Author: Suz

Categories
Food

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was looking for a cookie recipe to take to a Chi O recruitment alum/active event tomorrow night & for tailgating Saturday. I thought I’d go with a “basic” recipe since Jason wasn’t a huge fan of my apple/oatmeal/choc chip cookies. I found this in a coworker’s Oxford Baptist Church recipe book but it was also on the back of the semi-sweet chips I used.

Ingredients
2 c + 4 Tbsp four
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c butter
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp water
2 eggs
12 oz chocolate chips (I used more like 6 oz b/c I’d used the other 6 oz on the cookies last week & I’m not a huge chocolate fan)

Directions
Sift together flour, baking soda & salt; set aside. Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla & water. Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add four mixture & mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by 1/2 spoonful onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes.

Categories
Food

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This is a blend of a yahoo foods recipe, the back of the Old El Paso enchilada dinner kit, and what was in our pantry!
Ingredients
1 lb chicken
Old El Paso seasoning mix
flour tortillas
enchilada sauce
about 2 cups of cheddar cheese
1 can black beans
1 cup salsa

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Cut chicken in bite sized pieces, saute then add 1/2 cup water and Old El Paso seasoning mix. continue cooking on medium-high for 4-8 minutes.
Mix chicken, 1 cup cheese, 1 of the enchilada sauce packets, rinsed & drained black beans in seperate bowl.
In ungreased 11×7 pan place tortilla halved on the bottom. Top with some of the other enchilada sauce then 1/2 of the chicken mix. Add another layer of tortillas. Top with salsa & some cheese. Add layer of tortillas. Top with other half of chicken mix. Add layer of tortillas. Top with salsa & cheese. (This is kinda however you want.)
Bake on 350 for about 30 minutes. If desired, served with sour cream, diced red peppers, green onions.
The yahoo & Old El Paso recipe called for onions sauteed with the chicken but we didn’t have any & don’t really like them. The yahoo recipe adds rice & the El Old Paso recipe adds sour cream in with the chicken/cheese/black beans mixture. Sadly we didn’t have either on hand, but I might try that for next time.

Categories
Food

Chocolate Chip Apple Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe on a nestie cooking blog (goodthingscated) and tried it this week for a co-workers going away party. I think they were a hit. They’re kind of different, but I thought the flavors blended well together. And as a plus they were pretty easy to make.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small dash of ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 large apple, peeled & diced, about 1 cup
Directions
adjust oven racks to upper & lower middle positions & heat oven to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (I didn’t do this and think that might’ve been good b/c they stuck a little)
Whisk dry ingredients together & set aside
With electric mixer or by hand, mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined.
Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined
Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in chips & apple
Original directions say to do the following. I just scooped tablespoon sized chunks of dough onto the pans. “Roll scant 1/2 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball. Top dough ball with extra chocolate chips.”
Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown & outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft & puffy, about 12-15 minutes.
Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking & place on wire rack to cool.

Categories
Everything Else

books on my floor

Speaking of books, I’ve been on a reading kick and a library kick. I requested the next Outlander book, all the Jodi Picoult books I haven’t read ( I think 4), Cocktails for Three, The Kite Runner (Chi O alum book for Aug), Thousand Splendid Suns (nestie book for Sept), Lipstick Jungle (I want to read before the series returns), oh and The Virgin’s Lover (Phillippa Gregory’s book on Elizabeth). That said, if you don’t see or hear from me for a little while, it’s because I’m buried in books and trying my darnest to read my way out!!!

Categories
Everything Else Family/Travel

home (for now)

We’re back home for a week or so. Two weekends ago I went up to VA to hang out with my parents. I crashed a birthday group dinner with like 12 of my mom’s friends. It was a salad food theme which was so yummy. Lots of wine was enjoyed and it was so fun!
We left Friday for a long weekend in OIB. There’s almost nothing better to me than laying on the beach in the late afternoon with a good book and a cold beer. We went out in the intercoastal Sunday after early beach church on my cousin’s boat. It was so great to be on a boat again~ it’d been a while. She’s talking about selling it, but I hope we can go out on it again before she does.
I was able to finish the second Outlander book (Dragonfly in Amber) and started Jodi Picoult’s Harvesting the Heart while we were down there. I checked out Voyager (the third Outlander book) and hope to start it this weekend. I’m hooked!