Welcome Home

If ever Peter can't make it to mass with me, he tells or texts me to 'pray for the fishies.' And I always do. I pray for Omega Supreme, Aquaman, the coral, and all the fishies, crustaceans, and blobs who have gone before us.

Before I started praying for the fishies though, I was introduced to them and their ecosystem on my first visit to Peter's apartment at Notre Dame. The meeting provided me with an 'aha, so that explains the listing of reef aquaria as one of his interests in the MBA school dog book' moment. The 50-gallon tank was by far the highlight of his minimally decorated pad and he proudly named the organisms sitting and swimming in the salt water. I learned about the tank's inception, it's travels from Cape Cod, to Chicago, to Notre Dame. I met Omega who was merely a dot of a clown fish at the time. And I silently calculated - if I stay with this guy, there will definitely be an aquarium in my future.

At the time, I had not penciled fish and aquarium maintenance into my plans, but over the years, I've grown quite attached to the habitat that has followed me from Notre Dame to Naperville to our new neck of the woods.

But while just about everything else had made the migration from the Ranch to the white house, the fish got stuck half way, on vacation at Peggy and Jan's for a couple months. I think they were getting just as cozy as I was there. But finally, yesterday evening, Peter transported them via monster truck, bucket by bucket, to our new house.

Although, they've been through this rigor moral many times before, it always makes them a little uneasy. It's a scary move to make. So I wanted to make them feel as comfortable as possible and to make sure their first impression of the new house was warm and inviting.

I thought about what the Mom who lived here back in the 1940s and how she probably always had a batch of cookies, just out of the oven to help welcome others into her house. But I bet they were the simple, straight forward kind. Without chocolate chips in the pantry, and with a bag of peanuts that I was having a hard time resisting this week, I made my own peanut butter and with it whipped up a batch of peanut butter cookies. Sweet, simple, old-fashioned goodness.

Judging by how the fish are energetically swimming away this afternoon, I'm thinking the cookies did the trick. Or maybe it was my prayers. Regardless, I'm happy that they've finally joined us in our home, sweet home.
 
Lo.

Peanut Butter Cookies adapted from Smitten Kitchen
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups peanut butter - the homemade stuff turned out really well, so I would try that!
1/2 cup butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar - I used dark brown
1 tablespoon milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar for rolling the cookies

Preheat over to 350 degrees

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add the sugars and cream. Add the milk, egg and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Add the flour mixture in three steps, stirring until everything is incorporated.

Roll tablespoons of dough, dip each in sugar and line up on cookie sheets. Use a fork to lightly press a crisscross indentation on each of them. Baked at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.