The Best Damn Cookies You Ever Did Taste

Oh Hai There,

Yesterday SUCKED. It could only be fixed by my world moderately famous chocolate chip/PB chip cookies.

CDR and I spent a wonderful week at Lake Tahoe with my family. But I’ll get there in a second–the cookies came from a harsh snap back into reality and after a day of fretting and tears (SPOILER: Real Estate can be just as tough as theater), there was nothing to do, but turn on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, finish making the bedroom curtains, and bake the shit out of these cookies.

SIDE BAR: I love you, episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, in which the Dramaturge kills the actor. You were swell, and why didn’t Goren and Eames ever do it?!

But I digress.

This recipe starts with half a cup each of butter and shortening. An no. To make these cookies properly, you MAY NOT substitute the shortening for more butter. You will still get a good cookie, but you will not get THIS cookie.

Any hoozle:

1/2 c butter, 1/2 c shortening, 1 c brown sugar, and 1/2 c granulated sugar creamed together. Add two eggs, and a satisfying amount of therapeutic vanilla (1-2 tsp). Beat till light and creamy.

1 tsp of baking soda, plus 2 1/4 c AP flour goes in next!

Stir in 3/4 c peanut butter chips and 1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips—or half and half.

Bake by the teaspoonful for 11 min at 375.

Try not to eat all of the dough!

Yes, they’ll be gooey. No, they don’t need more time in the oven.

Yep, these babies are perfect just the way they are.

Eat. Indulge. Let your troubles melt away in the warm gooey chocolatey goodness.

As for me, I’m busy pretending that I’m still in the mountains.

Morning, Sunshine!

Love is…skiing!

Toodles.

 

 

 

Fancy Fish and Cookies

Hey guys!

I’m kind of in a hurry to clean my room for the cleaning lady tomorrow (oh come on, we all know that chestnut) SO, I’ll try to make this as brief as possible–with little heart-felt yammerings.

Yammerings: This week I started my new job as a nanny, and it was a little rough, but mostly pretty great. The paycheck was nice too. Still looking to fill five more hours of childcare and/or personal assistant work on Thursdays…so please feel free to hit me up (I know, not so heartfelt). I had a wonderful girl’s lunch with Gabs and Em on Thursday and it was exactlt what all of us needed. Two whole hours of laughter. And yesterday, I saw A Christmas Carol and Paul was my date for the evening. He even accompanied me for late night tacos. Thanks, bud. A little bit each day, I feel like I’m a little less on the crazy train. A little bit. Please note that as I say this, I have six GIANT sheets of blank paper strewn about my room that I have to turn into backdrops for the Christmas pageant. There’s a million canvases and articles of clothing thrown around and between me and the computer screen I have: a toiletry bag, a Victoria’s Secret perfume box, a journal, Nine Kinds of Naked, two pill bottles (left over from the pneumonia), an inhaler, sheet music, a notebook, an old mp3 player, insurance papers, a necklace, a hair clip, Pier 1 reed diffuser fragrance, and about $8.50 in change (dimes and pennies). So. A while still on the crazy train.

BUT. On Friday night, I decided that I would make CDR a fancy date-night dinner. I decided that the menu would be grilled salmon, orzo-stuffed tomatoes, and a kale, spinach, and red pepper saute. All in all, pretty fantabulous. We paired it with a delightful pinot grigio (but keep in mind that with salmon, you could really go either way–white or red) and enjoyed ourselves on a makeshift indoor picnic blanket.

Oooh la la, que bueno!

To make these dreamy little balls of heaven (pretend I came up with something better to say), you simply hollow out tomatoes and sprinkle them with a little S&P. Reserve the liquid from the tomatoes, because you can use it to cook the orzo (or rice, or cous cous, or whatever). In a small saucepan, toast two tabelspoons of butter, 1 sliced shallot, and 1 clove of garlic. When the butter has melted, add 1 1/2 cups of orzo and lightly toast. Pour in the tomato liquid and chicken stock and cook orzo until done (about 8 min). Make a breadcrumb topping by combining breadcrumbs and a variety of herbs (I used parsley, basil, and rosemary) with salt, pepper, and olive oil (HINT: also add some parm. I was out of cheese, so I couldn’t do that part). When the orzo is done, stir in half of the breadcrumb mixture and fill the tomatoes (you’ll have orzo left over for later). Sprinkle the tops of the ‘maters with the rest of the bread crumb mixture, drizzle with a little bit more olive oil, and throw them under a low broiler for a few minutes. Delish, is really all that I can say.

It didn’t even taste healthy!

For the kale and spinach mixture, first chop a shallot and a clove of garlic and bring it to temperature with a bit of olive oil and butter (1 1/2 TBL total). Also, if you’d like (and I liked) add 1/2 tsp of red chili flake. Then add 1 sliced red bell pepper at saute 2 min. Add one bunch of kale and one bunch of spinach (this stuff wilts down to almost nothing, so if you’re cooking for more than 2, be sure account for that), and saute until it wilts, but still has a bit of a bite to it. Sprinkle in a dash of nutmeg, too. It brings out the flavor of greens.Now, for this salmon–I went a little outside my fish comfort zone. Usually, I just like to drizzle with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper it and be done with it, because I like to keep the fish as pure and as simple as possible. BUT, I thought, what the hell? Make it herbacious, right? So, about ten minutes before I threw it on the grill, I slathered it with some honey mustard, basil, parsley, rosemary, salt, pepper, and a little bit of lemon juice. Slathered may not be the right word…because I definitely just lightly coated it. Threw it on the grill 4 min a side (I took it a little far. 3 min a side would have been better) The flavor was unbelievable and the skin was crispy.

Look how yumy!!

This has CDR’s stamp of approval!

Now, with Friday night’s successful dinner, I thought I’d make fancy Christmas cookies on Saturday morning. They really aren’t that fancy. They’re sugar cookies with some chopped rosemary. Couldn’t be easier. Everyone has their own favorite sugar cookie recipe, so just use that and add about 1 tablespoon of chopped FRESH rosemary, and it gives your cookies a wonderful pine, Christmas flavor.

I wish YOU a Merry Christmas!

So maybe this year we give Santa a little sophistication and leave him some nice rosemary-sugar cookies. They’re delectable, and quite perfect for those of us that want to feel a little grown-up this Christmas.

Make enough for reindeer!

Ciao, guys. I have a room to clean.

Oh Hai There…

Oh heeeey, guys! Been a while, right? Well, I just started my last semester at Columbia, began an awesome internship, and dove into stage managing RENT.  I also just began work props designing Phantom of the Opera…and the list goes on. I’m really only Listing my responsibilities for my own benefit, just to keep me a little saner. I’m finding little time to read, be crafty, and yes, cook.

However, I did manage to bake some cookies about a week ago (I know…yikes!). They were pretty delicious, but they probably would have been a little less crispy had I not measured the butter incorrectly. Recipe called for 3/4 cup of butter, but I used 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons– no, I have no idea how my brain decided t hat that was 3/4 of a cup. My excuse? I had just spent the previous seven hours running auditions for an opera company. That means seven hours of opera.  I was tired…and maybe had a few Bacardi silver’s in me. But in any case, two tablespoons were missing from the dough and so the cookies turned out a little crispy, but they were still pretty good. Oh! They were Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip cookies with cranberries. You know the drill: cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla, then your flour and baking soda/powders. Add oatmeal and chips and you’ve got cookie dough! Bake ten minutes.

In other news, my mission of self reclamation is moving forward. I feel like with my schedule getting hectic, I’ve slowed down a bit and haven’t been able to focus so much on slowing down. However, I’ve begun welcoming the quiet, lonely moments again–mostly because the opportunity for them has dwindled significantly. But my friends have really inspired me lately. Everyone is so intrepid these days! I’m so proud of all of them. WR is studying in Greece this semester, TK is growing up and making plans for himself and someone else, IA is making a snake puppet AND just did his first professional scenic design, AE is planning on realizing his dream and moving to So Cal, PD is moving stage managing a show from hell, CDR is–I think–finding his inner child, and MB is going to be a guest speaker at a University–and ohnobigdeal–she’s fallen in love!! Bravo, ladies and gentleman. You are all so amazing.

…So yeah, you know where this is going. How shall I continue on my quest for self reclamation, self discovery, and newfound intrepidness–especially when I’m so busy? Food trip!!! I’ve always wanted to take a trip by myself to a place where nobody knows who I am or where I’ve been. For a couple days, I’d like to be a total stranger to myself and others…and eat REALLY good food. So, here are the parameters:
The city I travel to must be in either the US or Canada.
The city must have a unique food culture.
I must go before December 23rd, 2012 (just in case).

I’m open to suggestions.
Happy Eatings!

Dinner for 3

Yup. That’s what I ate for dinner tonight. Mom and Dad were coming home late and we each have had a stressful few days, so I thought, “Why not cook again?” So I did.

I got home at 2:30 and immediately went for the crock-pot. I chopped half an onion, two garlic cloves, and the rest of the carrots from last night–3 of them. I put a package of boneless skinless chicken tenderloin in and covered it with a cup and a half of vegetable stock and half a bottle of a hickory smoke BBQ sauce. Salt, pepper, and about half a teaspoon of chipotle powder. I set the pot for 4 hrs, gave it a stir, and let it go.

Meanwhile, I was checking the pantry for something to nice to make for dessert that would go well with these flavors. I found pumpkin puree. Okay. Pumpkin cookies. I found a recipe on the foodnetwork website and went to work. Then I really started thinking.

To me, pumpkin in baked goods never really packs a punch of flavor. It’s a much more delicate taste and we use cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves to beef it up. Well, all of those flavors were in the recipe and the first batch came out beautifully. Moist. Then I thought about my Christmas sugar cookies and how for my “flair factor” I add rosemary. Rosemary and squash go wonderfully together, don’t they? They sure do! Now, I only had dry rosemary on hand and it worked out nicely. But I’d prefer it to be fresh.

Now, in between batches of cookies, I was keeping an eye on that chicken, stirring it now and then. I had half a can of pureed pumpkin left! Should I freeze it? Noooooo. Put it in the crock-pot? YES. In went in and then I added a cinnamon stick for good measure! I let it go for about two more hours before shredding the chicken and adding some black beans (again, yesterday’s leftovers). I served it on a sweet Hawaiian roll with a simple salad.

I re-learned something in the past two days. I’ve been so busy pursuing my other passion–theater–that I’d forgotten about my other–food. I forced myself to slow down, calm down, and take pride in my food. I’m so glad I did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My First Go at Vegan

Hello everyone!

It has been a while, I know. School just ended for the year, and I’m feeling a major wave of relaxation wash over me. Finally, I can work on a show without the stress of homework, tests, and projects. Oh, and I can also cook! So, since the weather got nice, I’ve been on a major health kick. I’ve started jogging (and I thought I hated running) and have really been conscious about the things I’m eating. This is also due to a class I took this semester that focused on the Divine Feminine and Mother Earth consciousness. What I took from the class is that we really need to start taking care of the world we live in and the way to do that is to start with yourself. For our final project, my group decided to cook a vegan meal and I, of course, was in charge of baking cookies.

Vegan baking is pretty easy, though it involves using ingredients you may not be used to…well, using. Now, a note on vegan foods. “Vegan” is not the synonymous with “healthy.” Sure, in vegan baking you cannot use dairy (no butter, milk, yogurt, etc) and no animal byproduct (no eggs, honey, etc). This is all well and good because the substitutes can be pretty healthy (Earth Balance is a great butter sub because there’s fewer calories and has much fewer trans and saturated fats compared to margarine) and the egg substitutes (be it flax meal or actual egg substitute has next to no cholesterol). But you are still using sugar (make sure you get vegan sugar because regular granulated sugar can have ground up animal bone in it) and if you’re using a lot of it, the cookie or dessert is not much better for you than a regular chocolate chip cookie.

But anyway, for this project, I made two different cookies. The first was a chewy chocolate chip cookie, which was probably one of the best cookies I have ever tasted. I used Earth Balance in place of margarine and I used organic brown sugar instead of vegan white sugar. Make sure you get Vegan Chocolate Chips (ones that don’t contain milk fat). Here’s the link.http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/cookies/chocolate-chip-cookies.html and here’s the result:

So Frickin Good!

The other cookie was an oatmeal raisin cookie. This one is a bit healthier (less sugar), but beware that it tastes healthier. It’s still good, and I’d still recommend giving this a try, but they have an interesting taste. Again, use all brown sugar for a fuller flavor. Invest in coconut oil (it’s AMAZING), and don’t be afraid of soy milk. Here’s that link: http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/cookies/chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies.html and here’s that result:

Go For It!

Go forth and give vegan baking a try. I’ve only made these two things, but in my quest to get healthier, I will be trying more vegan recipes that are healthier for me and satisfy my sweet tooth! Enjoy.

Cookie Bars

Oatmeal, Cranberries, and Chocolate Chips. Oh My!

Well, hello readers. And a special welcome to spring on this lovely equinox.

So, about these cookie bars. This is an adaptation of my friend Peter’s recipe. Super delicious and super rich. If you keep them properly stored (covered, air-tight) they’ll be good for about four or five days.

So you start with a basic chocolate chip recipe. Mine was the nestle tollhouse recipe. Cream 1 cup of butter with 1 1/2 cups of sugar (the recipe usually calls for half granulated white and half brown sugar. I used all brown sugar). Add two eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla (though you know my vanilla no-measure policy). It is not in chocolate chip cookie recipes, but I also added two tablespoons of pumpkin butter. Decrease the amount of flour in the recipe to 1 1/2 cups (standard recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups) and add it in batches with 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Then add a cup or so of chocolate chips, the same amount of oats, and about 3/4 cup of dried cranberries. Spread in a buttered 13×9 pan and bake at 375 until golden brown on top (about 15-20 minutes).

The last three ingredients can be tailored to your tastes. Experiment. Suggested substitutions or additions: oatmeal/raisin, oatmeal/raisin/chocolate chip, coconut/chocolate chip/peanut butter chips. You get the idea. Whatever you want. Instead of pumpkin butter, maybe it’s cherry butter and a white chocolate chip/cranberry combination. Another photo:

I'm so tasty. Please eat me!

Two nights ago, I made a nice orzo salad with grapefruit and orange slices, with red onion, mint and basil. I’ve blogged about that salad, so just search it for a more exact recipe. I also made burgers. In the ground meat mixture, I put a pound of ground beef, 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh basil, two cloves of chopped garlic, two tablespoons of red wine, and salt and pepper. I grilled them on my new grill pan. I’m officially on spring break, so I’ll try to blog a few more times this week to make up for my less than regular blogging. Not that anyone is really reading this.

Enjoy spring!

A Note on the Cookies from the Last Post…

With the cookies you have left over, the next day you should spread some cream cheese on top for a sweet and tart treat!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie-Muffin-Type-Things

 

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Remix

 

Hello, everyone! While I’m sitting at home, enjoying my first snow day since 5th grade, I decided I would catch up on blogging that I meant to do over the weekend. So, sitting here in my living room, sipping on Trader Joe’s coffee, I will tell you about my culinary experiment.

Last week, I had an amazing cookie from Potbelly’s. It was an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but different somehow. It tasted the way it it should. It was chewy, and the taste of oats, cinnamon, and chocolate were prevalent, but it was somehow extraordinary. And then I realized that I couldn’t taste (or feel?) the texture of the oats in the cookie. So, I thought about the ways this was possible. First, it could be an oat or oatmeal extract. Or, I thought, the oatmeal could be partially or fully cooked. Aha! That must be it. Well, after this experiment, it’s probably the former rather than the latter, but I tried and the result was still delicious, though a little ambiguous. I started by preheating the oven to 375.

I fully cooked about 3/4 cup of dry oats (just in water) to make about 1 1/2 cups of  oatmeal. I set it aside to let it cool. In the meantime, I began to make the basic Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe. After I beat in the eggs and vanilla, I added the oatmeal and beat it in. Here’s where it took a turn. I added the baking soda and 2 1/4 cup of flour and the dough stayed pretty wet. It didn’t come together the way I thought it should. So, I added flour (about an extra cup), and it stayed the same consistency, but started tasting glutenous. The dough tasted exceptional when I had the original amount of flour. Well, I wasn’t about to start over, so I baked them anyway. They went onto an ungreased cookie sheet in tablespoon sizes and baked about 10-13 minutes.

They rose! They baked more like scones rather than cookies. And then I tasted them. They had the consistency of a super moist muffin that had met a chewy cookie. Oh, and they were pretty good. Very rich, though. I think this concept is a keeper, though next time I’m going to try it without the extra flour.

Stay safe, out there people! It’s supposed to be bad tonight!

 

No Bake Cookies (or Candy)

 

Season's Eatings!

Hello all and a happy Winter Solstice! Tis the magical season of giving and love. How are you celebrating? I’ve been baking my tail off, trying to live my Unitarian Universalist principles, and tonight I’ll celebrate the solstice. But I’m sure you readers (because I know you’re out there) care not to hear about my solstice plans. You care about what I’ve made recently, as this is a food blog.

 

So last night, Chef Vishneski and I baked on an industrial level. Though, that was not intentional. See, I accidentally quadrupled this recipe by adding two cups of milk instead of 1/2 cup. Don’t ask. I’m still trying to figure out how that one happened. But anyway, because of that, we had to quadruple all other ingredients. These cookies we made are quite delicious. They are no bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies. My mom pointed out last night that I probably should advertise these as candy rather than cookies, and after careful consideration, I’m going to have to agree with her. However, the index card in the Vishneski kitchen said these were No Bake Cookies, and a V family tradition, so while I’ll caution you that these are really more like candy, I’ll call them cookies. Here’s the recipe (in not quadrupled form.)

2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa (Hershey’s), 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/4 pound of butter (that’s one stick). Put these ingredients into a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let it sit for a minute. Then mix in 1 tsp of vanilla, a pinch of salt, 1/2 chunky peanut butter, and 3 cups of quick-cooking oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls on wax paper. Let them harden (we put them in the fridge), but be aware that these won’t REALLY harden, they will just solidify a bit more than what you just dropped onto the wax paper. The result is kind of magical.

 

Yum Yum Yum

 

So, while I wait for the financial stability to repair my camera, images from my web cam will have to do (though donations are being accepted and much appreciated). At least I can add fun borders to them. You should expect a post on the 23rd, and maybe if I have time you’ll get something on Christmas Eve. You see, I’m throwing a little Christmas/Solstice/Birthday party on the 23rd, and am in charge of a large portion of Christmas Eve dinner. In the meantime, go and be merry! Finish your last-minute shopping, and don’t forget to cook something.