Zen and the art of the perfect snickerdoodle

I am going to preface this by stating that I am a cookie rebel. I'll get to that a little later.

Snickerdoodles are Robert's favorite cookie, and he put in an order for the next time that me and Korey made cookies- either snickerdoodles or peanut butter cookies with a hershey kiss ( I think they're called thumbdrop cookies or something like that?). I am not anywhere ready to attempt the candy in the cookie. I've barely worked up to rolling cookie dough in foreign substances.

It was a little intimidating- how do you live up to your husband's FAVORITE COOKIE IN THE WHOLE WORLD? How many ridiculously awesome snickerdoodles has he had in his life? How could my meager attempt at a snickerdoodle possibly compare? And would he try to hide his disdain if they came out gross? I realized that the stupid snickerdoodles took on this larger than life context to me. It's just a stupid (albeit delicious) cookie. And then, watching Korey just be super happy mixing butter and sugar together, I realized that my cookies don't have to be perfect, or even great. That if I waste too much time trying to get the cookie perfect, I'm not going to be able to enjoy the process, or even eating them.

Even if they are just stupid cookies, they still managed to maybe teach me a little something. And I guess all my worrying was all for naught- they were pretty great. Not the best ever, but the best I've ever made, and that's ok with me :)


apparently it's another case of the uncopyable online recipe.
Here's the link: www.recipezaar.com/soft-snickerdoodle-cookies-97496

The only changes to the recipe are that instead of the baking soda and cream of tartar, use 2 teaspoons of baking powder. Apparently back in the old days you had to combine the baking soda and cream of tartar to make a leavener. Nowadays us high falootin bakers can just use baking powder.

Oh, and we mixed some extra cinnamon into the dough.

I didn't make the cookies as big as the recipe called for. Once they were smooshed down, they were like 2 inches across. Total cook time was 9 minutes. Cook em for 6 minutes, then open the oven (blasphemy!) and then cook for another 3 minutes. I don't know what it is, but I swear every single cookie I ever make for the rest of my life I'm going to open the oven to let some of the heat out.

For the first time in my life, not only were my cookies super soft, even the next day, but I didn't lose the usual pan of martyr cookies- the dozen that I have to waste to figure out how to get them right. or as close to right as I ever get when it comes to cookies.

zucchini muffin recipe

Here is the recipe for the zucchini muffins. We made them with oil rather than butter. I put all the ingredients into a recipe calculator, and they came out to be about 340 calories each. But they're super dense, and easily make a filling breakfast, which is what I did with them. I think next time I make them I'll mix in some wheat germ to try to counterract all the calories, or at least make them count more.

For some reason I can't copy the recipe off the website I pulled it from, so here's the link:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_muffins/

next up: snickerdoodles. yum!

Yummy Snickerdoodles!

It was so great! Me and my mom made snickerdoodles. They were so good, you could not beleve how good they were! We also made it from scratch! I got to help with rolling the dough in the suger! I also got to help patting and siring! We made 2 dosen snickerdoodles,! and there already been eaten! I had a lot of fun! But the best thing about cooking is because I'm doing it with mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by korey

zuchinii time

Its zuchinii time!!! I made zuchinii muffens with mommy. You really can't tast the zuchinii in them, its more like a spice cake. The zuchinii is to make the muffen moust.You can really like tast the cinnamen and nut meg in it. What my mom likes th do is cut it4 in pices and put butter on it. It was really moust. My mom she liked it so much she ate most of them!!!!!!!!!! We made 12 zuchinii muffens, and there are onley 4 left.!! I bet we can start making mony$$$ but if we dont thats OK!!!...


see you next time
Korey

strawberry short cake

Today I made strawberry short cake with my mommy!! The first thing we did was we got some strawberrys ,then we got some suger and poured it in the bowl, ( I got to stir it in!!) Then we got some buisquit dough and milk and stirred it together. Next we got some more suger and sprinkeld it on, we put it in the oven, we took it out and put some strawberrys on it and.....DELISHES!!! It was so good!!! But it was not as good as my nanna's strawberry short cake, but that's ok!!!!

By Korey

Monday- strawberry shortcake

So far we've done banana muffins (yummy!) and chocolate chip cookies (eh, so so), and Korey's choice this week to do was strawberry shortcakes.

I will be the first to admit that it wasn't anything particularly involved, but it did involve an oven, so it's baking :)

It's amazing watching my daughter who can't sit still for two seconds concentrate on slicing strawberries so that the slices are perfectly even. Or slowly sprinkly sugar on the strawberrries, stirring, sprinkling, stirring. And she really likes saying that she's macerating the strawberries.

She takes her time and seems to really get into it whereas I dump all the sugar in at once or just chop something up really quickly without really paying attention. It really teaches you to take some time out, concentrate on the details, and enjoy the moment not the outcome. It's amazing how smart kids are and how much they can teach you without even trying.


Strawberry shortcake recipe:
-1 pint strawberries, sliced
-1/4 sugar

-1 cup bisquick (we use the low fat stuff)
-2 tbsp sugar
-1/3 cup milk

-whipped cream

-Heat oven to 425. Mix strawberries with sugar and set aside
-mix bisquick, sugar and milk, separate into 1/4s and bake 10-12 minutes (until golden brown)

split the biscuits, top with strawberries and "whoop cream" and there ya go!



Next week I think we're going to attempt a lemon blueberry pie or carrot muffins.. or both.. we'll see.

My commitment to Korey

Trying to find something in common to do with a 7 year old girl is nearly impossible. Especially the way things are, with her ipod and webkins and (recently outlawed) Hanna Montana. Trying to find something to do together that doesn't involve sitting in front of a television, or computer, or video game is even harder.

I like to think myself a fairly modern and anti-sexist parent. My daughter was encouraged to dress up not just like a Barbie princess, but also like Darth Vader if she so chose, and my son plays with play food and wheels a baby doll around in a little stroller. Korey is very tech savvy, so I find it fairly amusing that the common ground we found is so simple, and old fashioned, and hardly anything with power is used- baking.

My promise is this: we are going to make time every single week to bake something new. We have our mom and daughter time, and we get (hopefully) yummy treats without all the junk that comes with premade yummies from the grocery store. We'll spend time together, I may hopefully improve my baking skills, and Korey will have a kickass skill to show off down the line.

Once a week (maybe more, depending on how sweet our teeth are that week, we'll try something new, and me and Korey will both write about it :)