Tag Archives: Cooking

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve shared before that I’m not much of a baker. I like the immediacy of the cast iron skillet and the smell of frying garlic and onions, the excitement of modifying recipes as you go, and the mincing and dicing of fresh ingredients. Kneading dough and mixing flour and sugar . . . hasn’t been my thing. So it’s been up to my husband to supply the cookie needs of our little household. They used to just be his own cookie needs, but slowly he’s gotten me a little addicted. Cookies are pretty great for breakfast–they go so well with coffee!

Lately when we agree that it’s time for some baking to happen, I’ve been putting my oar in. I prod and plead and whine and beg my husband to let me try a new recipe. Pleeeeease? I just came across this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, see, and I think it could really be awesome . . .

See, my baby likes the old favorites. He’s faithful, loyal, and true–to his friends, but also to his cookies. Here he is feeling skeptical about this uncharted baking territory.

He’s like Just call me Mr. Skeptical.

I’m like Hey Mr. Skeptical. I really like you. But we can’t cling to the old ways! What about the sweet smell of culinary progress??

By the way, you’re hot.

My addiction to the smell of progress is the reason that sometimes dinner ends up in the trash . . . yep. I like living on the edge.

So back to cookies: this recipe is great. I’m not going to go around shouting through a bullhorn that it’s the best cookie recipe in the world. It might be, it might not be–I just don’t have that much experience with cookies. All I can say is that I have trouble when it’s time to stop eating them. That I had them religiously for breakfast until the cookie jar was empty. They are hearty and chewy, which is exactly what I want at 9am in the morning. My husband (so faithful to his regular recipe) says the jury is still out for him, because the quick oats give them a kind of grainy texture. But I love them that way! So I’ll share with you. And if any of you have to-die-for cookie recipes that this here cookie novice needs to try, please send me a link or give me instructions in the comments! I have so much to learn.

To flex the muscles of this new baking impulse, there will be more recipes for sweet treats coming up Monday and Tuesday. I hope you don’t mind. We’ll break things up with a delicious savory recipe soon enough, don’t worry.

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c brown sugar, packed firmly

1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 ½ c flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

3 c quick oats

1 c chocolate or butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Then, enlist some man-hands to unwrap the softened butter so that your camera doesn’t get greasy.

Thanks, man-hands.

Put the butter in a mixer bowl, and add in the white sugar . . .

. . . and the firmly packed brown sugar.

Beat together the butter and sugars until they’re creamy. Sorry for the butt-ugly picture.

Add the eggs–looks like I had just enough!

Add the vanilla, too–I was plumb out of extract, but had this cool vanilla paste thingy that I got from a trade show last year. It’s thick like a syrup, and smells like paradise.

Hello, batter! I hope you’re not teeming with salmonella, because my finger is about to make the journey from bowl to mouth.

Now beat that good stuff until it’s nice and mixed.

Now if you’re a good boy or girl, you will mix together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then add them to the wet batter all at once.

That avoids clumps of salt or baking soda and the like. However, I couldn’t be bothered with getting another bowl dirty, so I dumped it all in and then did a little mixy-mixy-mixeroo among the dry ingredients with a spoon before turning the mixer back on.

Here goes the flour:

Followed by the salt . . .

. . . and the baking soda.

I skipped the cinnamon–I didn’t feel like it for some reason. But you’re welcome to add it!

Mix it for a couple minutes. It will come together pretty quickly.

Time for the quick oats!

Mix them in, too.

It will get very, very thick at this point, and start sticking to the stirry thingamadging on your mixer.

Pause briefly for a taste, if that’s your thang . . .

. . . and pour in the chocolate chips.

Oh yes.

At this point the dough was so thick that I abandoned the mixer and grabbed a trusty old wooden spoon to finish the job. Much cookie dough was eaten along the way.

Shape the dough into rounds and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can make smaller cookies (heaping tablespoonfuls of batter) and bake 10-12 minutes:

Or you can go with larger ice-cream scoop sized cookies and bake them for about 15 minutes.

We chose both options. Note: these cookies will not flatten out very much during baking, so I like to press the balls of dough flat with the palm of my hand before baking, to get a wider cookie as opposed to a taller one.

Let them rest for 1 minute when they come out of the oven before moving them to a wire rack to cool.

As a non-baker, I was surprised at how mushy and gooey they were right out of the oven, and I wondered if they were really done or if they needed more time in the oven. So if you are inexperienced as I am, don’t be alarmed! They will solidify as they cool.

The bottoms: perfect.

If only my bottom were that perfect.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here!

We’re talking about these cookies. And how great they are, tops, bottoms, and middles.

 

Have a great weekend, and see you Monday for another sugar-laden experience.

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Weeknight Butterflied Chicken with Rosemary, Garlic and Lemon

Welcome to another recipe from our cooking class the other week. Cassia and I were both excited to include this recipe on the menu because it’s so dang easy to make. I have to admit that I have been among the ranks of people intimidated by the idea of roasting a chicken–but no longer!

Let me put it this way: the first time I butterflied a chicken and tossed this together, I was able to get home from work, put it in the oven, change my clothes, and dash out the door again to get to my yoga class all in 15 minutes. For realz. I left a note for my husband (due to get home shortly) to turn off the oven after 35 minutes. When I got back from exercising, the aromas that awaited me were mouth-meltingly good. And I realized that roasting a chicken is a fabulous weeknight meal–almost no prep time, and a very modest cooking time. Plus, butterflying a chicken is kind of . . . fun. As long as you own some hefty kitchen scissors, this neat trick will reduce the roasting time and get the chicken to cook evenly.

It’s also a great trick for the summertime, when the flat surface created by butterflying a chicken will allow you to slap ‘er on the grill. Brilliant! Maybe some day I’ll own a grill and I can experience the wonder for myself.

Let’s do this thang!

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs), giblets removed

2-3 TBS olive oil

3 sprigs rosemary, leaves torn off 2 of them

1 head garlic

1 lemon, cut into 6 pieces

Salt

Pepper

1 lemon, for garnish

First, preheat the oven to 400 F. Then, rinse the chicken (including the cavity) and dry the beast thoroughly with paper towels. Place it on a cutting board (with an optional sheet of wax paper underneath for cleanliness), breast side down and backbone side up. Arrange it so that the neck is facing you.

Now it’s time to butterfly!

Cut along either side of the backbone:

You’ll hear some crunches, but shouldn’t encounter any major obstacles. If you do, adjust your course accordingly. Above, I’m cutting along the right side of the backbone. Once you’ve cut all the way through, cut through the left side as well and simply remove the entire backbone. Remove the backbone and throw it away.

At this point you’ll see some extra skin and fat hanging around the bottom–cut that out.

Ta-daa!

Turn the chicken over, and firmly press on the breastbone to break it.

There I am dangling it from a casual hand during the cooking class.

I’m pointing to the breast bone, which we just broke. Your chicken should now look like this:

Now that the chicken is splayed out, pat it dry again with more paper towels (the drier you can get it, the crisper the skin will bake up).

Spread a layer of parchment paper on a large baking sheet, and slap the butterflied chicken on it, skin side up. Pour the olive oil over the chicken, sprinkle on the rosemary leaves, and generously season it with salt and pepper, spreading the oil and seasoning over the entire surface with your fingers.

Break apart the head of garlic (but you don’t need to remove the papery skins on the cloves).

Roughly chop the lemon:

Distribute the garlic and lemon all around and underneath the chicken.You don’t have to stuff anything under the skin, but I kinda felt like it.

I’m sorry if this grosses you out–but after 35 minutes in the old cooker, your chicken eeblie-jeeblies will turn into pure, unedited hunger.

I call dibs on that piece of lemon up in there!

We’re almost done–toss a couple whole sprigs of rosemary underneath it.

And ready to roast!

Roast it for 35-45 minutes (test for doneness at 35). And let me add–please don’t overcook it. If the juices are running clear, you’re probably good to go. But the difference between a chicken overcooked by 10 minutes (starting to get dry and fibrous) and a perfectly cooked chicken (think al dente pasta) is amazing. When it’s moist and just done, it’s an experience to be treasured bite by bite. Overcooking makes it mediocre and blah. The USDA will tell you to go to 170 in the breast, but keep in mind that their recommendation errs on the high end. The dry end. The fibrous end. I cooked my chicken to 160 in the thick part of the breast. For my taste, perfect!

Optional step: 10 minutes before it’s done, you can grab a stick of butter and smear it over the top. This will give the skin the lovely golden brown color that you see in these pictures.

Let it rest for about 10 minutes before carving and serving. Serve with fresh wedges of lemon, and the roasted lemon as well (the pulp will melt like butter!). And in the name of all that is good in the world, please don’t forget to squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skins–it’s to die for.

We served this chicken with the brussel sprouts and a creamy goat cheese polenta. What a perfect combination.

So, my friends–roast a butterflied chicken on a weeknight! It’s easy to prepare, quick to get on the table, and oh-so-satisfying to eat.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Weeknight Butterflied Chicken with Rosemary, Garlic and Lemon