In Which I Hit the Kitchen, But Not In A Violent Kind of Way (Unless You're A Chicken)

Awake for hours in the middle of the night?  Physical pain?  Depression?  Relationship disintegrated?  Bad dreams? Ayuh.

What to do, what to doooo...

Cook, of course, after running a couple of errands.  I wanted chicken soup, but decided that I wanted more than one chicken carcass for the stock, so I bought a whole, cooked chicken at the market.  Which meant I wanted to do something with the meat since I didn’t need it for the soup.

Rosemary chicken salad with cranberries, it is!

 Purple onion, celery, and dried cranberries with salt (Some day I'll tell you about my salt mix.  I adore it.), freshly ground black pepper, and rosemary, getting happy in the bowl.

Chicken - since I wanted the bones for the stock but already had plenty of meat, I used everything this dear bird had to offer.  A couple of generous dollops of mayo and it was ready to get all riled up.

 I'm going to let it sit and think about life, the Universe, and everything for a while, let all those flavors mingle like they were at a cocktail party, only without the cocktails or spiffy duds.

One of the reasons I went out into the world today was to get a new jar to hold the Chex Mix (not according to their recipe) I made last night.  I have my beloved giant pickle jars, usually, but the're all in use right now and who couldn't use another nifty, pretty glass jar? 

Score, and at 75% off, to boot!

Pretty...

Yes, I washed it before filling it with all that buttery, crunchy goodness.

Meanwhile, the stock is on the stove, slowly coming up to a simmer.  I'm still feeling pretty rotten inside my head, so I'm going to go lie down and see if I can sleep away some of the grump.  If I can't, I suspect there will be more shenanigans in Kitchen de Crazy, probably dark chocolate chip brownie type ones, possibly accompanied by vanilla-mocha buttercream frosting (or icing, I'm not picky).

How's your weekend shaping up?

Simple Sugar Cookies

In honor of the impending cookie swap/holiday baking madness, I thought I would share some of the fun with you.

These sugar cookies are simple, and the cook time determines whether they are soft or crunchy. I like 'em both ways.

The cast:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Colored sugar (optional)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder - or just dump them in the sifter (I do). Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla (you can also go half vanilla, half peppermint flavor if you like - mmm, peppermint).

Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls.

Dip or roll in colored sugar if you're so inclined, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.



Bake 8 (soft) to 10 (crunchy) minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden.

Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.


Try one warm...ooooh, yummy (what miffinnk cookief??).

Cookie Swap

Cookie Swap, the newest holiday reality show on FOX.

Well...maybe not so much, although I'd probably watch because I'm weird that way.

Ahem.

"What is a cookie swap??" I hear you clamor. Or was that the cats knocking something over? Eh, whatever. A cookie swap is a fine way to have elleventy-million kinds of cookies without baking them all yourself.

You pick some friends - the swap I'm taking part in on Saturday may have several dozen people present - and set a date and time. You bake a batch or three of your favorite cookie - or, if you're me, you bake huge batches of your four or five favorite cookies - and plate 'em up. Bring the cookies and an empty platter, tin, or portable hole with you to the swap. When the time is right (shortly after you've all been caught snitching cookies from the table when you thought no one was looking), you each take turns telling the others about your cookie - why it's special, why you like it, or which store you bought it at. The you go around and around the table, taking one or two or twenty of each cookie, loading your empty receptacle up.

I bring ten pounds of cookies and leave with twenty. It's magic.

It's fun, too - there are some neat stories about the various cookies. This year I will make Oatmeal Everything (aka Leftovers) Cookies, Snickerdoodles (try saying that without smiling, I dare you) and possibly Simple Sugar Cookies and Peppermint Filled Cookies (little butter cookies with a peppermint/cream cheese filling that is all gooey and delightful) if I have time.

Have I mentioned that I adore baking? I do - it's very therapeutic, and since I can't afford a shrink, I bake. A lot. The best part is, I will take all the cookies with me and be rid of them...although...hmm...I end up bringing home a ton of other cookies to take their place, so there's a flaw in my logic. Oh, well. I put them in boxes and tins, or on plates, and send them to work with T, give them to my Mum to keep or hand out, give them to our postal Goddess and the Trash Dudes, and leave stealth cookies for the neighbors. It's a tradition that makes me smile.

Try it and see if you don't have fun.

Mmmm, oatmeal.

I had an unhappy evening, and then some fairly sad dreams last night - really, I woke up this morning and thought about just crying and staying in bed all day - so when I did get up this morning, I decided I wanted some comfort food. Enter the oatmeal.

I love oatmeal. I even loved it when I was in school and they made the kind that looked like thick, grey, wallpaper paste. Now, I make my own, and boy does it warm the cockles of my heart!

On the off chance you might wake up in a foul mood and need a little gustatory consolation, I shall now inflict share my recipe with you.

The cast, in no particular order:
3/4 C Rolled Oats (hey, look, there's an actual measurement!!)
1 1/2 C Water, Milk, or both (Uh-oh, two measurements - the world may well end)
Butter (Ahh, that's better - no measuring)
Salt
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Brown Sugar
Dried Cherries
Dried Cranberries
Golden Raisins
A pot of sufficient size to hold all of the above, with lid


First, assemble your cast. Aren't the brown sugar, cranberries, cherries, and raisins pretty? Sometimes I use dried blueberries, but I wasn't feeling them today.Dump the water (I usually use water and milk, but I was almost out of milk today) into your pot along with butter (about 2 Tbsp, today), brown sugar (also around 2 Tbsp today), vanilla (uhh...some...I have no idea how much I used, but at least a tsp), and as much cinnamon as makes you happy. I use quite a bit.

Bring that mess to a boil over medium heat. Mmm...looks like something Mike Rowe would have to clean up. Mmm...Mike Rowe.

Once it's boiling add the oats, raisins, cranberries, and cherries. I measured the fruit by the handful - about half a handful of each, but I have big old man-hands. Give it a good stir and cover it up. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Check on it every few minutes - scorched oatmeal is one of the great tragedies of the culinary world.

Almost done - most of the liquid is soaked up. At this point, I turn it off and let it sit for a few minutes. Yes, it looks like a mess - trust me, it'll make your mouth happy. It might even still be good for you.Mmm...doesn't that look yummy? OK, maybe it looks a little horrifying - oatmeal really isn't a pretty food, is it? Still...this is like having desert for breakfast. Some folks like to pour milk or cream over it and I've been known to do that myself, but not today.

The amount I made with these ingredients will feed two people, or one very hungry person, quite nicely. I will have leftovers, as no one but me 'round here eats oatmeal. It reheats nicely in the microwave, or you can make a variation of Bannock with it...but that's another recipe.

With a start like this, the day has to be decent, right?

But I got better...

Honestly, can you have a bad day when there are Rice Krispies Treats? The answer here is no, no you can't. I still have tin foil cuts, and they're about as fun as they sound, but the day improved when I remembered that, among the other things left on the counter last night, there was a box of Rice Krispies and a bag of marshmallows. Hmm...now what was I going to do with those, do you think?

Also an entry into the "Improve the Day" column is the game Candyland. Yeah, it encourages kids to have a licorice jones, but it's simple, fun, and the Evil Genius likes it. We played two rounds and he won both without any help from me. He was so proud of himself. Heh. I really didn't cheat, either. Not that I do - I don't patronize the kid that way, he doesn't need it. He has to learn about losing and perseverance or he won't be able to face the real world.

I don't think everything has to be fair, I don't think every kid should make the team, and at the end of the season, not everyone gets a trophy. He needs to learn that now, not after he's been filled with unrealistic expectations by people who don't want to dent his fragile self esteem (which is tougher than Rhino hide thank you very much - you couldn't dent it with a cannon!) so they'd rather set him up for a fall later. No, I don't feel strongly about this.

Anyhoo, we played Candyland and made Rice Krispies treats, and then taste tested them to make sure they weren't toxic or anything. The we tasted them again, just to make sure the first pieces weren't a fluke. They weren't. Whew, what a relief.

Before the nutrition Nazis come after me and flog me with a rice noodle or something, he ate plenty of apples, carrots, cheese, and other healthy snackish things today, too. Relax.

I managed to make the lasagne and the key lime pie without hurting myself or my kitchen, so T had his birthday dinner without incident. Whew, another relief.

Also, it rained buckets, and that was brilliant - we're still about thirteen feet below normal in the lake, and it'd be nice for the fish to have somewhere to swim. These are the same storms that ploughed through Alabama and killed several dozen people, but thankfully they calmed down and got a little more Zen and a little less Sumo before they visited here.

Bored yet? The point is, the day did improve with a little effort. The same things pissed me off that always do, but at least I got the hell over them and muddled through somehow.

Cooking therapy wins again!