Soft Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My niece is over visiting, and we decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies. Conveniently, I had some dark, Rittersport chocolate that had melted out of shape and re-solidified that I thought I might use. Unfortunately, I had no brown sugar, but after surfing the web for a recipe using honey, I stumbled upon this recipe: http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/Honey-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-Recipe. I wanted a lovely cookie that would be slightly crisp on the outside while retaining a soft, chewy texture.

The original recipe makes 4 dozen cookies, but I had no need for that many so I halved some of the portions and altered the recipe slightly to my taste. You can use chocolate chips, but I prefer chopped pieces because the little chocolate flecks get incorporated into the batter.



MAKES 1 1/2 DOZEN COOKIES

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups white sugar
2 tbsp. honey
1 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips, or chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 375º F.
In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. (If you don’t have a sifter, just whisk through the dry ingredients with a fork or whisk)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, honey, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly into the wet ingredient. A sticky dough should form. Stir in the chocolate.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place onto cookie sheets (buttered, oiled, sprayed with non-stick spray or lined with aluminum foil/parchment paper) about 2 inches apart. Bake for 9-12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets after 5 minutes. The cookies should be lightly browned around the edges.

The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Easy Guacamole

I have newly graduated and am re-adjusting to life at home/settling into the non-academic world. This means cooking!!!!

So the theme of the week has been cleaning out my fridge. I had a rotisserie chicken from Costco in the fridge. After cutting the meat off the bones in chunks, my cousin and I tossed the chicken rack in a large stock pot with 1 large chopped onion, a few chopped carrots, mushrooms, half a chopped cabbage, cucumbers and a small handful of broccoli. A few hours later, voila! Chicken soup. What did I do with the chopped chicken meat? I sauteed it with blanched broccoli and sliced mushrooms before sliding it into some tomato sauce (store bought tomato sauce, finely chopped rosemary and thyme, 1.5 chopped tomatoes and 1/2 can of tomato paste). Add to that some rigatoni, toss together before sliding into a baking pan and covering in cheese. Bake under Broil for about 10 minutes until the cheese is nicely caramelized. For a detailed recipe, see my previous post on Easy No Fail Pasta. Today, while rearranging the fridge, I see that there are two nicely ripe avocados. Conveniently, I have all the ingredients needed to make guacamole while simultaneously cleaning out my fridge and not wasting food (of utmost importance! money is precious to the unemployed).




















Recipe for Easy Guacamole

2 avocados
1/4 large onion (or 1 small onion depending on what you have) finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ripe tomato, finely chopped
2-3 limes, juiced
salt and pepper to taste


1. Half and scoop ripe avocados into mixing bowl and mash (with fork or whatever mashing tools you have on hand)

2. Mix in chopped garlic, tomato, onion and half of the lime juice

3. Add salt and pepper, and remaining lime juice to taste

4. Either chill for half an hour or if you're impatient like me, start digging in immediately!!

Tune in next time when I use either the beef in my freezer for Beef Bourguignon (yay!!! Finally using my Julia Child cookbook) or the fish for Panko Crusted Fish with leftover salsa =)

Cheers,
Shlieka