M&M Cookies

I would like to be the type of person who has such a well-stocked pantry that I could, on a whim, decide to whip up any recipe desired. Nope, not me. I'm much more the kind of cook who looks up a recipe (or steals one from a friend), goes out and buys the necessary ingredients, and then cooks up something good to eat...hopefully!

Yesterday, at a very absurdly late hour of the night, Brian decided we should try making cookies. This comes on the heels of a rather strange development over the past couple of days. My consumer but not creator of food has suddenly taken to cooking and baking. I liken it to the time period when Tim got hooked on sports. Both boys went from complete disinterest and/or unawareness of a new passion to being overcome with a newfound love for sports in Tim's case and cooking in Brian's.

Brian debated between two recipes last night - Michelle Obama's "Mama Kaye's White and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies" or Ann Romney's "M&M Cookies". Ann won out, simply because Brian was a bit concerned about the Obama recipe needing two whole sticks of butter. The Romney version had half that amount which made Brian feel downright virtuous about choosing the "healthy" cookie.

Surprisingly, I could pull up every one of the ingredients necessary, though I was a bit short on the oatmeal, especially after spilling a big portion on the floor and then having to frantically sweep it up before our 11 pound dog ate every morsel and exploded.

The cookies remind me of ranger cookies I ate as a child. They also kind of remind me of those Pinterest recipes that take one cookie and throw in every ingredient in the kitchen, presumably to make sure everyone is happy with some aspect of the finished product. Either that or no one is.

The peanut butter means Martin will not eat these cookies but we'll take them to a friend's house tonight for our Fourth of July fireworks viewing and I'm sure a few will be eaten there.

M&M's Cookies

Ann Romney (from Family Circle magazine)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups crunchy peanut butter

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 teaspoons baking soda

6 oz. chocolate chips

2/3 cups M&M candies

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, cream sugars, butter, peanut butter and corn syrup on high speed until well combined. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in vanilla extract.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together oats and baking soda. Stir into peanut butter mixture until combined. Mix in chocolate chips and M&M's.

3. Using a standard size ice-cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets (about 9 per sheet). Bake 325 for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool two minutes then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

All-American Potato Salad

We had a church picnic this weekend to celebrate the fourth of July. I know - it was a bit early but living in a bedroom community where this holiday is routinely celebrated on a day that is not the fourth, I'm able to handle this kind of shake-up. When your six year old son makes a big colorful poster (complete with his depiction of exploding fireworks) that proudly proclaims "Happy Third of July" you know you're living in a neighborhood that has screwed up the holiday dates one time too many.

Ok, back to this years first of July celebration. The sign-up sheet for the event was a little more specific than is the norm at our church. In fact, we usually don't even bother with advance notice of who's bringing what, opting instead for the surprise system of waiting to see who shows up with what. But not this time - not only were we encouraged (cajoled, begged, coerced) to sign up, we were only given three options of what to bring! The church would provide hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixins, plus drinks. Our part was to provide 1) potato salad 2) baked beans and 3) dessert. In a church of such racial diversity this list seemed a bit limited but, being my usual compliant and non-racially diverse self, I decided to obediently show up with a potato salad.

This one tasted pretty good and got good reviews from folks at the picnic. At least those who ate my version, as opposed to the other 15 potato salads!

I'll say one more thing about potato salad, before writing out the recipe. My mom had her own version that was widely loved by anyone who ever ate it. And no wonder. She spent a lot of time whipping up a sauce that was kind of tangy sweet and made you want to eat gallons of the stuff. That's the potato salad I grew up eating so when I tasted my first non-sweetish version I was surprised and probably a bit aghast at how anyone could possibly think I or anyone one else would want to eat such a watered down, bland version. I've changed my mind over the years, mostly because Martin doesn't like the sweeter versions. Which is not to say I wouldn't kill for a big-bowlful of my mom's best ever potato salad. Sigh....

All-American Potato Salad

modified from AllRecipes

(yes, Cindy - I did MODIFY this recipe by taste!)

5 potatoes

3 eggs

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion (I used chives to add color)

1/2 cup sweet pickle relish (I used dill pickles cut up into small pieces)

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon celery salt

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup mayonnaise (I added a bit more mayo because it seemed dry. And it's saying something when I add mayo as I'm not a huge lover of wet mayonaisey type mixes.)

Black olives (I didn't put these in because Martin won't eat them but I love olives in potato salad.)

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool, peel and chop.

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil; cover, remove from heat, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and chop.

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, celery, onion, relish, garlic salt, celery salt, mustard, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix together well and refrigerate until chilled.