Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I have fond memmories of making peanut butter cookies with my mom.  I think I may have gotten a little burnt out on them at some point though, because although I remember liking making them (particularly the part where I got to squish them flat with a fork) I don't ever remember really loving them.  Weird.  I liked them ok...but they were never my fave.  Oatmeal raisin cookies were my all time favorite.  Particularly the ones my Grandma Birchard used to make with me.  They were AWESOME!  And they were relatively diabetic friendly, so she could eat them with me too. 

So, why am I posting about a cookie I just told you wasn't my favorite?  Because THESE cookies have reached a tie with my all-time favorite!  I can't decide which I like best now!  Crazy.  And yummy.  And my oldest, who seemed to share my opinion of peanut butter cookies, also loves these.  So its not just me.

Sooo, without further ado:

Mix the flour (not shown because I buy 25 lbs. at a time) baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small (or medium if your doubling the recipe like me) bowl.



In another, larger, bowl cream the butters and sugars till light and fluffy.   This part always looks so yummy already!  All smooth and creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla.  You could easily do this with a stand mixer, like the recipe insinuates, but I did this all by hand.

This is my interpretation of stirring in the dry ingredients till "just incorporated".  They are pretty well mixed in but not completely, you can still see some of the flour mixture.

Add the oats and stir till its evenly combined.  And taste, because I firmly believe that you can't know if its gonna be a good cookie unless you tase the dough!  Personal opinion there, of course.  And you can give me all the lectures about raw eggs and salmonilla (spelling?) but I've been taste-testing raw cookie dough since I can remember and haven't gotten sick from it yet!

Roll into even sized balls.  I used a tablespoon for this part and, although my recipe doesn't actuall say to, I lightly spray my cookie sheet with cooking spray.  I also dip both my tablespoon and my hands into that bowl of warm water, so that the dough doesn't stick to my hands as much.  Of course, this could be completely unnecessary if you have an appropriate sized cookie scoop, but I do not.  You do need to space them far enough apart though.  Don't overcrowd because these DO spread quite a bit.

Bake 10-15 minutes until just barely golden brown around the edges.  They will be soft and almost doughy, and slightly puffy when you first take them out.  THAT IS NORMAL!  Do NOT overbake these!  As they cool (and I highly recommend you allow them to cool a few min on the cookie sheet) they will "set" and flatten out a little.  In the end you end up with a delicious, lightly crispy, cookie.

See?
*Note: These were originally intended to be sandwich cookies, but I'm not patient enough for that extra step.  In my head I keep telling myself "next time I WILL make the filling and make these the way they were intended" But I never get around to it. 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

slightly adapted from annies-eats.com

3/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

8 TB. unsalted butter, softened

1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. oats

In small bowl combine flour, soda, baking powder and salt.  In large bowl of stand mixer cream together butter, peanut butter and both sugars till light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and mix till combined.  Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.  Stir in oats till fully and evenly combined.  Roll into evenly portioned balls and place on cookie sheet a couple inches apart.  Bake in oven preheated to 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.



Pean



My "Test Kitchen" What pans are acceptable to me

Did anyone else use to sit and love watching Americas Test Kitchen on PBS?  I seriously used to stop what I was doing just to sit and watch that show.   Did I ever use any of the recipes?  Ummm...no.  Personally its really hard for me to follow recipes from cooking shows because a.) they talk really really fast so I can't write down ingredients and steps. b.) this was all before I had ever had a satelite...let alone a dvr...so there was no option to pause, rewind or rewatch. c.) I don't believe t.v.s belong in the kitchen. (or the bedroom either but I've given ground on this account) So, although I never tried any of their actual recipes, I did lear a lot from the show.

My favorite part was when they actually put things to the test.  What brand tortillas was actually best and why?  Why should you spend that much on a certain set of knives?  What cheese was best for that recipe and why?  Sooooo......now that I've started recently spending so much time in my own kitchen I have discovered a few things myself.

1.)  I HATE teflon/nonstick pans.  BLAH!  Whos terrible idea were they anyhow?  I invariably end up ruining them.  They wear out quickly (broken handles, cracked coating etc.) and I'm pretty sure they can't be healthy either.

So, what would I prefer to use and why?

Cast Iron- because these pans are pretty much indestructable with low maintnance.  And I can use a metal spatula to scrape things off the bottom, or a metal scrubby to scrub crusted junk.  Also, They heat well and more evenly.  And are super versatile so you can use them outdoors over a campfire, in the oven, or on the stovetop and expect the same results!  Whats not to love about that?

or........

Stainless Steel- Because once again these are durable and I can use metal.  Also, they are easy to clean with a simple solution of baking soda and vinegar or a metal scrubbie.  I have had the same stainless steel set of pots for probably 6 or 7 years...none of my non stick pans can claim that lifespan!

If I have to use a non stick/ teflon pan, then I would only recommend Farberware.  Why?  Because America's Test Kitchen said they were a great brand.  And also, the one non stick pan in my cupboard with singularily the longest lifespan is a farberware.  It needs replaced because of course I did a non-inteligent thing and left it on a hot stovetop and now the bottom leaves little black specks in the food.  My fault entirely...I acknowlege this.  Poor pan.

So there you have it...
First Place- Cast Iron
Second- Stainless Steel
Third- Farberware ( but you still need to be careful with them)

There are no runners up....all the other ones I have experience with are NOT WORTH IT!

Grocery Stores, food, and nutrition

Do you ever wonder how much we lost with technology?  I mean you can go into any grocery store at almost any given time and pick up an entire meal without batting an eyelash.  It could be a complete meal from a deli, or a boxed meal from the shelves, or individual ingredients to take home and transform into a meal.  The choices are limitless, and they are all within our reach.

But when was the last time you REALLY thought about all that convenience?  Do you read the ingredients on packages?  Do you know what they are?  How to pronounce them?  Do you care so long as dinner is ready on time?

I just recently started REALLY REALLY paying attention.  It started with my finding out that Pepsi is made by using aborted human fetuses.  YUCK!  True story, by the way....I didn't believe it either, so I looked it up.  As if that isn't bad enough, Kraft and Nestle do the same thing in the making of their products!  Double, and TRIPLE YUUUUUCCCKK!  And of course the ultimate shocker?  President Obama has declared this "business as usual".  WHAT?!!!  If they can seriously do THAT to our food, what else is in there?

I don't know.  Thats the problem.  And I'm not looking to take college level chemistry classes to try to decipher those unknown ingredients either.   So that is what got me to where I am now.  Making as much as possible from "scratch".  

I was blessed to inherit my Grandma Birchard's old Betty Crocker Cook Book (copywrited 1956).  I love it.  I love the comments.  I love the nestalgia.  I love that almost everything that I've ever tried to make from the recipes comes out nearly perfect.  And I love reading the little tips and tidbits so lovingly included.  Of course, some of it is purely humorous in todays society, though maybe still applicable? "If you're tired from overwork, Household chores you're bound to shirk.  Read these pointers tried and true And discover what to do."  Those "pointers" by the way, are things like "wear comfortable clothes and shoes while working" "Use good posture" and "harbor pleasant thoughts". 

I would love to see what the grocery stores were like back then.  I would love to look at the things they had on the shelves.  Apparently, up until the 50s there were hundreds of small little grocery stores all over the place.  Did they have "convenience foods"?  What were the ingredients in those?  I know my grandparents were all farm kids.  They grew a lot of their own food.  And even into my parents generation my mom will tell you that things like bottled juice were almost non-existant in their household.  They worked.  They supported themselves.  And I bet they could pronounce all of the ingredients in their food and had a pretty good idea as to where it came from.  What an awesome concept......