On a Baking High

After the success of my chocolate chip cookies yesterday, I was really excited to wake up this morning and go for Round 2: Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Again I went the easiest route and used the recipe on the lid of the Quaker oats. You gotta start somewhere!


The beginning of the oatmeal cookies is almost identical to the beginning of the chocolate chip cookies: cream together 2 sticks of softened butter (which I softened/sort of melted in the microwave) with brown sugar and white sugar. Add 2 eggs and the vanilla, blend that up and then start adding your dry ingredients. The only new dry ingredient in this one is cinnamon, which I actually debated adding to the chocolate chip cookies but figured I should stick to the instructions the first time around.


I learned my lesson yesterday when I inadvertently created a Lebron chalk clap in my kitchen trying to mix in the flour with the hand mixer - although it is kind of an exciting way to kick of your baking, maybe I'll start doing that for all my baking adventures (the Jessica flour clap, I like it). This time I used a spatula to do the mixing:

This was actually not less messy, I still threw flour around in the first couple of turns. I mixed in the oats and the raisins and started putting the dough on the pans. You might have noticed yesterday that I put foil down on my pans, this is sort of a habit because I'm lazy and this makes clean up much easier, but I was also being extra cautious about burning the cookies. I even sprayed the foil with cooking spray as extra insurance. I took both of those measures again this time:

Even though I felt like I was making pretty big cookies, this recipe makes way more than 2 dozen cookies! I'm actually not a huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies but they're one of Ty's favorite. They looked so good when I pulled them out of the oven that I had to run upstairs and yank him out of bed so he could try them while they were nice and hot. (note: I did not wake up extra early to bake these, he was just being lazy :P )

I'm a kick-ass fiance :)


I'm not sure if it's because I was making bigger than average cookies but these took at least 15-20 minutes to bake, longer than the 10-12 the recipe calls for. And my foil/cooking spray trick worked perfectly: golden brown bottom, no sticking and less dishes!

Verdict: Considering he devoured the first one without speaking, just "ooommnomnomnom mmm mmmmmmm" I think they came out pretty good! I tasted one of his and even though I'm still not a big fan I think they turned out really yummy.


I'm thinking for my Christmas variety I'm going to try using Craisins instead of raisins, and probably use more than the 1 cup the recipe calls for.

Christmas Baking Practice Rounds

For christmas this year I've decided I want to bake gifts for some people, but since we all know my track record with all things culinary I figured it's in my best interest (and the interest of those recieving my gifts) that I try a few of the recipes out before hand.


Round 1: Homemade Chocolate Chip cookies. I went the easiest route and tried the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chips - and while I was standing in the grocery store reading the back of the package I realized I actually had all the ingredients it called for except the chocolate chips.


I think me and baking are going to get along because it's all about measurement. Mixing together the butter/sugar/eggs was fairly uneventful, I just put them in the bowl and used my hand mixer. Next it said to slowly mix in the dry ingredients (flour/baking soda/salt) and that's where things got a little messy. Again, I'm so glad I can provide endless entertainment for my cats as they sat looking curiously at me while I put some of the flour into the bowl, started the mixer and got all Lebron James up in here.

Seriously, how do they expect you to mix the dry ingredients in using a hand mixer without creating a cumulus cloud of flour in your kitchen?


Anyway, I finally got everything mixed up and tasted the batter. It tasted pretty damn good if I do say so myself, but I was afraid it was a little too thick. I had no idea how to make it thinner and wasn't in the mood to experiment so I just went with it.

Even though I thought I was making pretty big dough balls, this recipe made a ton of cookies! This is pan 1 of 2.5:

Verdict: Ty said they were some of the best chocolate chip cookies he's ever had! They're a pretty dense cookie  - I was a little nervous they'd spread and become one giant cookie while they were cooking but they really didn't spread much at all.

I'm considering adding peanut butter next time, does anyone know if I need to add any extra dry ingredients if I add peanut butter?

A day care staple all grown up

Ty has a funny love for a food that brings back memories of daycare for me: the English muffin pizza. I think of these as something kids eat, but given that I once fed him baby food without him knowing, I can't complain when he says he's making his favorite mini-pizzas for dinner.

They may not be gourmet but you can really dress up an English muffin pizza and they're very inexpensive! We use whole wheat English muffins, Ragu pizza sauce, pepperonis and mushrooms but you could easily use your own sauce and add tons of veggies to these. Plus, they're really fun to put together of course I don't have a picture but I've used two pepperonis and a few mushrooms to make a little pizza face before. :)

Ty has got his down to a science, he lightly toasts the english muffin halves first before adding the other ingredients. This helps so the sauce doesn't make the muffin mushy, especially if you make a few extras to save for lunch the next day. After that it's just like building any other pizza: sauce, cheese, toppings - or whatever order you prefer. I know some pizza places put the cheese on top of the toppings, which would make them middlings? I like to see what I'm eating so I keep my toppings on top.

In other news, the 1/2 marathon I was supposed to run is tomorrow. In a last minute loss of sanity I decided that instead of letting my entry go to waste, I switched to the 8k. I wasn't planning to run at all, hence why I haven't run in almost 2 months, so I'm hoping I can make it the whole 5 miles!

Good luck to all my friends running the 1/2 and the full marathons tomorrow!!

The "Best Chili" made "Sort of OK"

Tonight I tried my second attempt ever at chili! We originally were going to try a crockpot chili but after looking at a few recipes it looked like the crockpot ones were just as labor intensive as the stove top ones, so we went with this stove top recipe for the "Best Chili."
Last night I checked our cabinets and was lucky that we already had over 1/2 of the ingredients. Ty went by the store and grabbed the beef, pork, coriander, bouillon cubes, corn meal and cocoa powder - so if you know a recipe that involves any of these ingredients please pass it along! I started off by assembling all the ingredients and heating a pan on the stove. I put a little over 1/2 of the beef in there and got it started, the recipe says to mix the beef in pork but it just seemed easier to start with one and mix them once they're cooked. 

My plan was to chop the garlic and onions while the meat was cooking but I quickly realized that although I'd assembled all my ingredients (and was so proud of myself for being prepared), I hadn't assembled all my utensils. Why? Because my cutting board, knife and measuring cup were in the dishwasher which was currently mid-wash cycle. I debated opening the dishwasher to get them out but with my luck a soap avalanche would have come spilling out swallowing one or more cats in its wake. Instead I found another cutting board and proceeded to chop the garlic and onion with a steak knife - it was either that or a foot long bread knife.

I followed the recipe exactly until the whole "simmer for 2 hours" part (pouring in the beer was both fun and frightening). The meat is already cooked, why wait? I did however "simmer" (which is more of a boil really on the gas stove) it while we watched last week's No Ordinary Family on DVR. 45 minutes or so? 

The Verdict: I thought it was awesome! Ty on the other hand agreed that the seasonings were pretty great but it was a little too greasy for him to eat. I'm sure he doesn't want me to share his intestinal issues so let's just say he has a sensitive stomach. It was also pretty cheap considering we had most of the ingredients and the amount of leftovers we now have.

The grease part was actually my fault (surprise!), if you read the recipe it says to drain all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the meat. Well in attempting to do that an entire pan of hot browned beef nearly dropped on Basher's head. I'm sure the meat rain wouldn't have bothered him really, just the hot part. So I guess I didn't follow the recipe exactly and Ty wasn't able to eat much of it - I even tried blotting with a paper towel like you do with pizza :) I ate mine with tortilla chips and enjoyed every greasy minute of it! Now that I have an entire batch to eat pretty much by myself I might have to get creative with it: chili dogs, burgers, maybe even Cincinnati style?

We'll try this recipe again but will definitely drain the meat better and I think add kidney beans.  


Does anyone else cook for someone else who is a picky eater or has a sensitive stomach? Any recipes that work for you?

I made myself a super easy breakfast the other morning and it inspired me to tell you about the wonder that is the Hanover tomato. I'd hope that everyone in the Richmond area knows about these (they have a huge festival in their honor every year) but I guess it's possible that not everyone does. If you live in any part of Hanover County, Virginia you know what they are and you gorge yourself on them the entire time they're in season, possibly not eating tomatoes any other time of the year.

They may not look much different than standard tomatoes, but you'll have to trust me here.

I went to the farmer's market down the road yesterday and picked up a few Hanover tomatoes to dice up for tacos. I realized we're probably coming to the end of their season so I stocked up and also got a few white peaches mmmm. I did in fact dice up one of the tomatoes last night for tacos and it was fabulous, and I had some leftover. This morning all I could think of was was can I put those tomatoes in. I'm a big fan of eggs so I decided to saute a little diced onion and throw that in scrambled eggs with the diced tomatoes and top it with some cheddar cheese. I also had one of my delicious banana nut muffins :)

Since I'm going out of town for work most of this week (here I come Austin!) I'm going to eat tomatoes at almost every meal until Tuesday, and then who knows maybe I'll go back to Cheryl's produce when I get back and stock up again before they're gone!