Cookie Karma and Pantry Progress

Cookie Karma

Last week my husband, Matt, was out of town with his unit.  As they were setting up he lost his phone.  I found out when his buddy let Matt use his phone to call me.  I got a call every night from the same number; his buddy let him call me from his phone.  I asked Matt to find out what his favorite cookies are and I'd make him a batch.  Turns out his favorite are sugar cookies, sans frosting.

I've made sugar cookies, but it's been a while....two or three years, at least.  The last time I made them was as a joint effort to the tune of five batches and enough cookies to cover my mom's counters, dining room table with both leaves, and two hutches.  This single batch has made 20 cookies so far and I have 1/3 of the dough left to bake!

The recipe is my great-grandmother's and is from an age where "mix ingredients" translated to order and individual steps beyond those two deceptively simple words.  There's an order, a rhythm, and if you go astray those cookies will turn out awful.  I'm happy to say the recipe converted to dairy free quite nicely; Earth Balance butter is a great substitute!!  The almond milk I used gave a nice light almond undertone to the cookies (and dough!).

I'm hoping Matt's buddy likes them as much as we do :)

Pantry in Progress

I mentioned at the last check in that I wanted to get containers before moving to the next phase.  I took

a tangent and decided to run measurement numbers first.  My pantry had a bunch of nails around the top that got my gears turning: could I move the shelves down and tackle two (or three) problem areas in one go?  The drawer my pans were stored in worked well enough, unless I needed the stock pan or the dutch oven; to get either of those I had to empty all of the other pans out first.  Then there was the large skillet; it wouldn't fit in the drawer, and had to go in a separate cupboard.  Then there were the lids, which mostly fit in a long, shallow drawer but had to be in there just so or it wouldn't close.  This culminated into a system that drove me absolutely batty every time I needed pans and/or lids.

I measured my two largest skillets, handles included, and worked with heights in the pantry.  My bottom shelf was as short as it could be, thanks to a pipe in the back of the pantry.  I measured bottles and storage containers, and decided all tall items would fit just fine on the bottom of the pantry.

Armed with a tape measurer and a pair of pliers, I rearranged the shelf heights.  I'll probably rearrange the contents again when I redo my spice cabinet (I have space I can use there).  The pantry is still not "done," but I'm happy with the domino effect to the rest of the kitchen!  I moved some of my casserole dishes to the drawer the pans were in, which let me put that cupboard in order; all of the lids are in there too, which freed up the long, shallow drawer they were in.  With that drawer empty, I put the specialty utensils (the apple corer I use to make tarts, the base for my ice cream maker--for the other stand mixer style--, the ravioli mold and mini roller...that kind of thing) in the drawer.  It's not in the main flow of the kitchen, but it's still accessible.  It also freed up loads of space for my main utensil drawer!  I can find things in there now!!


That's it for today.  Eat Happy!

Spontaneity

Baking on a Tuesday?

No joke, I decided to make cookies on a Tuesday.  I don't keep sweets in the house...mostly because I eat them.  When I'm craving sweets, it means I have to make them from scratch.  It makes me second guess if I actually want them too.

After seeing cookie posts from a friend yesterday on Facebook, and after craving sugar for a few days...I took the plunge and made peanut butter cookies.  With chunky peanut butter.  And shaved baking chocolate.  They are amazing!  I've never made these with chunky peanut butter....and while they're amazing with kisses squooshed into the top, the kisses are now off limits for me.  I improvised by grating some baking chocolate (big bricks of baking chocolate are safe from me...I'll munch on the chocolate/carob chips) into the batter and a little on top.

I had three, saved some for the hubby, and packaged the rest to take to work tomorrow.  I hope they appreciate them as much as I did.  They were worth the time!

Trial and Error

I'm trying to eat more veggies without drowning them in extra calories.  This meant that when I saw a "crunchy" cauliflower recipe, I wanted to give it a try.  It was a reminder that while all the ingredients sound delicious, the combination there-of might not be...it wasn't so bad I couldn't eat it, it just wasn't good enough for me to make it again.  I did find some alternatives for next time though!

Yesterday was a new chicken recipe that was a TOTAL winner!  Raspberry Chipotle chicken from Cooking Light.  Two words: 'amazing' and 'hot'!  And super easy.  I'm sure it would go really well with the cucumber salad in the recipe, but I'm not a cucumber person...I made Israeli Couscous pilaf instead.

Tonight was a new recipe too:  Blackened Shrimp Tacos (also from Cooking Light).  I can't decide on this one yet.  I misread the recipe for the garnish/sauce...which means I didn't have a dairy free alternative to substitute.  That being said, the coating on the shrimp was incredible!  I also roasted the cherry tomatoes, which gave a very nice flavor too.  I'll have to try it again with a closer following before I'll give a verdict...or take pictures, apparently.

That's it for tonight.

Eat Happy!