Chocolate Chip Cookies (with Cinnamon)

After yesterday's blueberry debacle, I wanted even more to bring something to work to share.

Even with the safest of cookies -- chocolate chip -- I still do not feel comfortable. I've come to this realization after batches and batches of them, and it is perhaps due to my reluctance to measure ingredients -- ironic, as I am an engineer. Perhaps I am too used to cooking, which requires much less accuracy.

But! These certainly came out better than the blueberry mess.

Cream:

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

and then mix in:

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

sprinkle salt

dollop of cinnamon

The cinnamon, I think, is what makes these interesting.

Dissolve:

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp hot water

and stir in. Then add:

1 1/2 c. flour

and then stir in:

more than 1/2 c. chocolate chips

handful of chopped walnuts

and bake in spoonfuls for 10-14 minutes at 375 degrees. When they came out, I added a sprinkle of raw sugar for visual appeal.

We will see tomorrow, in the public eye, how they fare.

Reunion

A series of pictures from our college reunion, which involved friends, spicy (sort of) food, alcohol, and rock band.

Inluding:

1. Rum & Merlot Sangria (Boodle)

2. Cinnamon & cocoa coookies -- more of an appetizer than a dessert... (Boodle)

3. Spicy rice with so many wonderful vegetables -- and disgusting fake meat, for Bethers' sake (Ry)

4. Delicious from-scratch cornbread (Bethers)

Everything was satisfying, and the gathering was quite nice, even with the snow-laden traffic and buggers on the highway.

Can we do it again?

Never Too Many Cookies.

Simon and I spend a pathetically high percentage of our time at Jeremy / Sean / Jesse's house. Yesterday Jesse complained that all of our cookies and cake were gone (mostly because of him), and that he was out of snacks. So when I got back from class at 10 freaking PM, we made two batches of cookies:

1. Cinnamon-Sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

1 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c. flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1. Blend sugar and butter; blend in eggs and vanilla.

2. Mix in the rest, form into balls, and roll in:

some sugar

some cinnamon

The recipe required baking at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, but I followed the same procedure as the next batch, which was:

2. Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/4 c. butter, softened

1/4 c. white sugar

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 egg (ha!)

1 1/2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

~1 c. flour

sprinkle of baking powder

sprinkle of salt

Cookie recipes always require such tedious mixing order, but specific instructions aren't really my thang, so I just mixed up the sugars and butter, then added egg + milk + vanilla, and finally all the dry ingredients. I'm convinced you'd get the same end result if you poured it all in a bowl simultaneously and shook it up (a hypothesis that has yet to be tested).

So! Bean mixed up the cinnamon cookies; I did the peanut butter, and they all came together for a sugar-filled serenade. The crowd seemed to approve.