Tormented Kitchen

Hello again, dear readers. It's almost summertime here in Nevada. You can basically say we had our one week of Springtime weather, so it might as well be called Summer already. We just had Memorial Day. The waterparks are open for business. People are out fishing and camping. It's time for every scout's favorite campfire treat. S'MORES!!!! I'm sure most people are familiar with the original s'more.  If you've seen the latest Hershey TV ad, then you've seen Hershey's chocolate teamed with Jet-Puft marshmallows and Honey-Maid graham crackers. Now, those are good, BUT I can up the ante. I can IMPROVE THEM!!! What you need is to think outside the s'more. You need to evolve the s'more, layer by delicious layer. You must know by now that is not health food. It's a devilish delicious treat. Let's start with the cracker. You can stick to graham crackers if you like. I picked up a box of Honey Grahams at Trader Joe's, as well...

There is restaurant on Virginia Street that my hubby and I eat lunch at often.  Michael's Deli, if you are curious. They have fantastic salads and darn good gyros, too.  One of my favorite things they make is a peanut butter filled chocolate cookie. They only have them certain days of the week, so I don't always get them. After eating those cookies, and always wanting more, I had to make some at home this weekend.  I told my student employees my plans. They begged for me to bring some cookies to work. Unfortunately for them, the cookies didn't make it to the office. They were so good, I just couldn't bring myself to share! Ingredients 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder  1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla 3/4 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter ...

Did you know that children's TV channels often advertise things that are not geared toward children as well as things that are annoyingly interesting to children? I don't mean just toys, Skechers, and movie advertisements. I mean stupid thing like aluminum wallets and bacon-cooking devices for the microwave. First, ages ago, Eric was enthralled with the Baby Bullet.  Are you familiar with the Magic Bullet blender/food processor? Well, this device is the same thing aimed at mothers who would want to make baby food from scratch.  Eric insisted that I needed one to make healthy food for his baby sister. (I did not buy this already owning two food processors, a blender, a manual baby food mill and no desire to spend more $$$.) Shortly, actually perhaps a year later, he saw a puppy house-training pee pad. Since we had just brought Topaz home and he was having serious issues with going everywhere we didn't want him to go, all the time, Eric insisted that we needed...

Sugar cookies. What is more traditional that a special cookie only made for a holiday? I really fell down on the job for making special goodies for Christmas, so my guilt has been egging me on to make sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I know, not really a holiday where you get time off from work, but it was an excuse to make some cookies. I found a cute new heart shaped cookie cutter with a hot pink silicone edge-grippy-handle-type protrusion. I needed some new cookie cutters. And it was half price. I only bought that one, but I saw a cute set with different size hearts, some were ruffly, scalloped edged hearts, too. Too cute, but I was able to resist. Lately, my son has been asking to help in the kitchen more and more. I made the cookie dough one night, letting him help measure ingredients and turn on the mixer.  The dough rested in the fridge overnight, then he helped me roll it out. This particular recipe is tad on the dry side, so we had a few tears in the doug...

If you want to make super cutesy decorated cookies, you have to make icing. I like that this is thin and easy to spread onto cookies. You could even use a piping bag to decorate your cookies. Ingredients 2 cups powdered sugar 1/3 cup butter 2 Tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract pinch salt food coloring, gel or drops Method 1. Combine sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk. Beat until fluffy. 2. Add additional milk to thin consistency or moisten if dry. 3. Frost cookies. Let them stand undisturbed so icing can harden. 4. If you are making different colors, divide white icing into bowls and tint each one separately. I like to use gel coloring and it only takes a tiny dab of coloring.  I use a toothpick to scoop out the coloring, then stir it in with a fork. 5. Store unused icing in the fridge. Beat again before using to refresh. (For my Sugar Cookie recipe, click here!)

This recipe goes way back. I tweaked and tweaked back when I was in college to come up this. I even did a class presentation on this recipe for one of my engineering classes, using slides on a slide projector, showing my scientific process determining how different types of fat affect the crispiness/softness/chewyness of cookies. I determined that Parkay yielded the softest cookies compared to other brands of margarine. Butter yielded a crisper cookie. (Parkay cookies stayed softer after the cookies had cooled than butter cookies. Thank you trans fats, you rascals). Scientifically speaking, I made probably 10 batches of cookies so I definitely had a fair amount of data to work with. Now as deliciousness is concerned, even the type of oats impacts the texture of the cookie. For this batch, I used Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. They are whole. They add a more chewy, oaty-nuttiness than Quick Oats. It's up to you what you like better. Both are yummy. Ingredients 1 cup margarine...

I love sweets. The past few days, all I’ve been able to think about is eating. I finally figured out why I’m having cravings. Hormones getting back on track and all that. No I’m not pregnant again. Positively not pregnant, things are just getting back to normal. I have been raiding the pantry wishing we had cookies, staring into the freezer wondering where the chocolate Breyer’s ice cream went, gazing into the liquor cabinet thinking of whipping up a special hot chocolate. You know those days. I guess after a good day of wishing for cookies, I broke down and made some. I don’t know why I resisted so much. Maybe it had something to do with feeling fat and frumpy and trying to be good. My mission Get Skinny is coming along much more slowly than I would like. But I’ve had many setbacks, namely all the yummy donuts and cookies that are so hard to resist. I have very low resistance when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. I can inhale a half dozen off the cooling rack before I...

Yes, yet another yummy recipe from my mom. It's another one of those recipes that I have no idea where she found it, but it's worth keeping. Ingredients ½ c. butter, softened ½ c. shortening 2 c. packed brown sugar 2 eggs ¼ c. water 1 tsp. vanilla 4 c. all-purpose flour 1 ½ tsp. baking powder 1 ½ tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. salt 1 c. flaked coconut Method 1. Using a stand mixer, cream butter, shortening, brown sugar until light and fluffy. 2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. 3. Add eggs, vanilla, and water to mixer. Mix well. 4. Add dry ingredients to mixer. Mix well. 5. Add coconut and mix to incorporate. 6. *Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2-4 hours. 7. *Shape into balls. 8. Place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Flatten into rectangles and press the tines of a floured fork on top for texture. 9. Bake 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees F, or until lightly browned. 10. Cool on the sheet 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack t...