Mini Monster Cookies

Although not as large as traditional Monster Cookies, these Mini Monsters are just as delicious.

This recipe is from my grandma. It's one of my favorite of her cookie recipes. She tends to make her monster cookies about twice as big as we do. I've seen similar cookies in coffee shops that are even bigger, more monstrous. We tend to make them smaller because then they are the perfect size for snacking, and my cookie scoop is one Tablespoon. Sometimes I'll make one really big cookie with that last of the dough when I need to finish up quickly; the kids call that the DADDY cookie. :) Big or small, we love them all.

Mini Monster Cookies
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup m&ms
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups peanut butter

• Mix all the ingredients.
• Drop Tablespoon sized dough balls onto an ungreased baking sheet. A cookie scoop works great for this.
• Bake 11-12 minutes at 350*.
• Let cookies cool for one minute on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack.

Notes: If you do make a big monster cookie, make sure to flatten the dough when you place it on the cookie sheet and bake for a couple of extra minutes.

Question: Do you have a favorite cookie recipe from your Grandma?

Moroccan Pork

Moroccan Pork--this picture doesn't do it justice.

I had made this recipe a number of times before realizing that most Moroccans don't eat pork. Fortunately I wasn't serving it to anyone Moroccan. We're still calling it Moroccan Pork because of the seasonings and dried fruit cooked with the meat. If you're serving this to Moroccans, more appropriate meats would be beef, chicken, or lamb. My recipe is loosely based off a recipe for Slow Cooker Moroccan Pork Stew from thriftyfoods.com. My family gives Moroccan Pork a six for six "something good" rating.

Moroccan Pork
5-6 lbs. pork, well trimmed and cut into 2" cubes
Salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons oil
1 onion, sliced
1 green pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 cup flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 orange, juiced and zested
10 dried apricots, sliced
2/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
chopped parsley

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat.
• Season pork with salt and pepper.
• Brown pork in oil. You'll have to work in batches. Place the cooked pork in your crock pot.
• Add the onion and green pepper to the pan and cook for 4 minutes, until tender.
• Add the garlic and the flour and cook for one minute.
• Add the chicken stock and scrape to deglaze the pan.
• Turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients except for the parsley.
• Stir to combine, then transfer to your crock pot.
• Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until tender. 
• Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley when serving.

Notes: Serve over rice or couscous. Can be prepped the night before and cooked during the day.

Question: What is your favorite crock pot recipe?

Carrot Cucumber Salad

Carrot Cucumber Salad with Ginger

Often we’ll have raw veggies with supper. Sometimes I’ll make this carrot cucumber salad for a little variety. It is a great make-ahead recipe because it tastes better after sitting for a couple hours. The ginger and vinegar make the dressing tangy. Our table gives it a five out of six "will eat it" rating.

Carrot Cucumber Salad

¼ cup rice vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon sugar

½ Tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon grated ginger root

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

dash of red pepper flakes

1 cup sliced carrots

1 Tablespoon sliced green onion

2 Tablespoons chopped yellow or red pepper

½ English cucumber quartered lengthwise, then sliced crosswise

• Whisk together the first seven ingredients to make a dressing.
• Add the vegetables. Stir to coat.
• Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.
• Season with salt and pepper if necessary before serving.

Notes: It might seem like there is not enough dressing, but the veggies will let off some water as they sit. You substitute prepared shredded carrots for the sliced carrots to save on prep work. Ginger lasts for a long time in the freezer, making it easy to keep on hand.

Question

What do you do to keep veggies interesting for your family?

Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a family favorite. I do have one child who picks out the veggies, and my husband insists that soup is a side not a main course. But, when served with bread and salad, chicken soup gets positive reviews at our table.

Chicken Soup

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 onion, diced

5 cups chicken stock or broth

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

chicken bouillon

salt and pepper

1 cup uncooked noodles

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped

Fresh parsley, chopped

• Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a soup pot.
• Sauté carrots, celery, and onion for about 5 minutes.
• Add chicken stock or broth and Worcestershire sauce.
• Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Taste the soup and add chicken bouillon if it needs more chicken flavor (I usually end up putting in about 2 teaspoons). Season with salt and pepper.
• Add noodles and simmer for about 8 minutes, until noodles are tender.
• Add chicken. Serve with parsley sprinkled on top.

Notes: I generally use homemade chicken stock, but you can use canned broth for a very tasty, quicker version.

Question

Is soup a side or can it be a main course?

Chicken Stock

Here’s a pantry staple. I do sometimes buy chicken stock, but I like the flavor of homemade and like to make use of leftover chicken bones. I got started making my own stock with a recipe from my Betty Crocker Cookbook for Chicken and Broth that uses a cut up raw chicken. Occasionally I use still use the raw bones method, but generally I like to use the leftovers from a roasted chicken.

Chicken Stock

1 3-4 lb. rotisserie or roasted chicken

12 baby carrots

2 stalks celery cut into large chunks

1 onion quartered

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs fresh parsley

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

• Take the meat off the chicken—save it for soup, enchiladas, chicken potpie, etc.
• Put the bones, skin, and juice/pan drippings from the chicken into a medium sized pot.
• Add the carrots, celery, onion, bay leaf, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add about 5 cups of water, enough to cover the bones and veggies.
• Bring to a boil with the pot uncovered at medium heat.
• Cover the pot and reduced heat to a simmer. Simmer for 2 hours.
• Strain off broth. Discard the rest. (I do usually save the carrots because the little guy likes them.)
• Pour broth into a gravy separator or refrigerate to make it easier to skim the fat.
• Yields about 5 cups broth and 4 cups chicken.

Notes: You can easily double this recipe; just use a bigger pot. This flavorful stock can be frozen in smaller amounts so that you can take out however much you need at a time.

Question

What is your favorite use for chicken broth?

Roasted Cauliflower

Cauliflower roasted past the point of tasting like a vegetable

Warning: There is a possibility that if you employ this method of cooking vegetables your family will never let you go back to boiling or steaming. It happened to me. I sometimes fry the veggies on the stovetop, but flavor bits (those tasty dark spots) are a requirement when it comes to cooked veggies at our house.

I usually roast them on a jellyroll pan. I have two pans that look awful from being used for roasting vegetables and two pans that still look nice that I use for cookies and things. I use kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. I also like fresh vegetables (not frozen) for roasting. Every oven is different and everyone likes veggies at a different stage of crispness, so you might have to play around with it a little.

Roasted Cauliflower

• Preheat oven to 400*.
• Wash the head of cauliflower and cut into small pieces (I peel and cut up chunks of the stem too).
• Place on the pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Mix them around so everything is coated in the oil and the seasoning is distributed.
• Cover with foil. Roast for 10 minutes covered.
• Remove the foil and roast for another 20 minutes or until brown and crispy on the outside but tender on the inside. Stir at least once during cooking.

Note: These could be seasoned with Parmesan cheese, garlic or lemon, but they are great plain too.

Question

What is your favorite vegetable? Cooked or uncooked?

Oven Rice

A number of years ago, I tried a recipe for Rice Pilaf in Emeril Lagasse’s book Potluck. This oven-baked rice is so good that we rarely make rice on the stovetop anymore. When my oldest son was about a year old he loved this rice so much that after supper he would even try to eat up the grains of rice that had fallen on the floor during the meal. It is still a favorite.

Personally, I liked Emeril’s recipe as is, but for the whole family to give this dish a rating of something good I’ve had to make a few changes. I’ve switched out the butter for oil because of our recent dairy issue. I’ve also taken out the onions because all the kids prefer the dish onion free. Taking onions out of anything seems like a tragedy to me, but this is for the good of the whole. 

Oven Baked Rice

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 cup long-grain white rice

1 ¾ cups chicken stock or a 15 oz can of chicken broth

salt to taste

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Heat oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium high heat.
• Add rice and cook until the color of the rice changes to opaque, about 2 minutes.
• Add the chicken broth and salt and bring to a boil.
• Cover and bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let stand covered for 5 minutes.
• Stir or fluff with a fork and serve.

Notes: Remember that the pan handle and cover will be extremely hot coming out of the oven (yes, I’ve burned my fingers). For an easy Spanish rice, use a 15oz can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (or 2 cups salsa) plus one cup of water instead of the chicken broth. I like using the chicken broth with brown rice, but in my opinion brown rice works better on the stove top.

Question

Do you have a recipe that is so good you’d eat it off the floor?

Daily Bread

Shaped like a loaf or a turtle, this bread is something good.

With six people in our family it is often difficult to find a food that everyone likes. Bread is one of those special foods. This is my favorite bread recipe, made almost everyday.

Basic Bread Recipe
2 1/2 cups flour, divided
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon oil
7 oz. water

• In a medium bowl mix 2 cups flour, yeast, salt, and sugar.
• Add oil and water. Stir for one minute.
• Stir in 1/2 cup flour or as much as needed to form a  ball of dough.
• Knead dough for 5 minutes using more flour to keep from sticking.
• Shape dough into a ball and let it raise for 1 hour in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap.
• Punch down dough and shape into a loaf. Place loaf on a lightly greased pie plate or cookie sheet. Brush with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let raise for 30 minutes.
• Use a sharp knife to cut an X or other pattern 1/4 inch deep. Bake for 30 minutes at 400*.
• Brush loaf with oil and cool on a rack.

Notes: Brushing with oil before baking helps the bread to brown. Brushing with oil after baking softens the crust. You can make this bread by hand or with a stand mixer.

Question:
What is something your family eats everyday?