Do It Yourself: Pumpkin Turkey Chili

November 13, 2011

Okay-- it's not super pretty but it tastes good.

I’m making pumpkin turkey chili AS WE SPEAK (the simmer-for-20-minutes part… multi-tasking). These pictures are from the first time I made it, over a month ago. My mom found the recipe at Ralph’s and gave it to me. That version called for stove cooking followed by crock-potting, but I found another version with the EXACT same ingredients that only called for a 20-minute simmer. So I went with it.

I realized tonight that I’ve been totally remiss in not sharing this with you. I think it’s awesome, my mom made it and thought that it was a little bland. Stirring in the cheese and eating it with some nice bread helps a lot. Last time I used dinner rolls, this time I’m going with some awesome-looking sourdough bread.

Hi.

Both sides indent in like that, which seems legit? And exciting? (To me, at least.) I think it would also make for some excellent grilled cheese. (And you’ll have cheddar, thanks to this recipe.)

Randomly, I like to cook while listening to Marc Maron’s WTF podcasts. I happened to listen to the Jon Hamm interview the first time I made this, so I will always associate this chili with Jon Hamm. He makes cooking a somewhat involved recipe alone in your kitchen a LOT more fun. (Bonus for the Bridesmaids fans: “But can he do THIS?”)

Wahoo!

Anyway, on to some pictures of the chili.

Ingredients:

Here we are.

I learned my lesson and bought pre-diced onions. Also– don’t fear the chili powder. It doesn’t make it too spicy. (When cooking I use just a dash of regular salt, but when serving I dash a little kosher salt on top– kosher salt is special. It tastes like angels.) (I refuse to explain how I know what angels taste like.)

The smell of the veggies sauteeing will make you glad that you decided to cook this. Yee-um. I think they’d also be great on pizza. (Yellow and green peppers, diced onions, and garlic– it’s as if somebody knew I don’t like red peppers and decided not to invite them. Cool)

You guys smell great.

Pro-tip: When you add the turkey, you have to pause your podcast. It gets too loud and sizzly, and you miss out on how exactly Jon Hamm met Paul Rudd and have to go back (or today– an anecdote about Gabe Liedman doing stand-up at a Jewish summer camp in Georgia).

After the turkey browns, it’s time for the good stuff– the pumpkin and tomato! (Can I just add that BOTH times I made this, I got the LAST can of pumpkin puree at my local store. It was okay in early October, but at this point– COME ON! Stock up!)

It all fits! Whew.

You also add the spices. Now it’s time to stir it all up and simmer.

For some really stupid reason I bought a 12-inch pan without a lid. I very expressly was like, I don’t want a stupid lid! STUPID! Now I regret that choice, as I have to MacGuyver my lid with tin foil. Pro tip: Get a pan with a lid. Stupid.

A peek inside my madness.

And when it’s all said and done, it looks like this. And it lasts for a few delicious days, but not an overwhelming number (a la crock pot).

Eat me.

None of my plated shots looked particularly appetizing, but it’s good enough that I’ve made it twice already. A nice bowl of pumpkin-y turkey chili on a rainy and/or cold November night– what could be more delightful? (Okay, maybe the actual presence of Jon Hamm, but I don’t have any recipe for making THAT happen.)

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: A Quesadilla Phase

November 9, 2011

Triangles make everything taste better.

Every few years I go through a quesadilla phase. It typically comes out of nowhere (or maybe I’d see former-roomie Lauren making one and be inspired) and goes away by the time I’ve gone through one or two bags of tortillas. It’s like… when the locusts come. Very mysterious. (And luckily I don’t actually live in locust country, because I’m not a bug person.) (How many people are, really?)

Aaanyway, I always have problems locating good, not-too-unhealthy tortillas. Sometimes I walk into the tortilla (or bread) section of the grocery store and an grossed out by the smell of– I don’t know, maybe wheat? Flour? So I have to smell the bags to see if they offend.

I actually thought that the smell-thing might be indicative of a bread allergy, which is why last year I spent a week not eating bread to see what would happen. (Nothing notable, except that I didn’t get to eat my bread-crouton thing when I went to Tender Greens with Sam on our THIRD DATE.) (When I told him I might be allergic to bread, I’m sure he was like, GREAT. Self-diagnosing allergies? She seems like a PEACH.)

I ended up trying a new (to me) brand of flour tortillas– La Banderita. I really like them because they have layers… if you know what I mean. You can kind of peel them in half.

All that and 0g of transfats!

So I’m a happy camper. Until I get the vapors again, re: the smell of bread. (Seriously, am I weird? Do other people know what I’m talking about?)

And in case you’re wondering I happen to be using the Trader Joe’s brand light Mexican cheese blend, but I’m sure any will do. And I make my quesadillas in the microwave. Yes, yes, I’ve learned by now– everything tastes better on the stove. But… nothing tastes as good as lazy feels. (At least not right now.)

xoxo…

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Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2011

Pumpkin pie (pumpkin)! The candle looks like whipped cream.

Happy Halloween! Of course I managed to make mine all about food (and not just candy). First, my costume was Heinz ketchup. (It was a group costume– I rolled with mustard and relish.) Then Sam and I went to a carving party, and ended up making a pumpkin pie pumpkin.

We didn’t know what we would make, walking in. I wanted to do something food-related, and was thinking along the lines of (surprise, surprise) more ketchup. (And something relatively easy to carve, since I was going to do the bulk of it– Sam had done most of the work carving a ghost pumpkin earlier in the week.)

Sam ended up sketching a piece of pie, and he transferred that onto the pumpkin.

Work in progress.

Most of the carving went okay, until I sort of carved through a thin part. Then Sam-the-New-Englander took the helm and fixed it.

We had an amazing, creative line-up when everybody was done. Flamingos, Ron Burgundy, a Victorian-style profile… the most mind-blowing one was a detailed Sylvester Stallone.

Little pumpkins in a row.

Seriously– viewing all these pumpkins in the dark together was a wonderful moment. Like, summer-camp-bonfire style fun and bonding and good vibes. If you get invited to a carving party– DO IT!

Now I have pumpkin pie in the fridge, but not the edible variety. Sigh.

Yum?

(The toothpick was inserted for support during car travel.)

I’ve yet to eat any pumpkin pie this season, but I’m hoping to locate some soon… Thanksgiving latest. Obviously I’ve got it on the brain. (Or maybe Sam does– this was his idea. But I WAS looking for pumpkin pie at Trader Joe’s when we bought the pumpkin… sadly, they were out.)

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: Easy Cheesy Microwave-Baked Potato

October 24, 2011

Microwave technology at its finest.

As you may recall, in the process of cooking “Always Yummy Beef,”  I was left with an excess of potatoes. In trying to figure out how to use them, I remembered that wayyy back in my childhood, my mom had once (or twice) made a sliced cheesy baked potato that was almost french fry-like.

I googled around for a recipe (I also emailed/called my mom but she didn’t answer… AHEM), and ended up finding this microwave-based variation. So it lacked some of the french fry-ish crunch, but it would be done within 20 minutes. Sold.

The BEST part is that I already possessed EVERY* ingredient that I needed for this project. My meal was basically free. (And it always feels good to use things that you already own, before they expire*).

*I had to buy butter, but I was planning on doing that anyway– I use butter so slowly that my old vat had expired.

The SECOND BEST part is knowing how to really quickly achieve a baked potato.

First– you slice the potato, but not all the way through (easier said than done). Then you smear butter on it, and whatever herb you’ve got. (I had dried basil.) Microwave for 10 minutes. The potato will sound like an old, wheezing man who got locked in a sauna. But you must not let him out! And when he’s done, let him sit for another 5 minutes.

(I’m sure this isn’t true, but I was kind of afraid that it might explode if I opened the microwave during those 5 minutes… that might have been more likely if the potato hadn’t been sliced/stabbed.)

In process.

Already the potato is pretty well cooked… if you didn’t want cheese, I’m not sure if you’d even need to do the next part.

Sprinkle the potato with cheddar and parmesan. (I already had both! Ms. Cool!) I tried as best I could to get the cheese in between the slices. Then you microwave for 4-6 minutes (I chose 5), sprinkle with salt (I used kosher AND regular! I’m SO LADEN WITH INGREDIENTS!), and voila! Potato.

It was really soft and smooshy, but honestly I think I could have used more basil/salt. I ended up smothering it in ketchup, which is historically my potato go-to. (When I was a kid I just put salt, pepper, and ketchup on plain baked potatoes… what a cool cat.) I also have a couple of different spices I can try next time… Old Bay, Mrs. Dash, more pepper… (are you impressed by my spice menagerie?). But really– why mess with ketchup?

This is a great, fast solution to craving a baked potato but not wanting to spend an hour (or more) waiting for it to bake. And a great solution to using up my potatoes without having to make more “Always Yummy Beef.” (I typo’d Always Tummy Beef, which is… kind of what I want to call it from now on.)

And Mom– if you have the original recipe– hook a daughter up.

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: Fake It ’til You Make It

October 24, 2011

This took five minutes.

I’ve been feeling a bit lazy since I returned from the East Coast. Too lazy to blog about my trip. Too lazy to cook things that take more work than simple heating.

But I really like to eat a meal that SEEMS like I spent time cooking it (I’m trying to use Lean Cuisines as a last resort). And I especially like to be able to bring leftovers for work. Thus… I have been relying on short cuts. (These are also good cooking-for-one solutions.)

Before my trip, I had been planning on using my new food processor to MAKE hummus and falafel from scratch. But since the lazy struck, I leaned heavily on my friend Trader Joe. I happen to love their Indian food line, so my lazy Sunday lunch was an international affair.

Falafel with an Indian twist.

That’s Trader Joe’s pre-cooked, frozen falafel and pre-packaged hummus,  paired with Trader Joe’s tandoori naan (subbing in for pita) and raita (a cucumber-yogurt sauce that I’ve been using on everything this week). The most work I did was the pretty layout (and slicing the tomatoes). But my stomach doesn’t know the difference!

For dinner last night, I wanted to “make” something that would give me a few days of leftovers. I turned to Albertson’s for my main ingredient: a pre-made rotisserie chicken– or as Sam calls it, roto-chicken. (Buying pre-cooked chicken is really a Sam trick… I’m stealing his signature moves). (Like a true New Englander, he makes broth out of the carcass… I don’t have a pot that big.)

Sneaky.

You’ll note that I paired it with Near East’s 5-minute couscous. In the time that the couscous cooked, I made a quick salad and sliced the chicken. Multi-tasking! (Picture at the top…  after I took the photo, I covered the chicken in raita.)

And most important of all… leftovers accomplished!

I'm eating this as I type.

So… I made the leap from frozen meals to legit(ish) cooking, and now I’m somewhere in between. I think I’ll be inspired to cook again soon… I just need to get back into a rhythm.

But in the meantime… I’m eating all right. As long as I have salad and raita in the fridge, I can work something out.

What are your easy-cooking tricks?

xoxo…

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Snack Trek: Boston (Mr.) Tea Party

October 13, 2011

One if by land... two if you're not driving.

Last year, Mr. Tea (Sam) and I made the long-ish trek to Redlands to see Lauren (of course!) and to snack on some apple cider donuts. That was about a 3 hour round trip, by car. This weekend, we’re flying from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, stealing a car (legally) and driving 5 hours to Amherst to breakfast on the apple cider donuts (and apples… and cider) of Sam’s wily college years.

So yeah– we’re officially a little bit nutty. (I’ve never seen autumn foliage on the East Coast– so that’s a big part of the agenda, too.)

And as long as we’re in the area, we can’t NOT go to Sam’s hometown of Boston and dine on the best burgers, lobstah, chowdah, Italian food, beer… and whatever else we can find. (Or… fit in our stomachs, as the case may be for me.)

I’m arming myself with a camera, some cash, and a few rolls of TUMS. I’ll report back next week…

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: The Dangers of Night-Crocking (“Always Yummy Beef”)

September 27, 2011

A surprisingly enticing photo, under the office fluorescents.

I never learn. I obviously never learn, right? I get all overeager and suddenly I’m in the middle of another crock-pocalypse.

Last year I went to 25 Degrees, the burger place at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. I took pictures and intended to blog it, but was so overwhelmed by the portions (particularly the burger size) that looking at the pictures made me sick. So I never blogged it. Six months ago, a Philly cheesesteak put me into a ridiculous food coma. I pretty much know for a fact that I can’t handle my meats. (Haha, very funny.)

Friday night, Sam made a beef stew on the stove. I showed up at his place and found him wiping away tears– onions, man!

From the Mark Bittman school of stewing. Sorry, bad lighting.

After experiencing a stove-cooked beef stew, I wondered how it would turn out in the crock pot. And I was bored last night, and didn’t have a mound of leftovers for lunches… one thing led to another, and soon I was buying the ingredients for “Always Yummy Beef.” (Recipe here.) (Doesn’t it sound so innocent?)

Here I go again...

It was a seriously easy recipe, made all the more delightful by the use of dry onion soup mix (no onion cutting whatsoever!). What I didn’t realize was that the recipe was written with a 5.5 quart crock pot in mind. Mine is 4 quarts. Luckily I bought the minimum of each ingredient, but still… whoops. I’m lucky the beef could even fit in the pot. (That’s what she said, etc. Deal with it.)

Three pounds of raw meat. Just another Monday night.

That was the only crock pot-approved piece of meat I could find. So… I guess I lucked out? (I’m seriously having a case of the 25 Degrees not-sure-I-can-blog-this feeling right about now…)

You smother the meat all around with the cream of mushroom soup (I didn’t do anything to dilute it… crocking draws water from the veggies) and the dry onion soup mix…

Where's the beef?

… and the next instruction is, “Stab with a fork to get rid of frustrations.” I wasn’t sure if that was a joke, but I stabbed the meat with a fork just in case. No exploding beefs on my watch!

In theory you then put the veggies in AROUND the beef, but obviously I was out of room. So they went on top.

The recipe called for 3 to 7 potatoes. I bought 4, and only 2 fit in the pot. So… yeah. I guess I’ll be making something else with potatoes in the near future.

Once again, filled to capacity.

The recipe said to cook on LOW for 6 hours or more. I started the pot at 8pm, thinking that I would wake up to a wonderful aroma. By the time I went to sleep at around midnight… honestly, not much had happened. Not even a discernible smell. I mean, setting a SLOW cooker on LOW, one should expect this sort of progress.

I slept rather fitfully, and at around 3:50am I awoke to a really… humid feeling. The smell was… not delicious. It was just more like a heavy feeling in the air. So I went to the kitchen and turned the pot to WARM, so I could just deal with mucking out and cleaning up in the morning.

I went back to my room. I had my door closed, and plenty of windows open, but I couldn’t shake the smell. I turned on my fan, to help with that humid feeling. The thing is– I am a rather quirky sleeper, and all summer I’ve been sleeping ON TOP of my covers, under one thin blanket. Well, the unnecessary addition of cold air gave me a SNEEZE ATTACK. If you know me, you know that I can sneeze on an ENDLESS LOOP.

Much like a character in an action movie, I had to fight my way toward the fan while sneezing violently. After I turned it off, I couldn’t get warm again. So I got under my REAL covers, but after a summer of light blanketing, I felt constricted. I was definitely zonked when my alarm went off at 6:30am-ish.

Good morning, my new nemesis.

All that is just my way of saying– I do not recommend that you run your crock pot overnight. Use it while you are off at work or… wherever you go during the day. The roller skating rink. The hair salon.

And then I fished out all the beef. And fished. And fished. SO MUCH MEAT. What was I thinking, seriously?

What have I done?!

It’s hard to tell from the perspective in the picture, but the amount in the small container is about 1/20th of what’s in the big container. That’s 20 lunches. About 17 more than I could ever want.

And Sam is still working on his stew, so I can’t even turn to him to relieve me of this unholy amount of meat.

I had that small container for lunch, and it was very delicious and tender, but I am seriously in over my head. I need some people to come over to my place with big Tupperwares and relieve me of this bounty. Please. Pretty please.

Because I feel bad about wasting food… but not bad enough to eat this on my own.

Heeelp…

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

September 18, 2011

The fruits of the crock pot.

I recently acquired a crock pot, and I have been very excited about cooking in it! First of all– you can throw a bunch of food in the crock pot before work, and when you get home it’s a delightful, fragrant meal. Second– there are always leftovers! Does it get any better than that?

Yesterday I broke in my crock pot by making Chicken Cacciatore (here’s the recipe). With one painful exception, it’s super easy! (I’ll get to that exception in a minute.)

One thing I’ve noticed about cooking– it begets more cooking. From past projects, I already had a few items I needed for this recipe– garlic cloves, flour and basil (I used flakes instead of fresh). And now I have several more ingredients for future recipes– kosher salt, tomato paste and chicken broth. So… now I have to cook some more!

Basically just dump it all in the pot. My kind of cooking.

The recipe called for TWO chopped onions. Two. I’m not a major onion girl. I never get them at In ‘N Out. (Not even grilled– I find them overpowering.) Cooking-wise, I get their value– onions are totally necessary in stuffing, latkes, etc. At home I always leave the kitchen while my dad or youngest sister does the chopping. (She eats onions like apples. WHAT?!) And at Sam’s we buy pre-chopped onions (because he is the smartest).

I like to follow a new recipe as closely as I can, so I put my worries aside and went for it with the onions. (And didn’t even look for pre-chopped… whoops.) Which was dumb, because I forgot that onions BURN my eyes like a MOFO. Seriously within seconds of the first slice, it seemed as though the onion had released an evil tear-gas bomb. (And I know my eye pain… this was bad.) I was moaning in such a way that my neighbors probably thought I was having painful sex.

I ran from the kitchen, dabbing at my eyes with a paper towel. I seriously debated scrapping the whole project. But then I sucked it up, went back in, and chopped the onions under running water. BOTH of them. Like a boss.

We're not friends.

After that, everything else was a breeze. You don’t even have to stir the ingredients, because as they cook they’ll all soup up and merge. (My mom always had a strict don’t-open-the-lid rule, and I stand by that.)

I think my favorite new ingredient was tomato paste. It looked like toothpaste and smelled like ketchup! Let’s be real– I would probably brush my teeth with tomato paste. Maybe.

How have we never met before?

In the background, that’s mushrooms with 1/4 cup of flour sprinkled over them. This recipe was relatively healthy– no butter, no oil. I think that’s a crock pot advantage? I don’t know– what do I know? I haven’t crock-potted since college. (Sexy.)

Luckily my pot was JUST big enough to hold all of the ingredients. Whew!

To the top!

I always thought that peppers were a mandatory ingredient in Chicken Cacciatore, but this recipe didn’t call for them. Maybe they’re not crock pot friendly? Maybe there just wasn’t enough room? I wonder what would happen if you replaced one onion with one pepper… less crying, that’s for sure.

Four and a half hours on “high” later, the meal had shrunk down a bit– and smelled amazing.

I'll eat you, my pretty.

I cooked up a pot of linguine to serve with the chicken. After a sprinkling of basil, it was ready to eat! (I was also supposed to serve with grated cheese, but I completely forgot about it. Whoops. Next time.)

The best thing about cooking chicken in a crock pot is that it comes out falling-apart tender. It’s pretty much impossible to cook chicken that way on the stove or the grill– and a lot of pan-cooked chicken ends up dry, because people overcook it out of fear of E. Coli, etc.

Winning.

You don’t even need a knife. Just a nudge and it’s all yummy-shreddy.

And you know what? Even the onions were good. All the acid gets cooked out, so they just taste nice and veggie-ish. I kinda wish it was a little more tomato-y– like, I might even add a little sauce when I eat the leftovers. (I guess you could dump in two cans, if it would all fit.) But I’m a tomato fiend, so that might just be me.

Mmmm…. it might be time for leftovers right now! I love crock-potting. (Yes, it’s a verb now.)

You can have this for dinner tonight, if you run to the store now! (I recommend you stock up either way… the grocery strike looms. While I was buying these ingredients, they were training strike-time replacement workers at my local Albertson’s… sigh.)

xoxo…

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Do It Yourself: Spazzy Little Spaetzle

September 11, 2011

My descent into madness.

Sometimes when I hear about a food I’ve never had before– especially if it’s not commonly found around LA– I suddenly, obsessively want to try it. (See: Blackberry summer pudding.) The madness started when I was perusing Smitten Kitchen, and stumbled across this recipe for spaetzle. With such a funny name, I knew I had to make it! As luck would have it, I happened to have a bunch of flour and eggs that I needed to use, and that’s two out of three ingredients.

Seven eggs, two cups of flour, and 1/4 cup of milk later...

I blended the dough, covered it, and left it in the fridge for… well, it was supposed to be an hour, but I gave it about 45 minutes. (Did I mention that I had just finished baking Funfetti cupcakes? It was a very cooking day.)

It’s really not complicated to make spaetzle, in theory… just push the dough through a colander, and it plops into the salted boiling water. After about three minutes, you put the boiled spaetzle into an ice bath (the ice in the picture is all I had… oh well).

Everything's ready to go.

Unfortunately, it becomes a huge mess in practice. Or at least it did for me.

Attack of the blobs!

I didn’t really think it through and was trying to push the less-than-willing dough through the colander in several places. When it finally got cooperative, it was coming out and hitting non-pot areas.

With my second batch, the dough cooked into the colander holes. This picture freaks me out.

Too phallic!

I never really got the hang of how close to hold the colander to the pot. On Smitten Kitchen she gave major warnings about using potholders on both hands, but I didn’t end up using any. At the end of the second batch I realized that I was maybe holding the colander too far from the pot, because when I got my hands ouchy-close, the dough seemed to melt through the colander holes easier? But also cooked in the holes? I don’t know, confusing.

Also– it’s hard to boil the pasta for three minutes, because it takes sooo long to get the dough through, so the pieces are all boiling at different rates. I think mine ended up boiling for longer. You can tell if you’ve let it boil for too long because the pieces will start to clump. (After the last bit of dough went into the pot, I forgot about my spaetzle on the stove because I was immediately trying to clean the colander.)

Apparently a lot of native Austrian spaetzle-makers chop up the dough with a knife. Or they use a specific spaetzle-making device. That sounds better, if you’re going to make spaetzle often, because it took a while to clean the poor colander.

If I had to describe the look of spaetzle, I’d call it pasta Chee-tos.

See the resemblance?

Orrrr…. fetus pasta.

Now what?

So I tossed it with olive oil (to avoid sticking) and stored it away for the next day (Sunday), because you can wait up to one day to cook with the spaetzle. (I had two containers-full.)

Of course, the question was– what to make with it?

I was looking into a cheesy casserole or meatballs-with-gravy variation (the popular way to cook it in Austria/Germany), but Mr. Tea and I ended up having a filling, dairy-laden tea on Sunday. So we went for a sauteed-with-vegetables variation.

This was half the spaetzle.

Unfortunately we didn’t realize that you’re supposed to saute the spaetzle separate from the veggies, so… it was a little off. Mushy and stuff. And not meant to be an entree. But… I liked the veggies?

Zoom in.

For dessert we decided to do more of a pan-fry on the second Tupperware of spaetzle. That was much better– I liked the bit of crunch. I mean, typically the more unhealthy you make something, the better it tastes.

Sizzle, little spaetzles.

I sprinkled it with cinnamon-sugar, and stirred in some milk chocolate chips. So… of course that was pretty good.

Melted chocolate for the win.

In conclusion, the next time I have spaetzle I will probably order it in a restaurant, as cooked by a professional. It was fun to make, but the clean-up was a pain in the ass. I majorly jabbed the under-nail of my right thumb while trying to scrape the hardened dough from my cute birdie spatula. Literally couldn’t fall asleep one night from the pain.

Today I happily ground up all the leftovers in my sink’s garbage disposal.

BUT I feel very proud of myself for making the spaetzle pasta all by myself… and very thankful to Mr. Tea for helping me cook and eat it, even though I was openly calling it “fetus-y.”

But don’t let that deter you from trying your hand at spaetzle-making. If– like me– you’re interested in food-related adventures… why not? Life’s short– try everything once.

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DO IT YOURSELF: Legendary Mix-N-Match PUDDING COOKIES

September 4, 2011

These cookies are like little pillows of amazing.

Remember last weekend when it was the hottest time ever? Well, it just so happened that I chose THAT WEEKEND to have a birthday gathering, for which I asked everybody to bake me something. I AM THE WORST. (I mean, I chose it before I knew…)

I decided to make pudding cookies, which are the softest, most delightful and possible most delicious cookies you’ll ever have. (When you read the recipe, you’ll see that I’ve switched around the pudding/chip flavors, and I omit the walnuts. You never know who’s allergic to nuts.)

I discovered these cookies several years ago, when my friend Melissa quasi-randomly sent me to the link to the recipe. I last made them for an Emmy party in 2008, during my first year at my former apartment. The whole party I was pulling cookies out of the oven, and my friends could not stop eating them. (Like most Southern California residents, my friends were in a state somewhere between bliss and anger when they were presented with baked goods.)

I’m not going to say that these cookies are healthy, but they have a relatively small amount amount of butter and sugars. And I believe the pudding is the secret ingredient that gives them their fluff. (That, and sifting/stirring all the flour/baking soda in slowly.)

Also– don’t worry about working out the day you make these, because the fluff and lightness of the batter is achieved through some seriously strenuous mixing.

I walked to the store to buy the ingredients, and by the time I got home the butter was already softened. Convenient! (HOT.)

Mixin' it up!

For the first batch, I used lemon Jell-O pudding and white chocolate chips (morsels– what a funny word). This might be my favorite combo. If you’re only going to make one batch and you like lemon, you have to try these.

The cool thing, though, is that you can get really crazy mixing and matching the flavors. Chocolate pudding and peanut butter chips? Sure. Lime pudding and dark chocolate chips? Whatever floats your boat!

After some heavy stirring, you get this:

Close but not yet dough.

The next step is stirring in two eggs, followed by the aforementioned sifting-in of the flour. At that point, the dough begins to give off the fragrant lemon scent. And it is ANGEL SOFT. You need to experience the phenomenon for yourself.

Here it is with the chips stirred in.

SO FLUFFY. (You had to be there.)

Then you bake. Putting the VERY FIRST BATCH into the oven, I burned my hand. Awesome. So every batch after that, when I got near the oven my burn would tingle. (Not in a good way.)

I had one cookie sheet and borrowed one from Sam, and each batch makes 3 or 4 cookie sheets worth of cookies. And my oven only HOLDS two cookie sheets. So… you can see why this took a while. (Luckily the cookies only bake for 8-10 minutes.)

Also… my apartment doesn’t have as many surfaces as I thought. The cookies were taking over like Tribbles.

This is just the first half of the first batch. On the dining room table.

Here’s a view of the kitchen…

The cookies are taking over.

That’s the second batch of the lemons cooling, and the next flavor in progress– Chocolate Jell-O pudding with butterscotch and milk chocolate morsels (too much butterscotch is overpowering, in my opinion).

Here we go again...

I made the cookies bigger in the 2nd batch, because I didn’t want to have to bake as many sheets of them.

Be done with you, hot-kitchen-making demons!

This yielded a lot of cookies, but they go fast. Seriously, it’s an easy recipe and people get VERY excited about these cookies. Especially when they find out that the secret ingredient is Jell-O pudding mix!

So go out there and impress your friends. (Especially if using your oven won’t turn your kitchen/apartment into a furnace. I SURVIVED!!!)

xoxo…

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xoxo…

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Posted by yapplebee

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