Speculoos Pie

Peanut butter may be my #1, but speculoos aka cookie butter is a close second. While speculoos is now as ubiquitous as its nut-laden cousins, I like to think I am ahead of the curve on this one. Seth and I first tried speculoos at the Wafels & Dinges truck a few years ago. Long before it was available at Trader Joe's, Seth actually ordered speculoos off Amazon for me as a gift. Also, I am and have always been obsessed with Delta cookies.

When Seth requested a new dessert last night, I immediately knew that I wanted to bring speculoos into the mix. After googling speculoos cheesecake and speculoos trifle and coming up with few results that interested me, I decided that speculoos is enough like peanut butter to substitute it in a classic peanut butter pie recipe.

This dessert feels like fall. It would be excellent for Thanksgiving. It is the type of pie you walk by and slice a bit off each time to even it out. And, it is a super easy no-bake dessert.

Not that any of the photos on this blog are worth writing home about, but the above does not dignify the deliciousness of this dessert.

Ingredients:

• about 1.5 cups of speculoos cookie crumbs
• 4-6 Tbs melted butter
• 8 oz block of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup of speculoos
• 1/3 cup of powdered sugar
• 8 oz tub of Cool Whip
• mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. Make the crust. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cookie crumbs with melted butter, and if you like, a large handful of mini chocolate chips. Press into a greased pie dish. Bake for about 7 minutes and let cool.
2. Make filling. Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add speculoos. Fold in Cool Whip.
3. Assemble pie. Pour filling into crust. Top with mini chocolate chips. 
4. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.

You're welcome.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Box Cake aka Happy Birthday 'Murica

Nearly a month past Independence Day, I'm sharing my AMAZING (if I do say so myself) Fourth of July dessert.

1. Since this blog has very few readers (hi, Seth!), there is no shame in posting a festive holiday dessert weeks after the holiday.
2. There is nothing Fourth of July about this dessert beyond its nifty American flag design.

Inspired by the Chocolate Chip Cookie Pudding at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, I created my own version of this delightful treat. I'm also currently obsessed with pudding desserts and take every opportunity to whip out the J-E-L-L-O. Note: Sugar Sweet Sunshine makes their pudding from scratch, but their version of this pudding does not,  I repeat DOES NOT, include cookie dough balls.

This dessert could be classified as a pudding or trifle depending on how one layers its ingredients. For my purposes, it is an ice box cake, since they ingredients are layered twice in an 8"x8" pan. (To make this a pudding, mix all of the ingredients in no particular order; for a trifle, double the amount of pudding and Cool Whip and layer in a trifle dish.)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Box Cake

• 1 box of butterscotch pudding prepared per package instructions
• 1 tub of Cool Whip (real whipped cream would also work; I just like Cool Whip)
• 1 recipe of egg-free cookie dough balls (I used this recipe and had more than I needed, but I don't think that is a bad thing)
• 1 recipe of soft chocolate chip cookies or blondies (I used this recipe replacing the candy bars with three types of leftover chocolate chips (I only needed 1 cup of the chips) and had more than I needed, but again, is that really a bad thing? Or you could use store bought cookies.)
• Crushed Heath Bar

Once all the components are assembled, cut/break the cookies/blondies into small squares (mine were about 1"x1"). Place the cookies/blondies into even rows at the bottom of the pan. Layer half the pudding on top of that. Add rows of cookie dough balls, and sprinkle Heath Bar bits over that. Spread half the Cool Whip over the layers. Repeat! Use left over cookie/blondie pieces, cookie dough balls and Heath Bar bits to decorate the top of the ice box cake. Place in the fridge a few hours for the layers to set - up to overnight. Grab a spoon, and dig in!

P.S. If you love cookie dough as much as I do, check out this recipe compilation. 

Jersey Belle and Ice Cream Cake

I really like Bravo reality TV. I've been a follower of the Real Housewives franchise for years. Much like ice cream, they are a guilty pleasure. Just as I know eating ice cream is not particularly healthy, the reality TV shows I so enjoy are not particularly intelligent. Yet, you will still find me watching Real Housewives while eating ice cream. So much for health and intelligence!

Every now and then, Bravo reality surprises me. I recently started watching Jersey Belle. I hadn't planned to add another show to my reality TV repertoire (Real Housewives of New Jersey and Don't Be Tardy are currently on--a girl only has so much time in a week), but it was on demand, and I needed something to watch at the gym. Jersey Belle is essentially Real Housewives of Alabama with a head housewife from New Jersey, Jaime Primak Sullivan.I got hooked. Like all of my Bravo shows, it's a little silly. But unlike the other shows, it spotlights real issues: single moms, working moms, playing moms, and most notably, fertility challenges.

In the first episode of Jersey Belle, Jaime's friend Danielle openly discusses her fertility challenges. She has been married 11 years and indicates that she wants to become pregnant. Subsequent episodes show her going in and recovering from surgery for her endometriosis. Many women and couples struggle with fertility due to endometriosis and bevy of other causes. I was pleased to see these issues brought to light in a forum usually focused on gossip, flipping tables and lavish vacations. I know reality TV isn't real, but these episodes dealt with a very real issue. (Jaime also mentions her high risk pregnancy. With her third child, she had placenta previa, a serious condition where the placenta covers some or all of the mother's cervix.)

Maybe as a new mom, I am hyper aware of all things having a baby, and I wish there was more openness about these things on TV. Women should know that, to paraphrase Danielle, everyone has their thing. But it is also okay to be sad about that thing or seek support. I've already written about being a working mom, but I am sure I have a post in me about all of the parenting issues shown on Jersey Belle (I'll spare you). I value privacy, but sometimes, things need to be said out loud. Or on TV. So thank you Bravo execs, producers, Jaime and Danielle.

On a related note, I made an excellent ice cream cake for my birthday. (Reality TV is like ice cream, and the cake recipe came from my friend Sari who worked at Bravo.) Sari's recipe uses an Oreo "cake" base, two flavors of ice cream and chocolate syrup. With her recipe as a starting point and inspiration, I made this cake in celebration of my birthday.

 

It's not as much a recipe as a concoction. Here's what I did (there are lots of opportunities for substitutions):

1. Line a spring form pan with wax paper.
2. Take half a package of Birthday Cake Oreos (or any other type), place in a plastic zipper bag and crush. Press into the bottom of the pan.
3. Spread ice cream over the Oreos until they are fully covered. It helps to let the ice cream soften a bit, and it is up to you how much you use. I used about 2/3 a container of Edy's Slow Churned Fudge Tracks.
4. Crush the rest of the Oreos and press over the ice cream.
5. Put down another layer of ice cream. I used the rest of the Fudge Tracks and about 1/3 a container of Edy's Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cup (my new favorite since Edy's doesn't seem to make the Birthday Cake flavor anymore).
6. Spread about 1/2 a container of Cool Whip on top of that.
7. Top with chocolate syrup, melted peanut butter (microwave for about 30-40 seconds), rainbow sprinkles and Peanut Butter MMs.
8. Place in the freezer for at least three hours to set.
9. Enjoy!

Birth and Parenting Prep: Part 1

I'm back at work, which means spending as many non-work hours as possible with my daughter and less time with my computer. So much for becoming a regular blogger! Every now and then, I will pop in to share my experiences. Mostly as a record for me (and perhaps my daughter, one day), but also for anyone who cares to stop by The Weekly Salad (all three of you!).

With my daughter napping next to me and a banana bread in the oven (apparently since having a baby, the only thing I bake is banana bread. . .three times in less than four months), I will finish this post I started over a month ago after participating in an infant CPR class. Of all of the books and classes I used to help me prepare for pregnancy, birth and child-rearing, the CPR class was most helpful primarily because it allowed me to practice a technique that I never want to use on an infant dummy.

I am learning about this whole parenting thing on the job, which makes a lot of sense when one considers that babies are all so different. And so is pregnancy and so is birth. A few months into motherhood, I can confidently say that I over-prepared for something that there is no real way to prepare for. Like any good type-A individual, I was not about to launch myself into the unknowns of birth and parenting without preparation. My husband and I procured a few books, signed up for some classes and interviewed doulas. Some of the prep was helpful, and some, not so much. Based on my experience, here are my "reviews" of the books and classes. The doula needs her own post, but (spoiler alert) she was amazing and an important part of my birth experience.

Disclaimer: my reviews of the classes are specific to the content and the instructor. The same content with a different instructor may have been a more or less worthwhile experience. These are just my opinions; take them for what you will.

As a highly detail-oriented individual, I determined that the best order for my reviews is the order in which I experienced these various preparations. (At first I considered categorizing alphabetically, into books and classes, by pregnancy and postpartum. . .I hope you are enjoying this window into my brain.) I've rated each book or class on a highly sophisticated three-point scale of "a must," "eh" and "skip it."

Book: Expecting Better by Emily Oster
Early in my pregnancy, my husband sent me a link to Emily Oster's blog on Slate. Oster, an economist, approached pregnancy like an economist. She evaluated various studies and even a gynecological text book and presented the data in clear, non-medical terms. Oster turned the premise of the blog into a book, where she shares data on everything from drinking to epidurals, alongside her own experiences and decisions. I found Oster's book incredibly helpful. As a rule follower, I wanted rules for my pregnancy and birth, but every source--be it my doctors (I went to a practice with five OBs with five different opinions), books or the good old internet--disagreed on the how-it-is-supposed-to-be's. Expecting Better broke down the data from which the rules arise, and I found that helpful in the Wild West of pregnancy and birth. This book was a good starting point for pregnancy and birth prep. It gave me the lay of the land for this nine month plus a lifetime journey I was embarking on. Now, if Oster would only write a book on newborns and parenting.
Verdict: A Must

Book: The Dad's Playbook to Labor & Birth: A Practical and Strategic Guide to Preparing for the Big Day by Theresa and Brad Halvorsen
My husband was gifted this book by friends who already had two children and used the book. Clearly, they were in the know. While the book is technically for dads, I had a first go at the book. And boy, did I learn a few things. For example, what is a mucus plug and when should I expect to see one. I hadn't even heard the term "mucus plug" before reading this book. The Halvorsens guide was especially helpful to me because I knew very little about labor and birth at the time I read it. They break down labor and birth in simple, component parts and even include a glossary of confusing medical terms. Again, mucus plug? Expecting Better covers the whole pregnancy, while true to it's title, The Dad's Playbook to Labor & Birth focuses in on the last few days and hours of pregnancy. We've already passed on this primer to another expecting couple.
Verdict: A Must, but only if you haven't taken a labor and delivery class. I suspect other labor and birth books are equally as helpful.

Book: The Nursing Mother's Companion by Kathleen Huggins
This is a classic now in its sixth edition. I only made it through the first section of the book, which dealt with why to breastfeed and the first few months of breastfeeding. The book offered a lengthy dissertation of the pros of breastfeed, instead of getting right into the meat of how to actually do it and suggestions for troubleshooting breastfeeding issues. Yes, I get it. Breastfeeding is good for baby and mom. That is why I purchased the book. Now, tell me how to do it. For me, this book was not helpful, as I needed hands-on help to breastfeed. Instead of offering photographs, the book used line drawings that were not particularly illustative. I started reading the book while pregnant and did check back in with it shortly after my daughter was born, but it just didn't do it for me.
Verdict: Skip it and call a lactation consultant if you need help. This is one time you might consider using the internet for assistance.

Class: NYU Langone Medical Center Accelerated Prepared Childbirth
Over the course of two frigid Sunday's in February, my husband and I participated in this really long class. Taught by an experienced and entertaining labor and delivery nurse, the class covered everything from how to know you are in labor to the delivery to bathing, diapering and burping a newborn. I took notes. The class also included a virtual hospital tour, which my husband and I "took" at an earlier date. (Since the tour wasn't really a class, I won't be reviewing it here, but go on a tour of your hospital. You want to know where to park before you are in labor.) The course offered important information, but by the time we took it, I had already crossed into over-prepared territory. I read the above books, and we already hired and met with our doula who covered many of the same topics in the course. I was hoping that the instructor would spend more time on newborn care, but she spent no more than an hour of the 16 hour (!) course on that topic. I gained very little new information from the class, so for me, it felt like a waste of time and money. Birth classes do not come cheap! I did enjoy being in a room with other pregnant women with similar due dates. It was the first time in my pregnancy that I realized I wasn't carrying excessively large.
Verdict: Eh. The course would be more helpful, if I hadn't already read about many of the topics before attending.

That's all for now. Tune in soon for Part 2 featuring my reviews on my breastfeeding class, CPR class and sleep book.

And Now I am a Mom (Plus Healthyish Banana Bread)

I took a blogging break. Again. And now I am a mom. Quite a break; I know!

The good news is that I still eat a lot of salad and plan to continue doing so. Most salads these days involve quinoa. One day, I might even write about these salads. For now, I want to write about being a mom. I don't plan to change the name of the blog because, frankly, I don't have many (any?) followers. As I mentioned in my first post over two years ago, I hoped this blog would encourage me to exercise my writing muscles. I no longer have much free time on my hands, but I have more going on in my head than ever before. Motherhood has been an incredible, positive life change, and sometimes, it feels all-consuming. Instead of thinking and rethinking about being a mommy, I decided to put pen to the paper and finger to the keyboard and share some of those thoughts. I'm not sure if anyone will ever read these thoughts besides my husband, but that is okay.

This blog is about my experience with motherhood (and some recipes--I can't help myself). I do not intend any of my posts to be preachy, but you should read at your own risk. I learned early on not to judge how other people parent. As long as children are safe and healthy, it's not my business. If any posts seem judgmental, just know that it is not my aim. I've learned a lot from reading other parents' blogs, and I love reading and hearing birth stories (more on this in a future post). With the encouragement of my husband, I am making some of my experiences with pregnancy and motherhood publicish (the ish because beyond sharing a link on Facebook, I don't know how anyone would find my blog).

If you have read this far, I salute you and reward you with a recipe for banana bread. My family has a delicious but not all that healthy recipe for banana bread. Being postpartum and hoping to lose a few pounds, I attempted to make the recipe a little healthier but still delicious. My recipe edits made for a denser bread (okay, cake), which makes a hearty snack.


Healthyish Banana Bread

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oats (I used quick oats because that is what I had in the house)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup ripe mashed bananas (about 2 medium bananas)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Optional crumb topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbs butter (I used Smart Balance)
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients for banana bread. If you want to be fancy, you can cream the butter and sugar, add eggs, add other wet ingredients and then add dry ingredients, which should be premixed in another bowl. Chocolate chips go in last. Pour the batter into a loaf pan. If you want to make a lightened-up crumb topping, mix flour, oats and brown sugar. Than add the butter or butter substitute and apple sauce and mix together with a fork or your hands. Sprinkle the topping on top of the batter and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the crumb topping.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes and you get this:

Enjoy the banana bread plain or warmed up with a schmear of peanut or almond butter.

On secret salad dressing ingredients and food processors

Happy 2013!

I made a variety of truffles to ring in the new year. From left to right, cookie dough truffles, peanut butter balls (also known as buckeyes), cake batter truffles and white chocolate peanut butter balls (white chocolate buckeyes?). (Sorry, no recipe for the cookie dough truffles because I can't remember what recipe I used!). I think they are very pretty. By the way, they are nestled in black and white polka dot mini-cupcake liners. So festive and classy! My favorite was the cake batter, but the white chocolate peanut butter balls were pretty amazing, too!

My mom bakes a lot. When I was in elementary school, she often made peanut butter balls or peanut butter bars (similar to the balls, just with one layer of peanut butter and then one layer of chocolate). She rarely makes those recipes anymore. . . maybe because my dad isn't such a fan of the pb-chocolate mixture, while my brothers, who no longer live with her, are. Peanut butter balls are for winners, and I wouldn't mind them becoming a freezer staple in my house.

On to salad dressing secret ingredients. Okay, not so secret but new to me, but I love adding a pinch of sugar to my salad dressings. When I am making salads for Seth and me, I tend to leave out the fat. Seth and I like the tart taste of vinegar, and I have concocted a wide range of dressings using balsamic, apple cider and rice wine vinegar. But, a pinch of sugar (maybe 1/4 to 1/8 a teaspoon) takes the dressing to a new level, cutting the tartness just a bit. 

Today, I had an unremarkable but tasty salad for lunch with a remarkable, easy and low-calorie dressing.

I hadn't planned on posting this salad, so I didn't even attempt to eyeball measurements. (Is that an oxymoron? To eyeball measurements?) I'll try my best to guesstimate. 

In the salad:

• 1/3 head of romaine
• 1 carrot
• 1 stem from a head of broccoli
• 1/4 can of black beans
• 1 Dr. Praeger's veggie burger

In the dressing:

• 2-3 pours of apple cider vinegar
• generous squirt of sriracha 
• a few shakes of granulated garlic
• a few shakes of onion powder
• pinch of sugar
• pinch of salt

Directions:

Chop and toss romaine, carrot, broccoli stem and black beans. Add dressing ingredients, toss. Microwave veggie burger and toss in. 

After lunch, I was craving one of the leftover cookie dough truffles (they keep well in the freezer) for dessert but knowing Seth and I will likely have a few for dessert tonight, I wanted something a little healthier. I decide to make this cookie dough dip. I made it once before using either my mini-food processor from college or the immersion blender (which is really more of Seth's kitchen tool). The dip was good, but not quite the texture I wanted. Given that we have been married nearly two and a half years and have had a beautiful 10-cup food processor off our registry even longer, I decided to take it out for a spin. I've used it a few times before, but unlike my stand mixer, it isn't in my regular kitchen appliance rotation. And wow, it is amazing. The cookie dough dip is so smooth that even Seth who gets nervous around chickpea-based desserts sampled it (only because he couldn't identify what it was, but that means the dip came out really smooth).

The food processor worked like magic, and I want to use it again. I just need a tutorial (why are there so many blades?) and some food processor friendly recipes.

I'm going to dig into the cookie dough dip now!

Another cookie recipe on my salad blog

It was a long week. And a long Friday night and Saturday. Between work obligations and friend-seeing, Friday and Saturday were full of back-to-back activities. Combine that with some strange almost-winter allergies, and I am pooped! When my Sunday plans were unexpectedly canceled, my husband declared today to be a pajama day. I did get dressed (in yoga pants) sometime after lunch, so I could leave the apartment to pick up cookie-baking supplies.

I know, I know. I started this blog to write about salad recipes and all things roughage, but lately all I want to do is bake. I am more and more and more my mother's daughter in that realm. On weekends, I like to to trade in my gym time for baking time.

I knew I wanted to bake an oatmeal, white chocolate chip and craisin cookie. They are warm and comforting and December-appropriate. When I saw that canned pumpkin was on sale, my recipe deal was sealed. Pumpkin-Oatmeal-White Chocolate-Craisin Cookies. Lately, I've enjoyed experimenting with recipes, so I decided to create my own by modifying what I consider to be the best oatmeal cookie dough recipe: Oatmeal Scotchies (you can find the recipe on the back of bags of Nestle Butterscotch Morsels or here).

Pumpkin is one of the best baking substitutes for fat. Unlike apple sauce, which gives cookies a strange chewy texture (don't get me wrong, I still use it sometimes), pumpkin keeps cookies moist and springy. So these cookies are free of butter. I'm not sure I would describe them as healthy, but they aren't as bad as they could be. And boy are they delicious!

Pumpkin-Oatmeal-White Chocolate-Craisin Cookies

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin (3/4 a can)
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag (11 oz) white chocolate chips 
• 1 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking, soda, salt, cinnamon, sugars, pumpkin and vanilla and mix well until combined. Add oats and stir into dough. Mix in white chocolate chips and craisins. Use a table spoon to drop dough on to cookie sheets. Bake for about 7 minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Depending on the size of the cookies, the recipe should yield about 40 to 48 cookies. (I got 47 cookies.)

I hope you like white chocolate chips. (Can you see the paw in the top right corner of the photo. That is courtesy of my dog, who thought the cookies looked delicious.)

Thankful for Dessert!

Since it is Thanksgiving weekend, and I have consumed more than my fair share of calories, I decided to make dessert. I've already started digging myself into a caloric hole, so why not jump in belly first. On Monday, I will begin the digging out process.

A few weeks ago, I made a variation of Avalanche Bark for my husband. I subbed Cornflakes for Rice Krispies, since that is what I had in the house, used full size chocolate chips and cut the amount of white chocolate to about eight ounces. (Even I, a lover of all things white chocolate, was taken back by the idea of using an entire bag of white chocolate chips in a recipe with only nine servings. I also cut the bars smaller than Brown Eyed Baker recommends, so I got 16 servings out of the recipe.) The faux-Avalanche Bark turned out really well, so today, I wanted to try a mash-up of unhealthy granola bars, Avalanche Bark and Liz-style haystacks (instead of chow mein noodles + peanut butter + butterscotch chips + marshmallows, I use either crushed pretzels or Fiber One cereal).

Haystack Granola Bars

• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup crushed pretzels (measure before you crush)
• 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup mini-marshmallows
• 1 cup chocolate chips (would work well) with mini-chips

Microwave butterscotch chips and peanut butter in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval until melted. Combine pb-butterscotch mixture with oats and pretzels. After the mixture cools, add marshmallows and then chocolate chips. Once everything is mixed, flatten into an 8 x 8 pan. I lined mine with wax paper for easy removal. I also used a piece of wax paper to flatten the mixture into even bars. Refrigerate for an hour and then cut into bars. If you are like me and like small pieces, you ca get 16 bars out of the recipe.

Warning: they are a little bit crumbly. Thankfully, the crumbs still taste good!

Cookie Swap: Part 2

I bet you gave up on me. I wrote my first post about my birthday cookie swap over a month ago. And that was nearly a month after my birthday. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, the closed subway and my down work email, I am feeling incredibly unproductive. So, I will blog, and I will bake (I am thinking about making this recipe). I will not be making any salads. In case you are feeling like I am, like the only thing to do is make dessert (or dessert masquerading as breakfast), here are more recipes from my birthday cookie swap. 

I think we left off here:

These are Birthday Cake Oreos with chocolate chip cookies inside. Sarah made these as her bonus dessert by twisting apart the Oreo and baking the chocolate chip cookie on top of the bottom half. Then, she stuck  the  the tops back on. It is very exciting to be able to eat birthday cake-themed desserts on one's birthday.

As I mentioned, the cookies were Sarah's bonus dessert. Her actual dessert were White Chocolate S'mores Gooey Cake Bars, a fancy blondie made with cake mix and marshmallows. There they are on the bottom right.

They were my husband's favorite dessert of the swap. They are very sweet, so if you make them, cut them into small pieces!

Right above the bars and to right of the gummi bears are Shari's cookies.The cookies directly above the blondies are Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies. Shari made a few adaptations to the recipe: she used about about one cup of malted milk powder instead of the half cup the recipe called for and used one bag of milk chocolate chips less half a cup mixed with a half cup of bittersweet chips. The recipe made about four dozen cookies.

Shari's other cookies (right above the Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies in the photo) were Potato Chip Cookies adapted from The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie by Gwen Steege. Here is the recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups potato chips, coarsely crushed
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour and baking soda. In another bowl, cream butter, sugars and eggs until smooth and well combined. Add in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, and mix well.  Add chocolate chips, mix well to evenly distribute. Add potato chips and gently fold them in. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, drop onto baking sheets lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Bake for approximately 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Let sit on cookie sheets for a minute or two before removing them to cool. Makes around five dozen cookies, depending on the size.

Both of Shari's cookies were delicious! I think the Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies would be especially good in ice cream sandwiches.

Tiffany made Chocolate-Mint Pinwheels.

The Chocolate-Mint Pinwheels are the cookies in the center in the photo above. As you can see, they are very pretty to look at. This may be a first in the cookie world, but I would describe the Chocolate-Mint Pinwheels as refreshing--not a typical cookie descriptor. They are an excellent cookie for the summer. Here is the recipe:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ounce semisweet chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 4.67 ounce package layered chocolate-mint candies (like Andes), finely chopped (1 cup)
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until mixture is combined, scraping sides of bowl. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Stir melted chocolate into one dough portion. Stir chopped mint candies and peppermint extract into remaining dough portion. Divide each dough portion in half. Cover dough and chill for at least one hour or until easy to handle.

Roll each peppermint dough portion into a 9 1/2 x 6 inch rectangle on waxed paper. Roll each chocolate dough portion into a 9 1/2 x 6 inch rectangle on top of one peppermint dough rectangle; remove top layer of waxed paper. roll up dough. Pinch dough edges to seal; wrap in plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining chocolate and peppermint dough rectangles. Chill dough rolls for one to two hours or until very firm.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets; set aside. Unwrap dough rolls; reshape, if necessary. Cut dough rolls crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices. Place slices two inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake in preheated oven for six to eight minutes or until edges are firm and jut starting to brown. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool. Tiffany was able to make about 45 cookies using this recipe.

Beth made Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. They are on the top left right behind the plate of blondies and Birthday Cake Oreos. These cookies were also great. They are light and chewy, and we can even pretend they are healthy because of the oats and raisins (just ignore the butter!). Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 cup plus 6 Tbs butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 11/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt (optional)
• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat butter and sugars on medium speed of an electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix well. Add oats and raisins, mix well. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake eight to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool one minute on cookie sheet then move to rack. 

Missing from this recipe round-up are Sari's carrot cookie, and Blaire's brownies. Like all of the other cookies, both were excellent. My friends are talented bakers! Thank you to my wonderful friends for making my birthday so sweet!

Peanut Butter-Pretzel Cookie Brittle

Disclaimer: This post is about cookies. Cookies are more fun than salads during impending hurricanes.

Hurricane Sandy is a-coming to New York! And while I should be thinking about bottled water, flashlights and canned goods, all I can think is: "at least it's not my birthday." Quasi-housebound (it's not actually raining yet, just windy), I decided to make cookies in honor of the brewing storm.

Before baking, I had (what else) a salad for lunch. No photos, but it was my usual Mexican-style fare:

• 1/3 head of romaine;
• 1/4 can of corn;
• 1/2 carrot;
• Some broccoli florets;
• 1/4 avocado;
• Veggie chicken burger;
• 1 Babybel cheese;
• Handful of crumbled tortilla chips;
• Dressed with a mixture of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and garlic power.

It was delicious! I made the same salad for the husband, though he went sans tortilla chips and subbed the Babybel for full-fat cheddar. Considering this is not a particularly low calorie salad, the least I could do in mine was use a 50-calorie Babybel. 

On to the cookies! I had taken a stick of butter out of the freezer yesterday to make eggless cookie dough as an ice cream topping for a friend's Girls Night In party. I ended up seeing Biscoff Spread (mmm...speculos!!!) at the store and decided to bring that instead. So, I was left with a thawed stick of butter. What to do? Since the birthday cookie swap, I have steered clear of baking cookies or bars, since I still have leftovers in the freezer, but given the impending storm, baking seemed like a good idea.

Last time I visited my parents, my mom and I made cookie brittle. Cookie brittle is eggless cookie dough spread out on a pan, baked and then broken into shards of cookie. It is tasty and easy to make. Since the recipe came from one of my mom's cookbooks, I searched online and found this recipe. Both my husband and I really like peanut butter, so peanut butter cookie brittle seemed like a good idea. But, my husband doesn't like actual peanuts or coconut, so I made a few substitutions. Inspired by peanut butter-butterscotch haystacks, which my husband fondly refers to as crack, I used both butterscotch and chocolate chips and added broken pretzels to the dough.

Peanut Butter-Pretzel Cookie Brittle

• 1 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cup oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup crushed pretzels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix oats and flour and add to batter.

Add chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, and stir into batter. Crush pretzels (I poured the pretzels into a Ziploc bag and crushed with a meat pounder), and mix those into the batter.

Line a 10" x 15" jellyroll plan with parchment paper, and press in the batter. (I used a rolling pin to evenly distribute the batter in the pan.) 

Bake for about 20 minutes. Let the cookie brittle cool on a wire rack, and then  break into pieces.

Enjoy with a glass of milk.

Addendum: The raw dough tasted as good, if not better, than the cookies. I see peanut butter-pretzel cookie dough truffles in my future.

Cookie Swap: Part 1

Disclaimer: this post is not about salads. It is about dessert. I eat salads, so then I can eat dessert.

My birthday was a few weeks ago. Some years, I feel determined to mark my birthday with a celebration. Other years, I prefer a low-key birthday. And sometimes, there are hurricanes. First there was Katrina. I planned to celebrate my birthday in Florida with family, and no surprise, due to the hurricane, my flight was cancelled. (Please know, I am in no way minimizing the catastrophe that was Katrina. I just happen to have a late-summer birthday that coincides regularly with hurricanes. Usually, those hurricanes don't impact me directly because I live in New York. Katrina did. . . and so did Irene.) Last year, ironically a year I was determined not to do anything special for my birthday, Irene hit. My wonderful husband and friends didn't listen to the not wanting to celebrate and planned a brunch for me that was cancelled after New York learned Irene was on the way and Mayor Bloomberg shut down the subway system. And then our apartment leaked--but that is a story for another time.

After last year's hurricane birthday, I wanted to mark this birthday with people I like and dessert. So, that is exactly what I did!

I first learned about cookie swaps on one of the food blogs I occasionally read. In short, a cookie swap is when several people gather, each bringing several dozen cookies to share. At the swap, everyone exchanges cookies and brings home a mix of several types of cookies. Cookie swaps are especially popular in December, when people are looking for a quick way to put out a variety of cookies at holiday parties. For more on cookie swaps, read this article from the queen of entertaining herself, Martha Stewart.

For my birthday swap, I invited a small group of friends to bring over their favorite cookies. Seven people participated in the swap, so I asked everyone to bring about four dozen cookies to share with the group. In theory, this would allow everyone (while only seven of us were swapping, there were significant others and other friends at the swap) to sample each of the cookies at the party and still take home four or five of each variety. Well, I over estimated! 

I took the above photo post-sampling, pre-swap. It turns out that no one wanted to sample nine whole cookies (two people brought two types). 

Before I get to the cookies, a few more swapping details. To counteract the sugar and fat, I put out watermelon; chips and salsa; and pita chips, carrots, celery and  hummus. I also served gummy bears and peanut butter M&Ms to compliment the sugar and fat. We served beer and diet soda to drink. This was an adult swap so no milk necessary.

In honor the swap, I wanted to try a new recipe. I decide on rugelach since rolling out dough would give me the street cred I needed as swap host. I reached out to one of the best bakers I know, a former co-worker, for her recipe. She sent me to. . . you guessed it. . . Martha Stewart! Click here for the recipe. In the realm of rugelach recipes, this one is a winner. Instead of rolling each rugelach individually, this recipe calls for baking the dough in rolls and slicing them into the cookies after they cool. Since my husband is anti-nut, I left out the walnuts. I also omitted the currants and cream from the recipe. Lastly, I used regular raisins. They turned out just fine!

I did learn a few lessons to apply next time I make these:

1. I can use less apricot preserves. Two to two and half tablespoons per log is plenty.
2. Parchment paper is far superior to wax paper when it comes to rolling out dough.
3. I should have cut them slightly bigger.

All of the recipes at the swap were fantastic. Stay tuned for part two of this post for more swap recipes. Here is a sneak peak.