Chocolate-Double-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since my last attempt to make cookies from scratch was foiled by a lack of sugar, this recipe was a good experiment in returning to purely homemade.  They were made as a moving day treat for a Saturday when I was helping out a friend.  

The original basis for the recipe was Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Chip Cookies, but since I was making it for others I left out the nuts that it calls for and added more chocolate chips.  I also made sure to add two sizes and types of chocolate chips. I almost always like nuts, especially in chocolate cookies or brownies, but I never know who is allergic or just doesn't like nuts in their cookies.

These turned out really good.  I think that the dough would be a good basis for various flavored chips, as well.  Peanut butter, butterscotch, white chocolate, etc. would probably each be yummy....

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa, unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used margarine)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips (I used mini semi-sweet)
• 1 cup chopped nuts, optional (but I used an extra 1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate chips, instead)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. 
3. Cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl on medium speed.
4. Add eggs and beat well. 
5. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. 
6. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if you are using them.  
7. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. 
9. Cool slightly, then remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes between 4 and 5 dozen cookies.  

Cheap, Cute, and Movable Porch Lighting

I bought some fun solar-powered lights as a gift for a family member's front garden, and while shopping for them I got a little jealous.  See, I have a back porch/deck that is above my townhouse's garage.  I like to sit on it during the day, but I think it might be nice to sit out there in the evenings as well (probably with some kind of mosquito-repelling candle or device and a beverage of some kind).  The problem is that the "official" light on my porch is a bit glaring and I really wanted something nicer to sit under that wouldn't work quite so hard against my mosquito candle/device.  So the problem was: how can I have cute lighting on my porch that would be more subtle than my light fixture that is out there?  And could it also be cheap, please?

To be honest, the first idea I had involved string lights, AKA "Christmas lights" for those of you who are biased against using them during non-winter seasons.  However, it seems that unless you are in college or a Gretchen Wilson fan, it isn't *actually* cool or subtle to leave up Christmas lights all year long.  Geez!  People sure can be judgemental, huh?        

Next I thought: Hey!  I have containers on my porch that are growing tomatoes and snapdragons and geraniums.  I could just jam some cute solar lights in those!  Well, yeah.  I could have.  However, to move the lights I would then have to move the flowers as well.  Didn't wanna do that.  I realized that portability was also a factor.  

The third iteration of thought was that I could fill different flower pots with plain dirt and "plant" my lights.  This seemed like a winning idea, but would then involve me having to deal with the pot o' dirt in the off-season for porch sitting.  Since the off-season is most of the year in Minnesota, that seemed like a lot of trouble.  Add ease of storage to the list of requirements.    

Then I saw a fun idea on Pinterest that showed turning a terracotta flower pot upside down and putting the stake for a solar light in the hole, making the pot essentially a freely movable stand for the light.   This was perfect.  Genius even!  Except....

I went to Menard's and none of the solar lights would fit in the puny little holes in the pots.  Unless I bought huge and expensive pots.  Grrr!  No!  On the spot I decided I would triumph over this project.  Terracotta pots be damned!  

The solution was surprisingly easy...and located on the end-cap of the terracotta pot aisle: plastic pots.  I selected super-cheap pots (like $0.89 each) that matched the turquoise of my chair cushion and other porch accessories, and I bought cheap but well-enough-made solar lights ($2.49 each on sale).  Then I came home and cut a hole in the bottom of each pot--very carefully using a box cutter--to fit the stakes on the lights.  

The light/stand combo worked with only one problem: the plastic pots were much lighter than terracotta, so the lights-in-pots were fairly top heavy.  That was solved by duct-taping a few rocks from my front garden to the inside edge of the pots.  Three rocks per light and the finished product has been stable through wind and rain.  

And--Voila!--I now have three light-weight, easily-movable, easy-to-store, sustainable, and fun lights for my back porch.  All for under $10.  Yay!  Now all I need is a free night at home to go out and enjoy them....

  

Easy Lemon Crinkle Cookies

This past weekend I was going to make some cookies from scratch for a gathering...but then I realized that I only had about 2 Tablespoons of regular sugar in my sugar container.  oops!  I could've made something like shortbread that didn't use very much sugar.  Or I could've found a recipe that used powdered sugar instead of granulated.  

Instead, I did something that combined the two: I made lemon crinkle cookies out of a cake mix, with powdered sugar on the outside to make the crinkles.  

Normally chocolate is the classic flavor for crinkle cookies.  But I like lemon, too.  And for summer, I like citrus a lot.  (See past posts about orange cake and lime pie....)  Ultimately, you can make crinkle cookies of any flavor using different cake mixes with or without additional flavors.  Just find a standard cake mix that calls for 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, and 1 cup water.  Then just follow the super-easy recipe below:

Ingredients:

• 1 cake mix 
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• granulated or powdered sugar 

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees 
2. Mix cake mix, eggs, and oil with a spoon in a large bowl.  The dough will be a bit sticky.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar.  I usually use powdered sugar, but granulated will make the cookies more sparkly.  Both taste really great!
4. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set.
6. Cool for a minute or so on cookie sheet and then cool completely on wire rack.   

Key Lime Pie: Tasty Imperfection

We traditionally have a key lime pie for my Dad for Father's Day.  They are cool, creamy, and taste like summer.  Plus, he's a fan of limes and lime stuff and there really aren't that many standard lime-flavored desserts out there.  When I was a lot younger, my brother and I would buy pies from Baker's Square...Key Lime used to always be the flavor-of-the-month for June.  Well, times have changed in two major ways.  First, finding a Baker's Square that is still open can be a challenge. :( Second, I figured out that I could make a key lime pie really easily and it could be just as good or better than the ones we bought.    

Over the years, I have tried a number of varieties; tequila key lime pie was a notable success.  They almost always turn out beautiful looking and delicious tasting.  I say "almost" because this year was a huge exception.  I used my very-traditional, standard recipe and the pie was **super-tasty**, but it didn't look good at all.  This is due entirely to the fact that I rushed and didn't give the pie enough time to cool and set before transporting it from my place to my foks'.  Usually I make the pie the day before, but this time I tried to do it all the day of.  Lesson learned!  With a little bit of fresh lime garnish, some individual pieces didn't look *too* bad (see above), but the pie itself looked pretty sad (see below).    

Here's the recipe. This is one that I developed myself from several different sources and through trial and error, so nobody is gonna get credit on it! And let me tell you: one of the biggest secrets is the crust.  You can use store-bought graham cracker crust to cut down on time and effort and the pie will be good.  But the homemade crust is way, way better.  Trust me!  

Oh, and be sure to let everything cool and set completely before transporting!  :)

Cookie/cracker crumb crust 

(can be altered for use in a variety of pie types, depending on the crumbs used)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 to 2 cups fine cookie or graham cracker crumbs: for key lime I generally use grahams and this time I crushed up 24 two and half inch cracker squares. 

1/4 cup granulated or powdered sugar (I usually use granulated sugar)

5 1/2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional--but honestly, not optional for a graham cracker crust. I always add the cinnamon if the crumbs are grahams.  ALWAYS.

a few shakes of Penzey's baking spice, completely optional--this was a new addition this time, but a good one

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. If you haven't made your crumbs, do that.  You can use fancy pre-made ones, but why?!  You can also use a food processor, I guess.  But I don't have one of those new-fangled gadgets.  I generally put my crackers in a gallon Ziploc bag and use a heavy rolling pin to crush them.  Don't have a rolling pin?  I used a full 2-liter bottle of root beer as a crushing tool this time.  Seriously.  It works like a charm. :)
3. Mix crumbs, sugar, and spice (and everything nice....?)
4. Pour in melted butter and mix thoroughly
5. Press into bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate/pan
6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes
7. Cool to room temp before adding key lime filling (or set the crust by refrigerating until room temp. or slightly cooler....at least 30 minutes)

Pie

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz., can use regular or fat free equally well)

3/4 cup lime juice (can be fancy key lime juice, but RealLime bottled juice works really well)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Separate eggs

In large bowl, beat egg yolks (or whisk by hand)

Add sweetened condensed milk, stirring constantly.

Add lime juice slowly, still mixing at low speed (or whisking gently by hand), until it thickens

Pour it into room temperature pie crust and bake for 15 minutes.

Chill in refrigerator before serving (or transporting!)

Notes on Garnish:

I like whipped cream on my key lime pie, but it doesn't usually look too fancy or neat when I add it.  Better for formal/presentation garnish are slices of fresh lime.  Just wash a lime, make some slices, and then create garnish.  Simple half or quarter slices look nice when placed on a whole pie in patterns.  The piece pictured above is garnished with a full slice that was cut half-way through on one side and then twisted.  Plop that sucker on top of a piece and any number of ills are covered up! 

Orange Dreamsicle Cake...with sprinkles!

I love that my friends and co-workers give me the opportunity to try out new recipes and experiment a bit with things that I've been wanting to try.  And that they truly seem to enjoy the results, as well!  The second experiment for the week was the cake that I made Thursday night for a Friday gathering.  When I asked what he would like me to bring, one of the hosts immediately said "orange cream cake."  I'm pretty sure that this is because I made some orange cookies some time ago that he really liked, and not just because he was being super-specific.

I experimented with combining and slightly altering two recipes that utilize jello to enhance both the flavor and color of a cake.  Both of the basic recipes are classics from Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook: the Color Vision Cake (1950s) and the Raspberry Poke Cake turned orange (the 1980s).  The recipe below is the combined version.

Ingredients: 
2 (4 serving size) packages orange geleatin (I used the Jello kind, duh.)
1 package white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cups vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.
2. Stir/beat/mix cake mix, water, oil, egg whites and 3 Tablespoons of dry Jello mix. Pour into cake pan.
3. Bake according to box instructions, until toothpick/cake-tester inserted in center comes out clean
4. Cool cake completely, about an hour.  Then pierce cooled cake all over with a fork (about every 1/2 inch).  
5. Stir gelatin and boiling water together until smooth.  Stir in cold water and then pour over cake.  If cake is stuck on sides, run a knife along edges to loosen.  Refrigerate cake for at least 2 hours.  (I put mine in the fridge overnight.)
6. Frost with your choice of frosting: vanilla, orange buttercream, Cool Whip, etc. Then keep stored in fridge.  It looked a little plain, and since I have sprinkles from the previously-made donuts, I added sprinkles.  

The cake turned out really good.  Moist, orangey, and delicious. Good for summer, I think.  I think lemon would be super, and also might try flavor combos in the future.  I can see raspberry or cherry lemonade cake as great combos.  

  

Sprinkles-on-the-Inside Donuts

I bought a donut pan a while ago.  And by "a while ago," I mean at least a year ago and maybe more like two.  I had good intentions to use it right away, but... well, the road to hell and all that.  I finally used it yesterday for some baked donuts that I brought to work.

Googling "baked donuts" will give you a huge selection of recipes to try.  I admit that I was drawn in by the photos, but I also considered number/expense of ingredients and difficulty level.  Ultimately I decided to try a recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction.  She calls hers Baked Funfetti Donuts, but I'm petty sure "funfetti" is trademarked.  So I renamed my version of the recipe.  Part of the inspiration for the new name is something my grandmother sometimes says when it is raining outside: "That's OK.  We'll have sunshine inside."  These donuts are sort of like that: a little boring looking on the outside, but super cheery once you bite in and really see all the colors.  

Of course, I didn't just change the name.  I also changed the original recipe a bit.  Partly on purpose and partly through a misread in directions on my part.  I think they turned out well, though, and they were easy to make.  The recipe below has my adjustments included it.  Give them a try!

Please note: The photo above is a little washed out, due to the lighting in my kitchen. (I know, I know.  "Jenny, if you were a real food blogger your photos would be prettier."  Yeah.  You're right.  They would. They also would probably not have been taken on my phone.  So....good thing I'm not a real food blogger, huh?)  Seriously, though: in reality they weren't so ghost-like in color.  

Sprinkles-on-the-Inside Donuts

Makes: 12 donuts in standard donut pan

Ingredients for Donuts:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used closer to 1/2 but might do more of a heaping 1/4 next time)

A few shakes of Penzey's baking spice (This is a combo of cinnamon, mace, anise, and cardamom...basically things that taste nice with nutmeg.  It could be excluded entirely or swapped for just cinnamon, I think, with semi-similar results.)

1/4 cup milk (I used skim, but you can probably use any kind)

1/4 cup yogurt (I used vanilla flavored 0% fat Greek yogurt)

1 large egg

2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine (I used blue bonnet margarine) 

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Penzey's double-strength vanilla)

1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles (the long, tube-shaped kind; not the small, ball-shaped kind)

       BTW: The original recipe called for 1/2 cup.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some sprinkles. But sprinkles can be expensive, so feel free to use fewer if you want to.  1/3 cup seemed like a nice amount, though.   

Ingredients for Glaze:

1/4 cup milk 

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions for the Donuts:

1) Preheat  oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray. I then wiped off some of the excess spay/oil.  

2) Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

3) Whisk milk, yogurt, and egg together in a smaller bowl until smooth. Add the melted butter and vanilla, and whisk together.  

4) Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. (Do not overmix.) Fold in sprinkles gently.  The sprinkles I used were purchased at Target and are pictured below. This particular container DID NOT have blue sprinkles included, a fact that makes me incredibly happy!!    

5) Spoon batter into a quart sized ziploc bag, cut a corner off the bag, and pipe batter into the donut pan.  (I did the filling of the quart bag twice)  

6) Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the edges are light brown.  Allow donuts to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the pan.

7) Cool donuts fully before glazing.

Directions for Glaze and Glazing:

1) Put the 3 glaze ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat on medium, stirring until smooth.  (I kept the heat on warm/low after this, but you might want to take it off the heat).  

2) Glaze donuts by dropping them into the saucepan.

3) Place donuts on a wire rack and allow the glaze to set.  (I put my rack over waxed paper to catch the drippings)

4) If desired, you can either a) glaze both sides of the donuts by flipping them over in the saucepan or b) dip the donuts in the glaze a second time.  However, you are likely to run out of glaze if you do either of these.  I started glazing both sides of my donuts, but only had enough to do this with 8.  the last 4 of the 12 had to be only glazed on one side.  

I love sprinkles!  They make everything so much more cheery!!

Night-tour in D.C. AKA: Thank you NPS!

I recently took a trip to visit a friend who lives in Washington, D.C.  Another friend drove up from the Triangle and we had an absolutely wonderful girls' weekend.  We did a bunch of stuff, but one of the highlights was a night-time tour of monuments.  If you are going to DC (or if you live there) and haven't done it, I highly recommend giving it a try!  You can do it yourself, or go with a guide.  They are beautiful either way, but we opted for a guide, mostly because we are big nerds and like to hear all info and ask questions.  Lots of companies and groups run tours of the monuments, including night tours.  But here's the thing: we didn't take just any tour, we took the National Park Service (NPS) tour.  And it was totally freakin' amazing.

First of all, it was free.  Yep, free.  Wait. I have to reiterate that, because it is really important.  IT WAS FREE!  I looked at some of the tour companies and tickets for their night monument tours cost between $35 and $75 dollars per person, with an average looking to be around $40.  Why pay $40 or more, when you could pay $0?  (Also, depending on how you look at it, you have actually already paid for the NPS tour.  I mean, your taxes are paying for that tour to exist. So take advantage of what you've already purchased!  Don't let everyone else get the free tour while you are stuck paying a bucket-load...or more.)

Second: Value-for-money.  Following the old adage "You get what you pay for," the free tour could have sucked.  Yeah, well, but it didn't.  Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, and handled some difficult issues without bias and in ways that weren't cop-outs.  (For example, the issues surrounding vets, suicide, and the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.)  He was also patient with questions, had legit answers, and did a good job with pacing the tour and making sure everyone was following--literally and figuratively.  We managed to pick up a couple of new tour members along the way, because he was so interesting.  On the other hand, I heard some of the paid-tour tour guides and they paled in comparison.  Many were horribly rehearsed and stilted.  Others were barely audible.  Also, as a history professional, I was appalled to hear tour guides making up answers to questions on the spot.  I know that they were made up because they were factually incorrect and sounded made up ("Uhhh....well...I"m pretty sure...that is....err.....").  What a waste of money to get false info on a tour!  And why do they think that is OK?  In other words: free tour = great, many $ tours = bleck!

Third: Tours allow you to be lazy in preparation.  All we had to do was show up at the right time. I didn't have to look anything up in advance or check a map to figure out how to get from place to place.  Our guide helped us navigate between sites and around crowds.  He also pointed out things along the way that weren't technically on our tour, but that were interesting, like the Washington, DC monument to World War I (see photo below).

Fourth:  Our guide was easy to see and follow, thanks to his distinctive uniform and classic Smokey the Bear hat.  (Only you can prevent forest fires, kids!)

Fifth:  This might have just been my tour, but the tour was not crowded at all.  Even with the people we picked up along the way, we only had about 12 or 15 people.  Plenty of room for everyone to gather or mill around and still hear.  For me, I appreciated that I didn't have to fight a whole bunch of tall people to see anything.  And in places that were more somber, a smaller group can be more subdued.  Some of the paid tours had groups so large that they just herded them around without making much of an effort to tell anyone anything.   Some of the places had lots of people, but I didn't ever really feel crowded.  

Sixth: You can leave if you wanna or stay later to wander more.  With the NPS tour, there is more freedom.  You get yourself to the starting place, so you aren't dependent on a tour company bus.  You also don't have to stay just to justify the $40 you spent, if you decide you aren't really into the whole thing.  

To recap, the NPS tour was great because:

1. Free
2. High Quality
3. Laziness
4. HATS!!!
5. Uncrowded
6. Freedom

Among these six things are some of the things that also make America great.  Especially the hats.  Alright, I'm just kidding about the hats.  (OK, no.  I'm not actually kidding about the hats.  Smokey the Bear hats are great things.) 

Whether you go on an organized tour or not, if you are in D.C. do visit the memorials.  Visit them up-close...and do it at night, if possible.  The Korean War monument looks like it was designed to be seen after dark, and doing so can make you feel almost like you are one of the walking figures.  The Vietnam Veterans' monument is striking, but in the dark it is a truly somber place.  The World War II monument--and the fountains within it--are nice during the day, but they are much, much more beautiful lit up (see photo above).

Last piece of advice: Be sure to wear good shoes and bring a camera!