East Coast Baking with My Best Buddy: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

This week I've been staying with friends in Washington, D.C. The great thing about my job is I can work from anywhere (thank you coolest job ever!). I'm so grateful that I made the decision to leave last Friday to see Lara, my future sister-in-law, and Jenna, my best friend in the whole wide world. On Sunday night Jenna and I thought it would be fun to do some baking in her cute Constitution Avenue apartment, so we got busy making Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies. [Please click on the hyperlink for the recipe, por favor, and just add one cup dried cranberries to make this receipe extra tasty!]

This week we also managed to dine at some delicious eateries across DC: Etete, fantastic Ethiopian (I recommend the peppered beef and collard greens), Rasika, the best lamb chops with mint chutney I've ever tasted in my life (hello, chocolate samosa), and Teasim's (in Dupont Circle) cutie pie salmon, edamame, cucumbers with pickled ginger and vinegar, and brown rice bento boxes. While St. Louis has some great places to eat, I was so excited to experience Ethiopian, Japanese and Indian in a city that has some incredible chefs and good eats.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd also like to give thanks for my mom and dad, sisters and brother, my granddad, grandpa and grandma, my adorable and wicked smart 8-year-old nephew, the love of my life Dave, his family, our friends (we are so lucky to have so many... thank you for making life fun!), and the cute little fuzzy creatures (aka, my three cats) who share the ups and downs of our lives.

While I won't be responsible for baking or roasting a turkey tomorrow, I do want to give a shout-out to all of you who will be. May tomorrow's meal be a great reminder that we all slow down, give thanks, and enjoy a delicious slow-cooked (or baked) meal.

Hugs, high fives, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Kella

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Sometimes Traditional is Beautiful

I'm all for experimentation in art, jazz, love, and life, but sometimes plain old vanilla ice cream, chocolate chip cookies or a simple shot of amaretto are flavors I crave. I don't think one has to always muddle lime basil in her salsa or make goji berry-flaxseed-chocolate chip cookies to make traditional fare taste great, though I will admit little fusion tips and tricks like these amuse me.


Sometimes, though, it's easy to understand why some tried-and-true recipes are just that: unflappable, honest, and incredibly comforting. Great bakers know that you don't have to be exotic to create delicious food. There's something beautiful about the simplicity of high-quality ingredients.


So, in tonight's post, I want to pay respect to the unfussy Chocolate Chip Cookie. You are simple, you are humble, but oh-so good when you come straight from the oven. And now that fall is settling in, let's fire up the ovens and bake.



Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
by Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything
Makes 3 to 4 dozen

Time: About 30 minutes

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract (pure... no imitation, folks)
2 cups premium chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and sugars; add the eggs one at a time (this is key!) and beat until well blended (smooth, baby, smooth!).
3. Combine the dry ingredients--flour, baking soda, and salt--in a bowl and add them to the batter by hand, stirring to blend. Stir in the vanilla & then the chocolate chips.
4. Drop by teaspoons or tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets and bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling. Store in a covered container at room temp for no more than a day or two.

Looking for A Big Bloom on A Short Vine

title after Lee Ann Womack's song, "The Bees"

My seeds are sprouting into cilantro, basil and chives. Zinnias and California Poppies are coming, so today I drove my little red truck to my local gardening shop and bought more potting soil, pastel pink impatiens and purple sage. I love the guys at University Gardens, 8130 Delmar Blvd. in University City. They're down to earth, have a lot of cool tats, and excellent advice on how to grow a garden (a stinky yet Hulk-like hint: fish emulsion).

In the next month or so, I'm going to start my organic summer vegetable garden because, let's face it, the girl and her oven are going to want to conserve a little heat for summer-fresh fare. And I think it's a crime to go all summer without fresh pico de gallo.

But until the heat becomes the "hot mess" my friend Lindsey M. often called St. Louis summers, I'm still baking. In the past two weeks I've made six dozen chocolate chip cookies and a lovely pan of the lime bars pictured above. Lime Bars were an impulse bake on Monday night. Chocolate chip cookies continue to be chewy, buttery crisp with lots of Ghiradelli semisweet chocolate. When my friend Beth comes to town on her way to her professorship at Bucknell, I'm going to use Scharfenberger to make her extra special delicacies. We're also hitting that taqueria on Cherokee St. and buying chocolates from Kakao. Hello, Maker's Mark chocolates and shrimp burritos. Yum.

But the best part of this week besides digging in the dirt and then baking (with liberal hand washing in between), was the little package that arrived on Wednesday night from Fed Ex. Our tickets from Travelocity arrived, which means Dave and I are definitely flying to Madrid in late June to visit some of his friends and then hitch a train to France for Carmella's wedding in Normandy on July 1. You best believe there will be a European edition of "A Girl and Her Oven." Double swoon with ripe camembert on top.

So, without further ado, to celebrate this week's bounty, here's my homage to tart lime bars (I promise to bake more chocolate chip cookies soon!). May the two flavors unite on this blog sometime soon. And if you're ever in town, let me know. I'll invite you to dinner, or at least dessert.

Hugs and high fives,
Kella

Lime Bars
a recipe modified from The Taste of Home Baking Book, a gift from my dad

Shortbread Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter (unsalted), melted

Filling Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel

Dust confectioners' sugar on top once the bars are cool to the touch.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Press into a greased 13" x 9" x 2" pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-15 minutes, or just until edges are lightly browned.

2. For filling, combine eggs, sugar, lime juice, flour, baking powder, and lime zest in a large mixing bowl. Beat until frothy while listening to some good music. I recommend James Brown for this step.

3. Bake 20-25 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Enjoy!