The Little Things

Lately I have been feeling a little overwhelmed. Lots of changes are happening all around me, and I have been feel pressure to make some changes myself, and by gosh those changes better be the right ones.

If I had a dollar for the number of times I have been asked "What do you want?" or "What happens next for you?" in the last few months, I would be able to not have to worry about the answers to those questions. I would be able to sit by my hot tub and veg with a bottle of champagne.

Despite my mounting number of grey hairs I still don't feel like an adult or someone who needs to make important life decisions.

We babysat my co-workers daughter this past week and it dawned on my that I hadn't babysat since I was in my early teens. It felt a bit strange and I realized how little our house is equipped for children; not that it needs to be I guess. It also became apparent that I wasn't sure what kids liked to eat. Mostly she wanted the cookies, I relented with one only to have a chocolaty hand smear on my pants a moment later. Sadly, they weren't even homemade.

I remember a Friends episode where Monica talked about wanting to be the mom who made the perfect chocolate chip cookies. I think about that whenever the thought of children crosses my mind. I am terrible at making cookies and I am not sure why. My muffins can rival any bakeries, my cakes are generally tasty, I make a mean crumble, but successful cookies have always eluded me.

A few weeks ago after I finished making a particularly disappointing set of chocolate cookies I made silent promise to stop trying to make cookies for a while. One batch of muffins in the last three weeks, that is it. When I came across the below recipe I had a renewed sense of hope. No they are not cookies, but they are a sort of cookie bar. They are really easy (I assume something that is good if you are a mom) and quick and they keep for a week.

I'm not sure what is next for me or even what the right next step is. But I can now make a really good cookie bar. It's the little things that count.

Salted Toffee-Chocolate Squares

Adapted from Everyday Food May 2010

Makes 24 squares

13 graham crackers

1 bag of toffee bits (8oz or a little less)

1 1/2 cups finely chopped peanuts

1/2 cup sugar (yes the real stuff)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 tsp coarse salt

1. Preheat over to 350. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place graham crackers in a single layer on sheet, edges touching. Sprinkle toffee bits and peanuts over the graham crackers.

2. In a small saucepan, bring sugar and butter to a boil over medium-high. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer, swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is syrupy, 2 minutes. Immediately pour over graham crackers. Bake until sugar topping is bubbling, 12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate and salt over graham crackers. With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut into 2 inch squares. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. (Store in an air tight container, up to 1 week)

When in Doubt...Blog

Somehow I managed to get sick again.  Came down with a high fever late Sunday and spent Family Day Monday curled up on the couch with an achy body after the fever broke.  Now I am in the midst of sort of head/chest cold, the kind that does not allow you to sleep and the kind that I am pretty sure Breathe Right was invented for.  The NyQuil knocked me out only for so long and now I am sitting in our office with a box of Kleenex trying not to wake up Homer with my nose blowing, which sounds like a ship coming in.

But enough complaining.  A while back I mentioned that I bought the Eat Shrink and Be Merry cookbook in order to see what they had to offer in the way of healthy foods.  I like that every recipe offers the nutritional analysis and since they are Canadian all the ingredients can be found at your local Loblaws.  

While it is not culinary adventure at its finest, it does offer some good nutritional tips for beginners and the recipes are easy to follow.  While the corniness of the titles might drive some bonkers, I can overlook them, and simply admire the number of puns.

I made the following cookies from the book on Sunday and since this blog is sort of lacking in sweets I offer the recipe to you below.

Transgender Cookies (called Girl-Guy Cookies in the book, get it?)

*A quick note that the gals who wrote this book are "undecided" on how healthy artificial sweeteners are, since it is all we have in the house I cooked with them here.  Still tasty.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp each ground allspice and salt

2 tbsp Splenda (or granulated sugar)

1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar (or 1 cup brown sugar)

1/3 cup light peanut butter

3 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp molasses

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together both flours, baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and salt.  Set aside.  Combine Splenda and 1 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl.  Set aside.

3.  In another medium bowl (preferably one fitted to your stand mixer), beat together Splenda Brown Sugar, peanut butter, and butter on medium speed of mixer for about 1 minute.  Add molasses, egg, and vanilla.  Beat again until smooth.

4.  Using a wooden spoon, stir flour mixture into peanut butter mixture.  You will be making a stiff dough.  Using your hands, shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.  Roll balls in reserved cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart (they spread while baking).  Flatten cookies using a fork.

5.  Bake cookies for 7 minutes.  They may appear undercooked, but that's okay.  You want them chewy in the middle.  Remove cookies from oven and immediately transfer from pan to a wire rack to cool.

Recipe says they make 20, I made 18.