Tag Archives: chocolate chips

The Reverse Dinner Party

3 Dec
Just two years ago, we were in the midst of all this, but a great new tradition did come out of it!

Just two years ago, we were in the midst of all this, but a great new tradition did come out of it!

Some of you know that two years ago my husband had surgery on his leg. He had ruptured his achilles tendon and he had a cast on his leg for several months, and was on crutches with a boot for several more. It was a long year for him and for us, and a very humbling experience, but believe it or not, some good did come out of it.

The Reverse Dinner Party is one of those good things.
During the initial few weeks after the surgery we had lots of help from family and friends. We had people raking leaves and bringing meals and staying over, all to help us out. It was an incredible outpouring of generosity.

When things died down a little, we had some friends of ours, the Garabedian family, ask us if they could bring us dinner and hang out for the evening. We welcomed the fun and the food, and we said we’d make dessert. So they cooked at their house, we cleaned up at ours, and made dessert, and they arrived on our doorstep that evening with their two girls and our dinner.

It was their turn to cook dinner this time, and we were treated to turkey and all the fixins!

It was their turn to cook dinner this time, and we were treated to turkey and all the fixins!

With that one gesture, a new tradition was created: The Reverse Dinner Party. Our friends had brought dinner to us at our house but the next month when Don was more mobile, they asked us to come for dinner at their house. It seemed unfair to have them make dinner for us again, so we decided to treat them and we brought dinner to them at their house and this time they provided dessert.

It became a fun treat and a little bit of a break, too. If you had to clean your house for company, at least you “only” had to make dessert along with the cleaning. If you had to cook the main dish, at least you didn’t have to worry about making your house presentable for guests at the same time.

Monkey bread and pumpkin pie for dessert!

Monkey bread and pumpkin pie for dessert!

There was also an element of surprise with some of our Reverse Dinner Parties. We would try not to tell the others ahead of time, what we were going to make. We’ve had all kinds of things and so far there has never been a time where we haven’t liked what the others have made. It’s also been a fun time to try out something new.

This month, we did know that the Garabedians were bringing a turkey diner, so I planned a pumpkin pie for dessert, to go along with it. I also made a new dessert that I had on hand in my pantry: a banana chocolate chip monkey bread. Both desserts and all of the dinner courses got all thumbs up from all nine of us.

This year we agreed to do a Yankee Swap in between dinner and dessert.

This year we agreed to do a Yankee Swap in between dinner and dessert.

We’ve had our dinners in all seasons, indoors and out. We’ve had drinks and desserts over a fire, sometimes we play games, and this time around we incorporated a Yankee Swap, just in time for the holidays. The kids and the adults all had a blast, so I’m sure we’ll do it again next year.

In the end, it’s a night together with friends and it’s the sharing of a meal that really matters. It amazes me to think that we began this tradition two years ago, and I am grateful to our friends who asked simply if they could bring us dinner.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pumpkin Palooza Recipe of the Day: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 Nov

Originally posted on: November 16, 2011

OK seriously, what could be more perfect than the combination of pumpkin AND chocolate chips!? Last year I made these for a school party and the kids loved them.

At the time, I wrote on Facebook that a friend of mine posted this recipe and she got it from Allrecipes.com. I can’t remember who the friend was though! What I do remember is they were delicious!

I did double it when I made it last year. I didn’t even use my standup mixer, I used a wooden spoon. You could use one though if you have one.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III
from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts ( I did not use walnuts)

Directions

  1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
  2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
  3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lazy Cake Cookies

12 Oct

This recipe needs just a few ingredients, cooks fast, and makes a great dessert to bring or even mail, anywhere!

I love going on Pinterest, you find so many great things that other people have already tried out. I’ve found some nice new additions to my repertoire, and today’s recipe is one I tried out this summer and have done many times since.

In July my school book club had it’s summer meeting which is one that is at someone’s house and everyone brings something to munch on. This year I wanted to bring dessert and I was looking for something new.

Lazy Cake Cookies from the I’m a Lazy Mom blog was it. When I saw the limited amount of time and ingredients needed, I was sold. It was summer after all, and who wants to spend all day baking? Not me.

The other thing about summer is that it’s both of my sister-in-laws’ birthdays, all in the month of August, with mine. My West Coast sister-in-law is at the beginning of the month, I’m in the middle and my East Coast sister-in-law is at the end of the month. So I decided that if this recipe was good (and it was), I’d make these cookies for their birthdays.

I’ve since made them for a play date in September and for when we went to my cousin Val’s for dinner this summer.  They’re great for any occasion and everyone always likes them.

See how cute? Chocolate hearts!

The neat thing is you use a cake mix as your base, and I’ve done white, chocolate and yellow. Chocolate was my favorite (surprise!) with white as my next favorite and yellow as my last favorite. Another neat thing about this recipe is that because it’s a bar cookie, you can use a cookie cutter to cut them into cute shapes. I did hearts for both my sister-in-laws because we love them, and I actually kept all the “scraps” and put them into a ziploc bag for my family to munch on after we shipped off the cookies.

Next time you need a fast recipe, a recipe to make and take, or just a recipe for your own family, give this one a try. You’ll be hooked on how fast it is, and you’ll make them again and again. I know I have!

LAZY CAKE COOKIES
INGREDIENTS

Cake mix, eggs and butter!

1 box yellow, white or chocolate cake mix

2 eggs, beaten

5 Tablespoons melted butter

2 cups mini chocolate chips or m&ms. (I don’t do mini.)

Use a pizza roller for ease in spreading!

DIRECTIONS

Mix the first three ingredients. Batter will be dry.

Add in your filler (chocolate chips, m&ms, etc.)

Spread in a 9×13 greased baking dish. (I find that spreading with a pizza roller works great!)

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Make them and take them!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s that time of year again: After School Snack Time PB Oatmeal Balls

7 Sep

I’m always on the lookout for healthy after school snacks. Pinterest is my new best friend when it comes to searching for them!

So we’ve eased into the school year. Short week last week, short week this week.

Per usual, I’ve already got one kid home sick today as I type this post, so we’re really back to normal here.

Summer is for sure over.

The upside to the end of summer: After School Snacks!

I don’t know about you and your kids, but mine come home ravenous from school and I myself, need a pick me up before I start to cook dinner. I like to put out a set snack so that I monitor what’s being eaten and so that no one is just picking through the fridge, eating aimlessly.

Enter the After School Snack.

At my house, the After School Snack also counts as Dessert. I don’t usually make a dessert at night for after dinner because I don’t like my kids to go to bed on a full stomach and Caroline in particular has trouble with her stomach, so I try to end the day’s eating for them with their dinner, at least during the school week. Weekends are a bit different.

Therefore, I don’t mind making a sweeter after school snack for them since it’s their dessert usually too.

With our new school schedule for Caroline, she’s home an hour before the other two girls, so she’s been excited to help plan or make the snack for them. Last week she got a kick out of serving it to them when they got home. We took a recipe for Peanut Butter Oatmeal Butterscotch Balls (no bake, no eggs) from Pinterest and instead of Butterscotch Chips, which we didn’t have, we used mini chocolate chips, which I like better anyway. They were a hit. All five of us liked them and they were quick and easy.

The recipe is originally from a blog called Tasty Kitchen and you can see the original post here.

The recipe, which was quick and easy, can be tweaked however you like it. You can add in different types of chips the way I did or sub in raisins, which I thought would be good too. It’s got lots of potential to be more than one kind of after school snack.

Try it out and see what you think! As usual, I worked with what I had on hand, so if I made changes, I’ve noted them below. I do the best I can with what I have.

INGREDIENTS

  • ¼ cups Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1-¼ cup Rolled Oats
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoons Salt
  • ½ cups Creamy Peanut Butter
  • ¼ cups No-sugar-added Applesauce (I had cinnamon applesauce and therefore didn’t need to add cinnamon to the recipe as it called for)
  • ⅓ cups Light Maple Syrup (minewasn’t light)
  • 1 Tablespoon Honey
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • ¼ cups Butterscotch Chips (I used mini semisweet chocolate chips)

Wet ingredients in one bowl, dry in the other, then combine and scoop into balls.

DIRECTIONS

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, oats, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

Cream the peanut butter, applesauce, maple syrup, honey and vanilla in a large bowl until well-combined.

Add the flour and oats mixture and stir until combined. Add butterscotch chips and stir well.

Scoop about two tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Repeat with the other dough. Recipe makes about 16 dough balls.

Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy!

After a few minutes in the freezer (about 15) the snack was ready and Caroline was ready to show off what we’d made them.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Farewell to Summer and Hello Chocolate Chip Muffins

27 Aug

Goodbye Summer! See you next year!

Summer has come to an end.

For us, school begins tomorrow, so even though officially it’s still summer on the calendar, it’s all over. In my mind, summer really ends when Don starts back to work full time, the second week of August. So it’s been over for a while, really.

I can’t complain. He has lots of days off in the summer, I have lots of days off in the summer, we do lots of fun things in the summer, we had an AMAZING opportunity this summer that really changed our lives, with the Kids’ State Dinner trip.

So I can’t complain, but I’m still sad to see it go. I still kinda want to cry as I think of the school year beginning again. I’m not ready to let it all go.

I *really* love summer.

Caroline is starting middle school, Elizabeth’s going into fourth grade and Alexandra into second. It’s going to be a busy year, a different year with them in two different schools on two different schedules. I’m sure it’ll take some getting used to.

And so, though it’s Monday and I usually post my “What We’re Doing for Fun This Summer” posts on Mondays, I can’t today, because I’m sad that summer is ending.

What I can do though, is share a new recipe with you.

Each year on the first day of school I make muffins for breakfast the night before. It’s a busy morning on the first day, hectic, and we also have a special tradition where my parents come up to see the kids go to school, just as my grandparents did  each first day of school when I was younger.

This year I’ve made several new muffin recipes and I’m not sure which two kinds I’ll be making for tomorrow’s first day, but I tried a new recipe for chocolate chip muffins last week. It might be in the running. I could use a chocolate chip or two about now, I think.

I found this recipe last week on Allrecipes.com when Alexandra asked for Chocolate Chip Muffins for breakfast. It said, “Easy, quick and good,” and I was sold. It was indeed all of those things and I’d make them again for sure.

Maybe for tomorrow morning.

The first day of not-summer.

CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

I got to use my mini chocolate chips which were part of my birthday gift from my mother-in-law, Mary Lou, the ones she got me from Hershey Park, in this recipe.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy.)
  3. Fill cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle tops of muffins before baking with a combination of 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoon brown sugar.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Serve warm.

    I loved the sugar/brown sugar topping on the tops of these muffins. It was light but still sweet and crunchy.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Chocolate Lover’s Dream Day

13 Aug

We hadn’t even parked the car yet and I was already salivating.

Last week, you may remember that in my post about Boston Cream Pie, I mentioned that Saturday was my birthday. This year for my birthday, I got an extra-special treat: we spent the day before my birthday in Hershey, PA.

That’s right. I was in the Chocolate Capital of the World this past Friday.

I know, I’m a lucky, lucky girl.

I must give all the credit for this amazing treat to my mother-in-law, Marylou, who treated both my family and my sister-in-law’s family to a long weekend vacation in Pennsylvania with all the activities and everything that went with them, this past weekend. It was such a fun weekend and I loved being able to spend my birthday with this side of my family, something I don’t always get to do. We hated to see it end.

All of my favorite things, all in one delicious place!

I had been to Hershey a long time ago, back when we lived in New Jersey, but it was so long ago that I had almost no memory of the trip. It was like being there for the first time, all over again.

The streets smell of chocolate as you drive through the town. It’s heavenly.

The street lamps are shaped like Hershey Kisses.

It was truly a dream-come-true for a chocolate lover.

There are several parts to the Hershey experience, and I can share a little bit with you about the parts that we got to see on Friday. There’s so many family-friendly things to do there, you definitely have to pick and choose what you’d like to do on your visit. We were lucky too, it was a rainy day and at first I thought we would not be able to go. However, there were tons of indoor activities so we were able to keep to our plan for the day.

On our first ride we learned all about how chocolate is made, how all our favorite candies come to be.

We first chose to take a moving ride tour through the chocolate-making experience. It was about 10-15 minutes long and you learn all about how chocolate is made and it was a fun ride while being very informative at the same time. It was during this tour that I realized just how many different kinds of chocolate candies are actually made by Hershey’s.

After that, since it was lunchtime, we ate in the food court, which I thought seemed very affordable. There were ten of us total: five kids and five adults, so eating out is not an easy thing to do, especially when you’re trying to stick to a budget.

Caroline got a great shot of the trolley after we finished our ride.

Following the food court, we took an hour-long trolley ride which led us all through the town of Hershey. Here we not only saw the entire area, but also heard an animated history of the town and of Mr. Hershey himself. There was lots of laughing and singing (yes, we sang) on this ride and it was just as fun to watch our kids reacting to the antics of the tour guides while they were learning about the town and seeing all the local landmarks.

The kids got such a kick out of the antics on the trolley and we got such a kick out of watching the kids.

After the trolley ride ended, we went on to what was the most highly anticipated event of the day: The Gift Shop. The kids had all saved their money for the entire summer to take on this trip and they were anxiously awaiting the first time to spend some of it. I was proud though, both couples are on tight budgets and it’s rubbed off on our kids in what I think is a good way. They all took great care in buying their items and they really seemed to weigh the pros and cons of what to get and why. No one over-spent, as we still had other places with gift shops that we’d be visiting. All of my kids came home with extra money ultimately, and I believe my nieces did as well.

Ready to leave the hotel, wearing our Hershey’s t-shirts, purchased here in RI especially for this trip.

One tip I will pass along: this summer I found brown Hershey’s t-shirts at our local Walmart store. Total cost for three shirts: $22.50. I called my sister-in-law and she went to her store and found two for her daughters. Our five girls wore their matching Hershey’s shirts to Hershey Park on Friday and they looked so awesome. None of them had to spend their money on a $21.50 Hershey shirt from the gift shop. I thought that was a great treat for them and a great lesson as well.

There were some things that we didn’t do at Hershey Park that you might enjoy if you visit as well. They included a 3D show, a tour of the production facilities and an outdoor water park. If we took another trip there, those are things we might consider doing.

Overall, this was a fabulous way to spend the day before my birthday, or any day, and I’m so thankful I got the chance to visit Hershey Park again.  Here are a few last photos from the 200 or so that the girls and I took that day.

Enjoy!

The kids got a kick out of the singing cows.

Lamp posts on the streets of Hershey.

Trolley ride antics

So Much Candy

The biggest and for $29.95 it could be yours.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies by Karen

20 Jul

There is nothing like a summer’s night on the beach!

Last week we attended the annual summer concert on the beach that I’ve been attending since I was young. I’ve missed one or two, but in the 37 total years it’s been in existence, I have been to almost all of them.

It’s a huge affair and it is one of my all-time favorite summer traditions. I love sharing it with my kids. Everyone goes down to the beach first thing in the evening and sets up their space. We bring blankets, chairs, tables.

And then comes the food and the wine, and the dessert. Oh…the dessert.

This year I was looking for something unique to bring. Something that we hadn’t already done this summer at another night on the beach or parade or cookout. I like to keep things interesting so that no one gets bored. Namely, me.

I looked through a cookbook or two, and then I remembered Karen’s Cookbook, and the fact that last time I’d gone through it I’d seen an old favorite of mine: Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies.

I knew I’d found my dessert.

Melting butter and chocolate chips…what a beautiful sight!

As I was cooking them, melting the chocolate over the stove, I could literally see myself making them all those years ago, my college roommate Karen and I living in our house we rented during our college years. This is what I love about recipes: the traditions and memories that go with them. I always say recipes are the ties that bind people together, and I do truly believe that. I thought of Karen and all the fun we had, as I was cooking.

So today, I share with you Karen’s Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie recipe. I love that it’s a “from scratch” brownie recipe, and I love the step where you turn the batter into one part peanut butter batter and one part chocolate batter and then swirl them together. You’ll see, it’s so cool.

When you make them and eat them, I hope you make some special memories too!

KAREN’S PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL BROWNIES

INGREDIENTS

1 six ounce bag chocolate chips (I used one cup)

3 Tablespoons butter

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Tablespoon sour cream

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/3 cup peanut butter

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 9×13 pan.

Melt chocolate chips and butter until fudge-like.

In mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and sour cream.

Add flour and baking powder to the egg mixture.

Pour 3/4 of the batter into the melted chocolate and stir well.

Add peanut butter to remaining batter.

Pour chocolate batter into the pan.

Spoon peanut butter batter over and swirl with a knife until proportionate.

Bake 25-30 minutes.

Ready to eat!

Someone got hold of my camera, apparently.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A dessert lover’s dream: The Eat Dessert First party

9 Jul

Eat Dessert First!

A while back my mother in law gave me a decorative pillow that said, “Life is short, eat dessert first.”

Excellent advice, don’t you think?

So when my mom called me one day and said that her friend was having an “Eat Dessert First” party on a Sunday afternoon, and did I want to join her, I didn’t have to think twice. Of course I wanted to join her! I couldn’t wait.

Lynn is known amongst her friends for her fun party themes, so I couldn’t wait for the date of the party to arrive.

I wasn’t disappointed.

It was a dessert-lover’s dream party from the moment you walked through the door and saw the first (of three) dessert tables, til the moment you left, taking leftovers and fun dessert-themed party favors home with you.

The chocolate fountain: I hung out here- a lot. Good food, good conversation.

Everyone brought a dish to share (my mom brought her cherry squares on our behalf) and Lynn just had tons and tons of additional dessert options available, from a chocolate fountain to a make-your-own sundae table.

In addition to the edible treats, Lynn had taken so much care to put cute little touches all around the house to go with her theme, from the cute table decor, to the little dessert themed quotes that were on place cards throughout. It was so much fun to walk around, finding all the cute things she’d done.

This table held the “fixins” for the ice cream sundaes, from toppings to sprinkles. There were several flavors of ice cream to choose from, even a flavored whipped cream!

The thing that struck me the most that day, besides the obvious fact that it was a dessert paradise, was that it was just such a nice way to spend an afternoon. Other than my mom, I didn’t know a soul there, but I spent a lot of time speaking with people, and Lynn even had entertainment: two gentlemen she does some local acting with, who came in and read aloud some of their monologues, which were really good.

Ice cream to go…bubbles were a fun party favor idea!

Overall, it was relaxing, it was fun, and it left a lasting impression on me even now, a month later. Lynn clearly enjoys hosting her themed parties and her enthusiasm is catchy. She made the day unforgettable and enjoyable for us all.

Thanks Lynn!

It was the little touches that made a big impression at Lynn’s party, like the giant handmade candy decorations and the real candy that you could eat on the spot!

Tags: , , , ,

Product review: Wilton Holiday Air Insulated Cookie Sheets

5 Jun

These cookie sheets were wonderful when I made my cookies last weekend!

For Christmas this past year I received a set of two Wilton Air Insulated cookie sheets from my sister in-law, Jessica. I couldn’t wait to try them out, but then we traveled back home, I put them away, and forgot all about them! I haven’t made a ton of cookies since Christmas either, but whenever I did, I forgot I had these new cookie sheets to try out.

Then, last weekend when I was making the Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies for our friends’ Memorial Day Weekend cookout, I went to pull out a cookie sheet and there they were. Still wrapped in their original plastic.

I was so excited! Something new to try! It was like Christmas all over again as I unwrapped the plastic and took them out. They were soooo smooth and shiny.

Yes, I do get pleasure out of the small things, like shiny cookie sheets.

On the Wilton site, these cookie sheets are advertised as “Two quality aluminum layers sandwich an insulating layers of air for perfect browning without burning,” and can I tell you, that’s exactly right?

I can’t wait to use these cookie sheets again, and to get a few more of them!

These baking sheets did a fabulous job with our cookies! I wish I had about four more of them (they came in a set of two.) They were different from my old ones because they were heavier, being that they had the air insulation component to them. They were also flat all around except on one end, which is the end you grab onto when you pull them out of the oven.

But, my favorite thing of all had to do with my very first impression of them when I took off the plastic: they were smooth and shiny, and that allowed the cookies to literally slide right off the pan.

Of all the dozens of cookies we made that day, not one single cookie stuck to the baking sheets. There were no cookie remnants left on the sheet after you scooped the cookies off, no mess to clean, really.

Nothing burned, nothing stuck, the cookies cooked evenly all around and got that lightly browned edge that I love so much. They were perfect.

I am in*love* with these cookie sheets and I absolutely recommend them to anyone who is a cookie baker. I can’t wait to use them at Christmas time when I bake all those cookies for my trays!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Cookies for a Cause: The Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie that started it all

1 Jun

Baking cookies to help fight kids’ cancer might be the most worthy cause I’ve ever baked for.

Have you ever heard of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer? If you haven’t, you should check out the link and read more about it. It’s a very worthy cause: bake sales to help find a cure for kids’ cancer.

Earlier this year I did a story about a local bake sale event hosted by Heather Wirtz, the editor of the Macaroni Kids newsletter for the Cranston/Kent area. The sale raised money for the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer non-profit organization and it was hugely successful. I baked one of my favorite Christmas Cookie recipes, Brown Eyed Susans, for the bake sale.

At the event itself I was given several handouts to help me in writing my article and I met one of the family members, Bonnie Soper, who told me how her cousin Gretchen lost her son to childhood cancer several years ago. Gretchen and her husband founded Cookies for Kids Cancer as a way to fight back, and they started with a simple bake sale.

One of the handouts that was given to me was for the “Cookies for Kids’ Cancer Best Bake Sale Cookbook” and on the flip side was a recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and it was entitled, “The Cookie That Started It All.”

Other than the baking time, which was cut off, the full recipe was there, and I decided that I wanted to try out the recipe some day, in honor of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. I wrote the news story about Heather’s bake sale in January and it was almost June before I had the chance to try out the cookie recipe.

They were delicious and with every bite I thought of this important cause, and I knew I had to write about it. I’m so grateful and thankful every day that my family has its health. Those who know me well, know my kids are sick constantly, weekly, and it’s exhausting keeping up with it all. But they’re not terminally ill, and I keep that in mind daily as well as every week when I’m running someone to a doctor for one ailment or other. We are very, very lucky. In the big picture, they are healthy.

Caroline was a big help with these cookies, scooping and pressing the batter for each and every one.

Speaking of my kids, my daughter Caroline was a big help to me this past weekend as I made these cookies to take with us to a Memorial Day cookout. The recipe yields quite a few cookies and that’s one reason I made it. There were enough to bring and enough to leave some home as well. I made all the batter and she scooped it onto the tray and flattened them to go into the oven.

The recipe, as I said above, did not have the bake time on the card, which was an advertisement for the cookbook. But, I looked up a similar recipe in one of my cookbooks here and found that 10-12 minutes on a cookie sheet was the perfect time. The only time I went over that time was when I used a baking stone. I find that those take longer for cookies to bake than the metal trays.

I hope you’ll consider doing a Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale for your organization’s next fundraiser, or that the next time you’re looking for a unique gift, you go to their site and order some Cookies for Kids’ Cancer cookies to be sent to that special someone.

And now, here is the recipe, the Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie that started it all.

This recipe makes a lot of batter so you need a good, strong mixer to mix it up.

CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

Yield: 3-4 dozen cookies
INGREDIENTS

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg at room temperature

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup quick cooking oats or old fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt (I didn’t have kosher)

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cookies bake until lightly browned around the edges.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place butter and sugars in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle and beat until smooth and creamy.

Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, one at a time, beating well between additions.

Place the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; mix well and add to the butter mixture.

Beat until everything is well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the chocolate chips and beat again.

(You can cover this and refrigerated up to one week.)

Form the dough into heaping teaspoon sized-balls and place them about two inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. I used the smaller Pampered Chef scoop to scoop out my balls of dough.

Using your palm, gently press down.

*At this point the recipe begins to say how you can alternately roll the dough into a log, and it gets cut off here. I assume it says you can slice and bake them. The baking time is cut off as well, since this was an advertisement for the cookbook. However, I can take it from here.*

Bake 10-12 minutes on a cookie sheet, slightly longer on the baking stones, until lightly browned around the edges.

Let sit 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet to cool before removing to cool completely on wire racks.

Consider hosting a Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale for your organization’s next fundraiser.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →