Mary's other Chocolate chip cookies

Yesterday, the 12 year neighbor boy came over and asked to borrow 3/4 c butter. He said they were making cookies. Adria said they are making the good chocolate chip cookies. I asked her if it was different than the recipe we got from Mary last year. She said, yes these are better!. So later when Adria went to Marian's house to play, I told her to get the recipe. Adria says it's from a cookbook that Mary made herself, so I'm not sure if it's her recipe or a family members. Adria tried to take a picture with her cell phone. But sadly, her cell phone photography abilities leave a lot to be desired and the picture is rather blurry. So I did my best to decipher it, and this is what I believe it says. (It makes me think of the struggles they had translating the Bible, and how they had to guess at some words - I totally know how they felt. Hope I didn't change the recipe too much on accident. Ha ha ha!)

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies have been my go to for almost 10 years. They are fail proof in my mind! They always turn out thick and chewy. You can make them small for a group or giant and they still turn out great. I love everything about these cookies! They stay soft for days, because the butter to flour ratio is so high. My secret for keeping them soft is taking them out of the oven the second you see any brown appear on top. Even the tinniest bit. Then leave them on the tray for at least 10 minutes, so they can slightly cook a little more without browning any more. When they come out, they won't be done at all. But in my experience, if you wait until they're all the way done, they will be rock hard once they cool. Just take them out early... They will be delicious!

3/4 c butter softened
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 c chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars in stand mixer for 2-3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and keep beating for 1 (I really can't see the number here) min. Meanwhile in a separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet mixture and cream. Then add the chocolate chips and... (mix quickly??) ...until incorporated.

Bake at 365 degrees for 7 to  9 minutes, until ..... (slightly brown on top???)... Then remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for ten minutes (I think that's what is says... and I can't read the last sentence. NUTS!)


Update:  Mary later sent me a clear picture of the recipe. THANK YOU MARY! And I did really good at guessing. The time to cook I had as 7-8 instead of "7-9 minutes, first sign of brown on top," so I fixed that. I had a "when they cool" instead of "once they cool" and a few periods instead of exclamation points. And the last sentence says, "Transfer to cooling rack.

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Apple Butter

I have made apple butter before, and I always have a hard time remembering what recipe I used and what changes I made. So I'm putting it here. We had a great lunch party at Mom's house on Thursday afternoon with all the girls. But we had lots of left over apple slices. So I brought them home to make apple butter.

5 1/2 pounds apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon all-spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything in the crockpot and cook on high for 1 hour. Then turn to low for 9- 11 hours. Well, that's what the original recipe said. What I did was on low for 6 hours. Then it was time fore bed. So I unplugged it. Then the next morning I cooked it on high for another hour and on low for 5 more hours. Then I put it in the fridge again because I had other things to do. Then when I pulled it out of the fridge, I dumped it in a pot and cooked it on the stove for several more hours - probably 5 or so! It took FOREVER! Everything said to tell if it's done, you have to put a spoonful on a plate, and when it stops having liquid form around the edges, it's ready. That takes a really long time and it all depends on how much moisture it in the apples. So I started with 5 or more quarts of apples, and by the time I was done, I had 6 half pint jars of apple butter - so it decreased by about 75 percent! (Who knew there was so much water in apples??)

To preserve the apple butter, put it into sterilized jars while it is hot. Then put it in a water bath for 10 minutes of boiling time. At least that part is fast. And because they are small jars, I just did it in a big pot instead of in the water bath canner. It's so much faster when  you don't have to wait for all of that water to heat up! Now maybe you will all get apple butter for Christmas!

Halloween Popcorn

We liked the 2 recipes I made for Genna's bday last week: Cookies and Cream popcorn, and Halloween bark. But we dumped them in the same bowl and ate them together. So I decided to make them into one recipe. So here it is:

8 cups popcorn
2 cups pretzels broken into pieces
10 to 12 Halloween Oreos - broken into pieces (depending on how many you ate first!)
1 cup candy corn
16 oz vanilla candy coating (white chocolate)
Halloween sprinkles

Mix popcorn, pretzels, cookies and candy corn in a large bowl. Melt the candy coating and pour over popcorn. Mix well to coat. Spread onto lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with Halloween sprinkles. Adria added bone shaped candies to ours too. Allow to cool. 

Cupbob Copycat Korean Pork Bowls

Ryan has made these for us several times and we all really like them! Even the girls will eat them. I found a recipe for him to try several months ago, and he made his own modifications- mostly making it less spicy so we wouldn't complain when we ate it. If you haven't tried Cup Bop, you should. The only complaint  have with them is that they don't put enough veggies in their bowls. But when you make your own, you can add as much as you want! Ryan says it is really a version of a Korean dish called bibimbap or be bim bop.


Pork
2-3 pounds pork tenderloin
2 tsp liquid smoke
salt and pepper

Cube the pork. Put in Instant Pot, add salt and pepper to taste and liquid smoke. Cook in Instant Pot for 45 minutes until done. If you don't have an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker you should get one. Ryan LOVES his! While pork cooks, make the sauce. When the pork is done, drain it and shred it and add 1/3 to 1/2 of the sauce, depending on what you think tastes good.

Sauce
1 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce (One 112-16 oz. bottle)
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 tsp. ginger powder or fresh (fresh is best)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tbs. sesame seed oil
1/4 cup Go-Chu-Jang (Korean Hot & Sweet Sauce) in the Asian aisle at most grocery stores. (Increase up to 1/2 cup to increase spiciness if desired)


Calrose rice - or other sticky white rice
Rice noodles - Cooked according to package directions

Stir Fry
Carrots
Bok Choy
Celery

Slice veggies thin. Heat a few teaspoons of olive oil in a pan and saute the veggies until they are tender crisp.

Other ingredients for pork bowls
Fresh Veggies:
-Lettuce chopped
-Cilantro
-Bean sprouts
-green onions chopped
Sesame Seeds for garnish
Sriracha mayo - also in the Asian food aisle - spicier than I like it, but the boys like this one
Chipotle Mayo - not quite as spicy and the one I usually use.

To assemble the bowls:
Put desired amount of white rice and noodles in the bowl. Top with pork and add some sauce. Then add stir-fried and fresh veggies. Garnish with mayo and sesame seeds. The Korean method of eating it is to assemble it, serve it and then stir it together right before eating.

We scarfed it down so fast I didn't even get a picture! The only picture I have is from the leftovers I took to lunch at work the next day. So it doesn't look at fabulous as it usually does. Maybe I'll get pics next time.

Here's a picture Ryan found from when we made it a few weeks ago - I told you we made it frequently!

Genna's Birthday Pretzel Pizza and other party treats

I can't believe this girl is turning 13! Where does the time go? She wanted a typical teenage b-day party. Dinner (pizza) and a movie. She invited just a couple of friends over and currently they are in my basement watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas." It's not one I particularly like, but she must take after her dad. He really likes it too. Do you like her new pajamas? She just got those from Adria tonight. She was SOOO excited about them. She hugged Adria so hard it make Adria's shoulders hurt.

Even though the party is small, we had to make is special. So I made monster bark, cookies and cream popcorn, a chocolate cake and pretzel pizza. Genna loves cookies and cream anything and she requested chocolate cake. It wasn't one of my better ones, but I think it turned out okay.

I really wanted to make an orange chocolate one, but she said no! So that will have to wait. I just used the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake and made butter cream frosting to go on it. I copied the decorating technique from the orange chocolate cake by Cupcake Jemma - so it's a layered cake with orange colored frosting topped with chocolate (melted chocolate candy coating). I only have 9 inch pans, so it's only a 2 layer cake. Guess I have to invest in 8 inch pans so I can make a 3 layer cake next time. I'm sure Ryan will agree I NEED more cake pans. (Ha ha ha!) We have tried the "garbage cake" (the parts you cut off to make the cake flat) and it tastes good, but we haven't tried the cake  yet- better go do that now. One of the girls has to leave early so I better go pause the movie so everyone can have some cake ....

Cake was great! (Or maybe it's just my sugar addiction talking.) The cookies and cream popcorn was super easy. Mary, my fabulous next door neighbor, gave me the recipe. She found it online and made it for a young women's activity this past summer. Here's what I made:

Cookies and Cream Popcorn:

16 chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreo's) -
16 oz vanilla candy coating
9 to 10 cups of popcorn

Put cookies in a food processor and pulse to finely chop the cookies- but don't turn them all into crumbs. Leave some large chunks. Sort through the popcorn to remove all the un-popped kernels and put in a large bowl. Melt the candy coating according to package directions. Pour over popcorn and stir to coat. Add the cookies and stir coat evenly. Allow the popcorn to cool. Break apart and serve.

The Halloween Bark is about the same:

16 oz vanilla candy coating
8 Halloween Oreo's (any cookie works, but the orange and black is so nice!)
1 cup pretzels
1/2 c candy corns
Halloween themed sprinkles

Break the cookies into smaller pieces and spread on a lined cookie sheet. Spread candy corn and pretzels on cookie sheet too. - I think there is a technique to how close together to put everything that I haven't quite mastered yet. Melt the white chocolate bark or candy coating as directed on package. Pour onto cookie sheet- use a spatula to spread if needed. Sprinkle with Halloween sprinkles or additional candy corn and cookies. Put in refrigerator to harden. Break apart into smaller pieces and serve.

Now for the PIZZA!

My kids all really liked the pretzel pizza that Little Ceasars use to have. But they haven't made it for a year or 2 now. So we found a recipe to make our own. One of the girls at the party asked to take a couple of pieces home. She said she doesn't really like pizza, but that she likes this one a lot! I found a couple of recipes online, and used ideas from both of them to make my own:

Crust:
3 c warm water
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp yeast
2 tsp salt
7-8 c flour

alkaline dipping solution:
1 cup water
1/4 c baking soda

toppings:
Kosher salt or Pretzel salt - I have some Mediterranean salt I used.
2 cans Campbell's Cheddar cheese sauce (I think next time I'll try something else like a Ragu cheese sauce -by the spaghetti sauce or a different canned cheese sauce by the re fried beans)
Sharp Cheddar cheese - shredded
Pepperoni

for grownup pizza add:
shredded Parmesan
McCormick Bruschetta seasoning mix (Side note - this is great on grilled veggies!)

Mix 3 c water, sugar, and yeast. Allow to sit for 5 mins for yeast to grow. Add salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until dough comes together and then allow to raise for 30 mins. - One recipe suggested letting it sit in the microwave to raise- I tried it- it worked great.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease two 14 inch round pizza pans. Mix 1 c water and the baking soda. Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Form each half into a round ball and dip one half into the alkaline solution. (Make sure to stir it just before dipping the dough.)  Put ball onto a pizza pan and press the dough to make a thick pizza crust. Make sure the edges are thicker so it's a nice round pretzel like crust. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Using a pastry brush, brush alkaline solution all over the crust- more around the edges than the center. Sprinkle the edges with pretzel salt. Put crusts into oven and bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove crusts from oven and spread with 1 can of cheese sauce. Top with shredded cheddar, (Sprinkle with Parmesan Bruschetta seasoning if desired), and pepperoni. Bake for 6 minutes until cheese is melted. Then I moved the pizza's lower in the oven - right onto the baking stone to brown the bottom of the crust and baked for another 5-6 minutes. Maybe next time I'll just start them lower in the oven on the stone for the entire time.  Brush the edges with melted butter. - I actually pulled them out after the first 6 minutes thinking they were done, and brushed them with butter then. But after looking at the bottom of the crust, I decided they needed to go back in to cook the bottom side some more.

Well that was it for the party - It took all day to get everything ready - I had to shop for groceries, make a cake, go back to the store for birthday gifts and make the other food. But it was probably the easiest party I have put together! I even through some quick party favors together from leftover party favors from previous Halloween parties and some candy. Adria helped me put them together after we ate cake and everyone went back to the basement to watch the movie. She also helped decorate. She and Genna had the 2 next door neighbor girls (Marian and Lucy) they love to play with come over early to decorate. Good thing only Hallie is the only other guest at the party or I might not have had enough party favors. Adria remembered we needed to make some when Marian had to leave early. We will send hers home with her sister.