World's Best Cookies!

It has been raining for 2 days straight here. Yuck! Thankfully, Victor was home yesterday (Veteran's Day) so I was able to get out of the house a little bit. We were inside all day today though so Erik and I made some awesome cookies! I got the recipe off of the King Arthur flour website and adjusted it slightly based on the ingredients I had in our house. They were so good I ate four, or maybe even five (I lost count). Erik had three (he was only supposed to have two but he and Sean stole some from the cookie jar before I noticed)!

Sean Cunningham
aka Food Critic (Cookie thief)

CLASSIC CRUNCHY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups King Arthur flour
1 1/2 cups of ghiradelli 60% chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, oil, sugars, vanilla, espresso powder, and salt till smooth. Beat in the vinegar, egg, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the flour, then the chocolate chips. The dough will appear oily, and because of the quantity of chocolate chips, it won't be completely cohesive; that's OK.

Drop the dough, by tablespoonfuls, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes, until the cookies are an even golden brown. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Yield: 33 cookies.

Enjoy!!

You may need to suck in when trying on your jeans the next day. Oh well, they were worth it!

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

I never used to like beef stroganoff but this recipe is really good and easy too!

Ingredients....

1 1/2 pounds cubed beef stew meat (trader joe's has 94% lean stew meat)
1 onion
2 cans of condensed GOLDEN mushroom soup
1-2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 container of chopped up mushrooms
garlic to taste
1/2 packet of onion soup mix
1/2-1 cup of water
4 ounces of low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup of low fat sour cream

Mix everything together (except for the cheeses). Cook on high in the slow cooker for 5 hours. Stir every hour or two. Add the cream cheese and sour cream for about the last 20 minutes.

Serve over egg noodles.

Erik really likes this especially if I serve it with corn on the cob (which is still available at Trader Joe's).

Enjoy!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Bundt Cake

This cake is so good!! I am embarrassed to admit how much of it I ate today. Enjoy!


Ingredients

• STREUSEL
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons butter or margarine
• CAKE
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 container (8 oz.) sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• GLAZE (recipe below)

conversion calculator

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan.

FOR STREUSEL:
COMBINE brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice in small bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly.

FOR BATTER:
COMBINE flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat granulated sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin, sour cream and vanilla extract; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

TO ASSEMBLE:
SPOON half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle Streusel over batter, not allowing Streusel to touch sides of pan. Top with remaining batter. Make sure batter layer touches edges of pan.

BAKE for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes in pan on wire rack. Invert onto wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with Glaze.

FOR GLAZE:
COMBINE 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar and 2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice or milk in small bowl; stir until smooth.

Hungry?