In which I cultivate my culinary prowess

"Cookies! I want COOKIES!"
That's how I was greeted when the Wifester arrived from work on Monday...
apparently she's having sympathetic cravings for her sister-in-law.

You may remember my last post about my attempts at baking...
Since then, I've found some variations of oatmeal cookies that I am quite comfortable with and have found to be particularly satisfying.

I had some apples that I wanted to use up, so this time I made Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies! I've never had them before, but you can bet your sweet cookie I'll be having them again!
Here's how I made them:

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cup quick oats
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 1 cup diced and peeled apples (your choice, I used red delicious)
  

(you may want to add nutmeg, and walnuts or pecans I don't, for The Wifester's safety)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended. Fold in the oats and apples. (if adding nuts, do so when folding in the oats and apples) Drop dough by spoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. * I've found that using an ice cream scoop is perfect! * Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.

While the oven was still hot, and it was time to begin dinner...I thought hmmmm...I really am tired of the "dog food" we've eaten so often lately. What to make for dinner that does not resemble the Sunny-dog's meal, does not contain meat, and is sure to please the finicky Wifester? As I've told you before, I could really do without meat all together, but the Wifester, she loves her meat and potatoes.
I came up with an ultra satisfying compromise. Oh she questioned it when I told her what I was making. But upon first bite, she was sold. Never question my culinary genius, I told her. Never. She even asked for more tonight!
This experiment was a tofu-veggie loaf. Or as I named it for her sake, meatless meatloaf.
The Wifester luvs some meatloaf. We usually make it with ground turkey, but even that is just too much meat for me to sink my teeth into at one time. If I make meatloaf for her, I usually have something else for myself. And I was just not up to making two meals last night. After all, I had played Cindarella all day long, scrubbing baseboards, washing walls, cleaning carpets, and organizing the house. Plus I did accomplish some heavy duty studying and baked cookies...A one dish dinner it would be, no doubt.
Meatless meatloaf was surprisingly delish and relatively easy. It smelled wonderful and baked up beautifully.
I know a few of you who will be wanting this recipe...

Meatless Meatloaf

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1 pound firm tofu (for a small loaf, feeds two to four people)
  
• 1 -2 cup dried bread crumbs, preferably whole wheat
• 1/1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1 egg, slightly beaten (optional)
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 to 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1 cup brown rice
• green beans
• peas
  

Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium low heat. Add onions, carrots, garlic and parsley and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Meanwhile firmly press tofu between layers of paper towels to remove as much liquid as possible. While tofu is pressing, cook brown rice until tender, but still somewhat firm. Add peas, carrots, green beans, and onins. Crumble tofu into the bowl of a food processor, then add bread crumbs, flour, egg, ketchup, tamari and Worcestershire sauce and blend until completely smooth. Transfer tofu mixture to a bowl, then stir in the rice mixture. Add bread crumbs or flour to make loaf more firm if necessary. Add any additional seasonings that you desire. *optional add mushrooms or any veggie of your choice to the mixture. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, then spoon the tofu mixture into the loaf pan, patting it down evenly over the top.

Sprinkle top with Rosemary and Oregano. (Optional topping 1/4 cup ketsup, 2 tbsp Rosemary, 2 tbsp orgeano, 2 tbsp garlic, 1tsp soy sauce, mix well, brush over top of loaf with pastry brush) Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour, or until deep golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool the loaf for easier slicing before serving.

Did You Know I'm the Cookie Monster?

It's the truth. I big pink puffy heart cookies. Chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar, they're all good in my book. I remember making my first batch of Toll House cookies with my mom, when I was just a young Cookie myself. They made me fall in love with the gooey, sugary, orbs of warm joy.
I was never quite the baker my mom was. She could run circles around Martha Stewart in the kitchen when it comes to baking. Somehow, I missed out on that talent. I think it comes from my inability to strictly follow the recipes, opting to use them more as a guideline, a mere suggestion, rather than the "This is the word of law" ideation that baking recipes seem to necessitate.
That, and I'm entirely too nonchalant and whimsical to accurately measure anything. Baking is more a science than cooking is. Cooking gives the artistic freedom to play with the measurements, add a bit of this and a dash of that at the cook's discretion. Not so with baking, at least not to the same degree as with cooking. So I tend to screw up many attempts at baking. Which is probably good, because If I could successfully bake, on even a sporadically regular basis, I'd be in some serious trouble. Because One thing I did inherit from my Grandma Palacios, if not her black curly hair and long thick eyelashes, I instead received her love of sugar. She liked hers in any form of chocolate, and I take my sugar mostly through cookies. Have I told you how much I love cookies? Hard, soft, round, square, doesn't matter, I love em!
You could probably bribe me out of house and home with the right batch of cookies.
I'm pretty sure that if I've lived my life right, and I've done all that I can to be of service to this world, then when I die, I'll receive a plate of freshly baked, still warm, assorted cookies.

I tell you all of this because it's really close to Christmas and you know what that means...
IT"S COOKIE BAKING TIME!!!!
Wifester and I went to Joann's Fabrics yesterday to get some crafty stuff, we've been making home made ornaments, more on that later, and while we were there, I found some cookie cutters on sale that were just begging to come home with us. And since I bought Easter cookie cutters, but never made Easter cookies, and I bought a dragonfly cookie cutter from our summer vacation, and never used it, I awoke this morning determined to make some cookies.

Now, as I said, I don't usually bake, I leave that to the Wifester. I cook, she bakes. It's a good system we have worked out here. But this was my task to do, so I hit the internet to look up a good sugar cookie recipe. I really wanted a nice sugar cookie that we could make some icing and decorate these with, and I found this recipe that said "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies", and it said "Whenever you make these cookies for someone, be sure to bring along several copies of the recipe! You will be asked for it, I promise!!!"
I thought, hmmm that one sounds good, lets go!
So I glanced over the ingredients list, saw what I needed, and began mixing up the cookie dough. My bowl was getting fuller, and fuller, and fuller. Wifester, knowing my history in baking and lack of success, came in to check on me. "Wow, you got a lot of cookies there" she said to me as I continued to add the premeasured flour to the now almost overflowing bowl. "Yeah, looks like it! Could you get me a bigger bowl, please." I responded, a bit nervous, knowing I had followed these directions precisely. After we transfered the dough into the larger recepticle, I picked up the printout of the recipe to see where I'd gone wrong..."I've followed these directions exactly" I protested,
Wifester: "Well, how many dozen does this recipe make?"
me: "Oh, yeah, I didn't look at that."
Wifester: "Don't you think that's important to check before starting a recipe?"
me: "Shut up"
me: "Oh...it says Yeild: 5 dozen"

And the moral of the story is ...
Always read the " Yeild " line of a recipe before embarking upon that journey.

Guess the office is getting some cookies tomorrow :)

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

Submitted by: Jill Saunders Rated: 4 out of 5 by 2067 members

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 8 Minutes

Ready In: 3 Hours Yields: 60 servings

"Whenever you make these cookies for someone, be sure to bring along several copies of the recipe! You will be asked for it, I promise!!!"

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

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Printed from Allrecipes.com 12/7/2008