Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

One day I made these amazing oatmeal raisin cookies. Naturally, I wanted to make them again, so I headed on over to Allrecipes.com to find the recipe. It wasn’t until I started adding the chocolate chips that I realized I was making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies instead of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Go me. It’s been three years now, does that pregnant mommy brain stay forever? I’m running out of excuses. SO. I just added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of raisins instead of the 2 cups of chocolate chips called for in the recipe :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening Note: Substituted 1 cup softened buttah.
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar Note: Substituted Splenda Brown Sugar Blend.
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups rolled oats Note: Reviewers said to add a little more; I didn’t add more, but it wouldn’t have hurt? Maybe 1/2 cup more.
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips Note: Substituted 1 cup chocolate chips & 1 cup raisins.
• Added: 1/2 tsp Allspice & Cinnamon, 1 tsp Vanilla (will add 1tsp each of Allspice and Cinnamon next time).

Despite the fact that these weren’t *exactly* what I was looking for, I still ate mmm, oh, let’s say 27 of them, just to be safe. They were so good! I will definitely add some more of those warm spices next time. I add Allspice to most things it seems like, but it can be a little overpowering, so if you don’t like it, go easy. I cooked mine for about 15 minutes. Long for a cookie, but I like them a little crunchy :) Hubs (‘C’) likes them soft, so I try to make a little batch of crunchy ones for me and make the rest mush for him. Yuck. I used to love those Soft Batch cookies as a kid–no more. Give me something with a little crunch that needs dipped in milk. Yum. Yum. They went fast. Lasted only two days :)

And now, sadly, this house is cookie-less. After two weeks of Samoas, Lemon Chalets, Thin Mints, Lemonades, and Oatmeal Choc/Raisin Cookies, they’re all gone. But! Bacon Chocolate Cupcakes are on deck for next week…   :)

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Blueberry Cream Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream Note: fat free is just fine!
• 2 tbsp flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2.5 cups fresh blueberries Note: fresh is best, but frozen works; make sure to drain them first.

Topping

• 3 tbsp flour
• ½ cup brown sugar Note: I use half of this.
• 3 tbsp softened butter
• 3 tbsp chopped pecans Note: Omitted.

Directions

Combine sour cream, 2 tbsp flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, and egg. Beat 5 minutes on medium speed. Fold in blueberries. Pour into 9” unbaked pastry shell (I’ve just used store bought, but if you feel froggy, by all means make your own!) & bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

Combine topping ingredients and mix well. You want the butter to be soft, but not too soft. The topping should kind of be like little chunks or balls of  sugar and butter which will melt and spread while it bakes. Sprinkle crumble-y mixture over top of cooked pie. Bake 10 additional minutes. Chill completely before serving.

I absolutely love this pie. I made two in one week. C asked me to stop making them for a while after that. I have and will again (I’m working toward making this my ‘signature’ potluck dish!) make this for other people. I took it to one party and had two recipe requests. I can’t the credit though; a friend made it for our Bible study’s pie night and I’ve been in love ever since! She also made a homemade pie crust which was heavenly, but I don’t even own a pie plate (go me!), so you’re on your own for that.

Unrelated, the list of things that I need for my kitchen is growing! Food processor, zesting plane (you know what I’m talking about?), pie plate, muffin tins, ice cream scooper with the little scooper outer thing, and a bread machine. Whew. I should keep track of this better. What holiday is next? Mother’s Day? I should get at least two of these things then, right? Being the awesome mom & wife that I am and all, hah! :) One from the husband and one from the girl? Totally doable.

Giada’s Strawberry & Rosemary Scones

If you enjoyed this, check out the Fondant Flyboat Cake, Giada’s Beef Tenderloin, and Giada’s Zeppole.

Surprise! Another Giada recipe! I can’t help it. I watch her once a day M-F so most of my ideas are bound to come from her. Who do you guys like? Any requests? I’m up for most anything as long as I don’t have to buy wildly expensive or rare ingredients and my family might eat it :) I don’t know what made me choose these scones. It’s not like I’m a big scone lover or anything. I’m not even that big of a fan of rosemary. I’ve only had that on my grandmother’s lamb really. I do have a baby shower coming up and thought these might be nice to take, but other than that, this was a total random thing. Lie. Oops, I also really like A’s (my daughter) strawberry jelly with no sugar added (This stuff is great.). Anyhow, no special reason this recipe was chosen.
Note to self: Read the ENTIRE recipe before you decide to make it! I’ve been off my game a little (first with the Zeppole, then this!) and it’s made for some ‘just ok’ recipes, but due to my own mistakes, not the recipes themselves. This one was kind of the same way. The original recipe can be found here.
Ingredients:

Scones:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves Note: I used dried.
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream Note: I only had light cream AND I goofed and used more than called for.
• ¹/₃ cup strawberry jam

Glaze:

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon Note: I used un-fresh.
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons water

As you’ll notice by reading the recipe, Giada suggests the use of a food processor but in my head what she really meant to say is “Hey, a food processor would be the easiest route to go, but a blender works fine too as I know more people have them.” Wrong. Do not blend this! Read to the end of the recipe for the instructions for those without food processors. I used dried rosemary and thought that the pieces were a little too big, so I chopped them up with a knife. This was tricky because when I tried to chop them they scattered everywhere, lol. I did this:

Technique

Just place one hand over the top of the blade and press down on the hand with handle with the opposite hand. So, painfully long and embarrassing story short, I blended the ingredients and the dough ended up very goopy and gloppy (probably also because I added more cream because my blender wasn’t blending so well hah :)), but I was reeeallly excited for this recipe, so I just placed them on a cookie sheet like I would chocolate chip cookies :) I pressed down a little in the middle and added about a ½ tbsp of jelly. I made the glaze while the Scoonies were baking and it made way more than enough, for me. Like ½ a cereal bowl full of glaze.

Scoonies (Cookies+Scones?)

Now, while my version was definitely not as attractive as Giada’s was, it was DEFINITELY tasty! I loved loved loved them and cannot wait to make them again….with the food processor I will one day have or using the non-food processor directions :p C (husband) even took them to work to have the guys in his office try them. Please make these and let me know what you think! :)

Husband rating: 8. C’s friends also gave it an 8 overall :)

Would I make this for someone else?: Yes! After a few minor tweaks…lol. It’d be nice if they could be heart-shaped like Giada’s.