Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Pinch of Yum  https://pinchofyum.com/the-best-soft-chocolate-chip-cookies/print/39213

• 8 tablespoons of salted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar (I like to use raw cane sugar with a coarser texture)
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (more as needed – see video)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (but I always add a little extra)
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips (I use a combination of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Microwave the butter for about 40 seconds to just barely melt it. It shouldn’t be hot – but it should be almost entirely in liquid form.
2. Using a stand mixer or electric beaters, beat the butter with the sugars until creamy. Add the vanilla and the egg; beat on low speed until just incorporated – 10-15 seconds or so (if you beat the egg for too long, the cookies will be stiff).
3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until crumbles form. Use your hands to press the crumbles together into a dough. It should form one large ball that is easy to handle (right at the stage between “wet” dough and “dry” dough). Add the chocolate chips and incorporate with your hands.
4. Roll the dough into 12 large balls (or 9 for HUGELY awesome cookies) and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes until the cookies look puffy and dry and just barely golden.Warning, friends: DO NOT OVERBAKE. This advice is probably written on every cookie recipe everywhere, but this is essential for keeping the cookies soft. Take them out even if they look like they’re not done yet (see picture in the post). They’ll be pale and puffy.
5. Let them cool on the pan for a good 30 minutes or so (I mean, okay, eat four or five but then let the rest of them cool). They will sink down and turn into these dense, buttery, soft cookies that are the best in all the land. These should stay soft for many days if kept in an airtight container. I also like to freeze them.

I'm still looking for my favorite recipe, but this one is really good.  Makes one dozen big cookies or two dozen small cookies, so double the recipe if you have six hundred kids like I do. 

Hammy Sammies

Hammy Sammies
  from Becky Higgins

24 rolls (I've used Sister Schubert's parbaked frozen rolls, Hawaiian rolls, and Costco's yeast rolls, and it doesn't matter they are all delicious.)
mayonnaise
12 thick slices deli ham (black forest)  
12 slices Swiss cheese
1/2 c. melted butter
1 1/2 Tbsp. mustard
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp. poppy seeds

Slice rolls in half so they open. Spread mayo on top and bottom of the inside of each roll. Assemble rolls with ½ slice of cheese and ½ slice of ham. Place all of these in a baking pan or stone. Mix together the melted butter, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Brush this mixture all over the tops of the rolls and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until heated through.

This is one of my favorite things to make to take in to families who are sick or have a new baby because leftover sandwiches go well in lunchboxes the next day.  A bag of chips and a few grapes and you're ready to go.  In colder weather, serve with a nice brothy soup (visiting teacher soup, anyone?) as an indulgent roll, or with macaroni and cheese to make the kids happy.  It's also a good way to use up leftovers from an Easter or Christmas ham. (Save the ham hock for Bean and Ham Soup.)

See someone else's post, with photos, here: https://www.kerribradford.com/2011/09/21/ham-swiss-rolls/

Bean and Ham Soup

Bean and Ham Soup
from the delightful Tammy Adams

1 pound navy beans (2 1/2 cups)
5 cups water
1 clove garlic
1 ham hock
1 t salt

Soak beans in water at least 4 hours.  You'll want to add MUCH more water than beans because they expand.  Drain water.
Add garlic, ham hock, beans, and water to crock pot.  Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours of high for 4 hours.  Add salt during the last hour of cooking time.
Remove ham hock from cooker and allow to cool.  Cut ham off hock and stir back into bean mixture.

Note from the original recipe:  "The most important thing of this recipe is you MUST use a ham hock.  I will make a ham for Sunday dinner and then keep the blessed hock to use for this soup!  I will sometimes cook a ham just so that I can have the hock for this soup.  It is really that good.  Be careful for the occasional bone.  For added flavor or color, you can add onion, celery, carrots, or tomatoes."

Tammy brought me this when when I was sick with pneumonia and also had two newborns.  I ate it for days and then got the recipe and made my mom make me another batch.  Now it is one of my cold-weather favorites!

Slow Cooker Kalua Pork

Slow Cooker Kalua Pork

1 large pork tenderloin (about 4 lbs)
Liquid Smoke (1/2 bottle)
Coarse ground Sea Salt
1 c. water

Toss pork and water in the crockpot, sprinkle generously with sea salt and add Liquid Smoke.  Cook for 6-8 hours.  Serve.

*****

This goes into everything.  We eat it with an Asian style green salad and macaroni salad (or mac and cheese) for a Hawaiian style treat.  We put BBQ sauce on it and eat it in sandwiches.  We use it in Green Chile Pork.  It's an easy and universally appreciated meal that is easy to take in.  Definitely a family staple.

Lemon Dill Salmon

Lemon Dill Salmon

big old salmon filet - I get a big one, 2-3 lbs, from Sam's or Costco.

1/2 c. butter, melted

3/4 c. lemon juice

2 T dill

1/2 t garlic powder

salt and pepper

Plop salmon in a big glass baking dish, coated with butter or Pam spray.  Combine butter and lemon juice and pour over salmon.  Sprinkle with dill, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.  Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.  

*****

I have been making simple staples this week.  One of our favorites is this lemon dill salmon that doesn't really take a recipe, but since it's a family staple I'll post it up here.  All measurements are approximate and will depend on how big your hunk of salmon is, but it's easy to scale up or down.

My little dude loves this with steamed broccoli, couscous or rice, and garlic toast.  It's one of his favorite meals.  (But then again, they're all his favorite.  Except stir fry.)

Also, if you leave out the lemon and dill and scale back the butter, this is also how I cook salmon on other nights or to go in other dishes.  (See a future post entitled "Concoction.")