This little piggy...

Because I have nothing else to post about, I'm going to share this commercial that made me laugh until I cried today.  :)  Thank you, GEICO!

They're Baaaaaaack!

My comments are back! 

I know I don't have tons of them, but I truly missed the comments I did have.  It still amazes me that I have people who follow my ramblings about all the bland food I make.  :)  I know that most of my 15 followers over there on the right side are friends and family, but there are some people I don't know.  Thank you for reading, regardless of how I know (or don't know) you!

Now, please accept my apologies.  It's been a while since I've posted.  In all honesty, it's been a while since I've cooked or baked something that hasn't already been posted...or cooked or baked at all!  About three months ago at work, I changed offices.  I'm still with the same company, but I work in a higher volume office that's closer to home.  I knew the work environment would be different, but I could have never imagined what it would really be like.  These last three weeks have been insane.  Truly insane.  Once I get home, we either throw in a Stouffer's French Bread Pizza, grill hot dogs, or grab something at a restaurant.  The last thing I want to do is cook.

My promise to you, I will try to post more.  I put the "and More" part in the blog title because it gave me freedom to post about anything.  I think it's time to try that direction.  Please stay tuned!

Not a happy camper

I'll give you the good news first.

Not sure if you've noticed, but Brookie's Cookies has upgraded to a custom domain name!  You can now find us (well, me) at http://www.brookiescookiesandmore.com/.  :)

Now the bad news.

All of your comments have seemed to have disappeared.  I'm so sad.  I did go a little Google research, and it looks like I'm not the only person who has had this issue.  Some people report that their comments come back after a couple weeks to a few months.  I'm keeping my fingers (and toes, arms, etc...) crossed.  Hope springs eternal!

I'll have the big salad.

**Virtual points to anyone who can tell me where the big salad is from.  :) **


Last weekend, my husband decided that we needed a new kitchen faucet.  We can get something new and shiny?  Okay, I'm in!  :) 

I don't have a before photo, but here is the after:

I'm seriously in love.  I feel all fancy when I'm doing dishes now.  Our old spout came straight out.  I had no idea how much room a gooseneck spout would give me!

I wanted to try out the new faucet further by doing something other than dishes.  If you recall, in my previous post, I mentioned how I had bought some lettuce the other day that went bad really quickly.  Well, I had purchased the other salad veggies to go with it, but now they didn't have a bed of lettuce to rest on.  Quite sad, huh?  I didn't want the other veggies to follow in the footsteps of the first head of lettuce, so we picked up another head.

Disclaimer:  I am fully aware that Iceberg lettuce has virtually no nutritional value, but it's the only kind my husband will eat.  Every now and then I try to slip some Romaine or Green Leaf lettuce past him, but I usually hear about how he prefers the other kind.  For the sake of this post, please imagine whatever type of lettuce you prefer to eat.  :)

Yes, I know that making a tossed salad is super easy.  I just wanted to pass along some tips that I've found along the way that I think are helpful.


Tip #1
Use a lettuce knife.  The serrated plastic blade keeps greens from browning which can happen when you use a metal blade.  I love my lettuce knife by Zyliss.

Please be careful.  Even though the knife is made out of plastic, it still hurts if you run it across your fingers. 

I may or may not be giving you this tip from personal experience...


Tip #2
Use a salad spinner.  I didn't have one until a few months ago, and I constantly wonder how I lived without it.  My friends Jess (from Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy) and Marcin gave me a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card for my birthday this year.  I wasn't sure what to spend it on and finally decided on this salad spinner.  I'm glad I did!  It really does help dry the lettuce after you've washed it.  I used to just shake the collander around until my arms hurt, but my lettuce was usually still really wet.  No more soaking wet lettuce = a happy Brooke.


Tip #3

Shred your carrots.  Shredded carrots are much easier to pick up with a fork.  You don't have to be a master chef to use shredded carrots in your salads, trust me.  I used to use the julienne disc for my food processor.  This was very easy to do, but kind of a pain to clean up.  If you're making a really large salad, I would recommend using this method, but if you're making just a small salad to go with dinner, I would suggest getting a julienne peeler.  Again, I have one made by Zyliss, and I LOVE it.


Tip #4

Cover your salad.  If you're preparing your salad in advance, make sure to keep it nice and crisp by covering it with a wet paper towel.  My mom learned this neat little trick when she volunteered in the kitchen at Camp Barakel where I used to go to summer camp.  That was over 15 years ago, but we still use that handy tip to keep our salads from drying out.  I also cover my bowl with plastic wrap before sticking it in the fridge.

Enjoy!

And there you have it!  A crisp, green, fresh salad to go alongside dinner.  We had ours last night with Stouffer's French Bread Pizza. 

Sometimes I just don't feel like cooking.  :)

Burger Queen?

So I'm not really a burger queen.  I'm not even the queen of the grill.  Ryan would be the king of that domain.  I cover the kitchen, but he gets the grill.  :)

Tonight for dinner we finished off the burgers we had leftover from this weekend's BBQ with our friends.  I was going to make a salad to with our meal, but the lettuce I purchase on Friday was NASTY!  Seriously...I've never had lettuce go bad that quickly before.  Looks like I don't know how to pick a good head of lettuce.  Our side with dinner consisted only of pickles.  I have a feeling we'll be getting something later when we go to Pint Night at Baileys'.  :)

Without further ado...


Grilled Hamburgers

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground meat (I use ground sirloin or lean beef)
• 1-2 Tbls Mrs. Dash® Hamburger Grilling Blend™ seasoning

Directions:

1. Mix 1-2 Tbls of the Mrs. Dash seasoning in with your ground beef.  The Mrs. Dash bottle calls for 2 Tbls per 1lb of beef, but we think that is too much.  I used a little less than 1 Tbls this last time, and thought it was the perfect amount.  I also use my Kitchenaid mixer to mix the meat.  It's just so much easier than using your hands.  Your hands can do the job just fine though.
2. Divide the meat mixture in fours.  Then just smush the meat together and flatten out into patties with your (clean) hands.  I heard a tip once that you should make an indent in the center of the patty.  I think it helps keep the burger flat while you grill it.  It's always worked great for me!
3. Grill!  I don't know the specifics on the grilling part because I've never done it myself.  The amount of time will depend on how well you like your burgers done.  Don't forget to top it with cheese if you like cheese burgers!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July holiday celebrating our country's independence!

Back to Basics

I realized the other day that the name of my blog is Brookie's Cookies & More, but I have only posted one cookie recipe.  Yes, I have decorated sugar cookies in many ways, but it's still just one type of cookie.  Yesterday we had some friends over for a BBQ, so I figured it would be the perfect excuse to make some different types of cookies and blog about them, of course.

My husband, Ryan, doesn't like all the "fancy" cookies I make.  He prefers your tried-and-true cookies like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.  So, that's what I made.  However, I did add a little twist to the chocolate chip cookies by using M&Ms instead of chocolate chips.  Big twist, huh?  I like to live on the edge.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I use my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375ºF.
2. Mix sugars, butter and egg in large bowl.  Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff).  Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft).  Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet.  Cool on wire rack.

This time, I excluded the nuts and, as mentioned above, added in 2 cups of M&Ms.  I've always thought about using one cup of chocolate chips and one cup of white chocolate chips.  You could use peanut butter chips too.  I suppose the possibilities are endless!

This next cookie is my absolute favorite!  My friend from high school, Julia (you can find her here), makes these AMAZING oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  The first time I had them, I asked her where she bought them because I wanted to go buy some.  When she told me she made them herself, I knew I had to get the recipe!

I call these...

Julia's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip (or Raisin) Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups paked dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1 Tbls molasses
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (unbleached)
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3 cups rolled oats (not the quick kind)
• 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips OR
• 12 oz baking raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, molasses, and vanilla until smooth. combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves in a separate dish. Stir combination into the sugar mixture.  Stir in the oats and chocolate chips or raisins.  Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden.  Do not overbake.  (Try to pull them out right with they start to brown around the edges.)  Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Julia's Notes:

I learned from my mother that the only way to bake is to use real butter (I do use salted) and vanilla, 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat flour, brown sugar, etc...that makes all the difference!  And underbaking them slightly should make them nice and chewy.  :)

I could eat these cookies all day.  I used raisins this time, but semi-sweet chocolate chips are just as amazing.  If you decide to use raisins, make sure you buy baking raisins.  They are a lot juicer than regular raisins and make for a great cookie!