Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I got this from under the cap of the Quaker Oats container. It works for me. I only made half a batch for our little family, and it was perfect. Mason helped me make them and it was adorable.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
from Quaker Oats

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350°. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Pour large bowl with sugar mix; mix well.

Add oats and raisins; mix well with spoon, not mixer.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Bar cookies: Bake 30-35 minutes in ungreased 9x13 inch metal baking pan.

Notes: In DC I baked these for 10 minutes one pan at a time, and they were perfect.

Spicy Roast Chicken

Always looking for new things to do with a chicken breast-- Justin liked this a lot. I changed a few things from another recipe.

Spicy Roast Chicken

• 24 ounces whole cherry tomatoes (about 4 cups), stemmed
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 1/4 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 4 bone-in chicken breasts (10 to 12 ounces each)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 can of diced tomatotes
  

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, and rosemary. Add diced tomatoes.

2. Place the chicken on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the tomato mixture over the chicken, arranging the tomatoes in a single layer on the sheet around the chicken. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the tomatoes are blistered, about 35 minutes.

3. Transfer the chicken to plates. Spoon the tomatoes and juices over the chicken. Serve.

Note: I added the diced tomatoes to make it more saucy. I would like this without as well.

Chick-Fil-A Carrot and Raisin Salad

Tried this for the first time on a road trip. Delicious!

Chick-Fil-A Carrot and Raisin Salad

• 4 cups finely shredded carrots
• 1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple, with juice
• 1 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Chill all ingredients except sugar at least 30 minutes. Dissolve the sugar in the pineapple, then combine everything gently in a large bowl. May be refrigerated up to 72 hours. Serves 8.

NOTE: Fresh carrots are the secret, according to Chick-Fil-A.

Sugar Cookies

A friend made these for me and Justin said they were the best cookies he's ever eaten. So I got the recipe:

Sugar Cookies
by Lethe Bradshaw

• 2- 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup butter softened
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. They will bake on the pan when you take them out. She overcooked them by two minutes when she made them for us. :)

Smothered Chicken n Bacon

I made this tonight when I didn't think about dinner until after 6pm. I just threw this together with what I had on hand and Justin really liked it. Not the healthiest, but yummy. I used chicken that had already been grilled and then frozen tonight, but I'm writing the recipe as if I started with fresh chicken.

Smothered Chicken N Bacon
by Brooke Cheesman Hochstein

• Chicken Breast
  
• Sriracha Chili Sauce (or other favorite hot sauce)
  
• Ranch Dressing
  
• Bacon
• Cheese of choice

Preheat oven to 375. Grill chicken breast. Lay grilled chicken on pan (I cover my pans with aluminum foil to reduce cleanup.) Put small amount of hot sauce on chicken. Squirt quarter-size amount of ranch dressing on top of that. Tear one strip of bacon in half and lay the halves side-by-side over the chicken. Cover chicken with cheese. I used shredded mozzarella tonight. Cook for about 10 minutes, until cheese is melted and bacon is cooked.
Notes: Bacon bits can be substituted for bacon for more color on top of the cheese. I added a strip of bacon on the side of the pan to help me know when the bacon was fully cooked since I couldn't see it under the cheese.

French Toast Ooh-la-la

I had this at a hotel and tried to copy it the best I could.

French Toast Ooh-la-la
by Brooke Cheesman Hochstein

• 4 slices of bread
• 2 cups corn flakes (if large flakes, crush them a little)
• 2 eggs
• 2 glubs of milk (Dad's term)
• Cinnamon
• Fresh fruit of choice

Preheat oven to 375. Break the eggs in one bowl, glub the milk in, mix it up. Add a dash of cinnamon to the mix. In another bowl or on a plate with a rim, pour the corn flakes. Dip one piece of bread, make sure it is totally covered, but do not let it get so soggy that it falls apart. Then drop the bread in the corn flakes and flip it around until it is completely covered in flakes. You should not see much bread when you are done. Place bread on a cookie sheet. Repeat for all four pieces of toast.
Bake at 375 for 5-10 minutes or until egg is cooked through.
Top with syrup and/or fresh fruit (strawberries, bananas, and blueberries are my favorite).

Sneaky Smoothies

My 2 year old is pretty good about eating fresh fruit, and he'll eat some veggies if they are prepared the right way, but the variety is lacking. I've been trying to figure out how to get leafy greens into his diet, and the only way I'm successful is by putting it in smoothies. This sounds so gross, but my son likes it so much, he drinks a large glass and then is upset when I tell him it's all gone.
I have a few things I always put in the smoothie, and then the rest of the ingredients depend on what I have in my kitchen.

Sneaky Smoothie
by Brooke Hochstein

Standard Ingredients:

• 1 Banana
• 1 heaping spoonful creamy peanut butter
• 1 large handful of fresh spinach (or whatever greens you want to throw in. I put unseasoned steamed asparagus and edamame in yesterday with spinach. I fill half the blender with these greens. Other ideas: Avocado, cucumber peels, peas, cooked beans, etc.)
• 2-4 c water (to meet desired consistency)

Additional Ingredients:

• Frozen fruit to make the smoothie icy (Strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, etc.)
• Fresh fruit (Strawberries, blueberries, apples, melon, raspberries, whatever you have in your fridge and need to get rid of soon)

Blend well!

You could also put some greek yogurt or whatever you want to make it creamy. I leave this out since I've cut dairy out of my diet. The banana makes the smoothie creamy enough for me. Sometimes I'll add two.
I'm sure there are nutritionally balance recipes out there. These are usually called "green smoothies." The color of mine tend to be a purple-orange color (is that possible?) with green specks. The appearance doesn't seem to effect the consumption rate at this point.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes

I love this. We make them every time we grill now to replace french fries. We're still tweaking how we do it, so I might adjust this post with time.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes
by Brooke Cheesman Hochstein

• 2 Sweet Potatoes
  
• Olive oil
• Seasoning to taste (eg. Rosmary and Basil)
  

Scrub the sweet potatoes clean, but do not peel. Slice potato into 1/4" slices. I try to angle my cuts to make them a little longer and more oval-shaped. I'm sure there is a term for that which I do not know. In a small bowl, mix the oil and seasonings in a small bowl, and then brush the mixture on each side of the potato. Place the potato slices on a medium-hot grill. Cook for 5 minutes on each side (This time will vary depending on the thickness of the potato slice and the temperature of the grill). Only flip once if you want clean grill marks.
Notes: I've been playing with different spice combos. Sometimes I use different peppers to give it a kick, sometimes I use more subtle spices to just enjoy the potato. I'm no pro on spices so it's more of an educational experiment each time I make these.

The Perfect Boiled Egg

For Easter, we boiled eggs, but I wanted them to be good, so I did a search for the perfect boiled egg. This is what I found on eHow.com

Instructions

Place eggs in the saucepan, it does not matter if it is 2 or 12 eggs, this way works. Just cover them with cold water, not too deep. Do NOT salt the water. Place on burner on HIGH heat.

Place on burner on HIGH heat. Once they start to boil turn on the timer to 3 minutes.

When the timer goes off, quickly take off the heat, put on the lid and reset the timer to 8 minutes.

When 8 minutes are up, take to sink and run cold water over them for about a minute, let them soak a bit to cool off. They will peel best if you set them in the refrigerator for about 1/2 to 1 hour, but you can eat them now!

Never have green or gray yolks again!

Easter Bunny Buns

We made these this year for a gift basket. I didn't put faces on the bunnies, but they sure did taste good. This is copied straight from Mason's April 2011 Friend Magazine.

Bunny Buns

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 cup milk, warmed not quite to boiling
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons grated orange peel
• 5 1/2 cups flour, sifted
• Glaze: 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup hot water, 1 teaspoon butter

1. Wash hands with soap and water.
2. Sprinkle yeast in the warm water and set aside.
3. In another bowl, blend milk, sugar, shortening, and salt. Cool until lukewarm, then add eggs, water with yeast, orange juice, and orange peel.
4. Stir in flour a few cups at a time to make a soft dough. Let stand for 10 minutes.
5. Knead dough 5–10 minutes on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic. Place it in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover bowl with a clean towel and put it in a warm place. Let dough rise for 2 hours, or until double in size. Punch dough down and let stand for 10 minutes.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Cut dough into strips 1/2 inch wide and 14 inches long. Roll between hands into rounded snake shapes. Cut one strip into pieces 1/2 inch long, and roll into balls.
7. Place one long piece of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Place one end of the strip over the other to make a loop; bring the end that is underneath up and cross it over the other end. Place a ball of dough on top of the bottom loop.
8. Cover bunnies and let rise in a warm place for 45–60 minutes, until nearly double in size. Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for 12–15 minutes.
9. For the glaze, stir powdered sugar, water, and butter together. Frost bunnies with the glaze while they are still warm.

Illustrations by Julie F. Young

Note: I used butter instead of crisco. Same amount.