Will you marry me cookies

The title of these cookies caught my eye - "Will you marry me cookies?".

I naturally assumed by the name that if you served someone these delicious cookies, it might just inspire the recipient to spontaneously pop the question. Could that really be how this delicious cookie got it's name? Someone impulsively made a lifelong commitment to a significant other based on a cookie that they just couldn't live without?

Or perhaps it was just the opposite. A clever baker, trying to muster up the courage to propose to their true love, decided to offer up a batch of irresistible cookies to "sweeten the deal." After all, anyone who can bake up a batch of cookies this delicious, has got to be a good mate.

If you are someone who has already made the decision to propose to the love of your life but aren't quite sure how to pop the question, maybe you should consider doing so, with a batch of these cookies.  Or maybe, you've been the one waiting for your true love to present you with an engagement ring - a batch of these cookies might just tip the scales in your favor.  To be honest, I'm not really sure if one cookie is capable of altering a person's love life but if any cookie had that kind of power - it would be this one. 

This recipe came from www.thecafesucrefarine.com.

Will You Marry You Me Cookies

Ingredients: 1 cup butter 1 ¼ cups brown sugar ½ cup granulated sugar 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups flour 1 cup uncooked rolled oats ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup white chocolate chips, extra for garnishing, if desired* (I substituted dark chocolate instead.) 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, extra for garnishing, if desired* 1 cup roughly chopped, toasted pecans, extra for garnishing, if desired*

 



Directions: 1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until melted. Remove from the heat. 

 


2. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and stir until sugars are incorporated and smooth. Chill the mixture for 10 minutes.

3. Remove from the refrigerator and stir in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.

 
4. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cinnamon and mix together.

 
5. Stir in the white chocolate chips, chocolate chips and pecans.

 
6. Roll by hand into medium-size balls or use a scoop, and place on sheet pans. If desired tuck extra chips and pecans over tops of dough mounds for a lovely appearance.

 
7. Chill, on sheet pan for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Remove the cookies from the refrigerator and bake for 14-18 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Allow to cool for several minutes on pan, then transfer to cooling rack.

I'm not really sure of the back story on how these cookies came to be named "Will you marry me cookies" but I can assure you that they are delicious.  If a proposal is in you near future, and you are considering including some sort of sweet treat along with an engagement ring, you just might give these cookies a second look.  They really are THAT good.

Ciao!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Peanut Salad

Why is it that my dishwasher breaks at the most inconvenient times.  (Is there really ever a convenient time for the dishwasher to break?)  We had a dishwasher malfunction in early November, during homecoming weekend while my parents were visiting.  The good news is that we happened to have a big stack of paper plates AND everyone chipped in to help wash the dishes that we did use.

While the dishwasher was out of commission, (for 7 weeks!)  I learned to be very conservative with the number of dishes that I used while I was preparing dinner.  I think food bloggers use even more dishes than the average Joe cook because we're constantly moving food to clean dishes so it can be photographed.  I had never given it too much thought because I would just put all those dishes in the dishwasher.  Now that I have to wash them all by hand, I'm much more conscious of the ridiculous amount of dishes that I use to create and photograph one meal. 

My non functioning dishwasher has caused me to reevaluate my dish use so my blog posts are going to look slightly different until the dishwasher gets repaired.  Fewer dishes to wash equals a happier food blogger. 

Ryan is well into his wrestling season and he is trying to maintain his weight so we've been opting for more salads for dinner.  I found this recipe on mykitchenescapades.com and since Ryan is such a big peanut fan, I was hoping that he would appreciate this salad.

I changed the recipe from the original quite a bit.   I didn't marinate my chicken but I put about 8 chicken breasts (enough for the whole week) on the Big Green Egg and grilled them with a little salt and pepper.  I left the instructions for the marinade from the original recipe because I think that it would be even better with marinated chicken.  I also couldn't find Thai sweet red chili sauce at my Wal Mart supermarket and I was not in the mood to go to another grocery store so I decided to just leave it out.  I ended up combining the dressing and the peanut sauce into one peanuty vinaigrette.  It was yummy.  As you can see, this is one of those salad recipes that you can change and adjust and adapt to your own taste.  It would be hard to mess this one up. 

Peanut Chicken Salad
(recipe adapted from Taste and Tell)
serves 8

Chicken marinade
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 Tb rice vinegar
1/4 C sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 lime, juiced
dash of salt and pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - about 2 1/2 pounds total

Salad
2 hearts of romaine, chopped
1/2 large head of napa cabbage, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 carrots, shredded
1 red bell pepper, chopped
5 green onions, chopped
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 C salted peanuts

Dressing
1/4 C rice vinegar
1/4 C Thai sweet red chili sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
pinch of salt and pepper

Peanut Sauce
1/4 C natural peanut butter
2 Tb soy sauce
1 Tb rice vinegar
1 Tb Thai sweet red chili sauce
2 Tb water




In a ziplock bag, combine all the ingredients for the chicken marinade.  Mush it all around, then place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours to marinade.  Cook the chicken either on a hot grill, 6-8 minutes a side or in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.





Allow it to cool a bit, then chop up all the chicken into bite sized pieces.

 
Cut lettuce and cabbage and add to a big bowl.

Add cucumbers.

Add carrots.

 Add red bell pepper.

Add green onions.

Add cilantro.

Add peanuts and toss.

Combine all the dressing ingredients then pour over the salad.













Stir together the ingredients for the peanut sauce in a small bowl.  If the sauce is too thick to drizzle, add a bit more water.
I combined the peanut sauce and the dressing.







Generously drizzle the peanut sauce over each serving of salad then top with the peanuts and chicken.

This salad was crunchy and nutty and delicious.  Ryan loved the chicken with the peanut vinaigrette.  He didn't eat a lot of the salad but he did pack some for his lunch for the following day.  I thought this was a really delicious salad and I am definitely going to try it again with marinated chicken and some Thai sweet red chili sauce.

Ciao!

Skillet Cheeseburger Macaroni

On the days that Ben has to travel out of town for work, I usually plan super kid-friendly meals.   It''s not that Ben doesn't like kid-friendly food but I guess I just feel outnumbered when he's away.  Don't get me wrong, I still make sure that we get our vegetables but it might just be on top of a pizza instead of a salad.

When I do my meal planning I try and take into account their teenage palates.  They probably don't think so, but I do take special efforts to include foods that they like to eat.  Unfortunately, the food preferences of my kids changes DAILY.  (If you have teenagers - or kids of any ages really - you know exactly what I mean.)  It's nearly impossible to predict what foods they will like and which foods they will find repulsive on any given day.

So when dad goes out of town, I opt for easy dinners that I THINK the kids will like.  I usually stick to pasta and pizza and chicken for my finicky teenagers.  Not to mention the fact that the kids don't really appreciate time-consuming, complicated recipes.  They're super happy with a hamburger - not so much a gourmet duck burger.

Skillet Cheeseburger Macaroni
1 pound 85% lean ground beef
1 cup finely chopped onion
12 ounces elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
salt and pepper
6 ounces chopped deli american cheese
1/2 cup chopped dill pickles








Cook beef and onion until beef is no longer pink.







Add macaroni, broth, tomato sauce, Worcestershire, mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Bring to a boil. 

Cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook on low for 8-10 minutes.

Add cheese and pickles.  Season with salt and pepper.

I'm not sure if this is a compliment or not but BOTH kids walked past the dinner table and immediately said "Mom made hamburger helper?".  I guess my dinner really did look like hamburger but thankfully, it tasted a little better and it had a LOT less sodium. 




I also stopped by Jimmy Johns and picked up some of their day old bread for 50 cents!  It was a perfect compliment to this easy weeknight meal.

So there you have it, my super simple weeknight meal that my kids just gobbled up.

Ciao!