summer bucket list cookies

This is so not school related, which really has been the focus of the blog lately.  But this is yummy, and that generally takes precedent.  A friend of mine said finding the best chocolate chip cookie recipe was on their family's summer bucket list.  They'd tried 7 different recipes but still felt like there was something else out there.

Then I stumbled on a recipe that might just be it.  I was really trying to eat healthy this week.  Instead, I've consumed a lot of cookies.

Get your butter (so much butter) and your chocolate chips- we're making summer bucket chocolate chip cookies!  This is adapted from a recipe in a new book called So Much to Celebrate by Katie Jacobs.

Summer Bucket Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/4 C (2 1/2 sticks) butter- softened (Unsalted? Salted? Whatever... I always err towards salted!)
1 c white sugar
1 1/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla (Mexican if you can)
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/4 t baking soda
1 1/2 baking powder
3 1/2 C flour
3/4 bag or about 8 oz chocolate chips- semi-sweet, please

Get out that electric mixer and using the paddle, cream butter and both sugars.  Mix on a middle setting for about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, then mix them up too.  In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.  Add those to the wet mix all at once.  Mix up until it's looking like cookie dough.  Add the chips and mix just until they're incorporated.  Cover up the bowl (after you have a good taste- let's assume we all used quality eggs) and stick it in the fridge until the next day.  Then scoop out round balls of dough and bake @12-14 minutes at 350.  I am a baking stone girl, but you do as you please.  Don't over bake.  They will still look soft.  Let them cool a bit, like 10 minutes still on the tray and then move to a wire cooling rack or right to your plate. Whatever floats your boat.  It's nice having the dough in the fridge because you can make up a few at a time (like when the kids go to bed and you need to sit in quiet and eat fresh cookies without sharing- I mean for portion control). This makes up about 4 dozen cookies (but really, it's hard to keep track since they don't still on the cooling rack for long at my house).

Bee from scratch

We've been watching Master Chef Jr.  It's our treat to ourselves on school nights when daddy's working late and the homework is done and dinner is done and cleaned up.  It's about the only way I can get my people motivated to get through dinner and get baths in a timely manner.  It's a treat for me to sit down and veg on the couch with the kids.  The days when it's all me after school are extra wearing, especially after a long day at school.  They are always long days in third grade.  I love them, but I am worn out.

 

 

So, because of this Master Chef Jr. watching, the kids are especially into cooking.  It's nice, but that used to be my quiet time.  It's probably worth it that someday they'll be able to take some of the cooking duties for me.  It makes them more willing to eat different foods.  They've eaten goat cheese and pomegranate.  They are messy cooks.  Messy.  Bee has been taking cook books to bed with her to read, which makes me giddy.  She really loves The Pioneer Woman cook books since there are so many photos.  It's great for the young at-home cook (as Chef Ramsey says).

 

 

She decided she wanted to make glazed yeast doughnuts from scratch.  It took a whole weekend, since they need to sit in the fridge overnight.  She stuck with it and did every step (except some of the end frying- after an upsetting burn) and was pleased to share them with us and the neighbors.  They were scrumptious and a great lesson for her in patience.    They were an additional lesson for me in the need for a renewed gym membership.

Book Club and stuffed dates

 
This inviting table welcomed us this month at book club.  My friends have the most lovely homes.  We're reading and cooking our way through Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist.

 
This month's menu consisted of bacon wrapped goat cheese stuffed dates,  Mexican grilled corn, dark chocolate sea sated toffee, enchiladas and a delicious guacamole.  Those are my dates below.  They were pretty yum.  I ate a lot of them and also did some damage on the toffee.

The food is always great, and I love learning new cooking techniques, but the company is tremendous and the conversation is delightful.  These gals are wise and funny and a breath of fresh air amidst a busy week.  

Last month we ditched cooking together and ended up out to eat at a downtown sushi spot.  The service was less than great and we ended up with discounted meal.  We decided we are better cooks.

Here's how those yummy stuffed dates are made:  I'll be making them again!

2 packages of dates (found in the produce section)
1 pack of bacon
8 oz. goat cheese (found in the specialty cheese case)

Slice the dates open, but not in half.  Pull out the pit.  It sort of looks like a pecan.  Spoon in a little dip of the goat cheese.  Wrap each in a half a strip of bacon.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.  We flipped them at about 15 minutes. They can be served warm or room temperature, or as I discovered the next morning, cold from the fridge.  I actually thought they were even better the next day. 

Next month, we are cooking, eating and exchanging Christmas goodies.

book club- kitchen 2

We met again, my 6 new mama friends, to cook and eat and talk and avoid homework with the kids and bedtime drama and just be grown ups together.

We met at a different home and made dishes from the next section of our book, Bread and Wine. Section one post here.

We take a lot of photos of our treats!  We met in a different friend's home, a farm house that has been in her husbands family for three generations, that she and her husband recently restored.  It's gorgeous and homey and a great place to gather.

The other mama's have kids who are a little bit older and I'm learning a lot about parenting teens.  As we've had a little interaction with their kids passing through the house and those I see at school occasionally, or work with for the middle school musicals, I'm impressed. They have respectful, mannerly teens.  I want that and I'm tucking all this good info away for later! 

We cooked and then devoured together watermelon feta salad, mango chicken curry, breakfast cookies, sweet potato fries with sriracha dipping sauce, and an Italian sausage cassoulet.  We had to take home our breakfast cookie because there was so much food going on. 

I was in charge of the chicken curry and it turned out pretty decent.  I guess I just don't really love the curry flavor, but it was fine.  Better than my biscuit flop from last month.  I thought it would be super spicy but it was not at all.

The watermelon feta salad was amazing! It contained watermelon, feta, mint, arugula, and a balsamic dressing.   It had lime as well which gave it a fun flavor.  It tasted like a special summer drink.  I always think arugula is bitter, but spinach might be a tastier base to the salad next time. 

I so enjoy meeting with these ladies.  I'm going to have to get better at time management though.  I can hardly stay out until 10 and miss an entire evening at home without getting behind a little in every area of life!  The papers that needed graded are still not caught up and today I'm the laundry queen!  I say that as I take an hour our of my Sunday to post this.  Guess a time management class may be needed. 

Books and friends= mom fun

One of my dear student's parents has been so sweet to me.  I had her oldest last year, have her middle child this year and with any luck, will have her youngest next year.  She invited me to join a book club she was starting with some of her favorite ladies.  I knew a few of them from school and church and was intrigued by the book. 

 

Green Well Salad

 

It's called Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist.  It's about food, but also community.  It's a Christian book, but not devotional.  It's recipes and the stories that go with them.  The book has been super enjoyable, the recipes have been good, and joining friends, new and old, around the table, is pretty great.

 

 

We get together at one of our homes (insert footnote!) and cook the recipes from the section of the book we read that month.  Then we feast and discussed the chapters.   (footnote- We will not be meeting at my house- they all have lovely, lovely homes with huge kitchens and plenty of room for entertaining.  My house can have one cook in the kitchen, two if you are close!)

 

Me and my mama friend

 

Last week we made (and devoured and enjoyed) steak au poivre with cognac pan sauce, green well salad with cherries and walnuts,  risotto, goat cheese biscuits (insert footnote!) and flourless chocolate brownies.  (footnote- I was in charge of the goat cheese biscuits.  No problem.  I bake.  I make biscuits.  I even tested out the recipe the week before at home since I'm not usually cooking with goat cheese and fresh shredded parmesan cheese.  They were great.  So, I measured out all my ingredients and brought them to cook at book club.  When I pulled them out of the oven, there was clearly an issue.  I had forgotten the baking powder.  They were little dough balls.  Chewy little unleavened bread clumps.  They were slightly embarrassing.  Add that to the fact that I showed up in a crazy tiny little rental car and I was pretty impressive that evening.  -We had someone bump our mini van in July and the new tailgate was finally in.  I had a little rental for three days.  Three long and cramped days.  I'm not used to driving a teeny tiny car and was pretty sure I'd be run over on the road.)

 

 

I learned some new cooking skills. I met some new friends. We talked about our kids, our jobs, and our moms.  We stayed out past 10pm on a school night!  I learned to make risotto.  The green bowl was from book club, the orange bowl was my recreation later that week with bacon, mushroom, and shrimp. 

 

 

Next month has some promising recipes and another lovely home to gather in. 

movie and dessert

In the summer, I sit at the pool while the kiddos swim and I devour magazines.  I have to get them at the recycling center because I go through at least two a day.  I tore out a picture and recipe for this delicious strawberry peach rustic tart like free form pie yumminess.  I think it was from Woman's Day or Family Circle or Real Simple.  I read lots of different magazines and sometimes they're old.  I read a wonderful article the other day from a 1995 Healthy Cooking magazine.  I can't use them for fashion advice, but the cooking doesn't change.   I tell the kids its safer when they have friends over if I'm on the deck instead of in the pool.  I'm not sure I can support that with evidence, but it works. 

Anyway, then I misplaced the torn out recipe.  No worries, pinterest saved the day.  I found a few similar recipes.  I ended up using a recipe from Sally's baking Addiction for this rustic galette.  (I found other similar recipes at Couple of Cooks and Simply Recipes)  We had peaches on the counter and strawberries in the garden.  The low producers I mentioned the other day, have recently sprung forth with a new round of berries.  And since I always keep butter on hand, lots of butter, we were ready to make this.

Rustic Fruit Galette

 

Filling: 

3 ripe peaches (peel, and slice thinly),  2 cups fresh strawberries (sliced- Bee's job),  2 T  sugar,  1 t vanilla (the real stuff if you can! My brother gets mine from Mexico- ask your brother for some- or ask my brother.) 

-Combine these items in a bowl and set aside while you prepare the crust.

 

Crust: 

Whisk together- 1 and 1/2 cups flour,  3 T sugar,  1/4 t salt

Cut in:  1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (I throw it in the freezer for 15 min)

Add:  1/4 cup ice water, plus more as needed  (I added an additional 2-3T)

 

Knead his dough gently and quickly until it's not sticky.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour... unless you're in a hurry, or really hungry, then refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.

 

Pull out of fridge and unwrap.  Using additional flour as needed, roll out into a thin pie crust like shape.  I rolled it right on my baking stone.  I know lots of people like parchment paper, I'm a fan of the stone.

 

Add fruit (use a slotted spoon) to the center of crust circle and then fold up edges over the top.  If you want pictures to guide you here, use one of the links above.  I was too buttery at this point to take pictures.  Pour about 2 T of the remaining juice over the fruit portion. 

 

Optional:  Beat 1 egg for an egg wash over the crust portion.   You could also sprinkle a little sugar on the egg wash.

 

I also made a simple glaze to add to the top after it was slightly cooled.  I mixed the remaining fruit juice, which was about 1-2 T with enough powdered sugar to make a little glaze. 

 

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown at a 425 degree oven.  Allow to slightly cool before serving.

 

This dessert put us all in such a nice mood that we suffered from some temporary insanity and invited some neighbor friends over for a late night movie.   Unfortunately, movies can't be started until 8:20ish and that makes for a late late night.  It's hard to get up for  early church when you're 7 and were up until 10:00 pm.

In these pictures, the kids are singing along to Frozen sound track while we wait for the sun to set.  The popcorn was gone before the movie started. 

snow daysssss

Wonderful domestic bliss brought to you courtesy of  snow days, a whole bunch of snow days.   We discovered that the car thermometer does not go below 0, because it was actually -23 this morning.  I know it's colder in other parts of the country, but geesh.

There was sort of a theme running in the kitchen.  Carbs.  

With school this year, and me working full time, it's been awhile since I got my bake on.  

This cinnamon raisin bread was made using our fall back bread recipe- milk bread recipe.

I had been waiting for a good time to make this nutella braid bread after seeing it on Pinterst.  (Here are some pictures, although I just sort of figured it out).  I used the same milk bread recipe (as above) except we were low on  milk and snowed in and used mostly water.  It all worked out.  My braid was too long and ended up being a ring.  It was very average when warm, but was pretty good cooled the next day.
 

And cookies.  Add this to me not visiting the gym much and it's pretty much not a good combination.  Unless you like cookies as much as I do.

Poor Lou, we realized that his little apron was becoming just that, a little apron. 

So, there was some sewing too.  

One day we unpacked my old cabbage patch kids for the kids to play with.  Actually Mandy was mine and Andy was my brothers.  I'm sure he doesn't know I have him.  That's back when they had normal names.

I needed to replace all the old elastic in the pants.  I sent this picture to my mom to see if she remembered them.  She made me and my brother a bunch of clothes for our dolls back in the mid 80s.  They all needed a good wash, but most of them survived all those years in storage.

We've played about every game in the game closet.  Luke ended up with more kids than would fit in his car in Life. He says he does want a large family.

We got Suspend before Christmas.  It's Melissa and Doug, but not their traditional type of toy.  My brother, the physics teacher, introduced it to us at Thanksgiving.  Super fun. I've taken it in to school a few days and the kids really like it too.
.

We pressed thimbles onto the frosted glass door.  I don't know how this one door frosts up so much and not the others.  We read about this when we read The Little House books but had not tried it yet.  I thought we'd have to warm the thimbles, but you don't at all.  The little circles added another layer of pretty to the already pretty pattern of frost.

 
The kids and I worked on every 'winter' craft we could think of.  Painting with Epsom salt is one of my favorite winter crafts.  I feel like I've written about it before, but I can't find it.  That little search button on my page doesn't seem to be working.

I've done with project with about every grade and group of kids I've worked with since college.  You just use a white crayon on black construction paper and draw whatever winter scene you want.  The salt will give the illusion of a frosted window, so I usually draw a window and whatever winter scene inside of it.  Mix a handful of Epsom salt -like from the pharmacy for cheap- in some warm water and stir.  I don't have a measurement or a formula.  In fact, I've done lots of experimenting with how much salt and water and temperature of water, etc and it doesn't seem to matter.  If I guessed, I would say we add 3 T of salt to 3/4 c water.  Then, you liberally paint it inside the window.  Liberally, don't over brush, don't be afraid to get that paper wet either.  Lay is flat to dry and walk away.  This takes awhile to dry and let the crystals form.  Do this in the morning and by the afternoon, they'll be done.  At some point, you'll think you've done something wrong and you'll be getting no crystals, I do each and every time.  They're coming.  Be patient.

We made 6 pointed snowflakes again, but my origami paper was at school so we used coffee filters.  We  used  the same directions for getting the 6 points from square papers.  Here are our directions from 2011.  Geesh.  I almost wrote 'last year.'

 This was our first time making prints with ink.  I remembered doing it in high school and my sister sent me with some supplies last Christmas she'd saved from a college class. 

 
The kids carved some drawing in clean Styrofoam.  I think I must have bought some fruit or something on these foams.  It's the same kind that meat comes on from the grocery, but I never want to use those.  So something clean came on these. We used golf tees to do the carving. 

The ink gets rolled on and then you just press the paper on top and lift it off.  Lou's print is the snowman and Bees is the snowflake with dots.  We talked about getting a blue ink the next time we stop by the art shop.

These pictures were left on the camera from the last snow days which were before Christmas.  We actually haven't had enough snow for sledding this time.  A little bit north of us has 2 feet, we have an inch.  Our 'snow days' this time have been for temperature mostly.  Lou and I went sledding with one of his friends.  Bee whined and wanted to stay home, she missed out.  It was the most fun I've ever had sledding!  Next big snow, I'm taking her kick and screaming. 

I also had time that round to do a bit of sewing.  Here's an apron I made my mom for Christmas.  Its uber long!  I must have turned the bottom skirt piece the wrong way.  She'll have to shorten it herself if she doesn't want it so long.  We were snowed in and I had to use fabric on hand.  It's pieced with more fabrics than I like to work with at once but turned out alright.

I've loved these snow days but seriously, if we don't get back to school soon, I'm pretty much going to loose my mind... and patience... and sanity. 

Giant Jam Sandwich- preschool style

One of my all time favorite favorite books is The Giant Jam Sandwich.  It's one of those books I've probably read 300 times.  I have found newer copies at yard sales, but I like my copy.  It's mine from when I was little and it's not in great shape. 

Anyway.  I love it and I read it to my preschoolers. Then we made butter. 

Last year, I asked the parent helper to bring homemade bread in because I knew she'd love to.  This year I asked the parent helper to bring bread and let her decide what I meant.  We ended up with store bought bread and it worked all the same.  I brought the jam.  I have a large batch of two years ago low sugar (blah) strawberry jam to use up.

The kids made butter in baby food jars.  This is the third year I've done it this way and it works well.   The glass jars are becoming harder to find, but I have a large hoard in my basement. I used them for applesauce in the fall at preschool too.  I really have to clean them well, my grandpa used to store nails in them.

About 2T heavy whipping cream and a dash of salt are placed in a baby food jar along with a marble.  The lid is attached securely and I wrap a paper towel around the whole thing and the kids shake the jar.  And shake and shake and shake.  I played some shaking and jumping songs to help keep them moving.  There's always someone who pops the top up and it leaks, but otherwise it's pretty easy.

They shake until they can't hear the marble.  They brought it to me and many had to be sent back for more shaking.  They get a little tired.  It takes about 5 minutes of kid shaking.  Some of the kids end up with a whipped butter, but if they shake through that, it really does resemble a traditional butter.   This year we did have one jar break.  That marble popped right on out.  I've never had that happen before but I assume there was an issue with the jar prior to our shaking.