Thursday, October 30, 2008
trick or treat
Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has some fun tomorrow and stays out of mischief. I have a few recipe ideas for you - a trick, and a treat.
Trick - A Crisp Salad
I have been making big salads for lunch this week and the challenge is always keeping veggies crisp. Here is the trick - keep the watery stuff (tomatoes, banana peppers, and cucumbers) in a separate container and wait until lunchtime to mix them into the rest of the salad (iceberg, romaine, green peppers, grilled chicken, and a few pine nuts). I usually make my own salad dressing: 1 oz balsamic vinegar, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, a little S&P, and 4 oz olive oil. Yeah, it's pretty basic but let's be honest, there has to be some kind of trick so that we can move on to the treat portion of the program and I was making the salad anyway.
Treat - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
I wanted to make something festive for to bring to work tomorrow - but nothing too crazy, like candy corn cookies (yuck!). I found this recipe on the Food Network's web site and it looks pretty good. My coworkers will be the test subjects!
Ingredients
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup light brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
* Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper
Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.
Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.
Trick - A Crisp Salad
I have been making big salads for lunch this week and the challenge is always keeping veggies crisp. Here is the trick - keep the watery stuff (tomatoes, banana peppers, and cucumbers) in a separate container and wait until lunchtime to mix them into the rest of the salad (iceberg, romaine, green peppers, grilled chicken, and a few pine nuts). I usually make my own salad dressing: 1 oz balsamic vinegar, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, a little S&P, and 4 oz olive oil. Yeah, it's pretty basic but let's be honest, there has to be some kind of trick so that we can move on to the treat portion of the program and I was making the salad anyway.
Treat - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
I wanted to make something festive for to bring to work tomorrow - but nothing too crazy, like candy corn cookies (yuck!). I found this recipe on the Food Network's web site and it looks pretty good. My coworkers will be the test subjects!
Ingredients
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup light brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
* Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper
Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.
Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.
Labels: Recipe
// posted by niltiac @ 9:16 PM 
Comments:
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The cookies turned out darn good. I actually had two for breakfast. The pumpkin makes them softer and fluffier than normal cookies. I will say that next time I might use the larger bag of chocolate chips (18 oz.). A little more chocolate would only make these better.
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