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

Farmer's Market Friday: Fresh Finds

This week we're taking a break from our Flashback Friday series.  Fresh produce straight from the fields is not something to be messed with.  Of course I'm not saying you can't make something with it, it's just that I prefer my peas and green beans raw and crunchy.

Last Saturday was a perfect morning for a stroll around the Farmer's Market.  Music, color, abundance and fresh, beautiful food; it was all there.  I didn't bring my camera along, but here are a few of the things I brought home with me.

Sugar snap peas.  Sweet and crisp, these peas were delicious straight from hand to mouth.

Leaf lettuce.  Most of this turned into a strawberry salad with balsamic and black pepper.

Rhubarb. Okay, I take back that part about eating everything straight from the field.  While I can eat a bite or two of raw rhubarb, it's not exactly something you snack on.  A slice of rhubarb pie, however, may have qualified as a snack instead of dessert multiple times last week.

Free pectin mixes for making jam.  Ball was sponsoring a booth and giving out small packets of pectin and salsa kits.  Strawberry jam definitely happened this week.

Yum, I love fresh fruits and veggies!

Food for thought: "Reflect upon your present blessings- of which every man has many- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." -Charles Dickens 

Random Recipe Wednesday: Instant Frozen Yogurt

I bet you remember the frozen banana "soft-serve" craze of last summer.  I made countless batches of the creamy concoction, but this summer it's time for something new.  Instead of whirling up creamy frozen bananas, I decided to play with frozen grapes.  

Have you ever tried frozen grapes?  You should try frozen grapes.  They're a great snack in the summer heat.  Unlike other fruits they stay semi-soft even when frozen, kind of like bananas do.  With that same frozen-but-not-icy-or-rock-solid texture, I figured gapes could also be turned into a creamy frozen soft-serve.  Of course this had nothing to do with the 2 gallons of frozen grapes in our freezer (you'll never guess what was on sale a few weeks ago).

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.

Flashback Friday: Colonial Date-Nut Bread

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

Everything about this recipe intrigued me, not to mention the fact that the recipe belonged to my great-grandma.   Hmmm, where to start?  I've heard of baking bread in cans but have never actually done it, that is until now.  When I asked my great-aunt about this recipe she explained the reasoning behind the cans, "to make the loaf round, of course."  Any other shape is apparently unthinkable.

I was more interested in the recipe method than the can aspect.  The first step of the recipe involves pouring boiling water over your dates, baking soda and butter.  I was puzzled by the concept of dissolving the baking soda in boiling water rather than adding it at the end with the dry ingredients.  Wouldn't it lose some of it's leavening power? Then again, the amount of soda is quite high for the amount of flour used, and there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of activating acidic ingredients.  Perhaps the soda is just there to help soften the dates.  Trusting my great-grandma's experience rather than my over-thinking-the-science perspective, I went ahead with the recipe.  But to be honest, I was half expecting a flop with that soapy baking soda aftertaste.

Fortunately these round slices have sweet date and vanilla flavors.  They also taste surprisingly buttery, especially considering the batter has only 2 tsp of butter.  For some reason I expected a pale bread studded with dates and nuts.  Instead the loaves turned a dark brown similar to a molasses bread.  These sweet, sticky loaves were most unusual, to say the least.  Though a little on the sweet side for me, it's not hard to see how the seeming unusual quickly turns to a usual treat.

Mother's Colonial Date-Nut Bread
recipe from my great-aunt, who got it from her mother, my great-grandmother

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups dates, chopped
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp butter
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Instructions:
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 3 No. 2-1/2 cans**(see note below)
* To a large bowl add dates, baking soda and butter.  Pour in boiling water and let cool to lukewarm.
* Add sugar, egg and vanilla, mixing well. Stir in flour and salt then fold in nuts.  Pour into prepared cans and bake 50-60 minutes (or less if using smaller cans as described below).  Let stand in cans 5 minutes before turning out.  

**A No. 2-1/2 can holds approximately 3-1/2 cups and usually contains food weighing 27 to 29 ounces.  If you don't have 3 cans this size try replacing one or more cans with two 15-ounce cans each (also called No. 300 cans, these cans hold approximately 2 cups).  Reduce the baking time for the smaller cans.  I made half of a recipe and used one 28-ounce can and one 15-ounce can.

Food for Thought: "The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new." -William Makepeace Thackeray

Random Recipe Wednesday: Savory Orange Hummus

I made this hummus, oh I don't know...a month ago (?) but am just now getting around to sharing it with you.  Don't worry, it's actually long gone; I wouldn't feed you month-old hummus. Sometimes I won't even share my hummus.  This way I can share it with you without really having to share it.  I know.

Random Recipe Wednesday: Pickled Dill-Caraway Carrots

I should probably warn you now that I'm on a pickling spree.  Those pickled grapes made me conjure up a whole list of odd things to pickle.  But let's make carrots first, I don't want to get too crazy on you quite yet.

Our pickling possibilities are endless.  In addition to various vegetables, a few fruits and some other odds and ends, we can mix and match our herbs and spices.  There's also a variety of vinegars to experiment with.  For once I can't seem to work in peanut butter, popcorn or cookies.  I'll have to work on that.

Oh, I also managed to pickle the bottom shelf of the refrigerator followed by the produce drawer and kitchen floor as I spilled pickling brine all over.  On three separate occasions.  Three.  All I can say is, use a container that has a tight fitting lid, not a random disposable container with a mismatched almost-fitting lid.

Flashback Friday: Kettle Corn

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

This weekend marks the annual festival at Iowa State University know as VEISHEA.  Students and alumni flock to campus for all sorts of events and entertainment.  The celebration began in 1922 and has since developed many traditions.  During my time at ISU I helped start a new VEISHEA tradition with the Culinary Science Club.  Each year they now make and sell several varieties of gourmet popcorn.  It was fun to be on the initial committee and watch how the tradition has grown and stabilized.  While I won't make it back this year I decided to celebrate on my own with a little popcorn action.

Tuesday's Twist: Pickled Grapes

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.

Pickled grapes?  Yep, that's right.  Pickled grapes.  Stop giving me those strange looks.  Why would a girl who doesn't even like pickles make pickled grapes?  Oh wait, now I get why you're giving me those odd looks.  

Actually, I think I'm starting to like pickles.  Well, sort of.  So far I like some things that are pickled, but I'm not huge on pickles themselves.  I know, weird.  But since this new pickling trend has popped up I've tried pickled asparagus and pickled carrots.  I was quite surprised at how much I like them.  So surprised in fact, that I decided to try a few kinds of "pickle" pickles again as wells as pickled beets.  Nope, still don't like either of those.  At least not yet.  But what about grapes?

Random Recipe Wednesday: Butterfly Pretzels

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely ready for spring.  The sun and chirping birds have caught on, but somehow the temperature missed the memo.  Perhaps we can make some spring treats as an extra hint.  Dear weather, dipped pretzels are not just for Christmas.  Please join us in a delightful celebration called spring.  We'll provide treats, all you need to bring are warmer temperatures.

Don't worry I'm not (that) crazy, I actually made these butterfly dipped pretzels to go along with our Easter evening snack spread.  They're simple to make, though a bit time consuming.  I was already flitting from project to project in the kitchen so why not throw in one more, right?

Flashback Friday: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

I know this is hard to believe, but I actually baked something including both chocolate and bananas without even opening the peanut butter.  I mean, peanut butter would obviously be good here, but it's not part of the tradition with this recipe.

Saturday mornings at our house usually involved a special breakfast.  More often than not my mom stirred up a batch of muffins from this Granny's Muffin House cookbook. The batter takes only a few minutes to stir together and they're out of the oven in less than 15 minutes.  Mini muffins quickly found their way into eager hands and disappeared in no time flat.  The book features a basic muffin recipe with seasonal variations and mix-ins from cover to cover.  This banana chocolate chip version was by far my favorite.

Tuesday's Twist: Cranberry-Orange Party Mix

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.

You should probably know that I'm the annoying type of party mix eater who picks out all the corn Chex and leaves the wheat ones behind.  My handfuls just happen to be more strategic, especially if honey roasted peanuts and dried cranberries are involved.  I really did put wheat Chex in this batch, I promise.  I didn't even notice until afterwords that my subconscious selected mostly corn and rice cereal for the bowl above.  I'm also guilty of snitching the pretzels, but let's not start on that.

Random Recipe Wednesday: Banana-Raisin Brown Bread

Once again I fell for a deal.  I really need to stop checking the kitchen section of the thrift store every time I get groceries.  But they're right next to each other and you just never know what someone might get rid of.  I've always got my eye out for All-Clad pans, vintage Pyrex bowls, cute props and cookbooks.  Thankfully I don't find what I'm looking for most of the time.  This time, however, I couldn't pass up these shimmering measuring spoons and a miniature ceramic loaf pan.  I literally stood there for 5 minutes trying to decide if I was really going to buy them.  Then I walked around another 10 minutes hoping to change my mind.  As you can see that strategy didn't work.

Tuesday's Twist: Orange-Ginger Caramel Corn

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 found a new way to predict winter storms and snow days.  When Melissa has the urge to make popcorn, a winter storm is coming.  Even though I'd just made these popcorn balls during last week's snow day, I had the urge to make caramel corn.  Not long afterword a winter storm blew in another snow day.  While it's not much in the way of a weather pattern it does warrant a winter storm warning: imminent danger if stranded inside with a bowl of this crunchy orange-ginger caramel corn with cranberries and peanuts.  Proceed at your own risk.

While my popcorn impulses don't necessarily indicate winter storms, they are often times a result of the ever churning storm in my brain.  This recipe randomly jumped out of my brain around Christmas, right after I made gingerbread popcorn.  It came without warning and with such intensity that before I knew it, there was a batch of popcorn at my finger tips.  A friend asked me where I got the idea, and I said  "umm...I don't know?...my head?"  In the aftermath of said storm I happened to scribble down the measurements I used.

Flashback Friday: Popcorn Balls

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

A snow day means pure excitement, right?  I'd say any day is perfect for a school snow day, unless it's the day of a much anticipated class party.  You know, the grade school class parties you had on the last day before a long break or at the end of the quarter.  Snow days were not as welcome on those special days.

More often than not my mom made popcorn balls with us for our class parties.  We'd make red and green popcorn balls for Christmas parties, pink for Valentine's Day and orange for Thanksgiving.  Sometimes we would just pick our favorite color and go from there.  It was pretty cool to have your very own popcorn ball in a fun color.

Oddly enough, I remember making these on the kitchen floor.  We weren't quite tall enough to work at the counter and chairs had this funny tendency to tip over if wiggly children were atop.  The air-popper came down to floor level and we watched the kernels pop with more delight and excitement than you can imagine.  Gooey marshmallows magically puffed and then changed color when the gelatin was added.  After thoroughly spreading butter all over our hands we shaped sticky palm-fulls into balls, just like snow balls.  Each was then wrapped in plastic wrap so every kid in the class could have one.

Random Recipe Wednesday: Carrot Cake Breakfast Bites

Sometimes I get things a little backwards and eat cookie dough for breakfast.  This time I made what some would call breakfast cookies and ate them for supper, snacks and pretty much everything but breakfast.

I hesitate to even say breakfast cookie, because these really aren't cookies.  Let's call them breakfast bites.  Without any butter, oil or sugar you can not have a cookie.  What we do have is a hearty and satisfying breakfast/snack that leaves you feeling full, healthy and energized.  Dried fruit, nuts and oats are ground in the food processor then mixed with shredded carrot and apple and a mashed banana.  See, it's breakfasty but it's not a cookie.

Tuesday's Twist: Microwave Sweet Potato Chips

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.

Some of you know about my microwave experiments driven by curiosity.  Last week I set out to make potato chips.  You can imagine my surprise when the microwave produced crispier results than the oven.  Since it worked so well with regular potatoes I decided to give sweet potatoes a try as well.

Sweet potato fries usually fall on the softer side, so I expected limp, soggy slices instead of chips.  Once again the microwave produced crunchy chips, even without oil.  All you need are sweet potatoes, a microwave with a turntable and parchment paper.  Oh, and the time and patience to watch the microwave action carefully.  If you don't babysit these little guys, they can go from a crispy crunch to carbon rather quickly.

Random Recipe Wednesday: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

You know my obsession of trying weird and random things with food?  We're going to focus a little more on the random than the weird by (temporarily?) replacing Weird Recipe Wednesday with Random Recipe Wednesday.  Wait, it's more like renaming than replacing, because knowing me the recipe will likely involve some sort of weird factor anyway.  Okay, now that that's out of the way let's get started.

I'm a sucker for sales and deals, even when I don't need the item.  What can I say, it runs in the family.  Anyway, last week I happened upon jars of roasted red peppers marked down to 99 cents.  I proceeded to put 3 jars in my cart even though I've had an unopened jar of roasted red peppers in the pantry for several months.  Much to my delight, these sweet peppers rang up for only 89 cents a jar.  Since I now had four jars on hand I figured it was time to open one.  Guess what?  I think I know why they were on clearance.  Instead of the sweet roasted flavor you get when you roast your own red bell peppers, I tasted only a fake-smokey-chard flavor.  They certainly look like roasted red peppers, and the ingredient list doesn't say anything funky alluding to added flavoring.

Flashback Friday: Marshmallow Pinwheels

Flashback Friday: Revisiting a recipe from long ago

These playful pinwheels were quite the treat when I was growing up.  What kid doesn't like Jell-O Jigglers?  Can you imagine the excitement when the Jigglers have a marshmallow layer and are rolled into a spiral?  Just in case that imagination of yours isn't quite as young as it used to be, I'll give you a few reminders.  These little guys give you full permission to play with your food.  They're just begging to be unrolled, twisted, peeled apart and, of course, wiggled before eating.  Finger food at its finest.