Coconut Lime Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest of one large lime
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup toasted coconut
• 1/2 cup sugar (for rolling cookies)

Step 1: Toast the coconut on a sil-pat or parchment-lined baking sheet, at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes, turning every 6 minutes or so to avoid burning and get a nice even golden toast. Set the coconut aside to cool.

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Add in vanilla and an egg and mix well. I picked up this new vanilla at my favorite store Sur la Table today. So, so good!

Step 3: Zest one large lime, and squeeze about 3 tbsp of fresh lime juice and add it to the batter. Also, how cute are these little glass bowls I got at Sur la Table today?

Step 4: Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder + salt. Add slowly to the wet mixture and beat on low until well incorporated. Add in the toasted coconut and mix on a low speed just until it is evenly distributed.

Step 5: Scoop even teaspoon-size balls of dough and roll them lightly in the granulated sugar. Place them on a sil-pat or parchment-lined baking sheet, pretty down lightly with your fingers. and if you have any leftover coconut you can put a little sprinkle on top.

Step 6: Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, then let the cookies sit on the tray for a few minutes when they come out of the oven. Then you can transfer them over to a wire rack to finish cooling.

After we danced around the living room a little bit singing “we put the lime in the coconut” we taste tested these, and oh man are they chewy, refreshing and delicious! The perfect treat for the end of an awesome weekend.

So, on to the good stuff. My mom took the train up early on Friday, so I took a half day from work (which was much, much needed) and we started our weekend adventure off with a trip to Home Depot (or as my Grandpa calls it now “Becca’s Mecca”). Clever. As a project manager by trade, I project manage pretty much every aspect of my life. So I have a whole set of High, Medium + Low effort/priority house projects that I try to budget and plan out in different release schedules. (OCD much?).

Here’s all of the things we got done in 48 hours:

• New mailbox and house number
• New doorbell installed (only minor electrical shocks)
• Signed a lease for a PARKING SPOT in Southie (praise Jesus!)
• We heard about a great garden idea and planted tons of flowers in the front of the house planter, patio flower boxes, and the garden
• Mowed the lawn
• Painted the front metal railing with rustoleum paint
• Installed shelving in the laundry alcove to get all the detergent off the floor
• Got a hose reel and put washers on the garden hose to stop the leaking
• WD-40’d every door hinge in the house
• Installed some new Pottery Barn shelves on the kitchen wall
• Selected tile for the kitchen backsplash (in the next release of house projects)

Now these shelves were definitely the most complicated thing we had to install this weekend. But I think they came out pretty good looking. I  need to go down to Harwich this weekend to get some little Cape Cod flare to decorate these shelves with. But in the meantime, I have this giant wooden fork + spoon, which has a long story behind it.

The “long story short” version is that this giant wooden fork + spoon have been hanging on the kitchen wall of my Grandparent’s house since before I was born. When we were growing up we would often go to their house for dinner during the week, especially if my dad was traveling for work. Pickled Pigs Feet was my Grandpa’s code word for ice cream. Yum. Anyways, my Grandpa and I are pretty close and I talk to him every day. I used to always joke that when he’s not around anymore, all I want is the giant fork + spoon from his kitchen. So one day my mom went over there and saw him putting sticky notes on the back of the fork and spoon. Which he explained was in case he died, he wanted to make sure no one else tried to take these. So for Easter, he sent these back home with me to Boston and they have been sitting in my hall closet since then. Even if they are temporary, I think it will make him pretty happy to see they got a spot on the wall up in “Bahhhstonnn”.

Speak of the devil, while my mom was in Boston, my dad went over to Stop + Shop back at home today to take a picture of this guy selling poppy’s with the veterans. I mean, how could you not donate to a good cause with this face?

We did have some scheduled in relaxation + fun time. We saw the movie “The Other Woman” yesterday afternoon after we had a nice lunch in Chestnut Hill and did some shopping at my all-time favorite store Pottery Barn. We grilled up some nice dinner last night outside since it is finally so warm out we are able to turn the AC on. And this morning we started our day by getting large iced-cofffe (for me) and iced-tea (for mom) at Sidewalk Cafe and taking a nice morning stroll around Castle Island.  We had a delicious brunch at Stephi’s in Southie afterward. It was fitting that we went to the food court at the mall for cookie inspiration though, because in middle + high school whenever I would have a rough day, my mom would write me a note for a “doctors appointment” and she would pick me up, we’d go to the mall and share a fresh out of the oven Cinnabon. (Even though Skip would always somehow use his Spidey Sense and call us JUST as we got into the mall parking lot and blow our cover. Ugh. Dads.) So while our days of cinnabon sharing are behind us (stupid gluten allergies) I think our Pinkberry coconut inspiration today turned into a pretty delicious cookie.

So anyways. It’s 10pm. My body is hurting from the manual labor this weekend and I am in serious need of some sleep, because it’s going to be another rough one at work this week. Only a few weeks left until this website launches and I can enjoy the sweet freedom of work weeks under 80 hours again. I’ll be traveling to lovely scenic Northbrook, Illinois again mid-week, so fingers crossed for some turbulent-free flights. I am flying JetBlue this time so at least when the plane is bouncing around I’ll be able to watch some trashy Bravo TV to distract me.

The one thing I will say though, is that whenever my mom would drop me back off at college, or even now when I leave for the holidays, I never understood why she would always start crying before I even left. Except today, I waited on the train tracks with my mom until she got on her train and I waved her goodbye. And then I cried in my car because I think that’s just what happens when you have the world’s best (and most-handy) Mom in the world.

Happy Mother’s Day Linda.