Lately, perhaps due to recovering from a virulent, persistent and persnickety flu, I have been inexorably drawn to all things hot - any type of tea, coffee, soup, piping hot food. So, on Monday, I made a tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and onions and added some large leftover meatballs that I had made on the weekend. Popped it into the oven to bubble away for an hour and boiled up some whole grain Barilla spaghettini. Oh man, was that hot and really hit the spot with some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top, black pepper and olive oil. Last Sunday I roasted a chicken - a Frankenchicken, the last squab left on sale at the grocery store - with lovely yellow flesh potatoes cut up with carrots, onions and garlic. The bird was stuffed with a bunch of my straggly kitchen thyme, onions, garlic galore, salt and pepper. I had read that roasting with the breast down makes the white meat juicier and for the final 20-30 min. turning it over to brown the breast skin. It worked rather well; the meat was flavourful and very moist.
On Sunday morning I made a huge batch of oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chip and raisin/cranberry cookies from a culinary mystery that I was reading (Gingerbread Cookie Murder, Fluke, J., Levine, L., Meier, L.). We have been eating these cookies all week and loving the texture and flavour of the coconut.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, rack in middle
1 1/2 cups melted butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I use dark), packed down
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs, beaten
3 cups oatmeal
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sweetened dried cranberries or Thompson raisins or a combination of both
3 cups coconut
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 cups nuts or less if desired - walnuts or almonds or pecans would be yummy - I omitted due to the nut rules at my son's elementary school
Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave and let cool a little. In a large bowl, combine the sugars and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla extract - stir well.
Add the beaten eggs and stir. Beat the warm, not hot, butter. Gradually add oatmeal, flour and dried fruit coconut and chocolate chips (and nuts if including) and stir until thoroughly mixed after each addition.
I had to use my hands to finish incorporating all of the ingredients. I have a diminutive apartment size oven and it would take a month of Sundays to bake little cookies for a batch this huge, so I used a tablespoon to measure dollops onto moistened parchment paper to bake for 8 or 9 minutes. My method yielded 36 cookies and a 9x13 ceramic pan of 36 small squares. So many cookies, so little time...
I always love to hear what people are making for dinner or what they have been enjoying lately. It's wonderful to exchange food information and ideas. I think that food is one way we connect with each other from birth to death - every rite of passage, every day of our lives we have food for every situation or non-situation.
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