Roasted Almond-Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a great new cookbook, The Good Neighbor Cookbook by Sara Quessenberry and Suzanne Schlosberg. The book contains 125 recipes which are intended to be shared with new neighbors, new moms, friends recuperating from surgeries, etc. Many of the main dishes can be frozen and reheated, all of them look simply delicious, and each seems to be very simple to make. I like the idea of taking care of friends and neighbors, and I'm a firm believer that sharing homemade food with someone shows great love and provides a great deal of comfort. I highly recommend this book!

You can preview many of the recipes from the book here, at The Good Neighbor Cookbook's web site. My favorite recipe is not listed on the web site, so I'm going to share it with you here. Hope I'm not breaking any laws :)

These cookies were incredible. At first I though something had gone terribly wrong. The cookies were totally flat and packed with 'stuff'. They just looked funny. So funny, in fact, that I had to give an all call on Facebook to see if any of my friends could figure out what went wrong. I just assumed it was a high altitude baking issue. But then. . .I tried one. Holy smokes! Best cookie I've ever had, hands down. I'm not going to share with you how many of these cookies I consumed, or how quickly they were consumed. I did have a little help from my husband, who also loved them. If you're a fan of salty and sweet, I really suggest you try these!

Roasted Almond-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time: 20 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Makes 40 cookies (made 40 exactly for me!)

2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
12 Tbs (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate, chopped or chips (I used Ghiradelli)
1/2 cup unsalted roasted almonds, chopped (I used salted because I love the salty/sweet combo)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. (Or just spray 'em with Pam if, like me, you have no parchment paper.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. (Using a whisk really worked wonders - looked like it had been sifted!)

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer with a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and almonds.

Drop the dough in heaping tablespoon-size balls 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking time, until the edges are golden and the centers are just set, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring them to a wire rack.

The authors also provided a 'cook's tip' about freezing the dough, which I did. I scooped out the extra dough (heaping tablespoons again) onto cookie sheets, stuck them in the freezer for 10 minutes to set, the placed the dough balls in a freezer bag and popped them in the freezer. I can't even begin to tell you how good the frozen dough was - we ended up eating frozen cookies because they were just as good, if not better, than warm ones!

Go get to baking, then come back by and let me know what you thought of these delicious cookies!

Menu Plan

Once again, it's Menu Plan Monday Tuesday! What's this all about? Check out the hundreds of weekly menu plans over at OrgJunkie.com!

The husband and I had a very hectic shopping trip to the local Safeway this morning. Y'all, I love grocery shopping. Why? I have no idea. But I do. We've been doing our shopping at the local Wal-Mart. I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart, but this is a pretty nice one and I've done fine shopping there. But I wanted to branch out and try a new store. Bad idea. It was pretty much a disaster. So, next week, we'll be back at the Wal-Marts.

Here's a rough outline of this week's menu plan - I don't know what day each of these meals will occur on, so I'll just label them Meal 1, 2, 3, etc.

Meal 1: Chicken and Dumplins (my granny's recipe, except with egg noodles because they don't sell dumplins at Safeway), braised cabbage, green beans.

Meal 2: Tacos! We bought the kit with the hard & soft shells, seasoning and sauce. Doesn't get much simpler!

Meal 3: Peking Pork Chops, fresh corn on the cob (wrap each shucked ear in wet paper towels and microwave it for about 5 minutes - it's fabulous!), baked potatoes (I do know that's two starches. Sorry, Mom!)

Meal 4: Ham steak (this is also cooked in the microwave - glory be), my insanely delicious cheese grits, braised cabbage

Meal 5 (maybe): Mojo Chicken Quarters (using the homemade Mojo recipe I posted last week), yellow rice, beans.

We'll probably eat leftovers one night and go out another night. We're going out on Sunday to celebrate our one month anniversary. Hooray! :)

Happy cooking, happy eating!


http://orgjunkie.com/2011/07/menu-plan-monday-july-411.html

Menu Plan Monday . . . A Day Late!

Better late than never, right? This is my first time linking up to Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie. I've been a long time reader, but this is my first post! Check out the original site for more ideas:

Tuesday: Crock Pot Lemon Chicken with baked potatoes & broccoli.

Wednesday: Taco Soup (Paula Deen's recipe) with Cheese Quesadillas.

Thursday: Italian Roast Beef Sandwiches with Oven Fried Zucchini Sticks.

Friday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Cole Slaw and Corn on the Cob.

Saturday: Leftover Taco Soup or Italian Beef.

Sunday: Out!

Monday: Teriyaki Chicken Wings with Carrot-Ginger Rice & Sugar Snaps

Check out the recipes for mojo pork and peach salsa in the post below! Happy eating!

Mojo Boston Butt & Peach Salsa

Whew, boy, do I have some things to share! If you've bookmarked my blog and come by each day looking for a new post, I sincerely apologize. I can only update when I come to the public library to mooch off of their free wi-fi. My library visits have been about a once a week occurrence. Patience, grasshopper.

Let me get down to business and tell you about the most delicious meal I have made in a long time. Last week, I wanted to buy a Boston Butt pork roast, to cook in my crock pot. My intention was the buy the roast, place it in the pot, and dump an entire bottle of Goya's Mojo marinade on top. Easy peasy. Well, apparently in the great state of Colorado, they don't eat much Cuban food. My local Wal-Mart was fresh out of Boston Butts and they had no mojo of any kind. So, my obliging husband drove me to City Market (the local grocery store) at 9:30 one night so that I could find it. I searched high and low, studying every item on the Hispanic food aisle (a huge aisle I might add). When it was no where to be found, I enlisted the help of an employee. Nothing. She helped me look, all the while repeating that she'd "never even heard of that." Ugh.

City Market did have a nice, plump butt for cheap, so I snatched it up and decided to get creative with my Mojo. I knew the marinade had a ton of garlic and citrus, so I purchased a few oranges, limes and some apple cider and made my way back to the parking lot where my husband and our dog were patiently waiting for me.

My misfortune turned out in my favor - that pork was banging! Now, I have a fancy crock pot with a cast iron insert that allows you to brown the meat right in the crock pot, but I didn't bother going through the hassle, I just plopped it right in there. Creating the marinade was a bit of work - it took me about 35 minutes from start to finish. I'm going to try to write out the ingredients without forgetting anything:

Juice of two oranges (tangerines, navels, whatever)
Juice of two limes
zest from half of one orange
zest from one lime (my zester in a pairing knife - I like to keep it real)
About 8 cloves of garlic, chopped up
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
Lawry's Season Salt
Pepper
2 bay leaves
2 onions

All I did was halve the onions, then slice them into half rings. I scattered them on the bottom on the crock pot. Then I plopped the roast on top. After that, I mixed up all the citrus juice, zest, garlic, oil, vinegar, and seasonings. I'm not a very precise person - I don't know how much salt, pepper, etc. Just guesstimate. After mixing those items in a bowl, I poured them on top of the roast, and threw two bay leaves in just for fun. The photo below shows what the roast looked like just before I put the lid on to let it cook:

Mmmm. My mouth waters just thinking about it. Anyway, I set it to cook on high for about six hours. The meat was tender and delicious when it finished. The bone came right out and I was able to take it out in chunks and effortlessly shred it with two forks.

The first night, I served the shredded pork over black beans and yellow rice (also very tasty), and spooned extra mojo marinade on top (disclaimer: I took out most of the liquid and boiled it down just to be sure there was no raw pork bacteria. That may or may not be necessary). We took this meal to a friend's house and served it along side a Caesar salad and crusty bread. It was a big hit! We left most of our leftovers there so our bachelor friends could enjoy it for a few more days.

I did, however, set some pork aside so that we could have carnitas the next day. They were to die for! I believe the term I used after I took the first bite was, "FABOO!" All I did was heat the shredded pork in a dry skillet until it got a little crunchy on the ends. Then we stuffed warm corn tortillas with pork, cheese, lettuce and homemade peach salsa. The peach salsa was incredible and really set off the meal. Quickly, here's how to make it:

Peel and dice up a few peaches. Ours weren't especially nice peaches and it was still great.
Add to the peaches:

A handful of chopped cilantro
Half of a jalepeno, finely chopped (and seeded, of course!)
A quarter of a small onion, finely chopped
A clove of garlic, finely chopped
A pinch of salt
The juice from about half of a lime

This stuff is addicting. Great on any Mexican style dish and excellent as a snack with tortilla chips.

Well, all this food talk has my belly rumbling - it's time for me to pack up, sling my backpack over my shoulder, and head out in search of lunch! Until next time. . .

Hello, world!

Hi there.

I'm Lauren. I can no longer count how many blogs I've started over the past ten years. I simply can't remember them all. But, never a quitter, I'm back at it again, this time to chronicle my adventures as a new wife, a budding cook, and an explorer in the High Rockies of Colorado.

Just a quick overview of my crazy story - I met my husband in November of 2010. We were married nine days ago in my parents' backyard. We moved from Florida to Colorado three days later. We'll be back in Florida soon, but we will spend the next two months together out West, where my husband works as a fly-fishing guide.

I have two months off from work (one little perk in the life of a teacher), so I've got nothing to do except cook and create in my tiny kitchen. How small, you ask? I'm going to estimate between 20 and 25 square feet. No oven. One microwave, one toaster oven, two hot plates that never get hot enough, and the Rolls Royce of crock pots (All Clad, baby!). Join me as I share recipes, stories, and funny moments from my crazy, unexpected life.