Cleaning Out The Cupboards

I ended a day spent tidying up with a recipe to match. I used all the partial packages of dark chocolate, semi-sweet and butterscotch chips from holiday baking with some of the "gonna lose that 2009 weight with healthy breakfasts" oatmeal and came up with this:





Cleaning Out The Cupboards Cookies

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 stick (1/2 cup) mrgarine
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
a 12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips or a mish-mosh of what chips are around the shelves of the pantry and refrigerator. Toss in some nuts, if you're so inclined.

In a food processor pulse 1 cup oats until ground fine. In a large bowl stir together ground oats, remaining 1/2 cup whole oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy and beat in vanilla and peanut butter. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and gradually beat in flour mixture. Add chips and nuts, beating just until combined. Chill cookie dough, covered, at least 2 hours and up to 1 week. Do your best not to eat it by spoonfuls.

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Form rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Eat with restraint... Or not.

Blindfolded Cookery

I don't know what it is about being tired and cold and hungry, but it makes for some interesting lunch.

On today's menu... mystery soup. It was kind of like cooking with a blindfold on, reaching into the 'fridge and turning on the gas.

A couple of days ago I browned a package of sirloin tips with garlic, diced red pepper and a little olive oil. I would have added some onion, but I couldn't remember where I last saw the onion that I bought last week. I put the nice smelling mixture in the crock pot with a cup of turkey stock I'd made and froze a couple of weeks ago and a cup of cooked barley. I found about a cup of browned Italian sausage from Sunday's pizza making and tossed that it as well. I set the whole concoction on low for a few hours and put it in the 'fridge overnight. And then I forgot it.

So, this morning, I was up at 5 to teach and, instead of being hungry at noon, I started feel a might peckish. It's not quite lunch time now but my feet are frozen and I'm even hungrier. Back to the 'fridge I went, grabbing the barley-beef-pepper soup, some beef stock, a can of tomato sauce, a can of Ro*Tel tomatoes and peppers, and what is left of the chicken chimichanga with rice from my birthday dinner last Monday. In the soup pot it has all went and now it is simmering on the stove, awaiting a topping of shredded cheese and crunched tortilla chips.

I'm not sure what exactly to call it because "Unfreeze My Feet Soup" just doesn't roll off the tongue. But, it is quite good and I have enough for company...

Toffee

A friend asked me for a recipe today and so I took it as an opportunity to try something new. I put together a recipe card, with a photo of a batch of the toffee that I made this afternoon. I turned the InDesign file into a PDF and then lobbed it back to being a Jpeg so that I could post it here and on Facebook. I then reworked it and just exported it as a Jpeg for upload directly to the blog. All for a dinky little candy recipe...

I'm feeling a little too geeky right now, so I guess I'll go fold some laundry...