My Special Cookies

When I got to be about 12 (and then throughout my teenage years) I really got into cooking. Well, not so much cooking, mostly baking. I come from a long line of sweet-toothed gals.

My poor Mom. I wasted A LOT of ingredients. I seriously had no idea that Baking Chocolate was different than Nestle Quick. And I remember being SO intrigued when I found a recipe for Mrs. Field's Cookies that called for "Soda."
"So THAT'S her secret ingredient!"
I remember deliberating on whether to use Pepsi or Sprite.

But I'm pretty sure my mom forgave me for all my flops and messes and wasted ingredients because sometimes I struck gold. She's got just as big a sweet tooth as me, and she certainly didn't have any time for baking those days so all her hopes rested with me.

I've never been one to follow a recipe very strictly. I can always think of a way to make it better. Even then, my search for the perfect cookie recipe led me to mash up my own Frankenstein version that my Mom is convinced are the best cookies on earth. Could there BE a better compliment than that?

My Special Cookies

1 1/4 cups Butter (2 1/2 Sticks room temp)

3/4 cups Packed Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

1 Egg

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 cups Unsifted Flour

1 tsp. BAKING Soda (Not Pepsi)

1/2 tsp. Salt

2 cups Uncooked Oatmeal

1 12oz. Bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Coconut

1/2 - 1 cup Chopped Nuts (I always used Walnuts)

Bake at 375 10-15 minutes

They make a GREAT breakfast!

Taco Night

I Loved my Mom's food. I thought she was a fabulous cook. I was always starving by the time dinner rolled around (and we ate HOURS earlier than I feed my kids dinner!)

Here is a list of all the dinners I can remember my mom making when I was a kid:

Lasagna

Spaghetti

Tacos

Beef Stew

She made meatloaf occasionally but my Dad always complained about it. He called it Killer Meatloaf. I liked it, though.

Then there were the dinners that consisted of a meat with sides, The meats were pretty much always:

Steak, Chicken Breast, or Pork Chops

Occasionally she would make Fried Chicken (which to this day, could quite possibly be my favorite dinner) and I always got a drumstick. (It was a good gig being the only one in the family that liked dark meat.) But now that I'm a mom I realize what a ridiculous amount of work and clean up making fried chicken is and if you don't get everyone to the table right when it's ready it loses its crispiness, and it's just way too frustrating. As much as I love it, I almost never make it. Much easier to let SaveMart do it for me. (Which may be why we all loved Kentucky Fried Chicken so much back then. That was back in the day before anyone ever thought to call it something so sacreligious as "KFC", and if you called it "Colonel Sanders'" people wouldn't look at you funny and would actually know what you were talking about.)

Every once in a while Mom made fish, but Dad always complained when he came home from work and the house smelled like fish, so we didn't have that very often.

I do remember her making liver once, but that didn't go over very well.

In the Summer Dad Bar-B-Que'd whatever meat we were having for dinner just about every night. (One year he even went so far as to Bar-B-Que our Thanksgiving Turkey. It wasn't ready until well after dark.)

And the sides, like I said, were always the same ...

Baked Potatoes (with butter and salt) or

Mashed Potatoes or

Minute Rice (with butter and salt)

French Bread (with butter) or

Brown and Serve Rolls (with butter)

Frozen Corn (corn on the cob in the summer) or

Frozen Green Beans or

Frozen Brussels Sprouts (with melted Velveeta) or

Boiled Cauliflower (with melted Velveeta)

sometimes boiled carrots (those were the days before those bags of baby carrots)

and sometimes just a sliced tomato

In the Bar-B-Que days of summer, we ALWAYS had a salad which ALWAYS consisted of: Iceburg Lettuce, Tomatoes, Celery, and Carrots chopped like round coins. (Except when I had braces, then I got shreds of carrots from the potato peeler.) Oh, and sometimes little cubes of cheddar cheese and croutons if we had them. Dressing choices were invariably: Ranch, Italian, and Thousand Island.

She was NOT a casserole kind of gal.

It's funny to me how predictable dinners were. This was before the days of the internet, mind you. Now you can browse through a million recipes to not only find something that sounds yummy, but a version of it to match the ingredients you have on hand and how much time and effort you want to spend on it. My mom had a Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, and I'm pretty sure all (or most) of her recipes came from that.

But ... this post is called Taco Night because the white-girl way my mom made tortillas has stuck with me and is still something I crave and make for my family. She would pour a little oil in a skillet and fry the tortilla. When she took it out of the pan she would sprinkle both sides with parmesan. That's it. Really small thing, but it's a taste and texture that sticks with ya.

The rest of the taco was always the same, too. Ground Beef cooked in Taco Seasoning, Shredded Cheddar Cheese sprinkled over that, Shredded Iceburg Lettuce, and Chopped Tomatoes. Totally not authentic in any way, but definitely comfort food, and totally worth coming in for even in the middle of a court-wide game of hide and seek.

My mom is always a little weirded out with all my ethnic soups, curries, stir fries ... FISH Tacos???
Kinda funny I turned out that way. ;)

Mommy Frittata

Do you know how cute it is to ask a 3 year old what he wants for dinner and hear him say "Frittata"? Like, every night? I didn't even know what the heck frittata was until I was almost 28!

August 17th, 2009 Jonas Henry Holden decided he was ready to come out and play. Since he was born at 3:57 AM, my first hospital meal was a breakfast. Now I would love to know who in their right mind thought that a sleepy mom who just had the workout of her life would want to have anything to do with a breakfast burrito. I decided I'd rather stay snuggled up with my baby and sleep. So it sat there until Jonas and I were all alone and I was finally hungry enough to give it a go. By then it was hard as a rock. :(

BUT ... breakfast the next morning made up for that cruel trick of the breakfast burrito. I'm not much of a breakfast gal. I'm not big on eggs. Sausage and bacon always seem like a bit much first thing in the morning. I do love me some fried taters, but other than that I tend to gravitate toward the sweeter breakfast items ... pancakes, french toast, bear claws, and I have been known to dive in to a chocolate cheesecake on occasion. But what that wonderful hospital staff brought me that morning was something completely different. I didn't even know anything like this existed! I was, of course starving, and this square of yumminess seemed like it was filling that hole in my stomach with everything I needed to bust out of that hospital and take over the world. ;)

I wasn't home long before I began pouring over frittata recipes to try and recreate it. I mashed a few recipes together and added the ingredients I wanted and this is what I came up with ...

Mommy Frittata

I've discovered all of these amounts are not set in stone. They can vary wildly and it'll still work out just fine.

7 Eggs

10 oz. Chopped Spinach

3/4 cup Grated Cheese (I think I use at least a 1/2 pound.)

8 oz. Sliced Mushrooms

1 Medium Chopped Onion

Salt, Pepper, Garlic (Pesto is yummy, too!)

1 Pkg. Bacon cut in bite-sized pieces

7 Tbsp Milk

Sometimes I put in Olives and Marinated Artichoke Hearts, too.

*Take all the bacon out of the package leaving it in a big brick. Plop it on a cutting board and start slicing through all of it to make bite-sized bacon pieces. I like to use peppered bacon, but regular is great, too.

*Chop that onion and make sure your mushrooms and spinach are ready to go, too.

*Throw all those little bacon squares in a BIG skillet and cook them on Med/High until the grease starts coming out of the bacon.

*Then pour in the onions, mushrooms, and spinach. Saute the whole bunch.

*In a big bowl beat together the eggs and milk. You can add your favorite spices in now, too. Don't forget the bacon will add some salt, though. (And pepper if you used peppered bacon.)

*Add the shredded cheese.

*Dump in that yummy stuff you sauteed on the stove (or whatever is left of it after everyone has snacked on it.)

*If you want to add in olives, artichokes, or anything else, now's the time.

*Grease a casserole dish with butter or olive oil, dump it all in, and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Doesn't that look yummy? It is! Sam loves it, Jonas loves it, I love it, but do you know who doesn't love it? My husband. You know, the one who eats ANYTHING? How, you may ask, could anyone NOT love what is basically a PIE filled with foods you love? Apparently that's the problem. He says when it's all together he can't enjoy all those ingredients individually. So I guess what I should do is just take a big scoop of the sauteed stuff out for him and scramble him some eggs on the side? I guess it's a good thing he's not as wild about it as the rest of us are because it's SO stinkin' easy to make I'm pretty sure we would make it 5 times a week with every imaginable combination of ingredients for variety. Pizza Frittata? Taco Frittata? Chicken and Broccoli Frittata? The possibilities are endless!

Oh - and see how it makes that crust around the edges? That's the BEST part.

"'You're The Best Wife Ever" Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad

I will be eternally grateful to be married to a man that loves food. Not that he's a foodie, necessarily. I mean he can appreciate the good stuff, he loves Sushi, Thai Food, Indian Food, and the other day I brought home Raisin Rosemary Crisps with Pistachio Crusted Chevre that were polished off in a matter of minutes. But the thing about James is that he doesn't have a Food-Snob bone in his body. He will eat ANYTHING, and not just eat it, but eat it happily. When I apologize for a flopped dinner or the complete lack of MAKING dinner, he reminds me that left to his own devices he would most likely live on peanut butter sandwiches with an occasional meal of Top Ramen.

There are a few things he especially loves, though, and I would have to say #1 on that list would be cilantro. I'm not sure there is anything I could ever make that would cause him to say, "It's good but there's a little too much cilantro." I'm pretty sure he can't get enough.

The day I threw this together he immediately said,
"Do you have this recipe written down?"
"No, I just made it up."
"You need to write it down right now before you forget."

I found a winner. :)

James's Best Wife Ever Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad

The best part about this recipe is that in order to make it you have to cheat on dinner the night before and buy one of those grocery store rotisserie chickens! 
We always polish off the dark meat so there's lots of white meat the next day to use for this.

Shred it all up in a bowl.
Chop a bunch of celery.
Throw in a bunch of cilantro.
Squirt lime juice all over it.
Plop some relish on it, maybe a heaping Tablespoon?
Squeeze a bunch of Garlic & Herb Sandwich Shop Mayo all over it.
Douse it with pepper.
Start stirring it up and add regular mayo as needed.

This is the world's most perfect recipe for camping. You get to cheat on dinner the day before and then make a big batch of it to take with you for instant sandwiches!

Mashed Potatoes

Sambo,

Someday you will grow up and be somewhere on the other side of the country or the other side of the world serving your mission. I'm hoping you will have lots of people there willing and able to feed you, but just in case I will do my best to make sure you won't starve to death.

I'm not sure if your love of mashed potatoes will follow you into adulthood, but for the last 4 years of your little life, let me tell you, you LOVE mashed potatoes. I know you think they're a magical culinary feat and that Mommy has some mad cooking skillz to create such perfection in a spoon, but today I will tell you my secrets so you can make them yourself when you need them.

#1 Grab a bunch of potatoes. As long as you have a fridge it doesn't really matter how many. You will eat them within a day or two. I think for all of us I usually use 8-10 and we usually have leftovers for you.

#2 Don't worry about peeling them. It takes too long and there's a bunch of good stuff in the skin anyway. Just, PLEASE, scrub them good and get organic ones, k?

#3 Cut 'em up in whatever size chunks you feel like so you don't have giant skins floating around in your potatoes. (If you cut 'em smaller they'll cook quicker.)

#4 Boil those babies. I don't know how long. They're ready when you can poke 'em with a fork and they feel soft.

#5 Strain all the water out ... please be careful!

#6 Grab that potato masher (that I'll be sure to send you with) and throw in a stick of butter. Start mashing up those taters and help that butter get mixed around and melty. Once the butter is all melted, pour in milk a little at a time until it's the consistency you want. Oh, and keep sprinkling salt in there until it's tasty.

Are you missing some ingredients? You can use sour cream, and even plain yogurt in a pinch. No potatoes? You also like mashed turnips if you have those. When you feel like getting fancy you can add some shredded cheese, sauteed onions, garlic powder, pepper, or whatever spices you want.

There, see? No magic, no skill, no secret ingredients. I'm sure there's ways to make them better, but this has worked out to be the easiest, fastest routine for me. So please don't starve to death, ok?

Best Snack Ever (with some exclamation points)

When I was around 3 my mom and I lived with my grandparents at their house on Canary Drive in North Highlands. (5918, just for posterity.) My grandparents had their travel trailer parked in the side of the front yard (back when suburban lawns were bigger than postage stamps.) For some reason, that trailer was always sort of a play house for Gramma and I. I have no idea why we were in it so much, or maybe we weren't, but almost all of my memories playing with her are there at that little table in the trailer. Slap-Jack, Go Fish, Memory, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders ... I was really little, but Gramma made me a proficient game-player.



My mom worked at a Veterinary Hospital so I spent the day with Gramma (playing games, apparently.) I clearly remember one day when my mom came home from work and after changing out of her scrubs, came out to the trailer and brought me a snack. Not just any snack. The. Best. Snack. Ever. The snack that would change my life forever because it would be something I would crave for the rest of my life. Of course I had to pass it down to my children who often request this snack as well. (The cycle continues ...) Are you ready for the recipe? It's a tough one ...

First you take a graham cracker and slather it with peanut butter. Then you sprinkle it with chocolate chips. LIBERALLY. Like I said, the best snack ever.

Oatmeal Fudgies

Ok, so these are probably nothing too original, but I swear they originated with my family! I remember the first time I had them. Aunt Jodie brought them to our house for Christmas when I was probably around 6. We were spending a lot of time after all the present-opening festivities watching old 8mm home movies on the projector in the living room. I remember getting up over and over to grab another one of these amazing little blobs of deliciousness and being so pleasantly surprised that no one was telling me "that's enough." Maybe they didn't notice or maybe they just figured it was Christmas so I could make myself sick if I wanted to!

One of the reasons I'm convinced this recipe belongs to my family is because even though it seems like a pretty common recipe, I've never been to a potluck or anything where someone else has brought these. The other reason is because Gramma gave me a 1968 fundraiser cook book for the Stonington, Rhode Island Pee Wee Football League that had lots of recipes in it submitted by our family, and what recipe was in it but ... "Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies!" Ok, so not exactly the same name, but it's really the same hand written recipe from my mom entitled, ... "Boiled Cookies." So what the heck? Where did we get the name Oatmeal Fudgies? That's definitely what they're called, we certainly never called them "Boiled Cookies" for goodness sakes! Gross!

When I moved out I sort of treated these cookies like granola bars. They were quick and easy to make, filled me up, and satisfied the chocolate craving I seem to always have. They're full of oatmeal, so that means they're healthy, right? Because I didn't always have "baking ingredients" on hand, I figured out how to make them using every conceivable substitution. Every time I make these I always think I need to experiment with a new batch using less sugar and/or more oatmeal, but so far I haven't. Someday.

For now they've become the thing that I crave whenever we're going camping, which causes me to procrastinate the actual PACKING so I can make a batch of these to take. Because I will NEED them. For breakfast. And basically all day. I've also found that if I add a lot of nuts to them or use big steel cut oats, the kids pretty much let me have them all. Muah-Hah-Hah-Hah!

Oatmeal Fudgies

Pour 3 cups Oatmeal in a large bowl along with 1/2 - 1 cup nuts (if desired.)

Pre-measure 1/2 cup Peanut Butter (Chunky is great!)

In a saucepan on the stove, combine:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cube butter (1/4 pound or 4 Tbsp.)
3 Tbsp. (1/4 cup) Cocoa (or 1.5 oz squares) (you can also omit the chocolate and sugar and just use chocolate chips)
Bring these 4 ingredients to a hard boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Quickly add Peanut Butter and 1 tsp Vanilla. As soon as it's pretty much mixed up, pour in Oatmeal. Mix it all up and drop by tsp. onto waxed paper. Let stand 1/2 hour until hardened. (Yeah, right.)