Cookies I: Guittard Chocolate Mint Chip
I’m sorry for the haitus in posts this holiday season. I checked my stats this morning and I’m still getting regular visits each day – so thank you to my loyal readers. I promise this new year will be more consistent.
Here is a post on cookies. Guittard makes really good chocolate chips, and on the back of each Mint Chip package, they have a recipe for Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies that are pretty delicious.
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I also posted a recipe for White Chocolate Macadamia Nuts. I’ve learned that my cookies from last time didn’t turn out becuase I exchanged the brown sugar for white (I wanted a whiter cookie). But brown sugar is essential to preserve moistness and fluffiness of the cookie. So my lesson learned? If you must improvise, make it an educated one. For a cookie that is not as sweet – (edit: thanks jayne) cut back on the sugars in equal amounts.
New posts in the making. Happy Holidays and check back soon!
Breakfast Series: Part II
For the last 1.5 years, I’ve eaten the same thing for breakfast every morning. Oatmeal with milk and raisins.
But this variation is a crowd-pleaser, even for you oatmeal-haters. Its like a big oatmeal cookie, but healthy, warm, milky and delicious. Its oatmeal baked with milk, cranberries, walnuts, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla and butter. One thing’s for sure: you’ll feel it to your toes on a cold morning, this one!
My buddy Jason cooked this up so I dont know the exact measurements. But this recipe from The Anchoress looks very close! I tweaked it a bit to match. Here’s the RECIPE 
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Eat this warm and fresh out of the oven; pour on some milk and you’ll be set for the day! Comfort food at its best. I promise.
Breakfast Series: Part I
One of the best parts of the holidays is not working. Ane one of the best parts of not working is being able to cook a nice breakfast in the morning for yourself and your family :).
Crepes are pretty universally loved and very easy to make. And if its brunch you want, you can easily make it salty, sweet, or both.
You can find the recipe for Crepes HERE.
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To make a sweet crepe, just saute apples, pears and peaches over butter on medium heat, adding sugar, cinnamon and honey (halfway through) to taste. Spread some nutella or jam on your crepe to finish it off.
For a salty crepe, we grilled bacon. Then took the bacon fat to saute our spinach. Not the most healthy, but very flavorful and delicious 
. We added some melted cheese to top it off.
Mixing and matching the sweet & salty toppings was actually very good… if you’re adventurous enough to try it!
Magnolia Cupcakes
Here’s a quickie as I head out the door. I’m goin on a 1-2 day ski/boarding trip with some friends and its going to be awesome. A storm has just dumped a foot of snow on South Lake Tahoe!
These are mini-cupcakes someone made for our office’s Bake Sale. You’ve probably heard of the famous cupcake shop – Magnolia Bakery - in NY. But I bet many of you didn’t know that you can find their famous cupcake recipe online. Here it is. If you can handle sweet desserts, you’ll like this one. It’s also not difficult to make, and worth trying if you can’t make the trek to NY.
Enjoy the weekend, folks!
White Chocolate Maca-What?
Here is the recipe for these cookies. On that note, here is another: RECIPE for mini-M&M cookies. These were an apartment 203 STAPLE when I was in college, and they were a hit each time.
Here’a the commentary. The key to good cookies is not overbeating or mixing your butter & flour.
The stars in this cookie are the Macadamian Nuts, here with some chopping action
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And the white chocolate chunks.
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I like to scoop my cookie dough with an ice cream scooper for easy transfer and proportion control
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And the final result. My favorite childhood cookie. Enjoy!
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Milkshake, Anyone?
As winter approaches, there are only a few “porch days” left. Aka, days that are nice enough that you can pull up a chair, sit on the porch and enjoy some afternoon sun. My friend and I did just that this summer and we had some of these:
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Strawberry Milkshakes. They’re easy as pie, and so refreshing! So find a porch buddy, grab a blender and enjoy a glass or two (Clink). Who knows how long the weather will hold? Give me an afternoon off of work and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Ingredients:
2 cups strawberry ice cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ice cubes to taste
+ 1 porch buddy
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An Ode to the Red Bean
If you’re chinese, you’ve had this. If you’re an ABC, you’ll think gee, this looks familiar, dont think I’ve had this before.. but trust me. YOU’VE HAD IT.
This is a GREAT recipe for New Years. The Red-Bean Rice-Cake is my favorite chinese dessert, my mom makes it every year. When this is just out of the oven, browned and still steaming in its sticky perfection.. Oh, its good. SO GOOD. If you’re not familiar with this dessert, just imagine, its the chinese version of the japanese mochi. And for me, its a little piece of home.
This is one of the most fail-proof things to make. The mochi-like skin requires rice flour & sweet rice flour, both of which are easily purchased at any asian market. The recipe can be found HERE
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Then you’ll need canned Red Bean. Any brand will do. You see the first layer of sticky-rice cake already baked on the right. Spread this with a layer of Red Bean, pour on your 2nd layer of batter, and bake again…
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To get this. Sticky-rice cake. The perfect way to impress those Chinese inlaws.
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