.

2 cups white sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal (the quick-cook kind)
1 tsp. vanilla (although I forgot this and it still worked out)

Put the sugar, cocoa, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat until it boils. Once boiling, add peanut butter and oatmeal, stir, and boil one more minute. Remove from heat. Drop onto wax paper and let cool. Easy-peasy.

What's your go-to food while writing?

9 comments:

  1. I try really hard to not eat while writing, but I fail most of the time. I am a chocolate person, but I try to not have that in the house very often. So my go-to food for writing is usually dry cereal! Munchy goodness!

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  2. Toast. I'm sure it will eventually make me wider than I am tall (not that that's such a great distance), but at least it will happen slowly.

    I love no-bake cookies. I could make those things in my sleep. It's my go-to cookie-making activity when I have other people's children in my house.

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  3. Ooh that recipe sounds awesome!

    I will seriously consider it, since we have droves of guests coming in as of Monday.

    :-)

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  4. Mmm! No bake cookies are some of my absolute favorites!! I can NEVER get them just right though! My mom is the NBC queen. I can't ever get them to harden right...but man...it doesn't usually matter.

    Glad she was able to scrape by!

    Merry Christmas Erica and Christy!!

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  5. Luckily, I've never developed a go to food while writing. Unless you can call coffee a snack... I do love to snack but I do my best not to do it while writing. It's tough though!

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  6. I like gobstoppers. I've also been known to eat m&m's and recently it's been hershey kisses(for some reason the christmas kisses I have out in a dish for guests is mysteriously getting smaller...hm...) But I do like to munch on something while I work so I try to make popcorn every once in a while, or chew gum so I'm not always eating. If I ever quit my day job to write full time, I'm doomed. Merry Christmas girls!

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  7. I'm actually not bad with the snacks while writing, either - I love my laptop far too much to soil her with food. :) But I do drink gallons of coffee (if before noon) and Sprite Zero (if after noon) (we won't mention the wine, though, that's only during emailing, right christy? ;) Gobstoppers, though, hmm - how many calories do they have??

    Colene - I think the trick is boiling time. The recipe I read said to bring it to a rolling boil, then remove from heat and add the pb and oatmeal. But they seemed too runny, so I brought them back to a boil for another minute, stirring the whole time, and it worked. The next batch I just added it while it was boiling, let it go until the pb was melted, and put right on the wax paper. Also, make sure you use real butter - margarine is too watery!
    erica

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  8. I've never even heard of no bake cookies before! Yes, coffee and wine. And mini-snickers. Although I'm with Abby...gum helps. Thanks SO much for posting this even though it was my turn, erica!!!! Merry Christmas to you all! :0) christy

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  9. Mmmmm.

    Yeah. I like snacking. And, writing IS sedentary. Thus, my goal for '11 is to work out 4 x's/week NO MATTER WHAT.
    (I refuse to diet. I like food WAY too much.)

    Merry Holidays!
    Love,
    Lola

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