My absolutely favorite cookie of all time

I really love cookies... Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, pumpkin, peanut butter, Oreos, red velvet crinkle, and most recently, chocolate-chocolate-orange cookies from the creative genius of Landon and Trina Ivey. But my absolutely favorite cookie of all time is my mom's homemade oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and Craisins.

The recipe is found inside the lid of the classic Quaker oats box... so first, buy some oats! And then follow that recipe, but then tweek it in the Mama-Chandler way:

Use only half the amount of cinnamon
Do NOT use raisins. Instead...
Add 1 c of Craisins, or Trader Joe's Dried Fruit Medley
Add 1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

I cannot begin to describe to you the happiness and comfort I feel when I smell these guys coming out of the oven, or when I eat one (or one dozen!) and savor the perfect blend of flavor.

What is your absolutely favorite cookie of all time?

All things pumpkin

Nothing says "autumn" like a beautiful, bright orange pumpkin. Last week, Mom and I visited Trader Joe's (the Disneyland of grocery stores), and they had colorful signs everywhere, promoting all their pumpkin products - harvest salsa, harvest granola, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin loaf, etc. The joy of pumpkin-ness was everywhere! They had a big bin of pumpkins, too, and Mom got one for a really great price. When she took it to the register, the cashier said, "Wow, that is one bodacious pumpkin!" I love TJ employees, and I couldn't have complimented that pumpkin better myself.

One of the many pumpkin recipes that have become tradition in our home is Iced Pumpkin Cookies. Mom actually got this one from a website: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/10033/iced-pumpkin-cookies/. They are SO soft and savory-sweet and comforting... Great with milk, cider, coffee, or tea, in the morning for breakfast, lunchtime, afternoon tea, evening dessert, TV munchies, or midnight snack. So... basically, anytime. I've eaten a ton of them this week.

When it comes to baking, it is usually important to follow the directions... But Mom likes to create her own versions of recipes, to make them Chandler-unique. So for this recipe, instead of making a glaze, she just uses the original measures of the ingredients (without adding extra milk) and makes creamy icing.

I personally think the icing is the best part!

Sweets for the Sweet

My mom made my very favorite cookies of all time this weekend... and I think it's because she loves me.

The original recipe is found on the lid of the Quaker Oats container: Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. They're called "vanishing" because they're sooo good you can't stop eating them until they are gone. But Mom has made a few alterations to the recipe, which I think make these cookies even more irresistible. The recipe calls for 1 cup of raisins, but instead, Mom uses 1 cup of Craisins and 1 cup of chocolate chips. It also calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, and Mom only puts in 1/2 tsp. Here's how she does it: 

1/2 c plus 6 Tbsp butter, softened
3/4 c brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

3 c Quaker Oats
1 c Craisins
1 c chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 F. 
In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. 
Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. 
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. 
Add oats, craisins, and chocolate chips; mix well. 
Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. 
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. 
Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. 
Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

As with any cookie, they are best when they are warm and gooey, right out of the oven... but I eat them any time, day or night. Try them out with your family, and see how quickly they vanish!

Bringing You Great Peanut Butter and Chocolate Drops of Joy!

Yesterday was the big TCF Annual Christmas party at our church. It was tons of fun - an Ugly Sweater Contest (Congrats, Carol!), a 12 Days of Christmas group sing (Fiiiiiiive Gooooooooldeeeeeeeen Riiiiiiiiings!), John's stand-up comedy, the children's nativity show, and of course food - lots and lots of delicious holiday food! Mom's contribution to the feast was Peanut Butter cookies - a BCC original with a special Chandler-family touch... 

Peanut Butter Cookies (from p. 145 of the BCC): Simple ingredients and easy to make, PB cookies have butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, flour, an egg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix it all together and then cover and chill. Now these are called "molded cookies" because you shape the dough into 1" balls and then flatten the balls into 2" circles with a fork, with a cool criss-cross pattern. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. 

Our "special touch" is that as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, before you take them off the cookie sheet, you gently press a Hershey kiss into the middle. I personally think they are best eaten warm, while the chocolate is all melty and gooey... but they just add that special something to make them festive! 

Here's a couple pictures from the Christmas party. If any of our readers made some favorite Christmas recipes for the party, we'd love for you to share them with us! 

Good enough to eat!

Mom and I made cherry turnovers yesterday afternoon, so I could take them to share with my small group last night. We make a pretty great team in the kitchen, if you ask me. Mom mixed up the dough and I mixed up the filling; Mom cut the dough out and I folded them over. One hour and about 60 turnovers later, we were finished, and piled them on a plate and covered them to deliver, still warm, to the small group!

Filled Turnovers with Cherry Filling (from p. 150 of the BCC): The dough is a lot like sugar cookie dough, and you have to cover and chill it for an hour. After that, you roll it out pretty thin, about 1/16" thick, and cut it into 3" circles. The recipe says to put a teaspoon full of the filling into half of the circle, but that was way too much for us, so just go with your own discretion with how much filling you can fit, then fold the dough over it in half, and press the edges together to seal in the filling. Then you lightly brush the tops with milk and sprinkle them with sugar, and bake them for about 10 minutes. 

The BCC offers four different options for filling - orange, cherry, pineapple, and date/fig/raisin/prune fillings. Since I love all things cherry, that's what we made. It was really easy - mix sugar, cornstarch, orange juice, cherry syrup, butter and chopped maraschino cherries, then cook and stir it until it's thick. The recipe made a lot more filling than we needed, but I'm sure we'll find a creative use for the leftovers. :) 

I had imagined the turnovers being much bigger, but I really liked that they were so small, just little sweet appetizer pockets! And I thought they tasted like cherry-filled Christmas cookies. Anyway, they were a big hit. I got pictures of some of my small group friends eating them, but this picture of our little princess is definitely the winner for the blog! Doesn't she look like she's thoroughly enjoying it? It's just the right size for her to hold, and just sticky-sweet enough to make "finger licking" totally acceptable and appropriate!

For Kevan's Sake

Yesterday Mom had her apron on most of the day, and the kitchen smelled amazing. Kevan was coming home - drove ten hours from Indiana, and mentioned several times that he would most definitely be home in time for dinner... hint, hint! So potato soup was in the crockpot, homemade bread was on the counter, and classic homemade chocolate chip cookies came fresh out of the oven. Mom and I talked about what I should blog, regarding the cookies, and she said, "Well, this isn't really about the cookies... it's all about our Kevan." 

Chocolate Chip Cookies (from p. 136 of the BCC): "Has any other cookie ever been so popular? We think not..." Oh, that Betty, she sounds so sassy, doesn't she? If you've never made homemade chocolate chip cookies (NOT the frozen kind that you spoon out on a baking sheet), this is an absolute must, so look it up and just do it. The "Petes" and "Kevans" in your life will thank you. :) It has all the usual baking suspects in it - butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, and of course 2 packages of semisweet chocolate chips. The recipe suggests that if you want a softer, rounder cookie (which we do!) you can add more flour (which we did!). It makes... well, enough cookies to fill and overflow your biggest cookie jar!

As promised, Kevan got home in time for dinner last night. And after dinner, we had tea and cookies. It actually took him about an hour to eat one cookie, just because he was telling me so many stories about his adventures. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish which ones are real and which are imaginary, because he tells them with so much charm and magic... There was the story of how he corralled the runaway shopping carts in the parking lot on a windy day, and the story of how he rescued a half-drowned, panicking squirrel by leading it to safety, among other great stories. I loved watching him wave his half-eaten cookie around in the air as he spoke, listening to his nice deep voice get so animated, and enjoying how his eyes crinkled in the corners as he relived funny memories. 

Kevan is home, and there are plenty of cookies to eat. All is right with the world. :)

Care Packages, Cookies, Comics, and Counseling

Well my bags are packed, and tomorrow morning I drive up to Fort Wayne for a little visit... which means (among other things) that I get to see my dear brother Kevan... which means also I will be the courier of a delicious, homemade care package from Mom for him.

And so, today the house was cozy with the smell of cinnamon-sugar in the air, as Mom baked an old family favorite, snickerdoodles! You can find this recipe under the "molded cookies" section of the BCC on page 144. Our only criticism is that Betty claims the recipe makes 6 dozen, and Mom could only make 4 dozen... apparently we Chandlers prefer our snickerdoodles bigger than the average cookie.

Best served warm, with a cup of cold milk or hot chai tea, and with this classic "Zits" comic strip, which Mom keeps on her kitchen cork board:

So true... Here's to moms everywhere who know the power of cookies and counseling!