Chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies

I buy the large cans of oatmeal only because I love oatmeal cookies. Plus, if you put oatmeal in cookies that makes them healthy, no? My recipe is based upon one I found online that says theirs was based on a Test Kitchen recipe. I haven't verified that but I thought I'd just let you know. I have also halved the recipe. We make cookie in our house in half batches a) because 2 people shouldn't eat an entire batch of cookies in 2 to 3 days (and who are we kidding because we so will), and b) I'm too lazy to form and place that many cookies on the trays and rotate them through the oven. I'm not sure what it is. I love to mix cookies, but hate to get them on the trays.

Ingredients:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cups dried cranberries (I used Trader Joe's dried cranberries with orange flavor)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and cocoa powder. In a large bowl, beat the butter with a hand mixer until creamy. Mix in granulated and brown sugars. Beat for 3 minutes until fluffy. Beat in egg. Using a wooden spoon mix in dry ingredient mixture. Stir in rolled oats and cranberries. I would also add in chocolate chips here, but I didn't have any. It could use a stronger chocolate flavor.

Keep your baking assistant away from mixed cookie dough. She ate about 3 cookies worth of raw dough. Don't worry. You've got a better chance of being struck by lightening than you do dying from eating raw cookie dough.

I scooped out 2 tbps of dough, rolled into a ball and placed them 2 inches away from each other. Next time I will make the dough balls bigger and much closer together. These cookies do not spread much as the cook. Use parchment paper or Silpats to keep cookies from sticking to the tray. Use magnets to keep your parchment paper from rolling while you add cookies. Remove magnets before baking. Duh.

At this point I would like to say that if you are baking cookies and do not own a roll of parchment paper or Silpats you are missing out. I spent years scraping (and ruining) cookie sheets and even hesitated to make cookies fearing the clean up. Go get some. I love mine.

Bake cookies for 16 minutes at 350. I recommend eating them warm. Not that they are bad once cooled. They're just so much better still warm.

Shameless picture of the apron that I made and love. I make big messes when I'm in the kitchen.

Green salsa

15 or so tomatillos
2 sweet onions
2 or 3 hot peppers
1/2 tsp cumin
Salt to taste

Makes roughly 2 1/2 cups salsa.

Remove papery husks from tomatillos and cut into meduim size chunks. Remove stems, too. Cut up onions the same size as well as the peppers. Make sure to remove stems and seeds from peppers. Use caution when cutting peppers. Don't rub your eyes and consider using gloves.

Put all veggies in a Pyrex roasting pan. Broil in the oven. Stir occasionally. Continue until the veggies begin to blacken then remove.

Use a blender, wand mixer or Cuisinart to blend to a desired texture. I prefer it to be uniform and smooth. Salt to taste and add cumin. Eat.

Can be eaten with chips, put on tacos or put on chicken before cooking.  Or with a spoon. I don't know how well it stores or freezes as we rarely don't consume it all.

As always feel free to add and subtract veggies and/or seasonings to your own tastes.

Polack Shortcakes

As far as I can remember into my childhood, my mother usually served strawberry shortcakes on angel food cake. A few weeks ago, Paddy and I bought some strawberries at Whole Foods. Berries notoriously go moldy in our home because we forget to eat them the first day. Never again.

On that day, I decided to make shortcakes for our strawberries. I've never made shortcake before, but I'm sure I saw a recipe on the Bisquick box. Miraculously we had all the ingredients in the house. First ingredient is 4 pints of strawberries. Check. Next was 1/2 cup of sugar. I poured it in my Pyrex mixing bowl and set to work adding all the other ingredients..until I got to the 3 tbsp of sugar part. Why would I add another 3 tbsp of sugar when we already added 1/2 cup. Turns out that 1/2 cup of sugar is supposed to go on the strawberries. Woops. Oh, well, I finished and baked them anyways.

Over the past few weeks I've messed with the recipe until I feel confident to post it here. (Or I've been busy eating shortcakes and finally decided to stop being lazy and post it.) In any case, you'll love it. Shortcakes that are so sweet and heavenly and cakey. No dry, cardboardy biscuits here.

Polack shortcakes:
1/2 cup of sugar
2 1/3 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
some shakes of cinnamon
3 tbsp melted butter

Mix ingredients. Make 6 lumps on a Silpat baking sheet. (If you don't have Silpats, they're heavenly, get them.)

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

They're so good you'll eat any leftovers naked once the berries and whipped cream are gone.

Here's tonight's finished dessert of blackberry shortcakes, but Paddy used my shortcakes to complete it so I'll have to have him tell you what he did. It's so damn good.

5-Hour No Knead Bread update

On Monday Paddy requested bread. Like a dummy, I packed all my cook books but two of them. I did not leave out my bread cook book. Sigh. I made Caine's 5-Hour No Knead Bread. I also put in garlic powder(1 tsp?), ground chipotle powder(2 tsp?) and some chopped fresh cilantro (handful?) It was so good I made 4 more loaves on Tuesday to use up all the fresh cilantro bunch.

We had it for lunch. We had it for dinner. I'm having it for lunch again. The toddler is in love with it. She's going to start pooping loaves of bread. It's all she asks for. "Brrrrrread? Brrrrread?" She seriously asked for it for breakfast.

Flour Fail

Paddy and I talk about buying the 25 pound bag of flour at Whole Foods all the time but don't because we're moving "soon" (in 3 months ish.) I have started baking bread very regularly to use as sandwiches for our lunches to save money on eating out. I now go through large amounts of flour, so we went to Whole Foods to get the 25 pound bag.

The bag is really a 50 pound bag. We got it anyways because it's just $1.00 a pound and organic and bread flour (has more gluten than regular flour.)

On the way home the umbrella stroller that was also in the trunk with the sack o'flour put a hole in the bag. Not at the top, or the bottom. Right in the middle. Paddy did some cursing bringing it into the house, as I was putting the weentsy one down for a nap and 22 weeks pregnant. (See moms? I do responsible pregnant things like not carrying the 50 pound bag of flour or teh 50 pound bag of sand.) Did I mention we also bought a 50 pound bag of sand to make a mini sandbox for Weentsy? It's not as much sand as you'd think.

Since we're moving "soon" I have packed up all non-necessary containers and kitchen things. Including my new gallon and half gallon sized glass containers which would be super helpful right about now with a ripped bag of flour. Instead I have a canning pot filled with flour. And a soup pot. And that took enough flour out of the bag to get it below the hold level.

Paddy is now dreaming of loaves of potato bread. And sourdough bowls. And dinner rolls. I'd better get baking.

Jane's Chili

I just made this up today. I make up my chili recipe every time I make a pot. But I make this for Jane because the girl loves chili and beans and I sneak in lots of veggies and some grains. Then I don't feel as bad letting her have an Oreo for dessert.

1/2 pound ground meat (I used beef today.)
1 onion
4 stalks of celery
1 quart canned quartered tomatoes
1/2 bag of frozen chopped broccoli
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
broth (I used turkey)
garlic powder
cumin
chili powder
ground red pepper
quinoa

In a soup pot, brown the ground meat. Do not drain. Add onions and celery. Dump in tomatoes with juice and half the bag of chopped broccoli. Feel free to add other veggies. I have used carrots, beets, corn, etc. in the past. Drain and rinse beans. Add to pot. Also feel free to use what ever kind of beans you'd like or to soak up some dried beans over night. I was being lazy today and used the canned ones. Season with chili seasoning. Make it as hot, or not as you'd like. Jane can handle some burn. ;)

Add broth. I probably added about 6 oz. I have homemade broth frozen in silicone cupcake cups. Each one is about 1.5 oz and I think I tossed in 4 ish. It happened to be turkey stock. Use whatever you have or like.

Bring pot to a boil and let simmer for a while. Mine probably was around an hour, but I wasn't really paying attention. Cook until the veggies are tender. Pour in some quinoa (or any other grain) I probably added 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of quinoa. The goal is to absorb the extra liquid and thicken things up. Cook for however longer your grain needs to properly cook.

Serve. Freeze in smaller sized portions to defrost.

Jane after 2 bowls of her chili and an Oreo.

Caine's 5-hour No Knead bread

3 c flour (dip, level, pour please)
1.5 tsp salt
7 grams yeast
Mix em (I use a whisk.)
Add 1.5 c water
Fork it til it's "wet and shaggy" (Caine says, it will look wrong.)

**Please us a fork, too. I was lazy and kept using the whisk. It worked, but was a bitch to get the dough out of in the end.**
Cover with plastic wrap(I usually mark my plastic wrap with a sharpie so I remember when it's 'done.')

Wait 3 hours
Turn it out onto an (olive)oiled board and fold it 2 times
**This is where you can fold in other yummies, like roasted garlic and/or herbs. I just added home dried basil because I was too lazy to roast garlic and it was late. Next time, Gadget!**

Cover it on the board for 30 min
Preheat dutch oven and lid to 400°
Put dough in dutch oven w/seam side up (Can also pour some olive oil on dough. Paddy really 'poured' too.)
Cover and bake for 30 minutes
Uncover and cook for 15 minutes

Slice, slather with butter, eat.
Start your next loaf.