Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

A quick post as we're en route to LAX to leave for our quick trip to San Francisco!! I'm so excited to be going to one of my favorite cities with my favorite guy. He won us this weekend trip by being the top salesman at his work last month--I'm a PROUD (and very thankful) wifey.

 I finally found a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe that I'm happy with. The cookies don't come out flat, and they stay chewy! I adapted some recipes and found the combination that got some pretty good reviews :)

(they're much prettier in natural lighting, but i baked these at night)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I used half apf and half whole wheat pastry flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant espresso/coffee (optional--i find that it accents the chocolate chips)
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 345 F
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture until blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes Cool, and enjoy!

Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe: Basic w/ a Twist

I've tried my share of chocolate chip cookies: some turn out too flat, too crispy, too cakey, etc... I think I finally found one that is juuuust right--thanks to The Pioneer Woman. These cookies turned out a little crispy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that there are some additions that make these cookies that much better. Here are the "secrets" to this recipe's success:

(instant coffee granules, flax seed [I use pre-ground, so your body can actually get the benefits from it], a combination of milk chocolate and semi-chocolate chips)

 Ingredients 
(Yields 24 medium-sized cookies--36 if you make smaller cookies)
This is my adaption of The Pioneer Woman's recipe:

- 1 cup margarine (or butter), softened
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (heaping) instant coffee granules
-1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a bowl (I use my stand mixer for this), stir together margarine, brown sugar, and white sugar until well combied. Add eggs and vanilla and stir together.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, instant coffee, baking soda, flax seed, and salt. Add to wet ingredients in batches.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Drop balls of dough on a cookie sheet and make for 11-13 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and eat warm or room temperature!

This is a great basic recipe to get creative with; you can add nuts, dried berries, etc...

Enjoy!

Hodge Podge Friday: Life isn't about compartments.

So what's Hodge Podge Friday's, you ask? Well, let me tell ya. It's going to be a project--a mixed bag of goodies. You'll never know what you're going to get, but I hope that you'll leave with something you can take along for yourself :). You'll get anything from a mix of new recipes, a new DIY project, some random or not-so-random photography, musings on life, musical recommendations, etc... 


Friday posts may have no rhyme or reason to them, but I'm going to embrace that. One of my goals this year is to do what I can to break away from a compartmentalized life. Life isn't about compartments--it's about experiencing it in whole. Who's with me?

Stay for a little while, stay for the whole time, it's your call!

Come along now:  

#1: Roomie Pizza-making Date

I love my roomie, but we hardly get time to hang out. Our schedules are polar opposites of each other's. She gets to see her man during the week, and I get to see mine on weekends, so that adds to our shortage of hang time. We set some time aside to make some delicious pizzas. I was too hungry to take legit pictures. 

It's too bad I can't take pictures of what my taste buds experienced:

[Butternut Squash and Rosemary and 

Pesto Salad Pizza (If you want this recipe, leave me a comment!]

#2: My Roomie loves Terrariums, and so do I!

She works down the street from the LA flower mart, 

so went nuts with succulents, stones, and our vases.

See?

#3: Don't take for granted a good chocolate chip oat cookie recipe.

Here's why:

It took a lot of willpower not to eat these 

little beauties for breakfast (Ok, I had one). These are best a little warm, so eat them fresh or throw them into the microwave for a few seconds.

What You'll Need:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine (a stick)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I always use a little less than what the recipe calls for)

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 3-4 baking sheets.

2. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into mixing bowl. Set aside

3. With an electric mixer, cream together butter or margarine and the sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy (TIP: If your butter isn't room temp, slice it up into pieces and microwave for 20 seconds)

4. Add flour and beat on low speed until well blended. Stir in rolled oats and choc chips. Drop heaped teaspoonfuls on baking sheets, spacing dough about 1 inch apart. 

5. Bake for about 15 minutes (depends on oven power) until just firm around the gue but still soft to the touch in the center. With a slotted spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

Makes 60

Recipe taken from Cookies by Hilaire Walden

#4: On a Mission: Collecting

I love going to thrift stores and finding super deals

on super things. Well, i'm collecting amber or yellow-colored glasses, vases, etc. Why? Well, stay tuned :).

 These two are my newest finds.

#5: The Feed Store, in Long Beach, CA.

 If you live in Long Beach, CA, checkout The Feed Store on Retro Row. It's the newest, vintage-thrift store whose proceeds go to providing food and other necessities to those in need. They have everything from clothes to home goods.

I found some cute doilies to craft with: 

 #5:Know that you're loved and have the capacity to love others.

There's a Love that's beyond words, beyond feelings, and beyond your wildest dreams. It's not fleeting. It's eternal. It's hopeful. In it there is joy and peace.

"Oh, how He loves us."

Thanks for comin' along for my first Hodge Podge Friday. I hope you come back and visit really soon. Have a great day :).