#27. Decide on a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I think every household should have a good chocolate chip cookie recipe (or proximity to a grocery store that sells break-and-bake dough...or, you know, actual cookies). I love to bake, so I prefer homemade cookies to pre-made cookies or dough. (I don't discriminate, though. Cookies are one of my favorite desserts, so I will eat them in just about any form.) But somehow, in all my baking adventures, I have never decided on a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I am on a quest to resolve that. I tend to be a bit obsessive methodical in my decision-making, and since I love cookies so much, this will certainly be no exception. My plan is to test several recipes and grade them, and the one with the highest grade will become my go-to.

Here are the ground rules:

I will not be considering "alternative" recipes that might include ingredients like nuts or caramel. I may test recipes with some sort of enhancer like vanilla pudding, maybe even cream cheese, but nothing that changes the overall flavor. Just straight-up, classic chocolate chip cookie goodness.

These are the factors by which I will grade each recipe (1-5 rating for each item):

• Taste: Like I said, it has to have an unmistakable chocolate chip cookie taste. (Duh.)
• Texture: I like my cookies to be somewhat thick, slightly crisp around the edges, and soft and chewy in the middle. So that's what I'll be looking for.
• Convenience: How many steps? How many ingredients? Are the ingredients ones that I already have on-hand, with the exception of chocolate chips?
• WW-friendliness: How many WeightWatchers points per cookie? I'm not expecting them to be health food or anything, but would prefer them to be as low in points as possible. According to my tracker, the average for a homemade chocolate chip cookie is 2 points.
• Accuracy: I will be following each recipe exactly, so what I'm looking for here is if my attempt looks like the photo and/or lives up to any hype surrounding the recipe.

So, now that that's out of the way, let's get to it! The first recipe in my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie comes to us from Betty Crocker.

This is Tom's last week of seminary classes (yay!), so I made these last night for him to share with his classmates. The recipe was pretty simple. The dough came together nicely in the stand mixer, and the only thing we had to buy for it was a bag of chocolate chips. (Actually, Tom went out and bought more flour and brown sugar last night because I ran out, but that's stuff we usually have in-stock.) The cookies themselves turned out pretty well. I forgot to take a picture of them while they were cooling, but here they are all packed up and ready to go to school...

Mine spread out a bit more than the ones in the photo, so they weren't very thick, but they tasted great, and they were still crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle. I'm guessing they spread so much because of all the butter; I used 3 whole sticks. It was a big recipe (72 cookies), so I guess it wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things, but it did make them pretty greasy, which is somewhat unappealing as far as texture. It came out to 3 WW points per cookie, which isn't terrible but could be better.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Betty Crocker

Taste: 5

Texture: 3

Convenience: 5

WW-friendliness: 4

Accuracy: 4

Final grade: 21/25

#34. Read a new book every month, including one that Esther recommends. (1/10)

For October, I read Sir Max Hastings' single volume World War II history, Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945. I've been a big fan of Hastings ever since I read his D-Day account Overlord for a military history class at Clemson. This is the third book of his I've read, and it was a good one.

World War II is by the far the period of history about which I have read the most, so I was familiar with most of the events and key players. What sets Hastings' book apart is its look at how ordinary people experienced these horrible events. We all know at least a little about what the war was like for Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and FDR, but Hastings, having combed through thousands of letters, diaries, and memoirs takes his readers into the trenches on the Eastern front, to the daily life in London during the blitz, and into the despair of German housewives as the Russian army closed in in 1945. It is impossible to read a book like this and keep your distance from the people who fought, lost, and won this terrible conflict.

The book is also good for myth-busting and settling controversies. Hastings is never afraid to call out his fellow Brits when he sees the need, nor does he blindly lavish praise on the means used by the Allies to win the day. He is the first historian I've read (though it is an historical reality) to unabashedly give the majority of the credit for defeating the Nazis to the Soviet Union. He admits that they were the only nation willing to pay the enormous cost in blood that was required to bring down the Third Reich, and questions (quite honestly) whether the more civilized US and UK could have stomached such a cost. Finally, his take on the circumstances and moral debate of the use of the atomic bomb is well-informed and persuasive: Hastings takes us from our armchairs to the context of Truman's dreadful, but for Hastings inevitable, decision to use the bomb.

If you are new to World War II studies, this isn't the book with which to start. The anecdotal focus of the book at times causes the big picture to be lost, and so I would recommend reading a more general history of the war first. If you're fairly familiar with the events and want a fresh look, this is the book for you.

Next up, James Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.

#71. Visit 10 Louisville restaurants we've never tried before... (2/10) AND #72. Write about them in our restaurant blog. (2/10)

We checked out another great Louisville restaurant a few weeks ago: Taco Punk. We'd heard good things about it before, so when we saw that they'd put out a Groupon, we snatched it up. It gave us a reason to go downtown, which we don't do as often as we'd like, and the food was great! But I won't go into too much detail here because Tom wrote all about it in our restaurant blog. Go check it out!

#7. See one of my favorite artists/bands in concert.

I hope you all remembered to set your clocks back last night. I did, but I'm not much for sleeping in and therefore found myself waking up way too early this morning due to the extra hour, so I figured I'd go ahead and write about a certain concert I went to last night. My excitement over that is probably another factor in my lack of sleep anyway.

About a month ago, I was listening to a Natalie Merchant album and thinking about how much I love her unique voice and all of her music, and it made me curious as to whether she was still touring. She hasn't really been on the charts since the 90s, but a lot of artists from that time still do concerts, so I wasn't sure. Well, I went to her website and discovered that she was doing a concert in Louisville on November 2nd! Immediately, I emailed Tom and asked if that could be an early birthday present for me this year (my birthday is over a month away); he went out, maybe even the following week, and got our tickets!

(complete with a common misspelling of our last name...)

We were up in the balcony, but the concert hall seating is at such a steep angle that we still felt fairly close to the stage. And no, I didn't take any pictures during the show. I'm too much of a rule-follower, I guess. I will, however, try to describe the show in as much detail as possible without boring you.

The concert was a double treat because it wasn't just Natalie Merchant; it was Natalie Merchant WITH the Louisville Orchestra. Now, for those who are familiar with her music, it might be hard to imagine any of her songs with a full orchestra instead of just piano and/or guitar. In the days leading up to the concert, I kept trying to imagine how it might sound, and I couldn't, so I just gave up trying, thinking "I like her, and I like orchestra music, so how bad could it be?" The answer is: not bad at all. The orchestra adapted each song so beautifully that Tom (who knows maybe one of her songs) said he'd have a hard time imagining some of the songs without an orchestra! They did some of her older songs like "Carnival," "She Devil," and my favorite, "Beloved Wife." No 10,000 Maniacs songs with the orchestra, though I'm sure those would have sounded great too. Most of the songs they played were from her most recent album, Leave Your Sleep, which is adaptations of children's poems, some well-known, some more obscure.

Ms. Merchant wore a modest black dress and mary-jane shoes to match the orchestra, but she inserted a bit of personality by also wearing bright purple tights. :) She looked pretty different from how I remembered her: Her hair was mostly grey, and she had more lines on her face (she just turned 50 last week)...but that voice. Oh, that wonderful voice! She sounded exactly the same as she did 20 years ago.

She also seemed so at-ease on stage. I guess that's inevitable, after being in the music industry for so long, but it was nice to see. She talked to the audience like she was hanging out with a really, REALLY big group of friends; and she danced and swayed (and even skipped, at one point!) all across the stage as she sang, as though she was completely lost in the music. After the orchestra left, leaving only the pianist and guitarist to accompany her, she really cut loose, singing every 70s pop song she could think of and encouraging the rest of us to sing along, while incorporating some of her popular songs that the orchestra didn't play, like "Wonder" and "Kind & Generous." And here she did pull out "These Are Days," from her time as the front-woman for 10,000 Maniacs.

It was a wonderful evening; I didn't want it to end. What a fabulous birthday present!

#10. Create 10 WeightWatchers-friendly versions of favorite dishes. (2/10)

As Tom mentioned before, I'm a proud member of WeightWatchers, and my favorite thing about it is that you can lose weight without having to give up the foods you love. The biggest thing I've learned is how to enjoy these foods in moderation, but another thing I've discovered is that a lot of "normal" recipes out there have a ton of extra, high-point stuff that's completely unnecessary. The WW website has a great collection of recipes that are low in points without sacrificing any flavor, and a lot of them still use real ingredients (like sugar instead of artificial sweeteners), which I love. So I set this goal for myself in hopes of being able to replace some of my go-to recipes with some that are a little bit healthier.

Tom and I like to cook breakfast together on Saturday mornings, and this past Saturday we decided to make pumpkin pancakes. (I mean, really...is there any better breakfast to have this time of year?) I had a recipe for them, but decided to give the WW version a try, and it was a big success!

Other pumpkin pancakes = 9 points, without toppings

WeightWatchers' pumpkin spice pancakes = 5 points, including powdered sugar

These were SO good. I thought they tasted just like other pumpkin pancakes I'd had, but with a lot fewer points. The biggest difference between these two is the fat content. Other recipes call for a lot of oil to keep the pancakes moist, but it's really not necessary with pumpkin pancakes because the pumpkin accomplishes that. Any fat that's in the WW pancakes comes from the very small amount of melted butter in the batter. This does not include any extra butter you might want to slather on top, which you can do free of guilt because you're not spending as many points on the pancakes. :)

Recipe #2 was an apple crisp we made for community group last night.

Standard apple crisp = 11 points

WeightWatchers' apple cider crisp = 6 points, not including ice cream

The difference here? The amount of sugar. Instead of piling on the granulated sugar, the WW version uses a little bit of sugar plus some apple cider, which still has natural sugar, but not as much, and it really lets the sweetness of the apples shine through. I think it went over pretty well with the group, too (i.e. not much left over). Later that evening, Tom told me he'd felt like he was getting away with something, because it was so good but so comparatively low in calories. I think both of these recipes are winners!

#67. Watch every movie on the AFI's Top 100 list. (35/100)

(image from imdb.com)

Last night, Tom and I watched City Lights. Charlie Chaplin plays a homeless man who falls in love with a blind girl and tries to earn enough money to pay for an operation that would allow her to see.

I'll be honest, I have a hard time really getting into a lot of older movies, especially if they're in black and white, classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane being the exception. This probably makes me sound like an uncultured jerk, but there it is. Anyway, having been released in 1931, City Lights is one of the oldest movies on the AFI list; not only is it old and in black and white, but it's also a silent film, and I don't think I'd ever seen one of those before. OK, I saw The Artist as part of my original 99 in 999, but I don't know if that counts. The point is, I was a bit skeptical about City Lights. The AFI named it as the 11th greatest movie of all time. Could it really live up to the hype?

I think it did. It's been said that 93% of all communication is nonverbal, and this movie really proved that to me. I was amazed by how I never had to wonder what was going on. You know, I think maybe we're spoiled by today's movies. We've been fooled into thinking that a film needs things like color and audible dialogue in order to be any good. City Lights told a sweet story very clearly, and it did so without color, dialogue or even character names. It had great acting, comedy, drama, and a happy ending. What more could you ask for?

#31. Watch at least 5 out of 10 movies recommended by Tom. (2/5)

In a lot of ways, this week has been a blast from the past; I've been enjoying a lot of things from when I was a kid. I found myself watching episodes of Mr. Bean and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! on Netflix during my lunch breaks, and I may or may not have created a new Pandora station, with Carman as the seed...

Last night, I watched a movie that came out when I was a kid, but I never got around to seeing: Hook. Tom decided to put this on his list of movie recommendations after a recent conversation with our community group, during which we were all talking about the movie each of us had seen the most. One person said theirs was Hook, and I said I'd never seen it, to which Tom responded by reminding me that we own it, so there's really no excuse for my not having seen it yet!

Anyway, I really liked it, and I think I would've loved watching it as a kid. It's a good story, and a lot of fun to watch. And Robin Williams was the perfect choice to play the lead role!

To this day, I still love a good kids' movie, and the 1990s were full of good ones. In addition to Hook, the 90s gave us Home Alone, Free Willy, Homeward Bound, not to mention all the awesome Disney movies like Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story, and my personal favorite, Beauty and the Beast. It's no wonder I sometimes find myself reverting back to "the good ol' days"...my version of it, anyway.

# 71. Visit 10 Louisville restaurants we've never tried before... (1/10) AND #72. Write about them in our restaurant blog. (1/10)

On Saturday, Esther and I gave the Frankfort Avenue eatery The Silver Diner a try. Esther has already written about our visit in detail in our restaurant blog here, so give it a click! It's a good read.

Rather than just repeating what she already wrote, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on why we picked this goal in the first place, and why Frankfort Avenue is one of our favorite places to try new eateries.

Like so many of our generation, it seems, Esther and I are amateur foodies (she's significantly less amateurish than I-she knows what things like beschamels are). For as long as we've been courting/engaged/married we've enjoyed trying new foods. Her accomplishments as a cook are well-documented, but we've also enjoyed trying new restaurants when able. Given that I didn't even like fried chicken or french fries until my late teens, the fact that I jump at the chance to try Nigerian food nowadays is pretty significant. Esther points out that this is just one way God shaped both of us over the years to be ready to be married to each other.

In addition to enjoying new and tasty food, we usually have two other concerns when we try a new place: cost and health. My seemingly never-ending quest for my MDiv means we've had to get used to living on an income-and-a-half, so we've always had to be price-conscious when trying a new place. At the same time, Esther does weight-watchers (succesfully, too!) and I count calories, so we're both always trying to find ways to enjoy food without packing on pounds in the process. Usually, we balance these concerns using coupons, Groupon/Amazon Local, and picking places with healthy options.

Then there are days you need to let go a little. Saturdays tend to be those days for us.

That's how we happend to go to the Silver Dollar, with no coupon and planning to induldge a little bit. Just a little, though-Esther had just run a 5K and I was at the gym a few hours later.

Why the Silver Dollar, exactly? We're lucky enough to live on one of the coolest streets in Louisville for hip, local eateries. It's not as weird as Bardstown Road, and the parking is a lot better. We'd driven by this place for years, and eaten across the street from it at our favorite dessert place, Sweet Surrender.

Esther, as I already mentioned, has written in detail about our visit. Suffice to say, we left a couple of happy customers.

So, if you live in Louisville and share our enthusiasm for food, take a stroll down Frankfort avenue sometime. Even if you don't make it to The Silver Dollar, you're bound to stop in at a great local place. Come the right weekend, and we might even see you there (especially if the place is offering a Groupon).

#67. Watch every movie on the AFI's Top 100 list. (34/100)

In one of my sociology classes at Clemson, I learned that there is a correlation between rising temperatures and criminal activity: the hotter it is outside, the more likely people are to commit crimes. Interesting stuff.

I was reminded of those findings yesterday evening, as I was watching Do the Right Thing, which is #96 on the AFI's top 100. (Tom had already seen this in a film class at Clemson, so I watched it without him.) It's set in a Brooklyn neighborhood where racial tension is high, as is the temperature. Put it all together, and what you get is a bunch of people doing some pretty crazy, messed-up stuff.

I was also reminded of two other movies about racism, Crash and American History X. Since those two are a little more recent, I had to wonder if the creators of either of those movies took any cues from Do the Right Thing. Anyway, for me, the effect was the same for all three: the realization that prejudice left unchecked will consume you. The thing I really appreciate about these kinds of movies is that they expose prejudice for the sneaky thing that it is. We watch these characters make all kinds of negative assumptions about each other, and we think "you're a horrible person for thinking that," not realizing that we make those same kinds of assumptions about people every day, and most of the time we're not even aware that we're making the assumptions.

So I had to ask myself, "Where do I see prejudice in my own life?" And all I can say in response is, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps. 51:10) This isn't the kind of thing we can overcome on our own; we need the help of Christ, who loved in the face of prejudice.

On a lighter note, I came across a bit of trivia about Do the Right Thing yesterday, when I was poking around on its IMDb page (as I am often prone to do while watching movies): Our current President and First Lady saw this movie together on their first date back in 1989. Definitely not my idea of a romantic, feel-good movie...but I'm sure it gave them a lot to talk about afterward!

#14. Read a new book every month, including one that Tom recommends. (Oct. 2013)

My book of choice for this month was Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias. I started reading it for my previous 99 list, but didn't finish it in time to count it toward that.

For those who aren't familiar with Mr. Zacharias, he is a Christian apologist (apologist="a person who defends or supports something [such as a religion, cause, or organization] that is being criticized or attacked by other people"). He travels all over the world, teaching Christian apologetics, and he's also written several books on this topic. I think he's pretty brilliant...and yes, I would still like him even if one of us wasn't Indian...at least, I'd like to think so. I really appreciate his ability to communicate the truth of the Gospel as it corresponds to reality, and in a way that is engaging and easy to understand.

I've been a longtime listener of Zacharias's weekly radio program, Let My People Think, and last year, I even drove from Louisville to St. Louis by myself to hear him speak at a church there. But I never read any of his books until a few months ago, when I started reading Jesus Among Other Gods. In this book, he compares Christianity with other world religions (mainly Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) and identifies six key questions which Jesus answered in a way that no other god would have.

I don't want to give away any details, but I will say that Jesus is truly like no other, and my faith in that has been immensely encouraged by this book. The motto of Ravi Zacharias's ministry is "Helping the thinker believe. Helping the believer think." I think Jesus Among Other Gods does just that. It serves as both a wake-up call to those who might have dismissed Christianity altogether (or consider it to be just like any other religion), and a help and encouragement to those who claim Jesus as Lord.

You may notice that my copy is actually one of two books in the same volume. Perhaps Deliver Us from Evil will be one of the next books I read...

#57. Watch at least 5 out of 10 movies recommended by Esther. (1/5)

To get this goal started, I watched that 80's classic, John Hughes' The Breakfast Club.

Matt Brier asked me recently how it was possible I'd never seen this movie. My reason is essentially the same as why I'd never played Texas hold 'em 'till Friday night: I just never got around to it. It was never the kind of movie I felt was worth renting on a Friday night, but if there's a flick you need to see, Netflix is often good for what ails 'ya. 

I felt all sorts of internal tensions as I watched this movie. I'm a substitute teacher at the moment, and while I've never had kids speak to me the way Bender does to Mr. Vernon, I am used to being in the latter's shoes and having respect denied me. Because of this, I didn't find myself loathing him the way I probably would have had I watched this movie as a teenager. 

At the same time, I found myself  sympathizing with the five kids, as well. Through subbing I've slowly come to appreciate the complexities that underlie childhood misbehavior. The family situations described in this movie are extremes, but they've very real: some of the kids I've taught have no doubt come from homes as dysfunctional as Bender's or Allison's. When a kid talks back to me or refuses to work, what he or she is doing is wrong, but there' a lot more to it than them rejecting my authority or having a personal problem with my teaching style. 

I've gone far afield. This isn't the sort of movie I expect to want to watch over and over, but I can see why it's regarded as an 80's classic. The insight into both teenage and adult struggles is uncommon, the cinematography is solid, the acting and music are terrific, and you can't beat that final, triumphant shot of Bender crossing the football field, fist raised to the sky. Moreover, it's a great message: friendships can be formed across seemingly impenetrable barriers when apparently dissimilar people find they have more in common than they thought possible. 

The experience of the five kids is not unlike the beautiful, puzzling unity of the Church, a body of diverse people drawn together by Christ who discover that what they share in their Savior gives them more in common than they could ever have in conflict. 

#48. Learn to play Texas hold 'em.

Well, I never had the hand pictured above, but I did learn to play Texas hold 'em last night, courtesy of D.J. and Heather Williams.

I'm not entirely sure how I made it to 29 without having learned any form of poker, let alone this particular variety, but there you have it (I also didn't like burgers 'till I was 20, but that's a post for another day). I've played my share of card games over the years (gin, blackjack, euchar, etc.), but just somehow never got around to learning this one. The Williams threw a poker night last night, and it seemed the perfect time to correct my negligence.

D.J. teaches poker like he preaches, which is to say, quite well, and with just enough NBA illustrations to keep you on on your toes. Before starting tournament-style play, we went through a practice hand, which I concluded by going all-in (I think I may have had a pair of 2's, at best).

That didn't end well. On to the real thing!

I had a nice first hand-maybe two pair this time-which was good enough to win! Alas, I don't think I won more than two or three hands the rest of the night. We were only playing for pride-I leave it up to you, O reader, to decide if that's better or worse than playing for cash. I left Casa Williams with all my chips in front of D.J., but I did manage to avoid going out first, for whatever that's worth.

All in all, it was a fun night-good friends, good food, and more than a few tense, exciting moments of bluffs, calls, big wins, and crushing losses. I'd love to play again, but I definitely need to work on my poker face. I'm just a tad expressive: maybe that's one reason I put off learning poker in the first place.

#67. Watch every movie on the AFI's Top 100 list. (33/100)

This was the view from our living room yesterday afternoon. Actually, this was what it looked like for most of this weekend here in the Ville.

Please excuse the dirty window. Thank you.

Now, I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to do on a rainy day is stay home and watch a movie; and yesterday, I wanted to knock out a movie from the AFI list. It's a pretty ambitious goal, I guess. 100 movies is a lot for one person to watch, much less two people who don't always have large chunks of time to watch movies together. So we made it a little easier on ourselves and crossed off the movies we've both seen already (some we watched together, some not...a LOT of them were Best Picture Winners, which we watched for my other 99 list); that took care of 32 of them. Then we highlighted the ones that one of us had seen but the other hadn't. That way if one of us has time to watch a movie but the other one doesn't, we can still make some progress. Aren't we efficient? :)

Anyway...back to yesterday.

Tom had some reading to do for school, so I watched one that he'd seen and I hadn't: Duck Soup. Oh, how I love the Marx brothers! I watched a few of their movies in college, and they never fail to crack me up. I wish I had even half Groucho's wit or Harpo's ability to make people laugh without ever saying a word. Ah, they just don't make 'em like that anymore. It was a great choice for a rainy day!

#31: Watch at least 5 out of 10 movies recommended by Tom. (1/5)

"You exist to continue your existence. What's the point?"

"What's the point of your existence?"

"To feel. 'Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock... ticking."

Hi folks, Esther here!

So...today I watched Equilibrium, one of the movies Tom recommended to me. I didn't really know anything about it beforehand, except that Christian Bale was in it, and that alone made me think the movie probably wasn't terrible.

Well, I now see why my husband likes it so much; it's definitely a "guy movie": dark, lots of action, and a plot that was a little video-gamey. That being said...I really liked it too! The fight scenes were pretty sweet, there were some good lines (like the one I quoted up there), and the good guys won.

Oops, did I give away the ending? Well...the movie's been out for over 10 years now, so you've had plenty of time. But watch it anyway. It's a good one.

And away we go!

Hi, everybody!

This is the inaugural post of Esther's and my combined 99 in 999. It's also my first blog post of any kind in about 8 years, and it's nice to be back in the blogosphere.

Nothing much to say yet-to my knowledge we haven't many any progress on any of our goals since the 999 days started on Tuesday, but that's sure to change soon! I hope you all enjoy following along with us as we pursue our separate and joint goals.

Thanks for reading,

-Tom