Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Last night Super G and I had an interesting phone conversation. She was complaining that I was anticipating not just one snow day, but two if the full 12 inches of snow hits like it's supposed to. It started at 7am this morning. Right on schedule! (As it turns out, Super G can no longer whine about there being no snow days in New York City. School is cancelled for her tomorrow too!)

To make her feel better Super G and I were discussing the benefits of living in New York City. Not that I really know, because I've only lived in what seems like every major metropolitan area in the Midwest not the East Coast. So I pointed out things like being able to find rice flour, or marscapone cheese and being able to go to places like fancy chocolate shops and Murray's cheese shop, and if she wants Indian food she doesn't have to cook it herself. Super G then started to feel better because, as she pointed out to me, she was able to have some Scharffenberger cocoa powder delivered to her house with her groceries.

I don't think I can find Scharffenberger cocoa out here. Well certainly not in this county anyway. Askinosie isn't available either. I have to admit that I was starting to feel a little blue. The best cocoa I can find is whatever Walmart carries. But then I started to think of the advantages of being out here in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. For example, all of our meat is raised lovingly by little kids and is pretty near organic. Also, the secretary at the school I'm doing my student teaching at sells farm fresh brown eggs from her very own chickens.

Super G may have access to fancy expensive specialty foods, but I know where mine comes from. I know the 15 year old 4H "farmers". And sometimes you just don't need fancy specialty foods. Some good old fashioned oats will do. And some raisins. And there you have an iconic cookie. The Oatmeal Raisin cookie.

Sometimes when I'm lying awake at night trying to go to sleep I create impossible stories in my head. Nothing that will ever come about, but fun to think about kinds of things. Like owning a bakery. That would be fun. Well except for the whole employees and taxes and inventory and rent and electricity bills and stuff like that. But if I ever did own a bakery, these would be the oatmeal cookies I would sell. They are sturdy and yummy and yet down-home and delicious. I think the oatmeal cookie recipe from the Quaker Oats box has just been bumped from my recipe collection!

The recipe comes from a Christmas present cookbook from my brother and his beautiful wife. The Grand Central Baking Book. The recipes are easy to follow. The photos are drool-worthy. And frankly, if every recipe in the book is as good as the oatmeal cookies, then I may have to make a trip to Portland (or Seattle) and eat at the Grand Central Bakery. As it turns out, they celebrate the same food philosophy I do. They are all about foods that are locally grown, artisan breads, and homemade scratch cooking. Yum! (If you perhaps live out in the Pacific Northwest, you should really check them out. The bread is apparently in grocery stores, and there are bakery locations in both Portland and Seattle.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

from The Grand Central Baking Book

1 3/4 cup (8.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/4 cups (11.5 ounces) rolled oats

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 5 baking sheets with parchment paper (or if you don't have that many sheets, only line 2, but you will have to wait while cookies cool on the baking sheets.)

Whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, and sugars on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scraping the bowl occasionally. While the mixer is running, crack the eggs into a liquid measuring cup and add the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed to low and pour the eggs, one at a time, into the batter. Allow the first egg to be fully incorporated into the dough before adding the second. Scrape the bowl again.

Add the dry ingredients in 2 or 3 additions with the mixer on low speed. Scrape the bowl again. Mix the oats and raisins in the now empty flour bowl and then add them to the dry ingredients. Mix just until everything is well distributed.

Weigh out scoops of dough that are approximately 1.5 ounces each. Roll these scoops into balls. Place 6 balls on each cookie sheet and then gently flatten them to about 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through cooking time. When they are done they should look a little underdone in the middle, but golden at the edges. Pull the sheets out of the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets. (The cookies continue to bake on the hot cookie sheets.)

These aren't the quickest batch of cookies to make, but they really are worth the time spent making them!

Faux Creamsicles

I'm at a baseball game today, but if you don't live in the Northeast, and you are living somewhere where the temperature might actually be scorching, try a popsicle. These tasty and delicious popsicles are way more healthy than those delicious orange and ice cream popsicles. The recipe is super easy, super delicious, super cheap, and pretty much made from stuff I had on hand. If you don't have popsicle molds, you could try just freezing the popsicles in dixie cups for about an hour or two and then sticking a popsicle stick in until it freezes solid.

yum yum yum!

Vanilla-Orange Freezer Pops

from Eating Well

1 1/2 cups orange juice

1 1/2 cups nonfat vanilla yogurt

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Pour among 6 popsicle molds and freeze until solid.

Cheerio Bars

Pretty much my standard breakfast is cereal and milk. For a little bit in college I went with Apple Jacks. And for about a year I became a fan of Kix. And I've toyed with Post Raisin Bran (for the fiber). But for the most part, I am a Cheerios girl. I'm not even talking about all those fancy Cheerioses that are out on the market now. I'm talking about good old fashioned regular cheerios. And no, I don't put fruit or sugar on my cereal. I don't mix anything in. I pretty consistently just eat my regular cheerios with some skim milk and call it breakfast and I'm perfectly happy. (I do sometimes shout CHEEERRIIIOOOOOOOOEEEOOOOOOSSSS! but that only happens when I'm alone and it freaks out the furry sous chef.)

This information about me loving Cheerios becomes important to know because my grandmother recently passed down her cookbook of clippings and little handwritten recipes to me. She's 91 and lives in a retirement community and doesn't really cook that much anymore. In the middle of the binder, was a love note from my grandpa which was short and very sweet. There also was a handwritten recipe with no title. This recipe contained Cheerios, marshmallows, and peanut butter. I think that may be considered the trifecta of yummy.

I'm always looking for a reasonably healthy snack that will keep me filled up as I run around rural Ohio keeping my life together. These most definitely fit the bill. Yes, there are marshmallows and butter in them so they cannot be considered "health food". But really, Cheerios are good for you. People feed them to babies so they can't be horrible. The Brain said he didn't care either way about them, but then chipped away at the pan and ate almost half of them in the first night. I think he likes them too.

I'm also submitting this to Laura over at The Spiced Life. She's having a blog event about recipes handed down from our grandmothers.

Cheerio Bars

from Grandma Shazamer

3 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used Jiff)

one 10.5 ounce bag of mini marshmallows

6 cups Cheerios

Melt the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the marshmallows until everything is a gooey and consistent mass. Remove from heat. Stir in the Cheerios and make sure the peanut butter marshmallow mass evenly coats the cereal. Press into a greased 13"x9" pan. Chill to set.

Crispy Rice Treats?

Well, the good news is that I have finally gotten out of my rut and I've started cooking again. Thank you to the 4 people who still read my blog (other than family and people who love me)! I'm cooking again and it's pretty good and for the most part healthy. Yay! Unfortunately, the amount of time I'm limited to because of school and subbing has gotten even smaller thanks to my furry sous chef.

Who would think that this fluffy little dog would leave mountains of dog hair around our cozy little home? Like for the first time in my life I understand the need to vacuum every. single. day. And with all the rain and mud in the back yard, yep, there's mopping pretty damn often too. It's a good thing she's so cute and loveable and happy or I'd start to get annoyed that my dog has turned me into a clean freak.

Also, challenging and new, I've given up both butter and dessert for Lent because I'm Catholic and that's what we do. Although I have relaxed the rules a little because I will eat things made with butter. And I have had a cookie or 15 as "after school snacks". In fact yesterday I had a slice of pie at midnight, which didn't follow a meal, so clearly that was a "midnight snack".

These delicious Crispy Bars are another fine example of a snack. Except these are really healthy. While I was on the couch with my bronchitis/stomach flu blend I was watching Ellie Krieger during a brief moment of consciousness (before I realized that the Food Network wasn't the best thing to watch while nauseous) and she made these and immediately I was curious.

Fast forward a week or so and I was healthy again and on a mission to make these bars. The most difficult thing about them (besides waiting a half hour for them to set) was finding the crispy brown rice cereal. I never did find it. I found puffed brown rice. Then I was praying that they turned out okay because I did NOT want to eat this cereal without slathering it in peanut butter and honey. And the peanut butter I used is my new favorite. It's Mighty Maple and mighty delicious! Overall I was totally pleased with this snack. It's healthy! It's delicious! I am definitely making it again to get rid of the excess puffed brown rice cereal!

Crispy Rice Treats

from Ellie Krieger

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup mighty maple peanut butter

6 cups puffed brown rice cereal

2/3 cup assorted chopped fruit (I used apricots and cherries)

cooking spray

Combine honey and peanut butter in a large pot and heat over medium-low heat until melted, about 2-3 minutes. Add brown rice cereal and dried fruit and stir to combine until mixture is sticky. Press into a 9x13x2" pan sprayed with cooking spray. Let cool, then chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Cut into 15 squares.

Honey Date Whole Wheat Muffins

Tonight I have to get out of bed at midnight to go make the donuts. This makes breakfast tricky. Do I eat a quick breakfast before I go to work and then not eat again for 9 hours? Or do I not eat at all and run a little sluggish. If I eat at 12:15 does that count as breakfast? What do I call the meal at 9? It's looking like the traditional breakfast, lunch, and dinner aren't working so well for me with this new job.

I'm thinking muffins are the answer. Something filling, a little bit sweet, full of good for me carbs that will keep me running around the donut fryer. These Honey Date Whole Wheat Muffins rise to the challenge. The whole wheat flour and buckwheat honey add a nice earthiness and the chopped dates add nice little surprises of sweet. The muffins are under 200 calories, have a little more than 3 grams of fat, and almost 3 grams of fiber each. Way better than a fresh cake donut.

Honey Date Whole Wheat Muffins
an original Shazam recipe

1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup 1% milk
1/4 cup buckwheat honey
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and fill 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Lightly spray liners with cooking spray.

Combine flours, baking powder, salt and ginger in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl combine egg, milk, honey, and butter, whisking to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients with a few swift strokes. Fold dates in before dry ingredients are completely incorporated.

Divide batter evenly among the 12 baking cups and bake for 20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

Crack Beans

So Rosie over at Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake and Pixie at You Say Tomato are having this Putting Up event. I believe I've already mentioned it and provided my family's favorite Chili Sauce recipe. I don't normally enter twice into a food blogging event. In fact, there's a whole bunch of really cool food events that I don't participate in. Usually because I'm not terribly creative sometimes, or because I just don't have the time, or because if I made that many baked goods in one month I may need Richard Simmons and a forklift to come rescue me. But this event is different. Not only are my Crack Beans already made and canned. Last summer. But I hear there's some interest in the recipe.

I love these beans. I snack on them. I know my sister Super G polished off a whole jar with one friend in one sitting. They are addictive and a little spicy. They are the kind of pickly bean that my friend Bethany's family used to make when we were wee tiny little children. Well kindergarteners anyway. She's gone on to become important and founding foundations and everything. So I will assume that regular exposure to these in childhood leads to very intelligent, hard working, and caring adults. Either that or she was always like that. I think it's a marvelous excuse to have these beans on hand anyway.

The beans are relatively simple to make, in that it's your standard prepping of the jars followed by stuffing them prettily and pouring the syrup on top. Simple yet hugely gratifying. And have I mentioned they're addictive? That's why they're called Crack Beans. They're originally called Patti's Dilly Beans from The Food Lover's Guide to Canning (excellent book), but that's a pretty silly thing to call them when I have no idea who Patti is and when asked I'd probably make something up about her anyway. I'm not sure what it's like to be addicted to Crack, but I'm assuming that if it's anything like these beans it could become a real drug problem. Perhaps I should have named them Meth Beans (I knew a meth-head once), but I wouldn't want people to think there's a risk of the kitchen exploding.

Crack Beans

yields 4 pints

2 pounds green beans

2 cups water

2 cups distilled white vinegar

3 Tbsp salt

4 sprigs fresh dill

4 garlic cloves, peeled

4 tsp red pepper flakes

Snap the stems from the beans. Then cut the beans so that they are 3/4 inch shorter than the pint jars. Place 1 sprig of dill, 1 garlic clove, and 1 tsp of red pepper flakes in the bottom of each jar. Fill the jars with beans such that the beans are standing straight up. Set aside.

Combine the water, vinegar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Ladle the boiling mixture into the jars and seal with lid and ring. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.