Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries and Dark Chocolate

I've started baking with my kids.  We put everything down on the floor where they can see what's going on, I explain everything I'm doing, and they can dump things into the bowl (or onto the floor), taste things at various stages, and see how it goes into the oven and comes out looking different.  It's been fun, although Ben is sometimes very sad when things go into the oven.  He's not sure if that deliciousness is ever going to come out again.

Yesterday, we made cookies.  I had some chocolate and dried cherries on hand, and combining those with an oatmeal cookie sounded great -- plus, then I could say that there were healthy elements to them!  The last recipe for oatmeal cookies I tried cooled to be very brittle, which I don't like at all.  These were much better, quite chewy.  That may not be everyone's preferred cookie texture, but I was going for something that didn't taste like it was necessarily just a dessert.  Something that could conceivably be a snack... or my secret breakfast this morning.  Don't tell my kids.

I'm happily perusing a few new cookbooks these days, and this cookie recipe comes from a big old volume from Gourmet magazine.  It's full of new ideas that I can't wait to try, although most of them will probably be "special occasion" meals and not weeknight dinners.  But we'll see.

Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries and Dark Chocolate, adapted from Gourmet Today

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup dried fruit (I used cherries and raisins this time)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter two baking sheets.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar, and egg.  Then beat in the baking soda mixture, flour, salt, and vanilla until well combined.  Stir in the oats, dried fruit, and chocolate.

Drop 12 spoonfuls of dough, arranged evenly 3 x 4, on each baking sheet.  Bake the cookies for about 10-11 minutes, let them cook on the pans for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to racks to cool completely.

This recipe made exactly 24 cookies for me.

Most Wanted Recipes

I think it was Julia Child who said that if you want to be considered a good cook, you just need ten classic recipes that you've made so often that you can do them perfectly every time.  Sounds like great advice, but unfortunately my style has always been too experimental and ad-hoc to stay true to a mere ten recipes.  I rarely follow the original recipe as written, I'm constantly looking for improvements, and my search for new ideas is never very directed.  As a result, I think there are some glaring omissions from my repertoire that I'd eventually like to fill, dishes for which I haven't yet found the perfect recipe for my tastes (or maybe never started looking).  Here's my list:

1. Lasagna.  How do you screw up lasagna, right?  Well, sure... I admit it's hard to go wrong with sheets of pasta, a reliable jarred sauce, ground meat, and lots of cheese.  But I'm still looking for something special.
2. Tiramisu.  No, these aren't all going to be Italian.  But I actually really love a good, light-textured tiramisu.  I'm a sucker for the ones they serve in martini glasses at restaurants.  I'd like to be able to whip one up all on my own.
3. Clam chowder.  I used to love clam chowder night when I was growing up.  No, my mom did not use fresh clams, and guess what, foodies, I don't want to either!  I want something I can make on a weeknight and serve with a fresh loaf of bread that I bought on my way home from work.  I wonder if she still has her recipe...
4. Cookies.  For most of my life I've preferred candy to dessert, but these days candy is going the way of most other processed food in my diet.  So I'm just getting into the baking scene, and somewhat reluctantly -- dough and I have had a rocky relationship.  But it seems like every cook needs his or her own signature cookie recipe.  I do actually have a couple of very strong contenders...
5. Chicken salad.  I've had some really amazing chicken salads, but unfortunately they're the exception to the rule of bland and heavy salads that are in no way worth the calories they pack.  I need something interesting but not too complicated.  This looks very, very promising....
6. Macaroni and cheese.  Pasta and melted cheese are two of my great loves in the food world, so what's the problem here?  Answer: milk.  Every recipe I've ever tried to make is much too milky, and my efforts are discouraged by the enduring skepticism of my husband, who swears by the blue box.  But I fight on.
7. Sangria.  Or mulled wine.  Or both.  I'm assuming no justification is necessary.
8. Mojitos.  See above.

Momo's Pizza

On Sunday night, it just felt like an evening for going out.  So we headed over to Momo's Pizza on Market Street for some pizza and beer.  They have 20 beers on tap, plus a a lot of bottles.  They also have HUGE pizzas.

I saw a tangerine wheat beer I wanted to try.  John had trouble deciding, and they were perfectly willing to bring samples to help him out.  We ordered some breadsticks for the kids and hoped our snack bag of crackers would hold out until then.

Momo's sells individual slices (which are ENORMOUS), so I thought that since our tastes are starting to diverge a little bit, we should each just get a slice.  But John convinced me that we should go ahead and get a pizza.  I told the waitress that we wanted a medium, their smallest.  It's 16"!  Their biggest is 32".  We saw one go by and it was unbelievable.

Unfortunately, the kids didn't really like the breadsticks and Ben didn't feel like eating any pizza, so we had to finish faster than we would have liked.  Sophie did eat some pizza crust, and Ben did eat one breadstick and some pepperoni.  I thought the pizza was really good.  I'd love to go back and just get one giant slice with my own toppings.  We'll just make sure to bring something more for the kids.

Score: 8/10

Avocado-Tomatillo Salsa

I have to admit that in the last year or so, I've become enamored of chunky guacamole.  But before that, when I bought avocados I almost always made them into this smooth salsa that I found on the Williams-Sonoma website several years ago.  It works as a dip, but also as a spread.  I made it for a Mexican buffet on Friday night... as good as ever!

Avocado-Tomatillo Salsa

1 Serrano chile, seeded
1 large garlic clove
2 large tomatillos, husks removed, skins washed, quartered
1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
2 tablespoons lime juice
Big pinch of cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Makes about 2 cups.

Exploring Potato Salad

In my experience, potato salad is an oddly, intensely personal dish.  The dressings and garnishes are perfected and then passed down through generations.  My mom makes a "famous" potato salad with hard-boiled eggs, Miracle Whip, and scallions.  My mother-in-law uses Hellman's mayo and pickles.

I love my mom's potato salad because I grew up with it, but I'm also potato-curious... I like to experiment!  So the other night I finally got around to trying this "decadent" potato salad in HTCEV.  Anything with cream cheese as an ingredient is going to be appealing to me.

 

That's a lot of fish.  A lot of deliciously seasoned fish, if I do say so myself.  The potato salad, though... well, it was strange.  It went over really well at dinner... but it was so rich that there were a lot of leftovers, and no one has touched them yet.  It seemed to be much more appealing as a warm dish, which I think kind of goes against the spirit of a potato "salad."  I can't believe I'm saying this, but my final judgment was that this potato salad was too creamy even for me.  In fact, the entire experience of eating it seemed to be about the cream; it didn't really have any other flavors.  I love me some dairy fat, but not to the extent that I'm just going to open up the cream cheese tub and dig in with my spoon -- and that's kind of what this was like.  If you'd have no problem eating a stick of butter if it was socially acceptable, I get it... and if you want, I'll email you the recipe for this.  As for me, I'm going to try something with a mustard dressing next time.

UPDATE: it turns out that John finally rediscovered the potato salad last night while I was at my weekly track workout, and it was apparently still good enough that it ran out before he and Ben got their fill.  Good to know, but I still don't think this one was for me.