White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Chelsea (my soon-to-be daughter) and I made the cookies together tonight.  We creamed 3 sticks of butter (for a double batch) along with 1 and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 2 cups of white sugar.  Added 2 eggs and 3 teaspoons of vanilla.  I am spending more money for real vanilla these days.  Never thought it made much of a difference but the 3 or 4 dollars more is well worth it.

We then mixed in 4 cups of flour that had been blended with 2 teaspoons of baking soda and a teaspoon of salt.

The fun part for Chelsea was taking the hammer out to the sidewalk with the macadamia nuts to smash them.  (At least the sending her out there was fun anyway!!).

This is the external thermometer that I've added to the stove in our rental house.  The temperature fluctuates by 150 to 200 degrees.  This device answered a lot of questions I had about constantly setting off our smoke detector . . . :).

We didn't have time to bake all the cookies because the new season of Breaking Bad began tonight.     So, we baked one round of two cookie sheets full and I rolled the rest into two rolls to freeze for the next time the kids are over.  Steve and I certainly don't need more than the dozen or so that came out in the first batch hanging around until then.

About 2 inches in diameter  rolled in parchment paper and then sealed in plastic wrap

Roll the ends tightly -
if you plan to keep it for awhile before you use it; you might want to make your roll shorter and place it in a gallon freezer bag to stave off freezer burn.

Here are the rolls in our "too small freezer" next to one of my bags of colored bell peppers.  I have bags of yellow, orange, red and green bell peppers (as well as some other types of peppers) that I use when cooking.  I buy them ONLY WHEN THEY ARE ON SALE.  I found 8 bags of all of those colors on the discount produce rack at the local Meijers and chopped them up to use in all kinds of things.

I also dried some hot dog buns that had been left open on the counter to make bread pudding but Chelsea wanted to make cookies - so I'll do the bread pudding within the next few days.  The pizza pan worked perfectly to finish drying them in the oven at the "warm" setting in about 20 minutes.

That's it for tonight!

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Cooking for Fun

I made tilapia with a dill, lemon sauce and fresh green beens, frenched in the food processor with sweet onion and sliced almonds for dinner tonight.  My "fella I love" has been telling me I should write a food blog.  Not an adjunct to my blog, but an ACTUAL food blog.

Not sure I'm ready to do that at this juncture, as I'm crazy busy with work, wedding plans, new house decisions, moving and trying to get out kayaking a few times before the snow flies.

Here is a picture of the finished plate:

The sauce is minced garlic, a couple of Tablespoons of dill (I buy the dill in the tube in the fresh herb section when they are on sale), 3 Tablespoons-ish of olive oil, juice of one lemon, a LOT of fresh pepper. salt, and mayonnaise as well as a bit of left over cream cheese and a bit of milk to get the last of the mayo out of the jar.  Added some kosher salt just to bring the flavors out.  Chilled that while I prepared and baked the tilapia.

I heavily salted the water and once it boiled, added a couple of cups of fresh beans.  I chopped off the ends, sized them, laid them in the food processor chute on the horizontal and ran them through with the chopper blade attachment.  I then boiled them for about 6 minutes, drained them into a colander to stop the cooking without rinsing (didn't want them cold).  Put it in a large bowl, drizzled a bit of olive oil, added a couple pats of butter and tossed.  Then I tossed in lots of sliced almond and dropped it in a casserole dish for serving.

Baked the tilapia on foil covered cookie sheet for about 13 minutes at 425 degrees.  Added the sauce and had a lovely white wine standing by to enjoy.

That was dinner tonight.  Also used the food processor to cut 2 cucumbers and a half a large sweet onion, whisked together 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup of white vinegar, 1/2 cup warm water, I Tablespoon freshly ground pepper, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of celery seeds, whisk until sugar dissolves and add 1 1/2 cups cold water.  Cover the cucumbers and onions in a glass bowl with the dressing and refrigerate overnight.