Sunday, January 30, 2011

Freezer to Oven Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: This one is from my mother-in-law, also from ages past. I'll admit I'm not the hugest chocolate chip cookie fan, but my hubby is and I liked the whole freezer-to-oven aspect of it. A quick dessert when needed? Perfect.

Rating: Favorable

Notes: These are fairly airy and light when baked, not the dense, chewy kind (which I prefer, when I prefer chocolate chip cookies). But they're quite tasty. Probably all that butter in them. They don't spread out much, but I might not have pre-heated the oven enough-- hard to tell with a toaster oven. You'll also likely want to roll these into balls because it makes them a heck of a lot easier to freeze. I'm enamored with the new cookie dough baller my mom got me for Christmas, though, so I went that route instead.



INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 3/4 sticks butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 12 oz. chocolate chips

METHOD:
  1. Melt butter in microwave, covered.
  2. Add butter to large mixing bowl with brown sugar. Stir in the eggs. Add flour, salt, baking soda and vanilla, and stir. Mix in chocolate chips. (Can mix this all, except the chocolate chips, in a stand-up mixer.)
  3. Chill the batter, but not for too long (about 20 minutes). Using cookie dough scooper or your hands, place 1-inch mounds on a cookie sheet and freeze for a couple hours. Transfer to a ziploc baggie.
  4. When needed, place on an ungreased cookie sheet in a preheated 325 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Scalloped Kale and Potatoes

Source: A colleague gave me this recipe about, um, 2 years ago. It's from "Quick Vegetarian Pleasures." One of my new year's resolutions this year was to make some of the things in my overstuffed clippings folder (and create a blog to talk about them), and there's a heck of a lot of Tantre Farm kale in the freezer and wrinkled potatoes in a box in the basement. So...

Rating: Very Favorable

Notes: What can go wrong when you use a ton of butter, garlic and Calder Dairy milk?



INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 pound kale
  • 5 medium/large potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 cups grated cheese (cheddar is good, others may want swiss)
  • 4 tablespoons butter, cut into bits
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • pepper
  • 1 1/4 cups milk

METHOD:
  1. Rinse the kale and shake off extra water. Pull the leaves from the stems, discard stems. Stuff the kale into a medium pot and add 1/2 c. water. Cook 7 minutes. Drain and cool and squeeze out extra water. Chop kale and set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 425. GENEROUSLY grease a large casserole or medium baking dish. Spread half the potato slices on the bottom, spread on all the kale, then sprinkle the garlic, and half the cheese, butter, salt and pepper. Top with the remaining potato slices, cheese, butter, salt and pepper.
  3. Carefully pour the milk in and gently shake the dish to distribute. Bake 50 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the top is browned.