I Love Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I have stated before, I am OK at baking cookies - my sister is far better at it than I am. Hers always turn out chewy and delicious no matter what recipe she uses. Last night, I made some Chocolate Chip cookies for a friend of mine. I didn't want to make her any old kind of cookie, I wanted her to have something delicious like my sister's. So I had to go searching for a recipe and I think I found it.
Let me tell you straight away, this cookie is full fat goodness. It's not a spelt flour, agave syrup substituted for sugar type cookie that I have been making. This cookie is the real deal. I found it on All-Recipes and it is even called "Best Chocolate Chip Cookies".
This recipe makes exactly 48 cookies. I did my own thing by using white chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks and omitted the walnuts. The dough recipe is what I was really after.  They turned out delicious and the next day still delicious.
If you are looking for a nice chewy cookie recipe, this is the recipe to use.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used 1 cup white chocolate chips and 1 cup dark chocolate chunks)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with the salt. Mix in the flour 1 cup at a time until fully incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts(if using).

Drop about a 1 tablespoon scoop of dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, 12 to a sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

*I found that living at sea level, baking is a bit different. 10 minutes exactly is what I needed.

Going Gluten & Dairy Free: Pumpkin-Cran Muffins

Pumpkin-Cran Muffins

I would like to start by saying that I am not on a crazy-ass diet. I have had a few allergy issues and have  found that eating gluten free relieves some of my symptoms and many of the gluten free recipes are also dairy free. So there.
I've been trying out a few recipes from various sources and this one is adapted from the Practical Paleo cook book. I have made this recipe twice, once with all purpose gluten free flour and once with coconut flour. My second attempt was much better. I have tweaked the recipe from the original. I found that the original was too oily from too much coconut oil, but that could have been due to the fact that I used all purpose GF flour instead of coconut flour. This recipe says that you could use either coconut oil or butter, but I have swapped coconut oil for butter before and the result was the same - too oily. To all of you gluten free naysayers out there, I will say that the following recipe produces a muffin that does not taste like a piece of cardboard. My husband ate them and would have never known that they were gluten and dairy free. So try the recipe, I think you will be surprised!

Pumpkin-Cran Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/2 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1/3 Cup Coconut Oil melted (if you use butter, use 1/2 cup melted)
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar(optional - if your going paleo totally omit this)
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie spice + a couple of dashes of ground clove
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Coconut Flour (if you don't have or can't find - All Purpose GF Flour works, but I would use about 2/3 cup)
1/2 Cup Craisins(if you hate craisins - skip them!)

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Mix the first 8 ingredients together until completely combined and smooth. Sift in the baking soda, baking powder, and coconut flour and stir until combined. Last, fold in the Craisins - unless you hate them, then don't.

Coat muffin tins with coconut oil or paper muffin cups. Add batter equally amongst the 12 muffin tins and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Turkey Gumbo

Turkey Gumbo

To be honest with you, this post has been sitting in my draft file for a long, long while. I originally wrote it right after Thanksgiving and as I do, I got sidetracked...and then it was Christmas. I did make this twice over the holidays: once after Thanksgiving and once after Christmas.

For the past few years I have been making turkey gumbo instead of turkey noodle soup. We were really burnt out on the turkey noodle and I felt the gumbo was a good alternative. Besides, my family really liked it. The past two years, I have been making this gumbo after Christmas as well. Damon's grandmother sends up about 10 pounds of Gulf Shrimp to my Father-in-Law, Ron. While he likes shrimp a whole lot, he's no about to eat 10 pounds of it. So, perfect for the gumbo! Now, I do want to note that I am in no way, shape or form, from Louisiana. I also do not have an heritage from the south - I just really like Cajun and southern food. I've spent a fair amount of time there and I figured out how to cook the food pretty well. So, just put that judgement aside!

This recipe comes from a few that I put together. About 4 or 5 years ago, my mother-in-law, Sam, and I were shopping in this kind of weird, souvenir store in Florida and I found this book called Louisiana Entertains. It's a crazy-ass recipe book, with some great recipes and some questionable ones. It also tells you how to properly entertain, southern style. I loved it. I bought it. I cook from it and have combined several gumbo recipes to make the one that I use now. So, I hope you enjoy it!

Turkey Gumbo

1 bunch of green onions minced
1 small yellow onion minced
3 garlic cloves minced
1 green pepper diced
1 jalepeno diced
4 tomatoes diced
1 cup or 1 small bunch flat leaf parsley minced
1 tspn fresh minced oregano
1 tspn fresh minced thyme
1 bay leaf
2 ribs celery diced
2 carrots diced(optional)
4-5 strips of bacon
2 andouille links sliced
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tblsp flour or Corn Starch
2 tblsp corn oil
1 quart Turkey Stock (or chicken stock) plus 1 cup of water

In a 5 quart cast iron pot or dutch oven, over medium heat, fry the bacon strips. Once finished, remove bacon strips and set aside. Next, add the 2 tablespoons corn oil and let it heat up about 1 minute. Add to the heated oil the onion and sauté for about 1 minute. Add the garlic, green pepper, jalepeno, and tomato, and sauté for another minute. Add the 2 tblsp flour(if you are gluten free like me - use corn starch). The mixture will start to look thick and clumpy - add the cup of water a bit at a time until it smooths out. Now add all of the rest of the ingredients to the pot and give it a good stir, turn the heat down to medium and cover and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Serve it with rice, or eat it like soup! Before the gluten situation, I used to love to eat it with a bit of French bread with Provolone Cheese melted right on it!