The column at MilSpouseLife has been upgraded. They want me as a featured contributor: twice-weekly posts, $150 each, my photo and bio on the website. A FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR. With a photo. And a bio that says 'Rachel Abernathy writes about military family cooking from Twentynine Palms, California, where she lives with her husband, her toddler, and a crockpot.'
The crockpot made the bio. The crockpot is famous.
Three hundred dollars a week. Not enough to live on, but combined with the blog ad revenue (which has grown as the traffic has grown — I'm making about $200/month from the blog itself), I'm earning money from writing about food. REAL money. Not a lot. But real.
I told Ryan. He did math (Marines do math when money is involved): '$1,200/month from the column plus $200 from the blog is $1,400. Rachel, that's more than your bookstore job paid.'
More than the bookstore. More than Subway. More than any job I've ever had. And I'm doing it from my kitchen table, in a desert, with a toddler, writing about my mother's recipes.
Megan called. She was... impressed. Actually, genuinely impressed. 'Rachel, you're building something. This isn't a hobby anymore. This is a career.'
A career. Megan, who has a four-bedroom house and a consulting boyfriend (now fiancé — Grant proposed, God help us) and a color-coded planner, called my blog a CAREER.
'It doesn't look like a career,' I said.
'Most careers don't look like what you expect. Yours looks like a kitchen.'
My career looks like a kitchen. That's the most Megan thing she's ever said and also the most accurate.
Mom's reaction: 'A hundred and fifty per column? That's better. Still not enough, but better.'
Never enough for Donna. But getting there.
Caleb helped me make cookies for the blog post photo. He stirred the batter (got flour on his face, his hair, the floor, the wall, the ceiling — HOW did flour get on the ceiling?). The photo: a toddler covered in flour, laughing, holding a wooden spoon. The most liked photo I've ever posted.
The career looks like a kitchen and a flour-covered toddler. I'll take it.
The blog post that earned me my featured contributor spot came with a photo of Caleb covered head-to-toe in flour, grinning like he’d won something — and honestly, we had. These Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Blossoms were what we made that day: simple enough for a toddler to genuinely help, impressive enough to photograph, and gone within the hour. There’s no wheat flour in them at all, which is either ironic or poetic given the flour situation, and the chocolate kiss pressed into each warm cookie is the kind of detail that makes a two-year-old feel very, very important.
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Blossoms
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 28 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 3 tablespoons for rolling
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 28 milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix the dough. In a large bowl, beat together peanut butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Stir in baking soda and salt.
- Roll. Scoop dough by the tablespoon and roll into balls. Roll each ball in the reserved 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar to coat.
- Bake. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the tops are just set and the edges are lightly golden. Do not overbake — they firm up as they cool.
- Press and cool. Remove from the oven and immediately press one unwrapped chocolate kiss firmly into the center of each cookie. The cookie will crack slightly around the edges — that’s perfect. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 112 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 13g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 98mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 238 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
