Grandmaw's Oatmeal Cookies

First of all, sorry for the long hiatus. It's been an intentional break to try to get my dissertation done, and it's working so far. I'm just breaking my "fast" to post these awesome cookies because they deserve to be on here.

Instagram photo because (1) I'm kind of lazy and (2) my camera needs to go to the repair shop since I dropped it in Ireland over the summer.

But seriously, don't let that stop you from making these quick and delicious cookies. YOU DON'T EVEN NEED EGGS. The recipe is my great-grandmother's, and I remember eating these when I was little and we went for tea at her house. My mom used to make these too. She still does, actually. Hi mom!

These are a very crumbly, spiced biscuit, great with tea in the afternoon. They come together very quickly in one bowl and you don't even need to grease the pan.


Ingredients:

1/2 c softened butter
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 2 tbs hot water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c white flour
1 c oats
1/4 c dried coconut (unsweetened)
1/8 tsp (heaping) nutmeg


1. Preheat oven to 300ºF.

2. Cream butter and sugar until well mixed, then add in the baking soda mixture and the vanilla.

3. Stir in the flour, oats, and coconut. Mix. You'll have a crumbly-looking dough but don't worry.

4. Using your hands, form walnut sized balls of the dough. I find it works best if you flatten them a little bit so you have kind of a fat disk of dough, about 1 cm thick. If you are having trouble, you can add a tiny bit more water to help the dough form, but be careful not to add too much—1/4 tsp at a time!

5. Arrange the first batch on your ungreased baking sheet and then GENTLY press down on each cookie with a fork dipped in milk (to prevent sticking). This pressing gives the cookies their crumbled-looking edges. Don't press too hard or the cookie might fall apart.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, then let cool slightly on the pan before moving to a cooling rack and doing your second batch.


This amount of ingredients gives 2 dozen; the original recipe is double this and obviously gives 4 dozen, but we are only 2 people and 48 cookies is a lot for us.

Let me know how you like them!

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Italian Wedding Soup

You may have noticed that things are getting a little cozier around here - soups, pies, breads - they're going to get cozier, too! Winter is a-comin'! That's where this hearty meatball soup comes in. Usually, Italian wedding soup is made with small pasta, but I decided to use barley instead. It's a bit heartier than pasta and it's what I had on hand! It turned out really nicely - barley added a great texture to the soup.



You need:

1 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2/3 c pot barley
8 c chicken stock
3 c fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
20 home-made or store bought chicken or turkey meatballs

1. First, saute your onion, celery, and carrot in the olive oil. When the onions are translucent, add the stock and the barley and bring to a boil. Leave it at a vigorous simmer for 30 minutes or so - until the barley is cooked.

2. Add the meatballs and the spinach and boil until the meatballs are cooked (if you used fresh/raw) and the spinach is wilted.

Serve with yummy 60-minute dinner rolls: YES they only take 60 minutes!! AND they are fluffy and delicious! It's like magic. :)


I opted for a half recipe so what you see here makes 12 rolls, not 24 as in the original recipe. I'm sure this will work without a kitchenaid, but it's what I have!

You need:

1/4 c. milk
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbs butter
3 1/3 tsp yeast
3/4 c lukewarm water
3 c flour

1. Melt the butter, milk, sugar, and salt in the microwave. Stir to make sure they are all dissolved.

2. In the bowl of your mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Then add the milk mixture to it and stir.

3. Add the flour a bit at a time, mixing all the while, until all the flour is added. Knead until you get a sticky but cohesive dough ball.

4. Let the dough rise for 15 minutes in an oiled covered bowl.

5. Shape the rolls into 12 portions and place in an oiled baking pan - 9 X 13 worked for me but muffin tins do the trick too. Let rise another 15 minutes.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 425ºF for 12 minutes. The rolls should be deliciously golden at this point.