chocolate peanut butter chip cookies

sometimes, i need to skip martha. and joy (no, this joy. that one). and sometimes even baked. and go straight for the back of the bag.

the peanut butter chip bag.

after a disastrous run with some drop sugar cookies late last week, i still hadn't fulfilled my hankering for a cookie. a nice easy one.



turns out this was my opportunity to teach jason about the importance of creaming butter and sugar. and why the dry ingredients aren't all added to the wet at the same time. now the next time he puts in a cookie request, he has no excuse not to make them.

chocolate peanut butter chip cookies
adapted from the back of the reese's peanut butter chip bag
1 hour (includes baking time), makes 4 1/2 dozen

2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups butter, room temp
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups peanut butter chips (a 10oz bag)

1. preheat your oven to 350F.
2. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. set aside.
3. using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. mix the eggs into the butter mixture one at a time, ensuring each egg is incorporated before adding the next. add the vanilla extract and mix.
5. gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing well after each addition.
6. stir in the peanut butter chips.
7. drop by rounded teaspoons on ungreased baking sheets about 2 inches apart. bake 8-9 minutes. the cookies should be a slightly underbaked so they're still chewy. they will puff up a lot while baking and will flatten while cooking.
8. cool on the baking sheet a couple minutes. remove with a spatula and cool completely on a wire rack. store in an airtight container. they're best eaten within a couple days.

lazy wo(man) mac & cheese

here's a crazy simple one for you. so easy i almost didn't post it.

it's quicker than this stovetop mac & cheese and takes the same amount of time as the blue box.

and if you're a coffee drinker and enjoy cheese (like that's a real question), you probably have everything in your pantry to make it...

...and i made it up as i went along, so the measurements are approximate. if you want more cheese, add it. if your cheese sauce looks a little thin, add a touch more half & half, but go easy on it. a little goes a long way.

lazy woman mac & cheese
10 minutes, serves one

for each serving -
1/2 cup dried short cut pasta, i used ditalini
2 tablespoons half & half or whole milk (a good size splash)
3 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese (a palmful)
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese (a little less than half the cheddar)
salt & pepper

1. cook the pasta according to the package directions.
2. when the pasta is done, add the half & half to the pan. if you have an electric stove like me, put the pan back on the hot burner and leave the burner off. if you have a gas stove like i wish i do, put it over super low heat. warm the half & half for 30 seconds to a minute.
   
3. season with salt & pepper and mix in the cheese.
4. when the cheese is melted, stir in the pasta. ta da. easiest saturday lunch ever.

italian stuffed peppers (and tomatoes)

jason has been asking for stuffed peppers for a couple months now that they're a mere $0.25 a piece at the market, i figured it was time to give it a try.

for my first attempt, i chose to make them italian style, since i also had homemade pasta sauce, carrots from the market, and basil and oregano from my garden.

the grated carrots may seem like an odd addition but they add a good sweetness and almost act as a thickener for the filling. i used my microplane ribbon grater to get small pieces that blend in to the rest of the filling. if you don't have a microplane, small holes on a box grater would work.

i didn't make the peppers and the tomatoes on the same day. i refrigerated the filling i had leftover from the peppers and make the tomatoes the next night. i much prefer the tomatoes - their sweeter flavor went well with the filling - and jason much prefers the peppers. to each his own.



overrun by zucchini? i bet this filling would be great for zucchini as well. cut the zuke in half, lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. fill each half and bake at 375F on a sheet pan for about 30 minutes.

...and if you want to make this one meatless, simply omit the ground beef from the filling.

italian stuffed peppers and tomatoes
1 hour 20 minutes (includes baking), serves 4, makes enough for 4 peppers and 8 sm/med tomatoes

1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup dried orzo pasta
2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups your favorite pasta sauce (or homemade sauce)
2 finely grated carrots, about 1 cup
2 ounces fresh mozzarella, finely cubed
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced (or a pinch of dried)
1/4 cup fresh basil, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 sweet peppers
8 small/medium (a little smaller than a baseball) tomatoes, use larger tomatoes if you have them

1. preheat your oven to 400F. place a strainer over a square baking dish.
2. brown the ground beef in a saute pan over medium low heat. set aside.
3. bring the vegetable broth to a boil and cook the orzo, about 4 minutes. drain the orzo with the strainer, so the vegetable broth is in the baking dish.
4. in a large bowl, combine the ground beef, orzo, pasta sauce, carrots, mozzarella, parmesan, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and olive oil. mix well.

for peppers -

1. cut a small slice off the bottom of the peppers so they sit flat in the baking dish. be careful not to cut all the way through the bottom or the filling will fall out.
2. cut the top off the pepper and remove the insides.
3. fill each pepper and place in the vegetable broth baking dish. cover with foil and bake about 45 minutes. remove foil, dust with parmesan cheese, and bake an additional 15 minutes.

for tomatoes -

1. if the tomatoes don't sit flat, cut a small slice off the bottom. be careful not to cut all the way through the bottom or the filling will fall out.
2. slice off the top of the tomato and hollow it out.
3. fill each tomato and dust with parmesan. bake on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes, or until the filling is hot and the cheese has browned.
   

basil garlic tomato sauce

i decided earlier this summer that i was going to make tomato sauce and can it. this is my maiden voyage.

sometime last week one of my coworkers gave me a good sized bag of homegrown garlic. saturday morning on my trek through the market i picked up 20 pounds of tomatoes for a mere $9. i had basil growing in my backyard at home so i picked up some small onions at the market and i was ready. nervous, but ready.

i started by blanching my tomatoes. easy enough. i used a slotted spoon to transfer my tomatoes to and from the boiling water and the ice bath. and was able to do about 6 tomatoes at a time. after the first couple tries i had a good rhythm going - put 6 tomatoes in, boil for one minute, move from boiling water to ice water, add 6 tomatoes to boiling water, while tomatoes boil for one minute peel the tomatoes in ice water, when tomatoes are done boiling the ones in ice water were peeled. it worked well for me, but it might be a little crazy for you. start out with 4 tomatoes and work your way up. it took me a hour just to blanch and peel them all.

once the tomatoes are blanched, ready and waiting, i sauteed the onion and garlic. also easy. add tomatoes and cook. easy. now comes the tricky part - blending it. i had a huge stockpot and i knew there was no way my stick blender would even put a dent in it, let alone actually reach the bottom. so i decided to use my food processor. it can hold more than my conventional blender and works much better than my blender.

there's one key piece missing from my logic: blenders are water tight. food processors are not.

i ended up with a huge mess of tomato juice all over the counter and half pureed sauce in my food processor. when all way said and done, it looked like a tomato massacre on my counter from transferring the sauce from the food processor to the blender. what a mess. so take it from me - use the conventional blender. i did about 6 batches in my blender to get all the sauce.

once the sauce was blended, it was smooth sailing. it takes a while to cook the sauce down to half its volume and canning it was a breeze. i only had 7 pint jars, so i ended up with another pint and a half left. i refrigerated half a pint, froze half a pint, and had the rest tossed with pasta for dinner.

if you don't want to can it or have 20 pounds of tomatoes, go ahead and scale it. and this is your sauce - so change it up as you like.

basil garlic tomato sauce
4 hours, makes 8 pints

20 lb tomatoes
1 cup chopped onion
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh basil, minced
if you're canning it - bottled lemon juice and any combo of pint and half pint jars to total 8 pints

1. add enough water to a stock pot to cover a layer of tomatoes and bring water to a boil. blanch tomatoes for about one minutes and place in ice water. when cool enough to touch, remove skin and discard. set tomato aside and repeat with remaining tomatoes. to save some time later, quarter the tomatoes.
2. in a large stock pot, cook the garlic and onion in olive oil over medium low heat for about 5 minutes, or until translucent.
3. add the tomatoes and cook about twenty minutes, or until the tomatoes really start to break down.
4. puree the mixture using a conventional blender. add back to the stockpot.
5. bring to a boil and simmer until reduced in volume by half. this took me 3 hours. if you aren't canning the sauce, it's ready to eat!

if you're canning the sauce -

1. when your sauce is getting close to reduced by half, get your boiling water canner, jars, and lids ready.
2. add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to each pint jar and 1 1/2 teaspoons to each half pint jar. fill the jars with sauce, leaving 1/2" headspace. cover and process in boiling water canner for 35 minutes. remove from the canner and allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours. check to make sure the jars are sealed. if the button on the top can be pressed, the jar isn't sealed and needs to be kept in the refrigerator.

caprese panini

after all the super sweet blackberry treats last week, it's time for a simple and delicious dinner. especially one that involves fresh tomatoes.

we had a killer storm sunday night. the thunder and lightning startled me out of bed. i went back to sleep and for the most part forgot about it until i came home from work. my tomato plant that's taller than me had fallen completely over on it's side. it was tomato carnage. some were crushed into the dirt. some got stepped on in the midst of trying to get the cage to stand up straight. all in all, it wasn't a good sight. so i grabbed as many of the red ones that were still clinging on as i could. and i've got big plans for them.

including this sandwich.

i used my favorite multitaskter - my foreman grill. i grilled three fresh picked medium tomatoes for two sandwiches. whipped together a great big handful of basil growing next door to the tomatoes, fresh homegrown garlic from one of my coworkers, parmesan, and olive oil. slather the roll with the pesto mixture and add the grilled tomatoes and a nice thick slice of good mozzarella cheese. grill the whole thing in the foreman for another couple minutes until the cheese is oozing out the side of the roll. it's summer - toasted - between bread.

oh and make some of the extra pesto. yea, i know it's missing the pine nuts, but it still tastes great tossed with pasta. and keeps in the fridge for a while.

caprese panini
30 minutes, makes 4

1 cup loosely packed basil
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
4 large/6 medium ripe tomatoes
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
4 sandwich rolls
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. in a food processor, pulse the basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup olive oil until smooth. season with salt & pepper.
   
2. heat a grill pan (or foreman grill) over medium high heat. slice the tomatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices and grill a couple minutes on each side, until softened. meanwhile slice the rolls in half and spread a thick layer of pesto on the top half of each roll. arrange slices of cheese on the bottom half of the roll.
3. when the tomatoes are soft, spread them out on top of the cheese. put the tops on the sandwiches, brush the tops and bottoms with olive oil (so they don't burn) and press until the cheese is melty, about 5 minutes.