{Recipe} Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Today I am going to share with you my favorite cookie recipe. These Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies are great for a snack or for a quick breakfast! The original recipe comes from Paula Deen's The Lady & Son's, Too! cookbook. Yes, 2 sticks of butter are used, but who's counting?

What you will need:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature (Use real butter, margarine doesn't work very well, I have tried)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar (I just use whatever I have on hand)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (Do not use ground nutmeg. If you don't have fresh, omit the nutmeg)
• 2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2 cups dried cranberries (or raisins)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Get your baking sheets ready by either greasing or lining them with parchment paper.  In your stand mixer, cream the butter & both sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well.  Stir in the vanilla.  In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & nutmeg. Beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir in the oats & dried fruit.

Your dough should look like this.

For uniformity in size, I like to use my ice cream scoop to spoon the dough onto the cookie sheets. If you make sure all the cookies are the same size, you will have the same doneness throughout the whole batch. If not, the smaller ones will be dry and the larger ones may not be cooked enough.

Drop the dough by uniform scoops about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. With the pans I use (Pampered Chef Baking Pans or my Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan) and the size of my cookies, it ended up being more along the lines of 15-17 minutes. The outside of these cookies is crunchy and the inside is gooey! Perfection!

Microwaved! Easy! Chicken in 30 Minutes!

I absolutely adore all things Pampered Chef. In my next life, I will be a Pampered Chef consultant. I have a ton of their products and am completely happy with all of them. They are awesome! I am not a consultant and no one is paying me to tell you about this stuff, I just love it!

Today, I wanted to spotlight a piece in their stoneware line, the Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker. Y'all, I cooked a whole chicken in 30 minutes IN THE MICROWAVE in this thing and it was delicious! I've also cooked pork tenderloin (15 minutes) and chicken breasts (10 minutes for 3) in the microwave. The meat turns out juicier than cooking it in the oven. I cannot sing the praises of this product enough. The only drawback is that it only comes in two colors. My consultant told me why and it's a good reason. The product process is long and drawn out and very few pass their quality inspection. I can't imagine the nightmare that would come with more color options.

Ok, so here is what I did: Clean the chicken by taking out the giblets (ick) and rinsing the chicken. Tie the legs together with some baker's twine or dental floss. Then, find some spices you think would be good on chicken:




and rub them on the chicken and put the chicken in the baker: Put the lid on the baker. Put it in the microwave for 30 minutes. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Here's what you get: It was microwaved!

Crock Pot Recipes

I was asked about crock pot recipes, so here goes. I'm posting my favorites all in one place! This links to Google docs. If you can't access it, let me know! If you have a favorite recipe, send it to me and I'll add it to the list. Not all of these are specifically written for the crock pot. Basically all you need to do is brown the meat & onions and throw everything in the crock pot.


Santa Fe Soup
Slow Cooker Jambalaya
Ground Turkey Chili Stew
Shredded Chicken
Buffalo Chicken Chili
Black Bean Chicken

Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts & A Big Mess

First, I would like to share with you that when your cheap plastic sugar container (that holds a 5 pound bag) breaks and spills all over the floor and DOWN THE A/C VENT, your Dyson will vacuum it all up. Dealing with the vent was interesting. Picture a sugar geyser in your kitchen. Did I have the presence of mind to go TURN THE A/C OFF? No. I just stood there and watched it blow like Old Faithful. Oh and you'll have ants for a week, I'm sure. We still have them.

This happened on the night that I was making the Panko Crusted Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts (or whatever they are called--their title is too long in my opinion). Here it is:


The whole process was a blur since I was dealing with the sugar geyser. Please excuse my poor photograph also. Again, I was dealing with the sugar. The only thing I'd change about this recipe: I wouldn't pour sugar all over the floor. That is all. It was good.

Chicken Caprese Sandwich

First, check out these dudes (or dudettes) that were hanging out on top of the BB gun target. Sorry for the blurriness of the photo, I couldn't get my lens to focus on them very well before they flew away.

Hawks or Falcons? One of each? Who knows?

Now, for the sandwich. Of course I had to make it because it has my three favorite things: Tomatoes, fresh mozzarella & basil.



What I changed:
The recipe calls for Italian bread crumbs. I used plain and it was just fine.
I "floated" my buns, which means I browned them in a pan (set on low-medium) of butter. Think grilled cheese crustiness. Yum. Not healthy.




What I should have done:
I should have pounded the chicken breasts thinner. The blandness of a big chunk of chicken outweighs the tomato/mozz/basil combo.

Here's the sandwich! It was delicious! I give it a 5/5.

This Week's Menu

I don't really blog about how much I love to cook, but I do love to cook. I mostly love to cook because it's just another outlet where I get to make things THE WAY I WANT THEM. I really hate going out to restaurants because they are inconsistent and there is no way of knowing how the food is prepared. So I cook.

I like to just choose 4-6 meals each week that I will cook. I'm not dead set on having hamburgers on Tuesday, spaghetti on Wednesday, etc. I just buy what I need for those meals, then pick and choose as I go.

So here's what we're having for the next 4 meals:
1. Chicken Caprese Sandwiches & Homemade Baked Onion Rings
2. Panko Crusted Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach, Tomatoes & Basil
3. Florentine Shrimp Pasta
4. Sandwiches (Tuna, Ham, etc.--we'll be at the pool for this meal)

I'll try to photograph and blog about all of these. I'm most interested in the Stuffed Chicken Breasts! Happy eating!

I Have Coffee Issues

It is no secret that I love coffee. Good strong coffee, mind you. While I do not hail Starbucks as the all-time master of coffee, I do appreciate that they are in every major city and that my addiction/habit/appetite can be whetted on demand almost anywhere I choose to roam. When planning a trip, I look up where the Starbucks stores are located before I go if I have never been there before.

When I visit Starbucks, there are only a few drink options for me there: Drip coffee (as long as it’s a bold coffee and especially NOT that nasty Pike Place Blend), Americano (I started drinking this when they decided to only have a bold choice until noon or so--that’s another story), or if I’m feeling strange, a Latte, straight espresso or Iced Coffee. I do not drink the frozen things or teas or anything sugary. To my drip or Americano, I will add 1 raw sugar and some cream. To the latte or espresso, I add nothing. To the iced, 1 Splenda and cream. I am very specific about my coffee and I will have it no other way. Yes, Mr. Barista, I can tell when you put more sugar than I asked for. It makes my teeth feel yucky and makes the onset of diabetes that much earlier for me. I do not appreciate this. I said ONE raw sugar, not one handful.

At home, I own all the coffee makers a girl could desire: A drip coffee machine, an espresso machine and a French press. I use the drip machine most often because it’s convenient, but the press is by far my favorite. Now that I have it, the espresso machine is sort of obsolete because the press can make espresso. But it can’t steam milk like the espresso machine. I keep the espresso machine because I like to say that I have one. I hardly use the thing.

THE BEANS: Oh my. I like a nice dark roast. However, I am also a fanatic about saving money. Or not spending so much if I don’t have to. Anyway, I have been surprisingly pleased with the Costco brand House Blend (which is roasted by Starbucks--Starbucks is like WalMart. No matter how much you try to get away, you still find yourself there in some way.). It is not as dark as I like, but I compensate for that by using more beans. FRESHLY GROUND BEANS, people. Do yourself a favor and go buy a $20 coffee grinder. Grind your coffee at home each time you want to make coffee. I ground some beans about 12 hours ahead of time once and it was gross. I am THAT good. I notice these things. Pre-ground or that stuff that they vacuum seal into a brick is no good.

This whole post resulted from me stating on Facebook AS FACT that my iced coffee I make at home is better than any Starbucks Barista could make. It’s true. I’ve been asked to share my “recipe.” Ladies and germs, I don’t have a recipe. I don’t even cook with them in general. Again, I am THAT good. I do bake with them since baking requires them.

So here’s what I do:
1. Spoon about 7 heaping tablespoons of coffee beans into your coffee grinder.
2. Grind to a medium--not coarse, not fine, MEDIUM. Just like you would grind for regular drip coffee. I would rather you grind too much than not enough, though.
3. Dump the whole thing into your coffee filter and put it in the filter basket.
4. Fill the reservoir of your drip coffee maker with about 17 oz of water. Here, I would like for you to err on the side of less water than more water.
5. Turn on the coffee maker. It will now make you some coffee.
6. While the coffee maker is working, fill your favorite cocktail shaker with ice. I like mine from Pampered Chef. It’s double walled and fabulous.
7. Then fill your favorite BIG cup 1/2 full of ice or frozen coffee cubes. I do some of each. Here's mine, complete with Buzz (Go Jackets!) & a pink straw:



8. Now that your coffee is ready, pour some over the ice in the shaker with whatever sweetener you want. I don’t use regular sugar in iced coffee so I don’t know if it will dissolve properly. Shake it until the ice is almost melted. Oh, put the lid on first before you start shaking!
9. Pour the now-chilled coffee over the ice in your favorite big cup. Keep doing step 8 & 9 until your big cup is full. Top with some half & half or whatever.
10. Now, you drink the iced coffee. After you have finished, come back here and leave a comment thanking me for this goodness that now resides in your big cup! You’re welcome, in advance, of course!