THE chocolate chip cookie.

Here’s the deal, sometimes I listen to the acoustic version of the Justin Bieber’s album on Spotify. Sometimes I wander around Target and look at things for way too long and never buy anything. Sometimes I think about spending the whole summer working on the beach at one of those crazy beach stores. Sometimes I totally skip dinner and eat chocolate chip cookies instead.

I think we can all agree that we all have things. Things we spend a good chunk of our time doing or thinking about that are kind of silly, kind of random, kind of ridiculous but often worth the time.  

Some of these things need a bit more consideration before jumping all in. Don’t just go moving to the beach without taking a few minutes to think about it. At least talk to your mama about it. In fact, always do that. But when it comes to cookies for dinner, just go for it. Don’t think about it being 9:00pm, don’t think about the dirty dishes you will have afterward and definitely don’t, whatever you do, think about the calories. Definitely have a cookie. Have a few.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Bucky’s Barbecue & Bread 

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet mini chocolate chips

· Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

· Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together and set aside.

· Mix the sugars and melted butter just until thoroughly mixed, then add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended – don’t over beat!

· Stir in the chocolate chips, then drop dough (tablespoon size) one at a time on a cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart, and bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.

· Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool a bit when removed from the oven. Once they cool a few minutes, remove the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Makes 24-30 cookies, depending on their size.

cobbler salad.

I totally get that this is sort of a summer food salad but it seemed delicious and after all this is Florida which means it's pretty much always summer. Right?

This salad is really easy. Really easy.

You may also be thinking warm salted fruit sounds a little weird. I thought so too until I remembered how much I love those two ingredients in a cobbler and decided it probably couldn't be too terribly awful. I'd like to think I was correct. So there we have it, a cobbler salad. Try it.

Grilled Fruit & Blue Cheese Salad
-a pear
-a peach
-a few strawberries
-sea salt
-spinach or greens
-blue cheese
-vinaigrette dressing (optional)

Turn your broiler on low. Slice up your fruit and put it on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and pop it in the oven. Wait a few minutes, do a dance, and then sprinkle the fruit with blue cheese. Bake it a few minutes longer or just until the cheese starts to melt. Wait a few more minutes for the fruit to cool, do another dance and then place that cheesy grilled fruit on a bed of your favorite greens. Add a little bit of your favorite dressing and wah-la!

Easy, pretty & tasty.

p.s. I think I would add some sliced almonds next time!

sweet and unexpected.

I had an unexpected visit from a best friend last weekend. Think about this, you are driving down the road to doctor's appointment, ice cold diet coke in the cup holder, America's top forty on the radio, and you just got three green lights in a row. All of the sudden, you hear this loud noise coming from the back left tire and your car starts to shake violently. Dun..dun...dun, flat tire. To make matters worse, the violent shaking caused the diet coke you were sipping to spill on your shirt and because you had to get out and assess the situation, you missed hearing the #1 song in America. While waiting on triple A to come your rescue, you call your doctor an explain that you won't be making it to the appointment because you ran into some unexpected car trouble. Bad day.

In this hypothetical flat tire extravaganza, unexpected = unfortunate, sad, and annoying.

On the other side of the spectrum...

Friend coming to visit unexpectedly = pure happiness. It was a weekend full of laughter, reminiscing, baking, sight seeing, and discovery. You get the point. It was awesome.  

Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays because there aren't any real expectations. No one has to cook a turkey and stuff it or buy a gift for someone. Unless of course, your mom hates hamburgers and her birthday is on the fourth of July. Then do it. Let's face it though, the expectations for this holiday are few. This fourth of July weekend was no exception and it was really great. It was complete with friends, minor league baseball, cornhole, fireworks, delicious food and apple pie.

Ohh, the apple pie. Carolyn and I were challenged via twitter by her brother and his new wife (remember this?) to an apple pie bake off. Determined to prove our baking skills and patriotism could outshine these newlyweds, we got to work. The competition proved to be pretty fierce. This was our pride and joy:

 

This apple pie was quite delicious. It oozed winners. However, our pie was in Alabama and their pie was in Florida so after we got a few trash talking tweets out of the way, we called it a draw.

This weekend truly was one for the books. It also came with the reminder of how blessed we are to live in a free nation that allows us to worship, to celebrate, to love, to bake, to enjoy friendships, and to appreciate the countless blessings of life.

The recipe for our pie: Barefoot Contessa

4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered, and cored

Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 teaspoon to sprinkle on top
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water for egg wash

Perfect Pie Crust
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut each apple quarter in thirds crosswise and combine in a bowl with the zests, juices, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

Roll out half the pie dough and drape it over the pie pan to extend about 1/2 inch over the rim. Don’t stretch the dough; if it’s too small, just put it back on the board and re-roll it.

Fill the pie with the apple mixture. Brush the edge of the bottom pie crust with the egg wash so the top crust will adhere. Top with the second crust and trim the edges to about 1 inch over the rim. Tuck the edge of the top crust under the edge of the bottom crust and crimp the two together with your fingers or a fork. Brush the entire top crust with the egg wash, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar, and cut four or five slits.

Place the pie on a sheet pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until the crust is browned and the juices begin to bubble out. Serve warm.

Perfect Pie Crust
Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.

Be Exceptional. Bake a Brownie.

If you ever find yourself spending most of the afternoon thinking about brownies
(I never do this), but if you should, this is what you should do.

You should bake brownies. Not just any brownies though. You bake exceptional brownies with peanut butter and pretzels. Then you eat. You break all the rules and you eat a really big piece that takes more of a rectangle shape than a square. Enjoy every bite and forget about those hydrogenated oils and the fact that its 11:00 and Oprah says not to eat after 8:00. You rule your life. Eat the brownie.

Nothing accents a brownie better than a glass of milk. So after you finish cutting that large chocolaty piece of goo, pour yourself a glass. You deserve it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies
adapted from Martha Stewart

For the Brownie:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  salt
coarse sea salt for topping

For the Peanut Butter Filling:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, I prefer natural peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
large handful of pretzel sticks

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8×8-inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper so that it overhangs on two sides and grease the parchment paper as well. Boil two inches of water in a medium saucepan. 

Combine butter, unsweetened chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and coffee powder in a heat proof bowl and place over the simmering water.  Stir until chocolate and butter are melted.  Use a pot holder to remove the bowl from the double boiler and let mixture cool slightly.  Stir in the vanilla extract.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk granulated sugar into the chocolate and butter mixture.  Make sure the chocolate mixture isn’t too hot and whisk the eggs in the mixture one at a time. Fold in the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and spoon into prepared pan.

To make the Peanut Butter Filling, whisk together peanut butter, melted butter, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour the peanut butter mixture on top of the brownie batter and use a butter knife to swirl the two together. 

Arrange pretzel sticks on top of the brownie batter. Top with a few sprinkles of coarse sea salt.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

Let's Do Lunch.

Let's get three cheers for some egg salad! I recently have developed my own take on this delicious lunch that my mom sometimes made for me as a kid. It's funny when you realize the things you don't know how to do because someone else has always done them for you. For example: hard boiling an egg. I am fully aware of what a hardboiled egg looks like, taste like (yum), smells like (gross) and I had a general idea of how to get it there but I thought I better do a little googling. Is 'googling' officially a verb yet? It’s probably a safe bet. Ok, back to lunch - after finding instructions on how to perfectly hard boil an egg, I waited a few minutes for them to cool and when it was time, I turned them into this delicious salad.

Pretty simple: dice eggs, mix with a little bit of mayonnaise, a tiny drop of mustard, green onions, salt and pepper. Toast two pieces of bread, lay some spinach leaves down and spread out the egg salad.

Make one for you. Make one for a friend. Enjoy it. Together.