3 things i made on saturday

 I always have a ton of windows open on my computer and my phone with recipes I want to try.  I have books laying out, marked up with lists and post it notes.  And then I struggle every day to find something to make for dinner.  So this Saturday I was like - Let's make some stuff!  The plan was 5 recipes.  The Girl and I went to the store for supplies and then came home and she scrammed off to do something more interesting, and I started making buns.

Not just any buns, Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls.  The Mister stood by frowning as someone other than HIM made bread as I put together the easy dough.  After a couple of rises, we were treated to these delicious looking beauties from the oven.

They were very very good, even without the cinnamon butter which I did not make but will make next time, for scientific purposes ONLY.

While the dough was rising I started on the Brown Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  And the first thing I did was to screw up and immediately start creaming the butter and sugar together, and to actually READ THE RECIPE and be reminded that I was supposed to melt the butter and brown it.  Ooops.  I had to stop a few times and work on lunch and supervising because The Girl had a friend over for lunch and a play-date and I had destroyed the kitchen with my baking so far.  The Boy appeared at this point was interested in helping for approximately 7 minutes before vanishing again, and I managed to get the cookies all baked, and my testers all approved.

It was then I knew I'd taken on too much that day.  On Thursday and Friday I'd had 3 vaccine shots - flu, covid and shingles (because I am an old), had one of the most stressful work weeks I've had in years, and had vicious nightmares the night before that kept me up most of the night.  I cleaned the kitchen, handed the play-date off to The Mister, and went and laid down with heating pad on my bed.  As soon as the friend went home, I closed my eyes and had a nap.  

Waking up and feeling alert after the nap was harder than it should have been, but I finally managed and staggered off to the kitchen to make soup for dinner.  Vegetable Pastina soup, found on the ole Ticky Toks.  The broth, so simple, was to die for, and the only problem was the stupid little pasta I'd chosen took over 20 minutes to cook and stuck to the bottom of the pot every time you stopped stirring.  But it was divine, everyone loved it, and I will buy new pasta and make it again soon.

lots of stuff

 I swore this year would be different for me and the rhubarb plant.  I wouldn't just let it sit there and get all old and fibrous and unusable.  I would use it, all growing season!

I cut maybe 3 or 4 bunches and then was like my god, who can use up all this bloody rhubarb???  Why can't my teeney blueberry bushes that have each produced 2 berries be as hardy as this rhubarb?

I made Rhubarb shrub, which is rhubarb picked in sugar and vinegar,  Once it's had its pickling time, the liquid is the shrub, to add to cocktails or mocktails, and the pickled rhubarb can be eaten.

It smelled very vinegary, but also sort of delicious when it was done.  But no one would try it but me, and I did not enjoy either the shrub or the pickled rhubarb.

rhubarb and star anise shrub 

Below is an AMAZING rhubarb and apple crisp, that was so good, but I can't find the recipe.

I also made a whole bunch of rhubarb butter.Recipe here.

These were delicious roasted carrots with parmesan.  Maybe from tick tok?

Also from tick tok - my kids were dying to try the smores cookies where you put a graham cracker on the baking sheet, a marshmallow on top,  and then cover with cookie dough and bake.  I think 2 things went wrong for us - the kids eagerness to help meant none of the marshmallows were fully covered by the dough, which I think was important, and also I think you need A LOT of dough, and I only bought one tube, because I'm cheap.  And, they tasted gross anyway.

Yes, I am an old lady,  These applesauce prune muffins were SO DAMN GOOD.

We always seem to have bags of frozen ham in the freezer.  This ham tetrazzini was delicious.

I am truly upset that I can't find this recipe.  These were pork tacos with pickled onions and they were some of the best tacos I've ever had. 

Also, a recipe without a photo - we bought some peaches and I decided to roast the ones that were still around after a week.  I used this recipe and man, they were so freaking good.  I'd planned to take a photo of the leftovers, but my dad scooped them all up and took them home. 

And lastly, these chocolate and peanut butter cookie bars were chefs kiss.

oatmeal raisin bars

 I am at a point lately where I am so mentally and physically exhausted that even making cookies seems like too much work, so I've been looking for bar recipes instead.  Just chuck it all in the oven at once and be done with it.

I decided to try to find an oatmeal raisin bar because I had some raisins and craisins to use up, and it had been a while since I'd made oatmeal raisin.  I soon realized WHY it had been a while when both kids started complaining about me using raisins and could I not swap them out for....oh, I don't know....maybe CHOCOLATE instead???

No.  No I could not.  

 

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart and these were so, so good.  Soft and chewy and comforting and delicious.  And ignored by most of my family, those weirdos.  I found these are best eaten within a few days as even in an airtight container they dry out quickly.

I am hyping myself up to make actual cookies today - I'm still a few hours away from it actually happening, so there's still time for me to wimp out but we'll see.

Happy Sunday.

a bunch of stuff we've eaten

 

I may or may not have recently had a birthday, and got some BEAUTIFUL flowers from my BFF.

I made Hambāgu but only followed the recipe loosely - used pork, didn't measure anything, no wine, lots more broth - and it was delicious.

We did not bad using up the zucchini from the garden.  We air fried these zucchini sticks - of course air fried is never as good as FRIED, but they were good.

 Also made some VERY delicious zucchini muffins that disappeared quite quickly. 

AND this very good loaf pan zucchini lasagne (although in our opinion, this is best fresh, not as leftovers)

We also made KFC Fried Chicken Rice but The Boy ate so much of the chicken that we really didn't have enough leftover for the recipe but we made it work.  So good.

I tried cooking a whole chicken in our air fryer and it was game changing - truly.  If you've been around a while you might know that I hate cooking "whole" things like chickens, turkeys and roasts because I'm afraid I will over or worse - under-cook them and ruin everything.  Cooking the chicken in the air fryer somehow made the process seem easier and it was a damn good chicken too.

We managed - barely - to get through all the peaches we bought, and we made 2 peach desserts - peach melba tart and peach crisp.

 

Best dessert lately was definitely these chocolate chip cookie bars.  Delicious!

recent foods

 

 salted butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies 

this is not the very delicious sheet pan chicken meatballs, this is the batter for The Girl's birthday cupcakes.

this is a box of tim biebs timbits, not the best potato-latkes I've ever made.

this is our version of Ina Garten's kielbasa with mustard dip

i used sour cream instead of mayo for the dip by mistake but we loved it that way

 

this is delicious pea soup.
 

this is not the very delicious one pot beef stifado that I made and we enjoyed so much and then our fridge stopped working and we lost a bunch of food including the leftover stifado which I think would have made very delicious leftovers, this is a rainy April walk.

This is from homemade pizza night, it's not a super delicious Creamy Tuscan Orzo that almost everyone in the family liked.  Almost.

These are deer at MacArthur Island, not Weeknight Root Vegetable Dal that only the Mister and I liked.

Smitten Kitchen morning

 I spent some time on the smitten kitchen website recently, bookmarking delicious recipes, and Sunday morning I headed into the kitchen to do some cooking:

Morning Glory breakfast cake

What a lovely cake!  Everyone enjoyed it, especially The Grandpa, who requested I make another just for him.  And I did.

Then I made some also very delicious whole wheat chocolate oat cookies.

When you put wheat germ and whole wheat flour in a chocolate chip cookie, they are automatically healthy.  It's science.

Next, for breakfast we made a batch of blueberry yogurt multigrain pancakes 

but without the blueberries.  They have rye flour in them, which you don't often see in pancake recipes.

The grownups made pancake sandwiches, with sausage and cheese and hot sauce, and a drizzle of syrup.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi.  How are you?  I hope you are ok.  I hope you're doing your best and taking care.  Drink lots of water but cut yourself some slack if you, like me, have eaten more than one cookie before breakfast this week.  Wash your hands lots and look in the cupboard to see if you have any lotion to combat lizard skin hands.  Be kind when you are out at the store.  Let seniors go ahead of you.  Help others find what they need.  Don't take more than you need.

Try not to worry too much about what you can't control.  Don't spend too much time on social media.  Listen to music.  Read books.  Make art.  Move your body.

Make these cookies!

Joy The Baker calls these The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie, and I think she's right.

Delicious!

Really good cookies

I think by now it's obvious to tell my family and I love cookies and especially chocolate chip cookies.  Sure it's nice to have an oatmeal cookie now and then, or a delicious ginger cookie.  Sugar cookies are okay sometimes, and who doesn't love a good shortbread - you can add chocolate to them too!  But we really really love chocolate chip cookies.

In fact, look at what I came across while doing a cookie search on my blog for the above chocolate chip shortbread cookie - a post from 14 - 14!!!!!!!!!!!!  years ago that confirms my love of the CC cookie:

I mean, come on.

So last weekend I was messing around on the internet before I got going for the day and I came across a cookie recipe that sounded really good - Bakerella's Major Mini Chip Cookies.

I deviated from her recipe by not making them giant size, and I didn't have any mini chips, so mine were regular sized delicious cookies jam packed with tons of delicious chocolate, and what could be better????

Sunday Dinner - Onion Soup and Oatmeal Cookies

We had onion soup with cheesy croutons and sliced meats and cheese and raw veggies on the side, and a new bread - The Mister has taken up bread baking and is excelling at it. 

He made a rye bread from Dan Lepards the handmade loaf.  It had pickle juice and dill in it and was so good.

We also had some cheese we bought at the farmers market.  The one bottom right was called Tom.  It was strong but delicious.  Unlike Toms I know.

For dessert I made a batch of Copycat Potbelly Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies which were easy and good and made a ton.

I feel like I should drink gallons of water and eat nothing but greens after that delicious cheese filled meal.  Worth it!

Brownie Crinkle Cookies

I have been doing a fair amount of cooking some delicious things to share, but I have to post about these cookies today, mostly because I don't know how much I'll be around the rest of this month and if you are doing any baking you should DEFINITELY consider these beauties.

I found these via Williams Sonoma on Instagram - Brownie Crinkle Cookies from The Boy Who Bakes.

They are easy to make although I didn't find the batter to be runny as mentioned in the recipe, and I made a few more cookies than instructed.  But they are gorgeous and delicious!  I am making another batch tomorrow for a friends birthday.

Happy December 15, hope you are enjoying what you can out of this last bit of 2018.

 

The Good, The Good and The Ugly.

I made these muffins to use up some apples that were on the cusp of becoming inedible - I was very pleased with how they turned out, and as you'll see in a moment, they saved my bacon..... 

But first -

I've altered this a bit from a recipe saved from Taste of Home

Apple Pie Muffins

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1 cup buttermilk

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cups chopped and peeled apples

For the tops -

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350'. 

Beat together the brown sugar, oil and egg.  Mix in the buttermilk. Add in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Stir to combine, and then add the chopped apples.  

Spoon into muffin cups, about 2/3 full.

Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Spoon onto muffins.

Bake 18-22 minutes until done.

I also made these Brown Butter Cinnamon Crinkle Cookies for a Sunday dinner.  I didn't have any chocolate to make chocolate chip cookies (always the favorite around here) so I hunted down something new, and it was a surprise hit with the fam.  Try them here.

Lastly, I made a batch of Dorie Greenspan's brownies for a bake sale.  The morning of the sale I went to remove them from the pan and they were stuck SOLID.  I frantically pried and chiseled at them for a while before having to accept defeat.  I think a bunch of stuff went wrong with this batch - I should have used parchment paper in the pan, our new(ish) oven is a bit finicky and I think I baked them too long, and I wonder if using up the bits and bobs I had of chocolate - milk, dark, and white - could have factored in?  No idea.  But there was no way I could take these to the bake sale and I didn't want to show up empty handed, so instead I packed up 6 of the apple muffins from the top of the post and took those instead. 

Thank goodness for extra baking the freezer!

Smackdown - A Twist on Chocolate Chip Cookies (Salted vs Malted)

Everyone in my fam- The Grandfather included - loves cookies. And chocolate chip cookies reign supreme. Over the years I have tried dozens and dozens of recipes- crisp,soft,cake style, you name it. In the past while I tried 2 cookies - with a twist - and here they are, pitted against each other for your enjoyment. We have the internet sensation Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies from Alison Roman vs Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars from Food 52.

First up, and baked first are the shortbread cookies.  These were all over the internet in the Fall and often labelled "The Best Cookie Ever."  We - me and The Mister - are pretty big fans of shortbread, and I love salty-sweet combos.  So win-win already, right? 

After the dough is rolled into a log, you are supposed to roll it in demerara sugar before slicing.  I skipped that step, but after the cookies were sliced and on the baking sheet, I sprinkled the top of each with a pinch of salt and sugar that I mixed together.

These just might be the best cookie ever.  We loved these. 

Link- Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Next - the cookie bars.  I wanted to try this because I had no idea that malted milk powder was the same as Ovaltine.  Whenever I see a recipe that calls for malted milk powder I always stop reading because I thought it was some specialty ingredient that I couldn't get here.  Who knew!  Not me.  The other "twist" in this recipe was that the butter is melted and browned before being added to the dough.  Now I am a raw dough eater/tester (don't judge me) and I swooned when I tried the batter.  The flavors of the butter and malted milk powder were distinct and delicious.  Sadly, they disappeared into the baked bar, which was very very good, but neither of the flavors shone through in the finished product.  That did not stop us from inhaling these though.

Link - Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars

The Winner is..........

The Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread!

Both cookies are amazing and you should try them, but the shortbread were just a little more amazing.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I made these based on Chocolate Sprinkle Crinkle Cookes from Joy the Baker.  I don't like sprinkles much so I was going to skip the step of rolling the cookies in them anyway, and when I pulled my box of baking supplies off the shelf to grab the chocolate chips I found a bag of peanut butter chips too and that sounded fun.

These cookies were easy to make and I liked that they used oil instead of butter especially since I didn't have butter that day.

I really need to get myself a cookie scoop or two.  Gotta have the right tools, you know?

HRC's CC Cookies

I recently came into possession of a slightly damaged but mostly intact copy of the 2004 Better Homes Christmas Cookies magazine.  I note the slight damage because to my disappointment the page containing the first recipe I decided I needed to try had been ripped out by some diabolical person.
The second recipe I wanted to try was Hillary Rodham Clinton's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I am a fan of hers in many ways and for many reasons.
She is a smart, strong, opinionated woman.

I can't wait to read  her book, and  I will make another batch of these cookies for the Nasty Women in my life, just like I did with the first set.

HRC's Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Why make muffins when you can make cookies?

Here is my nicest photo of these cookies - artfully styled on a kleenex on my desk at work.  

So classy.

I planned to make some muffins or a  quick  bread  from the leftover pumpkin from the pie, but then I found some cookie recipes and that solved that dilemma.

I used this recipe and they were quite nice - cake like and full of spices.

Giant Cookie

It was school fundraiser time again, and so in addition to my annual lazy daisy cake

I also made some mini brownies and a giant cookie.  

I made one of these cookies for a Sunday dinner, and as we ate it, we all discussed the upcoming fundraiser and me doing some baking, and what could I make?  Would you like more cookie?  Here you are.  Hmmm, what to make?  Yes, the cookie is very good, isn't it!  But - back to the topic at hand - what to make for the bake sale?  

Luckily someone finally clued in that we were eating the perfect treat!  

I wanted to jazz the cookie up a bit, so I drizzled it with some milk and white chocolate.  I think it came out pretty nice, if I say so.

Giant Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350'

Lightly mist a pizza pan (12") with spray.

Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and fluffy.  Add the salt, vanilla and egg and mix again.

Add the flour and baking soda and mix until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate and coconut.

Press -into the pan, going all the way to the edges, and smoothing the top.

Bake 18-20 minutes, and cool on a rack.