Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Drop Cookies

Those are what I made to accompany us as I sewed and Drew watched the Saints game the other day. They were delicious and I haven’t been able to stay out of the kitchen and stop eating them since.

I think the last time I made these cookies was with my friend, Tonya, at her house when we were in middle school. It had been that long. I don’t know why though. I guess when I get cookie cravings I automatically make chocolate chip cookies. I tend to neglect other cookie types. Maybe I should work on that. Anyway, here is the recipe so that you can skippy to your kitchens and whip you up a batch:

1/2 C Butter
2 C Sugar
1/2 C Milk
4 Tbsp Cocoa
1/2 C Peanut Butter
3- 3 1/2 C Quick cooking Oats
2 tsp. Vanilla

Add the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Stir in the next 3 ingredients and drop onto wax/foil paper. Let cool until set. Enjoy. ๐Ÿ™‚

It is especially nice to make these in the summer, since you can still haveย delicious cookies without having to turn the oven on and heat up the whole house! Plus there is barely any cooking time at all involved! Happy Cooking. ๐Ÿ™‚

P.S. I’ve also heard of making them without the cocoa and peanut butter and adding coconut and dried cherries/cranberries/raisins instead. I’ve never tried that, but I’m intrigued. Anyone else had them like that before?

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Fruit Tart Recipe

Tonight, Drew and I are going to be in the office late. We have many projects to work on and finish up before I head home for a visit in a few days. This is the scene:

Homemade ice cream paired with tart crust cookies are keeping me company as well. Yesterday I made a tart to take with me to a summer outsideย barbecueย with some friends. I used the leftover crust dough and baked it into tart crust cookies. They are the perfect mix between shortbread and sugar cookies. It definitely reminds me of the homemade ice cream and crusty cookie combination that Drew and I had for dessert on our 3rd anniversary dinner, here. ๐Ÿ™‚

friut tart close up

Since I’ve promised to get better about adding recipes into my blog, I’ve also put together my Fruit Tart recipe here for you. ๐Ÿ™‚ It isn’t necessarily a hard thing to make, but I would say it is an intermediate recipe. You will need a tart pan, a rolling pin, unsalted butter, a mixer (or pastry cutter) and various other things, so definitely look it over before you jump right in with it. ๐Ÿ™‚

Fruit Tart

Tart Dough:
Ingredients:
-1 egg yolk
-2 Tbs. very cold water
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 1/4 c. flour
-1/3 c. sugar
-1/4 tsp. salt
-8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted cold butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

Directions:
1. In small bowl, stir together egg yolk, water & vanilla. Set aside.
2. In stand mixer fitted with flat beater, stir together flour, sugar, & salt.
3. Add butter cubes to mixer & beat on med-low speed until texture resembles courseย cornmeal. (butter pieces no larger than small peas)
4. Add egg mixture & beat just until dough pulls together.
5. Transfer dough to clean work surface, pat into a ball & flatten. Use immediately orย refrigerate until well chilled (30 minutes).
6. Roll out dough on floured surface until 2 in. greater in diameter than tart pan & 1/8 in.ย thick, lightly flouring rolling pin or dough as needed.
7. Transfer to tart pan & trim excess dough. Press dough into the sides & extend it slightlyย above the rim to offset any shrinkage during baking.
8. Refrigerate until firm while oven preheats to 375 degrees.
9. Line pastry shell with aluminum foil & fill with pie weights (or dry, uncooked beans).
10. Bake for 20 minutes. Lift edge of foil–if dough looks wet, continue to bake, checking everyย 5 minutes, until dough is pale gold. (total baking time 25-30 min)
11. Remove weights & foil. Continue to bake (up to 10 min more) until shell is golden. Be veryย careful! If dough is too thin, it will burn easily!
12. Transfer to wire rack & let cool completely.

*If you have any excess dough, it makes excellent Tart Crust Cookies. Cut dough into cookieย shapes and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 until golden, or about 7-13 minutes.

Filling & Topping:
Ingredients:
-8 oz. cream cheese (1 package)–room temperature
-1/4 c. powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Beat cream cheese & powdered sugar until smooth.
2. Spread evenly into bottom of cooled tart shell.
3. Top with strawberries, blueberries, or whatever fresh fruit you desire. Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy!

Got to get back to work!

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Homemade Ice Cream

How was your 4th of July weekend? For me, it was a great weekend! I did a little shopping, a little cooking, a little relaxing, and also got some work done I needed to do. Plus it was super nice to get to spend time with Drew. He goes to school full time, works full time, and runs his own business–he’s a busy man. But luckily, he had a long weekend off work for the Independence holiday.

To celebrate, we bought ourselves a little 4th of July present–an ice cream maker attachment for our KitchenAid mixer!

Then we put it to good use making lots of ice cream. Homemade ice cream is one of my absolute favorite things and the perfect way to celebrate a summer holiday! (Plus it was one of the hottest days in New Orleans so far this summer)

I really like the way it works. It is super easy. The ice cream mixer bowl goes right in the freezer and freezes up, then you take it out and put it on the mixer just like the normal mixer bowl and in about 20 minutes, you have a fresh batch of ice cream!

We also got 4 of these cute little glass bowls and several cute glass juice glasses at a thrift store for 75% off for their 4th of July sale. We paid just a couple dollars for 4 bowls and 6 glasses! ๐Ÿ™‚

We’ve only made vanilla ice cream so far (it’s my favorite as far as homemade ice cream goes). We’ve made it a couple different ways so far though to try to see what recipe we like best, although so far we’ve only tried no-egg recipes. (we still have plans to try several more and Drew is more than ready to make some chocolate next)

Here is the ratio/recipe that we’ve been using and it works perfect for the two of us. It makes a smaller batch, but still enough for a couple bowls of ice cream.

1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Super simple and easy to remember. We tried it the first time with heavy whipping cream and it was good, but a little too rich for me. The second time we made it, I used half & half instead of heavy whipping cream and I loved the way it turned out. A little more subtle and delicate and not so thick and rich. Drew preferred it richer, but I guess it all just depends on your individual tastes.

The richness of the flavor and the creaminess of the texture all depends on the type of cream you use. The higher the percentage of fat in the cream, the richer it will be and vice versa. When making your own ice cream, keep in mind these fat percentages:

Heavy Cream 36%
Whipping Cream 30%
Light Cream 18%
Half & Half 10%
Whole Milk 3.25%

I can’t wait to try out some more ice cream flavors and some with added toppings!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Drew and I had a great time yesterday watching the fireworks over the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans. ๐Ÿ™‚

(P.S. I totally think this would have been fun to try, but we didn’t have any sparklers. ๐Ÿ™ Let me know if any of y’all try it out!)

 

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When Life Gives You Lemons, Make LEMONADE!

This weekend has been quite citrus-y! When we were at the mall on Friday, we stopped by the Lush counter at Macy’s to check out all the handmade soaps. They all smell so good! We are both particularly partial to lemony/citrus-y scents. Drew ended up getting a little of two different ones and our bathroom since then smells like a big bunch of lemons! ๐Ÿ™‚

When we were at the grocery store yesterday, we bought a big bag of lemons (for only like $2) because Drew is now set on making his own organic soap and wanted to give it a lemon scent, of course.

Lemons in the kitchen reminds me of home. My mom often had a big jar of lemons on our kitchen island. She would use them to zest into scones, or more often than not, not use them for anything and they would go bad before we had a chance to make anything with them. I think they are really pretty in a nice glass jar on the kitchen table. ๐Ÿ™‚

Anyway, not only did I want scones after looking at them, I really, really wanted lemonade! So, I made lemonade. I used a recipe out of the Southern Plate recipe book we got last weekend. More about that, here.

Here is the recipe:

1. Combine 1 cup water and 1 3/4 cups sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking to dissolve the sugar.
2. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Pour into a 2-quart pitcher along with 1 1/2 cups lemon juice.
4. Stir and add enough water to make 2 quarts. (or according to taste)
5. Stir and serve over ice. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Even though the recipe doesn’t call for freshly squeezed lemon juice, that is all we had and is what we used. We made a smaller batch because it takes a lot of lemons to get 1 1/2 cups lemon juice. (one lemon will give you roughly 3 tablespoons of juice)

The fun thing about this activity is if you have kids, (or a fiance that acts like one) you can let them play with the leftover lemon halves. I’m sure they will be entertained. They can build things like lemon towers:

Even better than the lemonade itself, is if you put it in the freezer until it starts to freeze, and then you get nice and cool frozen lemonade. Yummy! Especially with this 80+ degree weather here in New Orleans! Goodness it has been HOT! What happened to Spring?! ๐Ÿ™‚

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Overnight Oatmeal

We’ve had Drew’s parents over for Mardi Gras, so I decided to try out a new recipe that I’d had saved for a while. It was for overnight oatmeal. You use steel cut oats and put them in a crock pot to cook overnight and you wake up in the morning with fresh hot breakfast! Pretty great, huh? I thought so. Easy too. We just have a baby crock pot and there are only four of us so I just took 4 cups of water and 1 cup of steel cut oats and a pinch of salt and leave it on low in the crock pot overnight. That’s it. (the recipe called for 8 cups of water and 2 cups of oats, but I wouldn’t do that unless you are planning on feeding an army) Don’t use regular oats or you will end up with mush. Times 10. They turned out great. I cut fruit to go on top and a few walnuts and a little brown sugar!ย  I definitely recommend this for an easy company breakfast. ๐Ÿ™‚

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Shortbread Cookies :)

I was talking to my mom the other day about these little lime cookies with cornmeal on the outside that I had at a birthday tea party when I was twelve. This lady made them that was friends with my mom. I remembered them and had wanted to make them for a while, but I didn’t have the recipe. My mom found it for me so I spent the day baking! I love baking, especially at Christmastime! ๐Ÿ™‚ Here is the recipe:

Icebox Shortbread

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
plus your choice of mix-ins and/or coatings (optional)

Flavor variations:
– mix in grated zest of two oranges & 1/2 cup dried cranberries
– mix in grated zest of two lemons & coat with 1/4 cup poppy seeds
– mix in grated zest of two limes & coat with 1/4 cup cornmeal
– mix in 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots & coat with 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios
– mix in 1/2 cup peanut butter or mini chocolate chips
– mix in 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger & coat with 1/4 cup sesame seeds

1. With an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth. With mixer on low speed, add flour, mixing just until a dough forms. Stir in desired mix-ins (above).

2. Divide dough in half. Place each half on a piece of lightly floured parchment or waxed paper. Gently roll the dough into a 1 1/2 inch in diameter log. Divide the desired coating evenly among each log and coat, rolling each log and pressing the coating into the dough. Wrap the logs tightly in the paper, twisting the ends to seal. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 or 1 and 1/2 hours. (to store longer, place wrapped logs in resealable plastic freezer bags and freeze up to 6 months)

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap logs. With a serrated knife, cut dough into 3/8 inch thick slices. (if dough is crumbly, leave at room temperature 5-10 minutes) Place slices on baking sheets about 1 inch apart.

4. Bake, rotating baking sheet about halfway through, until lightly golden around the edges or about 15-20 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for a minute or two and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Enjoy! Store in an airtight container at room temperature. ๐Ÿ™‚

I ended up making the lime/cornmeal ones and I also made a batch with orange zest and about 1/2 cup of finely chopped walnuts mixed in. You can make them with whatever you would like, or you can also leave them plain. ๐Ÿ™‚


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