Lookey Here

My Porn Has Arrived!
And yes this is the coveted Holiday Preview Edition!

Momma's Got A Brand New Bag

...of frozen cookie dough that is!

Sweet Jesus these are so goddamn good I can't even control myself! And that is saying something.. The Magic Cookie Dough is fantastic and a fabulous frozen nugget of goodness but these are unbelievable baked... irresistible really. Perfect amount of sweet, spice and salt. Make 'em when you know you'll be able to give most of them away ;)


The Essential Chewy Oatmeal Cookie (Taken From The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion)

preheat oven to 375

1/2 c unsalted butter
1/2 c vegetable shortening
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar (I used light)
2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract
3/4 t cinnamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 large egg
6 T light corn syrup (I used dark)
2 T milk (not non-fat)
3 c quick-cooking oats (or pulse old fashioned oats in a food processor or blender to break into smaller pieces)
1 & 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c raisins
1 c chopped pecans or walnuts (I omitted due to picky husband)

Lightly grease (or line with parchment or silpats) two baking sheets.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening, sugars, extracts, spices, salt, and baking soda, beating until fairly smooth. Beat in the egg, scraping down the bowl, then beat in corn syrup and milk. Stir in oats, flour, raisins, and nuts.

Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, until they are light golden brown. Remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

makes 45 cookies at 156 calories a piece.

* I omitted the nuts and scooped out level tablespoonfuls of dough and yielded 67 cookies at 100 calories a piece.

A little cookie primer:
Baking cookies with all butter makes for a softer cookie, using all shortening (or margarine) makes for a crisp and crunchy cookie. This cookie calls for half of each yielding a delightfully crisp crust. All butter is great for sugar cookies while all shortening is prefered for molasses cookies and ginger snaps. But if you have a strong preference for one quality over the other you can adjust most recipes to the texture of your choice by replacing butter with shortening (or margarine) and vice versa. Happy baking people!

The Easiest Bread Loaf ?... I wouldn't go that far

"The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake"
(taken from King Arthur Flour's website)

1 T sugar
5 1/2-6 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 T (1 packet) yeast
1 T salt
corn meal
2 cups warm water (not over 110°F)
boiling water

MIX IT
Add sugar and yeast to warm water and let dissolve. Gradually add salt and flour to liquid and mix thoroughly until dough pulls from sides of bowl. Turn out onto floured surface to knead. (This may be a little messy, but don't give up!)

KNEAD IT
Fold far edge of dough back over on itself towards you. Press dough away with heels of hands. After each push, rotate dough 90°. Repeat process in rhythmic, rocking motion for about 3 minutes. (Lightly sprinkle flour on board to prevent sticking.) Let dough rest while you scrape out and grease mixing bowl. Knead dough again about 3 more minutes until bouncy and smooth.

LET IT RISE
Place dough in bowl and turn over once to grease the top. Cover with damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk (1 to 2 hours).

SHAPE IT
Punch down dough with fist and briefly knead out gas bubbles. Cut in half and shape into 2 Italian or French-style loaves. Place on cookie sheet generously sprinkled with corn meal. Let dough rest 10 minutes.

BAKE IT
Quick Method: Lightly slash the tops 3 or more times diagonally and brush with cold water. Place on rack in cold oven. Bake at 400°F for 35 to 40 minutes until crust is golden brown and sounds hollow to the touch.

Traditional Method: For lighter, crustier bread, let loaves rise 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 450°F for 15 minutes. Pour 2 to 3 cups of boiling water into roasting pan. Carefully place on oven bottom. Place bread on rack above pan and bake 20 minutes. Turn oven off and allow bread to remain for 5 more minutes. Remove, cool and devour!


*This is what we're having our steak sandwiches on tonight. I make it following the Traditional Method. After the 2nd rise and just before you bake them make three slashes in the tops with a sharp knife... totally professional looking! Also if you don't have cornmeal on hand use cream o'wheat (aka farina) or sesame seeds. I use Bread Flour when making this bread and have found I need about 5.5 cups. I stir in about 4.5 and kneed in the last cup. This is a sticky dough to work with but it is delish... and relatively easy.

This Week The Plan

Sorry this is a little late.. but that's what happens when you are actually acting upon your plan and not just making it up.

First a little review of last week.
I did indeed make the meatballs and froze 4 extra batches. When making the tilapia I made an extra batch in fish stick form and froze those as well. We do not have an extra freezer so it is pretty full right now. And by pretty full I mean every time you open it an avalanche of food comes falling out on your head... or your sleeping baby's head... which ever would be most inconvenient at the time. But don't worry I did finally make my cookie dough, whole wheat no less since I was out of regular flour, and I managed to wedge those babies in the freezer as well. FYI the cookies might be even better, sub half the flour for whole wheat flour and be sure to use dark brown sugar. On the plus side my plateau broke and I've had a little weight loss to show for it. Thanks to my scale I've managed to stay motivated despite the slower weight loss since I can track my fat loss as well.... and I'm down 1.5% in 3 weeks! I'm interested to see how the reintroduction of the cookie dough will effect things this week... is it actually magical? Stay tuned to find out.
On the pack rat front I failed to make any major cleaning or organizational progress last week but am already on my 3rd load of laundry today so things are looking up.

On to this week and my menu...

Monday: Chicken in Stubb's & pasta salad

Tuesday: Flank Steak, pan roasted potatoes & corn on the cob

Wednesday: pan seared salmon, Asian veggie stir fry & long noodles

Thursday: Steak & horseradish sandwiches on homemade french bread & salad

Friday: Shrimp Skewers, spring rolls & snap peas

Saturday: 6th anniversary dinner out

Sunday: Tomato & meatball soup

Magic Cookie Dough

I have lost another half a pound! This is some sort of magic weight loss cookie dough!! On the days without cookie dough in the freezer I ate 1815, 1865, and 1843 calories respectively. The days with cookie dough are all in the 1600-1700s! I don't know if it is the butter that makes these more filling, or the fact that they just kind of make you sick (you know in the good way) so you don't need to eat anything else for awhile or what. Either way I'm keeping these babies stocked up.


Here's the recipe again:

The Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie (or dough as the case may be)

Baking temp: 375 Baking time: 10 min

3/4 c unsalted butter
2/3 c dark brown sugar
2/3 c granulated sugar (white)
2 T light corn syrup
1 T vinegar (cider or white)
2 large eggs
1 T vanilla extract
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
2 & 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3 c semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

In a medium mixing bowl cream together the butter and the sugars, corn syrup, and vinegar, then beat in the eggs. Beat in the vanilla, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in (by hand) the flour and the chocolate chips.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for ten minutes, until they're set; the centers may still look a bit underdone. Remove them from the oven, and transfer to a rack to cool.*

about 4 dozen cookies, 120 calories each

Recipe taken from "The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion"

* I let them rest on the sheets for 5 min before transferring them to the racks, they are pretty fragile while still hot!
Also I measured (most of the dough!) onto ungreased baking sheet, no need to leave room between scoops, and froze them solid (about 30 min) and then just popped them off the sheet into a freezer bag. Normal people could then bake them up fresh whenever they want one or two, I of course just eat them right out of the bag!