Moving Cookies

I haven't disappeared, but I have been without internet for a few weeks.  Anyway, here's a post I started in the midst of moving.  Far too many things have crossed my mind since I set out to make these, but details don't really matter when you add peanut butter and chocolate chips to a thick and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie, do they?  I'm mostly unpacked and settled in now, but the following paragraphs are a taste of what I was up to when I should have been packing.......

Moving cookies. These are moving cookies. Otherwise known as Melissa has way to many things to be doing/packing/finishing up etc. but can't concentrate on any of them so she just ends up making cookies. Yeah, those kind of cookies.

Our first red flag is cookie justification.  Oh I could take a break and make cookies to give to people who are helping me pack and move. Thank you cookies. Goodbye cookies. Besides, I do have a recipe that needs testing and tweaking. 

The first few minutes of measuring and mixing are indeed a therapeutic zone-out to avoid the task at hand.  But then comes the dough.  Stress eating half a batch of dough and then barely having enough cookies left to give your helpers only heightens the tension and anxiety inside.  But it happens.   Happened.   More than once.   Ugh, will I ever learn?   Note to self: open jars of peanut butter and half-empty bags of chocolate chips are not helpful, especially after all that cookie dough.

It almost seems like an insult to exchange cookies for moving help, these don't come close to repaying all the help I've received.  THANK YOU to all the patient, strong, hard-working helpers.  I wish I had words to express how much I appreciate you.  I just don't know how to thank you, and so by default I make cookies.

Moving Cookies
recipe inspired and adapted from a conglomeration of too many things for me to tell you about right now

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2-1/2 cups uncooked quick-oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions: (Danger! Do not proceed under stressful situations, you will just eat too much dough. Rapid and mindless consumption of dough, leftover ingredients and warm cookies will not help in the long run.)
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
* In a large bowl cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
* In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into wet ingredients.  Mix in oats.  Add raisins, chocolate chips and walnuts; stir to combine.
* Scoop mounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Flatten slightly with palm of hand.  Bake 9-10 minutes or until edges just begin to turn golden brown.  Let cool 1-2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling racks.

Food for Thought: The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. -Proverbs 27:12

Flashback Friday: Camp Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

Camp cookies are a longstanding tradition at our house.  Most of my growing up years we went camping for several weeks each summer.  Whether it was a week at a state park or a 3 week road trip packing in as many national parks as possible, we made lots of memories.  No matter where we went these cookies were a part of each trip, which is exactly why we call them camp cookies.  I know, brilliant, right?

The best thing about these cookies is we were allowed to eat them for breakfast.  Loaded with oats, peanut butter and raisins + the fact that we were on vacation made these a perfectly acceptable breakfast.  Many an early morning my parents would carry us to the car still in our sleeping bags.  Breakfast on the road meant reaching over the backseat and into the trunk to find the ice cream pail full of camp cookies.  Of course they also doubled as dessert, hiking snacks and "are we there yet?" silencers.

Let's see, what else do you need to know about this tradition? True to our last minute form, a gigantic batch of these monster cookies found their way to the oven late into the night or in the wee hours of the morning before we left.  While the cookies baked there was plenty of time to cram things into the car, finish laundry and stuff it into suitcases and gather all the camping gear.

Oh, you also need to be a strategic spiller when you make these.  The M&M's are never measured, just dumped and spilled into the dough.  I usually tried to make sure my mom spilled in a few extra.  Depending on the length of our trip we would make up to 3 big batches. Penciled into our cookbook are measurements for a double and triple batch, which I've included in the recipe below.  I'm not sure we ever made just a single batch, they disappear too quickly.

Three week road trips definitely meant a triple batch, which barely fit into our trusty yellow mixing bowl.  When the bowl is literally so full the dough falls out, you had better eat some.  And trust me when I say this dough is seriously good.  It's probably a good thing cookie dough doesn't travel well or I'd never have had room for smores. Though the days of family camping trips are long past these camp cookies are still a family favorite.

Camp Cookies
adapted from an old church cookbook recipe submitted by Miriam Fokema Rogers to "Our Favorite Recipes, United Methodist Church of Kasson"

Ingredients: (double recipe, triple recipe)
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 c, 1-1/2 c)
1/2 cup peanut butter (1 c, 1-1/2 c)
1 cup granulated sugar (2 c, 3 c)
1 cup packed brown sugar (2 c, 3 c)
2 large eggs (4, 6)
1/4 cup milk (1/2 c, 3/4 c)
1 tsp vanilla (2 tsp, 1 Tbsp)
1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour (3-1/2 c, 5-1/4 c)
1 tsp baking soda (2 tsp, 1 Tbsp)
1/2 tsp salt (1 tsp, 1-1/2 tsp)
3 cups oats (6 c, 9 c) (I used 1-1/2 cups quick oats and 1-1/2 cups rolled oats....or whatever you have on hand at midnight the night before your camping trip)
1 cup peanuts (2 c, 3 c)
1 cup raisins  (2 c, 3 c)
1 cup candy coated chocolate pieces  (2 c, 3 c) (please don't measure here, just dump generously or spill in some extra.  We usually use both plain and peanut candy coated chocolate pieces...which doubles the spilling opportunities.)

Instructions: (if making a triple batch, use an extra large bowl)
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
* In a large bowl cream together butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla.
* In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; stir into wet ingredients.  Mix in oats then stir in peanuts, raisins and candy coated chocolate pieces.
* Using a cookie scoop (or ice cream scoop for monster cookies), scoop dough onto ungreased baking sheets.  Bake 10-12 minutes (slightly longer for larger cookies) or until edges are golden brown and centers are almost (but not quite) set. Let stand 3 minutes before transferring to wire cooling racks.  When completely cool, store in airtight containers. (We always used 5-gallon ice cream pails for camping trips.)

Food for Thought: "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." -John Muir

Flashback Friday: Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

This recipe appeared twice in my great-grandmother's notebook.  On one page she called them "Cookies, Mamma's White" and on another they were called "Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies." If they were old-fashioned even in her day, what does that make them now?  Super-old-fashioned?  And when she called them Mamma's White Cookies does that mean this recipe was from my great-great-grandmother?

Let's just say a few other details have been lost as well.  Both times she left out the flour measurement and instructions. Again.  Yep, it's time for another round of guessing games and recipe testing.

I looked up multiple old-fashioned sour cream sugar cookie recipes.  Having old cookbooks comes in handy, but some of the recipes aren't any more detailed than my great-grandma's.  Once again I found drop cookies and cut-out cookies, so I split the recipe in half and tried it both ways.  The Betty Crocker Picture Cooky Book (which I showed you on our very first Flashback Friday) gave me a good starting point for the cut-out cookies.  I never would have picked an oven temperature of 425, but most of the recipes I found used surprisingly high temperatures.

Flashback Friday: Good Jumbo Raisin Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

These cookies more than make up for that disappointing Mock Angel Food cake I told you about last Friday.  I expected a rather plain and boring old-lady cookie full of nuts and raisins, but boy was I wrong.  Each lovely bite was soft and just a hint chewy, but not cakey.  You know, like all the goodness of a fresh, warm cookie....only they stayed that way even when they weren't straight out of the oven.  And believe me when I say I taste tested them at multiple stages; as dough, straight from the pan, cooled 5 min, cooled 10 min, 30 min later, 2 hours later, breakfast the next morning, within 20 seconds of walking in the door after work, and, well, you get the idea.  Not even possible to just eat one.

Flashback Friday: Mrs. Alton's Brown Sugar Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

Going through my great-grandma's recipe notebook is going to be a little more time consuming than I first anticipated.  I decided to start off with a recipe she'd copied down twice- Mrs. Alton's Brown Sugar Cookies.  I haven't figured out who Mrs. Alton is yet, but my great-grandma must have liked her cookie recipe.  Though it appears in two separate places, neither recipe gives instructions or lists a measurement for flour. Great-grandma either knew it by heart, or couldn't quite figure out Mrs. Alton's secret.

I can only guess at what Mrs. Alton or my great-grandma might have done. What I wouldn't give to have just a picture or description of the original cookie! Was it a drop cookie or a cut-out cookie?  Do I add enough flour to make a spoonable dough or a rollable dough? (at least in these pfeffernusse cookies she noted to add enough flour to roll the dough like a rope).  There are more possibilities than I have time to test, so I'll just tell you about the assumptions I made.

Random Recipe Wednesday: Kindergarten Cookbook Recipes

I stumbled upon a cookbook my class made in kindergarten (or maybe 1st grade).  Our Mother's Day Cookbook was made up of recipes from a kid's perspective.  As you'll see below, some of them are quite funny while others aren't too far from an actual working recipe.  The pages are now falling apart and several are missing, but my mom has still saved it all these years.  

My friend Alissa and I decorated the cover. I'm guessing that's me at the oven, which appears to be complete with an off/on switch.  

The recipe I contributed was for my mom's favorite cookies.  The real recipe is a crackled chocolate mint cookie rolled in powdered sugar.  Rolling in "white powder," a.k.a. powdered sugar, was the favorite part of the process.  My brother and I would be covered in powdered sugar and sprinkle it on each other like fairy dust.  I'll show you the pictures sometime along with the real recipe.  Apparently my mom always made these and gave them to other people since I specified that in the directions.  Sharing cookies is a hard lesson to learn. 

My friend Alissa also had a cookie recipe.  Hers baked for 10 hours.  When you're waiting for the first cookie it does seem like 10 hours.  Unless, of course, you've already eaten 10 cookies worth of dough. Which I never do. 

Cake also takes a good 9 hours in the oven, a super hot oven to be exact. 

If  you don't want to bake it that long then try this version.  All you have to do is mix and put in the refrigerator until tomorrow. 

Cupcakes, on the other hand, bake in only 10 minutes. But you must have "cupcake things." 

Cooking is less specific than baking.  Just put a little bit of sauce on your steak and grill until everything else is done. 

Hey, look....there's the powdered sugar I needed in my cookies. This kid used it in his meatballs.  Once the spaghetti is wiggly be sure to put it on your plate and then eat it.  

I sure hope snack time wasn't based on our recipes. 

Food for Thought: "Children see magic because they look for it." -Christopher Moore

Flashback Friday: Grandma's Molasses Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

Yesterday marked my grandma's 80th birthday.  We are celebrating this weekend with dinner out at her favorite restaurant followed by an open house at her assisted living complex.  My mom and I baked up 3 of her favorite types of cookies for the party.  For the sugar cookies I went with our traditional family favorite.  Her next request was a plain oatmeal cookie, no raisins.  (I kind of spilled some chocolate chips in a few batches though.)  In search of a tried and true oatmeal base I tested out 4 different recipes.  I haven't decided yet if I'll hash out the results here or just give you the winner.  Today we'll just munch on molasses cookies.

Many grandmas bake cookie for their grandchildren.  Since I love to bake so much it was often I who baked the cookies for my grandma.  Her third birthday cookie is the molasses cookie recipe she always asked me to bring her.  She would send me home with a jar of molasses from her basement shelves and I would return with a plate of cookies.

Flashback Friday: Great-Grandma's Chewy Ginger Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

I wasn't lying when I said there was an abundance of old molasses cookie recipes in the family.  This one comes from my great-grandma on my mom's side.  Around age 20 she came over from Norway and got her first job as a cook for a doctor's family.  The family lived in St. Paul but brought her with to cook when they stayed at their resort home in Maine.  She also accompanied them as first cook aboard ship on the Great Lakes.  The details have been lost to time, but I still have some of her recipes like these ginger cookies.

 I've made more than my fair share of molasses cookies, yet I've never seen one utilizing a crisscross fork pattern.  Flattening with a fork is usually reserved for peanut butter cookies, but I was pleasantly surprised by its use here.  Many molasses cookie recipes call for chilling the dough, but these cookies can be baked immediately.  I'm generally not a fan of cloves and was hesitant to add a whole teaspoon.  Once again I was pleasantly surprised and found the blend of spices to be just right.

Flashback Friday: Family Favorite Sugar Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

If cookie dough could tell stories, I might be in trouble.  You see, every time my mom made this cookie dough, little hands snuck into the bowl to pinch off pieces when no one was looking.  Remember when I told you about those two little girls "helping" in the kitchen?  When those same two girls were old enough to know better, they still snuck so much dough my mom once had to make another batch.  Oops.

When the dough actually made it to the cookie stage, my brother and I got to help decorate.  Putting sprinkles on Christmas angels takes some serious concentration and teamwork.  Birthday parities often included themed cookie decorating sessions with all the colored frosting and sprinkles a kid could wish for.

Flashback Friday: Date-Filled Oatmeal Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

I wonder if making old-fashioned recipes turns you into an old lady.  I certainly feel like a boring old lady when I make recipes like this one, not to mention all those recipes for bread and cookies with molasses.  At least this recipe features dates rather than wrinkled prunes.  Dates I can handle, though my personal preference would include chocolate or peanut butter and random variations like pretzels, rosemary or smoked paprika.  Nope, that doesn't sound old ladyish to me.  I guess I'm still young in my cookie tastes.

But anyway, we should get to these date-stuffed cookies before I do turn into an old lady.  These crispy cookies come from my  grandma's cousin, Edythe, on mom's side of the family.  My mom was kind enough to tell me about the version my grandma made around the holidays.  The bottom cookie was round while the top had a flower shape.  The "petals" were pressed down with a fingertip to seal in the sticky date filling.  We found the actual cookie cutter my grandma used on the bottom layer but couldn't find the exact one she used on top.

Random Wednesday: Kitchen Commotion

I'm still not feeling up for our usual Weird Recipe Wednesday, so you're just going to get some random bites of what I've been up to in the kitchen and such.  More likely than not, weird will be involved after all.


1.  Grapefruit: I've eaten more grapefruit over the past few months than in my entire life.  Somehow I just can't seem to get enough of the tart, juicy citrus flavor.  I usually just eat them plain, not even with sugar, but I wanted to try broiling one just this once.  The heat from the broiler was nice, but I'm not really into warm grapefruit.  Or waiting an extra 10 whole minutes for breakfast.  What's your favorite way to eat grapefruit?

2. I can now say I've grilled quail breast outside in the middle of winter.  Oh the things I learn at work.  Food-safe rubber gloves are not as warm as mittens.  A winter coat with long sleeves is not helpful when reaching into a tub of marinating quail breasts and trying to get them on the grill as quickly as possible before you freeze.

3. Last Saturday I made these  peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  Yum.  Thanks to Madison for the suggestion and Amber for the recipe.

4. "Tastes like beef" is the new "tastes like chicken."  I made a version of this slow cooker Honey-Sesame Chicken and my family couldn't believe it was chicken.  Between the dark sauce and the fact that the chicken was shredded, they all thought it was beef roast.  Weird.  I used an extra dark, mushroom-flavored soy sauce, added ginger and sesame oil and sprinkled cashews over the top before serving. (plus a few other changes I can't remember off-hand)

5.  After spending 8 hours in the kitchen at work you would think the last thing I would want to do when I get home is play in the kitchen.  Wrong.  I start making Homemade Yellow Cake Mix within minutes of walking in the door.  I'm hoping to try a browned butter version next.

Food for Thought: "Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the use of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success." -Louisa May Alcott 

Flashback Friday: Soft Molasses Cookies

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

I was hoping to find an old recipe starring peanut butter in honor of National Peanut Butter Day yesterday.  Alas, there seems to be an abundance of old family recipes for ginger and molasses cookies.  I guess peanut butter wasn't exactly a staple in the Scandinavian kitchen.  While I won't turn down a spice cookie, I generally prefer a cookie involving chocolate.  All that being said, I'll do my best to add a little more variety to this series in the coming weeks.

Tuesday's Twist: A Twist From Time

Tuesday's Twist:  A basic recipe with a fun twist.  In other words, just another excuse for me to play around with weird recipes I've been dying to try.

I tried really hard to make something for today that wasn't a dessert, really I did. But it just didn't turn out.  Then these cookies sort of happened.  It's like I can't help but make cookies.  You see, there are 1,000's of flavors floating around in my head, ideas to try, combinations to experience.  But I can't eat just cookies, and cookie dough doesn't count for as much variety as I'd like.  Try as I might to bring you something else, cookies just, well, happen.

I can turn just about anything into an excuse to whip up a batch.  My mom found my grandma's old Kitchen Aid mixer and I knew I had to test it out.  It hasn't been used since before I was born.  Would it still work?  I don't have a stand mixer and I've been drooling over a Kitchen Aid of my own for a long time.  Our current mixer is almost worthless, with beater bars that fall out if you don't hold it just right.  Speed and power are not strong points here either.  Last time I attempted to make marshmallows it was a complete disaster ending in an overheated motor and a severed attachment stuck in an unfinished puddle of disappointing marshmallow goo.  That was fun (read sticky, frustrating mess).

Though I've wanted to try this cookie recipe for quite some time, I vowed not to try it with our sorry excuse for a mixer.  I envisioned whipping up these cookies on a brand new mixer, but then this old mixer appeared and I needed to umm, test it out.  Look at that attachment, it's like a combination of a whip and a beater bar.  Or at least I think it is.  It should work to whip egg whites, right?  Only one way to find out.

Flashback Friday: Pfeffernusse

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

Though I never tasted my great-grandmother's pfeffernusse, I've heard about them from my dad and uncles.  I'll never know her exact recipe, but we have a tattered copy of the recipe she may have used.  Her name printed across the top is the only clue I have towards these small, hard cookies her grandsons so fondly remember.

Last September I told you about the aprons we found at my grandma's farm.  Just for fun I decided to make these cookies while wearing the blue flowered apron I like to think belonged to my great-grandma.  I couldn't resist stirring them up in the blue bowl she likely used.

And when I say stir, I do mean stir.  No electric mixers to cream the butter and sugar here, a bowl and wooden spoon will do the trick.  The recipe is a little vague in some areas, "Flour enough so you can roll the dough like a rope."  "Flour enough" ended up being just over 4 cups of flour, and that was for half a batch.  It would take a trusty wooden spoon to stir in 8 cups of flour without a mixer.