Weekend Story

Friday

Friday Tony and I went to my Mom's house to make Mac and Cheese and after finishing up the Mac and Cheese my brother asked us if we wanted to join him at the local billiards for some beers. We tagged along, Tony doesn't drink but I had a couple beers.

Saturday

Saturday we woke up late. Like 9 AM late, CRAZY! I immediately when into domestic mode and put some clothes to wash. I also cleaned up our room and cleaned our bathroom. Tony helped his Dad take some old furniture to the dump and later in the afternoon we headed to my Momma's house again. I brought a Digiorno's Pizza, Trader Joe's Chow Mein and some Chicken breasts. So random I know, I wanted to get my cooking fix in and boy did I! I made the Digiorno and Chow Mein for lunch and later on for dinner I used the chicken breasts and some Carne Asada meat my Mom had to whip up some Tacos. They were good! I made the salsa from scratch and it was tasty. I also whipped up a batch of my Chocolate Chip Cookies for the kids and my nephew, my sister, Tony and I played for a while. My nephew loves playing Football with Tony, he sees him and all he wants to do is play Football or Baseball. We took some silly pics of our shennanigery.

 

 

These were supposed to be our sexy faces but they ended up being our gangsta faces

 

 

 

My sister made her favorite (only) Brother in Law Tony a jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie



 

 

PS: Here is a quick and easy way to make a Salsa for Tacos or anything your heart desires. This packs on the flavor and you can make it as spicy as you'd like.

 

Grab 4-5 tomatoes (any kind will do)

Some Onion

2 cloves of Garlic

a little handful of Cilantro

2 Jalapenos

Salt

 

Now throw some foil and Olive oil on a pan and you cook those Tomatoes and Jalapenos with a generous amount of salt for a good 25 minutes until they've almost turned to mush.

 

 

Mushy like this

 

 

Trust me on this one...

 

Now you go ahead and throw those garlic cloves, onion and small hand full of cilantro in a blender...

 

 

And add that Tomato mush with all it's gloriousness including the browned tomato skin into the blender

 



 

Now blend and pour that delicious Salsa on some grilled Chicken breast or Carne Asada for Tacos along with diced onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime....

 

 

 

You're welcome.

 

Sunday

Sunday we went with my Mom to Howarth Park for a nice hike. Afterwards my Mom insisted on taking us to breakfast so went to our favorite restaurant Black Bear Diner and I got Chicken Fried Steak and Tony got the Grizz (which comes with pretty much everything you could imagine). It was superb as always. After breakfast we came home and took a long nap and naps on weekends are a rarity for me, I told Tony to soak it all in. Usually he will nap and I will bug him to wake up and do something because weekends are too short and so much fun must be had! I woke up and snuck out to the grocery store and when I got back I watched him play Grand Theft Auto V, I find it so entertaining to watch. We also watched some Netflix for a few hours and I whipped up some grilled Ham and Cheeses on Sourdough with Gouda, Fontina, Cheddar and Virginia Ham. Yum.

 

 

Partially consumed breakfast at Black Bear. I gave my Momma my toast, eggs and half my potatoes. I managed to down 1/2 my Chicken Fried Stead, 1/4 of my potatoes and 1/4 of a pancake. That's a lot for a Bariatric patient!

 

Later on we went to Baskin Robbins for my favorite sweat treat - a mini Oreo Cappuccino Blast. SO GOOD!

 

I promise I don't make awful dietary choices all of the time ;) We came home, hung out a little longer and went to sleep late.

 

PS... Yosemite is less than 4 days away!!! 

~Mely

Cookie Baking Adventure

I recently posted my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Last weekend I baked two batches of Cookies and took pictures along the way to share.

 

I originally wanted to bake Snickerdoodles because I've never baked Snickerdoodles and I am a big fan. I was going to use this recipe but when I got to the grocery store I didn't feel like paying $7 for a bottle of Cream of Tartar because I wasn't going to be baking a ton of Snickerdoodles soon. I also recall seeing a bottle of Cream of Tartar at my Momma's house so I can just borrow it next time I go over. After ruling out Snickerdoodles I browsed the Baking section for other options and I found these:

 

 Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

If you know my husband you know he is a huge peanut butter fan. I immediately thought "Reese's Peanut Butter AND Chocolate chip Cookies. Sold.

 

Then I see this:

Ghirardelli White Chocolate Premium Baking Bar

 Then I thought "White Chocolate Chunk and Chocolate Chip Cookies" YES!

 

P.S. I apologize for the poor lighting. There's bad lighting in my in-laws' kitchen. I guess this is where a fancy camera would have been nice.

 

I already had these chocolate chips that I love using in my cookies at home:

 

Guittard Real Semisweet Chocolate Chips

These are my favorite chocolate chips. A good chocolate chip cookie must have a supreme chocolate chip!

 

Friday night after I let my butter soften for a solid 3 hours my first batch went like this:

 

Ingredients:

1 C. (2 sticks) softened salted butter

1 large egg

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 TSP Pure Vanilla Extract

2 1/4 C All Purpose Flour

1 TSP Baking Soda

1/2 TSP salt

3/4 of a 10 OZ Bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

1/2 bag (6 OZ) Guittard Semisweet Chips

 

(this is simply my original chocolate chip cookie recipe with the chocolate mixed and matched to my liking)

 

I beat the butter, egg, brown sugar and vanilla

 

 

 

 

Then I added my flour, salt and baking soda

 

Then I mixed with my hands and added the chips 

 

 

After I was done making my PB/Choc. chip dough I transferred it to another bowl for later use. Did I mention how much I love my Pyrex bowls? I got a set as a wedding gift and I use them every single time I cook. On the real though, if you don't have yourself a set, go buy one. Click here. No, Pyrex doesn't pay me to advertise on my blog but I really love my Pyrex bowls. I use them for baking, cooking and storing and I want to buy another set when Tony and I purchase our home.

 

 

 

 

Then I used my original bowl to make another batch of dough. This time though...

I added chopped white chocolate chunks and Guittard chocolate chips. I used a 4 OZ bar and the other half of my chocolate chips that remained from the peanut butter chip cookie dough.

I transferred both doughs into large Ziplock bags. On the top is the chcolate chip/white chocolate chunk dough and on the bottom is the peanut butter chip cookie dough. These doughs refrigerate beautifully and I wanted to bake one dozen Friday night and continue the fun Saturday night.

I preheated my oven to 375 then...

 

... Baked for about 8 or 9 minutes.

at the top is 1/2 dozen peanut butter chip cookie and the bottom is 1/2 dozen white chocolate and chip cookies. I let them cook for about 15 minutes before removing.

 

Look at that beauty!

 

 

This is the back of one of my cookies. I don't know what compelled me to take a picture of it but it looked tasty and I just did. Notice the soft buttery texture!

 

And that's it! Phew!

 

~Mely

 

Mely's Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Years ago I started playing around with a few different cookie recipes. I wanted a cookie that exemplified the true definition of what a cookie should be: buttery, sweet but not too sweet, nice texture, good chocolate chip ratio, soft and good flavor. So I came up with one recipe and it was a hit (people tell me I should sell these). It's my go to recipe and I swear by it. I know it by heart and I make it often for family gatherings, coworkers, holidays, so on and so forth. The best part about this recipe is that it is very versatile. You can add nuts, omit chocolate and add raisins, oatmeal and cinnamon or mix in different types of chocolate (I like to make a triple chocolate chunk on very special occassions*) So here it is!

 

This recipe yields about 2 dozen large cookies

 

Ingredients:

1 C. (2 sticks) softened salted butter

1 large egg

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 TSP Pure Vanilla Extract

2 1/4 C All Purpose Flour

1 TSP Baking Soda

1/2 TSP salt

12 OZ Semisweet Chocolate Chips*

Optional - 1 C. Chopped Walnuts

Preheat your oven to 375 Degrees

 

Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla on medium-high with an electrical hand mixer until well blended and no chunks of brown sugar appear

 

Add in your flour, baking soda and salt. Use your hands to combine and form your cookie dough. Then add your chocolate chips.

 

Drop rounded tablespoonds on a cookie sheet, 12 per sheet. Bake on the top rack for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Do not overbake, you want your cookies soft and chewy after cooling. Remember to let  your cookies cool on their sheet after removal from the oven.

 

Enjoy :)

 

*Sometimes I like to buy three 4 OZ baking bars of Ghirardelli white, dark and milk chocolate and chop them up to make triple chocolate chunk cookies when I'm feeling fancy. I suggest you do the same if you're also feeling fancy ;) Remember to use a good quality chocolate chip if you want to do the original cookie recipe.

My Cookie Baking Adventure will be posted soon and will contain pics of the process. Just wanted to post the recipe already :)

~Mely

Weekend Story

Friday
Friday work was such a drag! Not because work sucked but because I was tired and moved at the speed of molasses. I had asked Tony to defrost some chicken breasts and put some butter out to soften because I had grandiose plans for a culinary and baking experience that night. This wasn't sounding so appealing around 3 PM. A Starbucks iced coffee was in order? Perhaps!

 I got home and was super tired. I went upstairs and layed down for a bit. I ended up not even cooking anything. I did whip up two batches of cookie dough. More on this on my "Cookie Adventures" post that's coming soon. I baked about a dozen cookies and Tony's pal and his little brother came over for some hanging out and cookie eating. I went to bed at around 11:45 and I was out!

Here they are! I actually don't eat much of the cookies I make. Although they get great reviews and I make them with lots of amor I tend to only eat 1 or 2 at a time. In my eyes, it's the baking of them that is the true pleasure.
 

Saturday

Saturday Tony was up bright and early to go take his P.O.S.T test for the Santa Rosa Police Department. He is in the middle of applying and this is just the second hoop to jump. I'm praying that he does great on it. I know if he gets to the in person interview portion, he has a pretty good chance of being hired. He is very qualified and according to my friend who knows the former Police Chief, he is everything the PD is searching for in candidates. Please send good vibes our way so Tony has a smooth and successful application process.

Images of a hot police officer husband come to mind ;)

 

 

Not exactly my husband. Tony's much buffer, taller and tanner. Close enough. Swoon.

I was up early as well to sip on coffee and make Tony some breakfast burritos. After Tony got home we got ready to head out to a birthday party. The birthday party was for a family friend's grandson. Let me just say she can really get down with hosting parties. She offered a couple different types of tacos. You lined up at the Taco grill and ordered whatever tacos you wanted and topped them off with toppings to your liking. Delish!

We came home early from the party and went to lay down for a bit. Tony headed to the gym while I baked up more cookies from the remaining cookie dough. We went to bed and I attempted to watch an episode of "Who the Bleep did I Marry" but I quickly dozed off.


Sunday
Sunday we woke up late at 9 AM. I headed downstairs to have coffee with my MIL. I had a bag of Potstickers in the freezer and made potstickers, yes potstickers for breakfast. Tony's aunt and My Momma and little sister came over later and we had Salsa de Nopales, Beans, Chips and Cheese for Lunch. Nopales are cactus and are a common vegetable consumed in Mexico. You can whip them up with Tomato, Onion and Cilantro and enjoy with chips or you can sautee them and serve them as a hot dish. My Mom likes to cook them with eggs. I know this sounds unappetizing if you aren't used to it but they are tasty and good for you! I guess it's a Mexican thing.

Nopales unpeeled. These suckers are a real task to peel. Look at those thorns!

 

 

Peeled and Cut

 

Enough of that... So we had lunch and chatted a long while until dinner time. My Mother in Law helped me make Green Enchiladas. Sorry, I just wanted us to finish them and I didn't take pictures for a recipe post. Soon my dears, soon. We also talked about my current favorite subject to talk about. YOSEMITE!!! T-minus 18 days before we leave :) Tony's aunt had left earlier and my Mom and sister left after dinner. I cleaned up the kitchen and Tony did the dishes and we went upstairs. Later on I wanted something sweet so we headed out to Baskin Robbins and I got me a mini Oreo Cappuccino Blast. Bad, so bad. At least I get the mini, right? RIGHT?!

 

 

And that's all folks. Next weekend my Pals will be joining us for a little weekend fun. We are going to the river and they might join us for a little county fair action! Can't wait! Is it Friday yet?

 

~Mely