Choc chip oatmeal and the sweatshop revisited

I went over to Mrs Thunder's house again today to help her make more anklets. I was in a baking mood last night so I brought Crunchy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. These are a crispy cookies, which Mrs Thunder prefers. In the Blocko house we are of the chewy cookie persuasion. MrBlocko grumbled a bit that they were crispy, but I caught him trying to take 4 cookies with him to work this morning.

I think Cookie Madness was on the right track using dark chocolate chips. Next time I make these I'll use dark chips and pecans. I omitted the nuts because I couldn't remember if Mrs Thunder liked them or not. I do know she thinks dark chocolate is double plus ungood. I didn't think it would be very nice if I went to a friends house and said, "Here you go, here are some cookies that you will hate. Watch me eat them. Neener neener." Although...it might be kinda fun. Muhahahaha!


Crunchy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cookie Madness
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups quick-cooking oats
12 oz package semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Cream shortening and sugars in bowl til light and fluffy, using electric mixer at medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Blend in vanilla. Gradually stir dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Stir in oats, chocolate and nuts. Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls or shape into 1 inch balls and place about 2 inches apart, on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake in 350F oven 12-15 min til golden brown. Remove from baking sheets; cool on racks. Makes 6 dozen.

Cream Cheese Fondue

This weekend I offered to help my friend Mrs Thunder of Wednesday Night Accessories make some jewlery. She is going to be a vendor at the Port Washington Pirate Festival in WI June 5-7. This is her first big show and I am super excited for her! I went crazy on making ankle bells. I think I may be getting the beading bug again. (I blame Mrs Thunder because she always has the coolest beads.) I had so much fun I would definately help out again.

Anyhow, she made us Cream Cheese Fondue for lunch. It was delicious! I don't know where she found it but here is the same recipe, 3rd from the bottom. Not only was this tasty, but unlike most fondues, it won't turn into a gloppy mess. If you have leftovers you can just add a little more cream and reheat, or, I am told, straight out of the fridge, it makes a tasty bagel spread.

Herb and Cream Cheese Fondue from Great Party Recipes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped, or 1/2 tablespoon dried
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped, or 1/2 tablespoon dried
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped, or 1/2 tablespoon dried
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 to 1 1/2 cups light cream

In a large, heavy, non-stick skillet, sauté garlic in olive oil, just til tender. Add cream cheese, and continue cooking on low , stirring, til cheese is smooth and melted. Gradually stir in cream, a little at a time, til mix reaches right consistency for dipping. (It thickens as it cools.) Add parsley, oregano and basil, and continue cooking 2-3 min to let the herb flavors blend. Transfer to a warm ceramic fondue pot. Serve with cooked, shelled shrimp, tortellini and crusty French bread, cubed. Can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, but you will need to add more cream before serving; as it thickens when chilled. Shrimp and scallops cook quickly and dry easily when overcooked, however, so it's best to prepare them shortly before serving this fondue recipe. Serves 6.

Choc Chip Ice Cream Bowls

I made these a while ago, but I always get so excited about eating them that I don't remember to take a pic until I'm done eating. You'd be able to see a bigger contrast between the bowl and the ice cream if someone hadn't eaten all of the chocolate ice cream. Shame on whoever did that!

This is my new favorite way to eat ice cream, esp when it comes to Blockette. She is such a slow eater that most of her ice cream ends up as soup at the bottom of her bowl. With the cookie bowl, all the juices get soaked up by the cookie. It's like dessert for your dessert!

The recipe was easy to put together, but the dough was beastly. I followed the recommended time for chilling the dough, 2 hrs. I don't think a longer chill time would have helped. Once I began to roll the dough out it warmed up very quickly, and stuck to the wax paper. I had to stick the scraps in the freezer before rolling the dough out a 2ND time. I mistakenly put the dough I had already cut out on the inverted muffin pan while I fought with cutting out the remaining dough. Since it took so long to cut all of the dough out, the dough on the muffin pan sort of oozed down which created a few holes in the cups. I had thought I patched them all before baking, but I wound up missing a few.

Next time I will place the cut pieces between wax paper and place them in the freezer until all of the dough has been cut. I will also roll them a bit thicker than suggested. 1/8 of an inch seemed too thin. Then again, I got 12 cookies vs. the 10 the recipe says it makes.

I tested a cookie cup, plain with no ice cream in it and thought, on their own, they were nothing special. I'm used to all butter cookies and I could really taste the shortening. I think an easy fix for this is to use butter flavored shortening. I would not substitute the shortening for butter. I think an all butter cookie bowl would be too chewy. It would get too soggy and fall apart before you finished your ice cream.

Here's the recipe:
Ice Cream Cookie bowls From Gourmet Mom on the Go
1/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. miniature chocolate chips

Beat shortening, butter, and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg and vanilla. Add baking powder, salt, and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide dough in half, shape each half into a flat disk and wrap in plastic. Chill the dough at least 2 hrs in the fridge. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Turn two 12-cup muffin tins bottom side up and cover 10 of the cups with aluminum foil (5 on each pan--leave every other cup empty so there's some space between them). Spray the foil with nonstick spray.

Unwrap 1 disk of dough, place it between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 4-inch circles of dough and place each one over a cup bottom, smoothing out any cracks. Repeat with the other disk, re-rolling and reusing any scraps. Bake the cookie cups for 10-12 min til light brown. Let the cool for 10 min then remove the foil and cookies from muffin pan. Peel off foil and let cups cool completely. Fill with ice cream or your favorite dessert and enjoy!

Ribs and garlic twist rolls

Memorial day we had spare ribs for dinner. My knowledge of ribs is diddly squat. I know that country ribs are meatier and don't come in a slab. That's it. Usually we buy the precooked Lloyds ribs, but they don't always carry them at the store. This time Mrblocko wanted to try grilling a real slab of ribs. The spare ribs were ridiculously on sale this week, so why not give it a go.

The original plan was to cook the ribs in the crock pot, then char them on the grill. We were going to visit family in the morning and in doing the math, we realized if we put them in the crock pot before we left, we'd be eating dinner way early and if we put them in when we got home, we'd be eating in the middle of the night. So we changed plans and cooked them for an hour and a half in the oven before slapping them on the grill. This worked out quite well as the day turned out to be a bit chilly and the oven warmed the kitchen nicely.

Since I don't know anything about ribs, I don't know if spare ribs are normally this huge. Compared to the Lloyd's ribs these guys looked like something on the Flintstones. Mrblocko only ate 3 ribs and he normally downs a full half slab.

Blockette was very excited that we were eating the ribs of a pig. You know there are lots of kids out there who get squeamish when they find out meat actually comes from a real live animal. Not this kid. We talked about bones and ribs and pigs all through the meal. There is a girl from Sunday school who's grandparents (who also go to our church) own a pig farm. We also talked about how they feed and care for the pigs so they can get big and fat so we can eat them. She thought that was fascinating.

Oh, the 2 round things on the plate are garlic cheese twists. Can't forget about them. They are made from crescent roll dough. Fun and super easy.

Garlic Butter Cheddar Cheese Twists from Liesl's Confection Dissection
1 package of reduced fat crescent rolls
1 tablespoon butter, melted
garlic salt
cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a muffin pan with pam. Separate crescent rolls into 4 squares, which is 2 crescent rolls together. Press the part of the square that has the perforation (where you would separate them) together. You don't want to dough to come apart when you twist it. Cut each square into thirds longways. Then take one of the thirds and twist it up, tucking one end underneath so it doesn't come apart. Place into the greased muffin pan. Continue process until you have finished all the twists. Combine melted butter with a couple dashes of garlic salt. Brush the tops of the twists with the garlic butter mixture. Sprinkle tops of twists with cheddar cheese.Place in oven and bake 10-12 minutes til nice and golden.

Buffalo chicken dip

This weekend I made Buffalo chicken dip for a party. I've seen this recipe all over the blogosphere for quite some time with everyone and their brother claiming it is their own original recipe. Whoever it was that invented this concoction was a genius. It is good, made with crack good. I know I've talked about how I am not a fan of hot sauce or traditional buffalo wings, but there was enough cheese to counteract the spice and stink of the hot sauce. I think another thing I liked about this dip is that it tasted better with celery and carrots than it did with chips or crackers. You can almost feel like you are being heathy by eating veggies instead of chips...almost. There was so much food at the gathering that we wound up taking half of the dip back home with us. Darn!


Buffalo Chicken Dip from The Bitten Word
8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup ranch salad dressing
1/4 cup blue cheese salad dressing
1/2 cup buffalo sauce or buffalo style barbecue sauce
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (shredded mozzarella cheese can be substituted)
2 cups shredded meat from a fully cooked rotisserie chicken

Pre-heat oven to 350F. In a deep baking dish, mix cream cheese, salad dressing, buffalo sauce, and cheese. Stir until combined. Stir in chicken. Bake uncovered for 20-25 min, til dish is heated through. Serve with crackers, pita chips, sliced bread or vegetables.

NOTE: Depending on your tastes and the ingredients on hand, you can use 1/2 c ranch or blue cheese salad dressing rather than 1/4 c of each. Similarly, you can mix blue cheese and mozzarella, or use portions of each.

Is it a Monut or a Duffin?

I got this donut pan and this mini donut pan for Christmas and I finally got around to using them this weekend. See, I think muffins taste best when they are slightly warm from the oven, and I have this thing about sleeping as long as possible, which means no muffins in time for breakfast. Sunday morning I woke up early and was AWAKE. I attempted to will myself back to sleep but I guess these little buggers just wanted to be made. These are baked apple "donuts" from cooks.com. They were good, not "drool on the floor" good, but "I would make these again some day" good. I've made apple muffins before (different recipe that I have since thrown out) in a regular muffin tin before and the muffins were almost slimy in the middle the next day. The surface ratio of the donut shape seemed to work well with this recipe. I guess enough moisture from the apple was able to escape without drying out the cakey part. We had muffins again for breakfast this morning and they were almost as good the second day. (Only almost as good because, they weren't warm out of the oven.)

The donuts muffins didn't rise as much as I had anticipated so they didn't get that nice rounded shape on both sides. I don't know if it was a fault of the recipe or if my baking powder is losing its oomph or maybe I just didn't fill the pan enough. I have a few more donut muffin recipes I'd like to test someday. I should be able to solve the problem with more experimentation.

There is one distinct disadvantage to using the donut pans over the regular muffin tins...it is not a time saver to use the cookie scoops, at least not with a thick batter like the Baked apple donuts. I had to spread out the batter around the part of the pan that forms the hole. Because I had to do that, it was easier to just spoon the batter in. Oh well. Don't fret my little scoopers. I still love you!!!!


BAKED APPLE "DONUTS" from Cooks.com
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. finely diced apples

Sift first 5 ingredients. Add 1/3 c shortening; mix til mix is coarse. Set aside. In another bowl combine egg, milk and diced apples. Add to dry ingredients just until blended. Spoon into 12 greased muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. While donuts are baking, melt 1/2 c butter. Set aside. Combine 1/2 c sugar and 1 t cinnamon. When donuts are done, dip in butter and then in sugar.

Phyllo victory

Phyllo has been one of those things I've had zero success with. I think the curse is over! This attempt did not end in disaster. whohoo!!!

This weekend I made Turkish Sigara Boregi. They are sort of like a Mediterranean egg roll, only with Phyllo. I originally saw the recipe here for a chicken version. The step by step photos were so helpful. I don't think I could have made them successfully without the visual aid. This was a very fussy prep, but it was fun painting on the egg wash.
Mrblocko thought they would have been better with tatziki sauce, but improvised and used ranch dressing. Blockette was very reluctant to try but once she had ranch dressing and found out we were having ice cream for dessert she ate her dinner gladly.

If I ever get the urge to make this again, (ie I have plenty of time and feel like making a fussy dinner)I'll try the chicken version. I think if you used slightly more than 1/4 cup filling, a whole box of Phyllo would make both the chicken and the beef versions, esp if you only use one sheet for each "cigar". The recipe said to use one sheet but I found that it was way too fragile so I used 2. The ones I started off with 1 sheet I wrapped in another so the meat wouldn't fall out of the holes that were created when I rolled them up. If you make this, preserve your sanity and use 2 sheets.


Sigara Boregi With Minced Meat from Eating out Loud
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons pine nuts
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1 egg
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons milk
1 lb phyllo sheets (about 18)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion. Cook for 2-3 min til onion begins to soften, then add minced garlic and pine nuts. Saute for an additional 1-2 min til pine nuts begin to turn golden. Add ground beef to the skillet and cook for 3-4 min, then add cinnamon, oregano and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, then set aside to cool.

In  small bowl, whisk egg, olive oil and milk. Will be slightly thick and will be used to moisten  phyllo dough.

Take a sheet of phyllo dough and lay it out on a flat surface with longest side facing you. Keep  remaining phyllo covered with a moist towel until ready to use. Lightly brush left half of phyllo with the egg mix. Gently lift right side of phyllo and fold it over left side. The phyllo dough will now be half the size of when you started and you will now have the shortest side facing you.

Brush the top of the phyllo with the egg mixture. Take 1/4 c  beef mixture (make sure it has cooled) and place it 2" from the nearest edge of the phyllo and leave 2"  on either side of the meat. The meat mix is placed nearest to you as you will begin rolling it away from you. Don’t worry if some of the phyllo sheets have small tears in them.

Fold in each of the long sides by 2". Beginning at the edge closest to you, fold the narrow end over the meat mixture. Continue rolling the dough away from you as you form a cigarette shaped roll. When you are nearing the end, brush the final 2" with the egg mix. Fold the roll over this final bit of dough to seal it. Place seam side down on a baking sheet.

Before baking, brush the tops and sides of each roll with more of the egg mix. Sprinkle tops with sesame seeds. Bake at 350F for 20-25 min til golden brown.