Guacamole, to go with the tostadas!

I also made some homemade guac to go with the tinga tostadas I posted about yesterday. I absolutely love guac and every time I make it (which isn't very often) I'm flabbergasted by how easy and delicious it is. So. I encourage you to grab a few avocados and make yourself a tasty treat!

Guacamole (Adapted from Cook's Illustrated, May 1999 Chunky Guacamole)

Ingredients: 3 avocados, 2 T onion, minced, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves, 1/4 t salt, 2 T lime juice.

Directions: Halve the avocados and remove the pit.  Using a spoon, scoop the avocado from its peel and combine the onion, garlic, salt and cilantro leaves with half of the avocado (1 1/2 avocados). Using a fork, mash the avocado until combined with the other ingredients.  Add the rest of the avocado and use the fork to combine the ingredients, mashing to the consistency you like.  If you like really chunky guacamole, chop up the remaining avocado before you add it and just mix a little. If you like smooth guacamole, just continue to mash until everything is smooth. As with most recipes, alter your ratios of onion, garlic, lime juice, etc to make your ideal flavor.

Shredded Pork Tostadas Made Simple

I love shredded pork. I also love fresh tacos, tostadas, etc that are full of meat and flavor but don't feel heavy. I had some people over for dinner tonight and was having trouble figuring out what to make. Whenever I want to make something nice that feels like a complete meal, I end up cooking very New England-y things. While the food is delicious, it's often warm, filling, hearty food. Bakes beans, roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, chili, beef stew, etc. So I was perusing my go-to cooking source - Cook's Illustrated (I subscribe to both the periodical and the online site) and there it was. The perfect recipe for this warmer, sunnier week in Seattle. Crisp Pork Tostadas or 'Tinga Tostadas' put simply, as tinga is the term for 'true Mexican shredded pork' according to Cook's Illustrated.

Wow. This was easy, impressive looking and delicious! I cooked the pork last night so that when I got home from work today, all I had to do was put the pork in the pan with a few more bits of seasoning, let it cook for 15 minutes in all and crisp the tortillas to make the tostadas. Ta da. Dinner served with a fairly clean kitchen to boot.

Crisp Pork Tostadas (from Cook's Illustrated, March 2010) Serves 4 to 6

Tinga (can be made the night before through Step 1)

Ingredients: 2 lbs boneless pork butt (or shoulder), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch pieces, 2 medium onions, 1 quartered and 1 chopped fine, 5 medium garlic cloves, 3 peeled and smashed, 2 minced, 4 sprigs fresh thyme, table salt, 2 T olive oil, 1/2 t dried oregano, 1 (14.5) oz can tomato sauce, 1 T ground chipotle powder, 2 bay leaves.

Directions: Bring pork, quartered onion, smashed garlic, thyme, 1 t salt and 6 cups of water to simmer in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover and cook until pork is tender 75 to 90 minutes. Drain the pork through a strainer into a pyrex or bowl. Dump all but 1 cup of cooking liquid, reserving it to be used later in the recipe. Remove the onions, garlic and thyme and return the pork to the saucepan. Use a potato masher to smoosh the meat until it has shredded into rough pieces. Set aside. If you're making the meat the night before, put it in a airtight container and refrigerate it.

On the night of the meal, heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a 12 inch non-stick skillet or a broad, heavy bottomed pan such as a dutch oven. Once oil is shimmering, add shredded pork, chopped onion and oregano; cook, stirring often, until pork is well browned and crisp, 7 to 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato sauce, chipotle powder, the reserved pork cooking liquid and the bay leaves. Simmer until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, 5-7 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaves and season the tinga with salt.

Tostadas

Ingredients: 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, table salt

Directions: Heat vegetable oil in an 8-inch heavy bottomed pan (such as a cast iron skillet) over medium heat. Allow the oil a bit of time to get hot (a few minutes is fine), using a fork, poke the center of each tortilla a few times (to prevent puffing). Fry 1 tortilla at a time, placing it in the pil and holding a metal potato masher upright to keep the tortilla submerged and to provide even cooking. Keep the tortilla submerged for 45-60 seconds, until it is crisp and lightly browned. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate and season with salt to taste if you wish (I found this step unnecessary). Repeat with remaining tortillas.

To serve: Spoon a small amount of shredded pork onto each tostada and serve. Garnish with any variety of the following: Queso fresca or feta cheese, fresh cilantro leaves, sour cream, diced avocado, lime wedges. Of course, feel free to experiment with garnishes but I think these are the best ones (and so do the folks at Cook's Illustrated). I also reserved a bit of the diced onion when I dumped it into the pork and used it for garnish.

Dark Chocolate Mint Fudge... a grand success!

I applied to graduate school this fall, and with that comes asking 3-4 professors, advisors, etc to write recommendations. They all were very nice about it and said they were happy to do it, but it seems like a pain to me, so I was and am very grateful to all of them for taking the time to say nice things about me in a time consuming, official format. I wrote them thank you cards once all my applications were in but that didn't quite seem sufficient for all they had done. In the last 2 months I have heard from all of the schools, visited a few and made a decision - very exciting! After a lot of emails, phone calls, meetings, class sit-ins and all that, I have decided to attend the University of Washington in the fall! I'll be attending the Evans School of Public Affairs as a masters candidate, and I can't wait! Anywho, back to the fudge. I wanted to give the people who wrote recommendations for me an update with another thank you note and include a gift - something thoughtful. So I made them fudge. The response has been very positive. I highly recommend you make it for anyone you wish to make happy...so here's the recipe!

Dark Chocolate Mint Fudge (from the Dec '92 Bon Appetit) Makes 2 dozen cubes.

Ingredients: 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped, 1/4 cup marshmallow cream, 1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped, 1/2 t peppermint extract (or maybe a bit less, it was pretty strong), 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup whipping cream, 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces.

Directions: Line a 9 x 5 loaf pan with foil, overlapping sides. Place first 4 ingredients in a large heat proof bowl. Mix sugar, milk, water, cream and butter in a heavy 3-quart saucepan (anything smaller and you'll have all the ingredients boil over and make a huge mess...trust me). Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Brush down sugar crystals from sides of pan using a pastry brush dipped into water. Increase heat to high; bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium-high; stir slowly with a wooden spoon for about 9 minutes. If you have a candy thermometer, the temp should read 232 degrees, but the 9 minute time works just fine. Pour the boiling mixture over the ingredients in the heat proof bowl; do not scrape the pan. Stir vigorously with the wooden spoon until chocolate melts and fudge thickens slightly - about two minutes. Immediately pour fudge into prepared pan and smooth top with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate the fudge until firm enough to cut, at least 2 hours. Lift the fudge from the pan using the foil and fold down foil sides. Trim the ends of the fudge and then cut into 24 pieces. Wrap each piece with wax paper. Can be made up to one week ahead - keep chilled in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Just an FYI, this recipe uses about half a standard can of condensed milk - same goes for the small carton whipping cream so I ended up making two batches...but make sure if you do that you make them separately.

An adventure in cooking Ethiopian food, Part Two

Well, it's been two weeks but I'm back to post the recipes for Misser Wot and Lamb Tibs. It's been almost two months since we made Ethiopian food and I'm ready to do it again! My boyfriend grumbled when I told him this because it WAS a lot of work, just to make one dish you have to make 4, the dish, the spiced butter, the spice mix and the injera, but. It is totally worth it. If you're short on time, the Misser Wot doesn't use the spiced butter, could be made using store bought berbere and could easily be eaten without the bread.

The lamb tibs were good, but I think the two best dishes were the Doro Wot and the Misser Wot...but I suggest making them all (perhaps for more than 2 people) and seeing what dish each person picks as their favorite!

Misser Wot (Red Lentil Stew) Serves 4-6

Ingredients: 3 large onions, finely diced, 1/4 cup canola or olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, chopped, 1 T chopped fresh ginger, 2 T berbere, 1 t salt, 1 cup red lentils, 2 T tomato paste, 4 cups water.

Directions: Sauté onions with oil in a large saucepan on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the onions are translucent, stirring constantly so they do not stick to the pan. Add garlic and ginger and continue to stir. Add berbere and salt and continue stirring. Add red lentils, tomato paste, and water; bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are cooked. The stew should thicken as it cooks. Add more water if the lentils start to become dry.

Those this is called a 'stew' ours didn't have any broth, and it's never had any when I've gotten it in Ethiopian restaurants, to make sure you don't add so much water that it has liquid.

Lamb Tibs (Lamb in Spicy Sauce) Serves 4-6

Ingredients: 1/2 onion, chopped, 2 T vegetable or canola oil, 1 lb boneless lamb meat, cut into about 1-inch pieces, 2 garlic cloves, chopped, 1 jalapeño, seeds & veins removed, chopped, 2 tomato, chopped, 2 t chopped fresh rosemary, 2 tsp awaze (see note), salt to taste.

Directions: In a large saucepan sauté onion in oil on high heat for a few minutes. Add lamb and contnue to stir while adding garlic and jalapeno. Stir until the lamb is no longer pink, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add tomato, rosemary and awaze and cook until heated through. Add salt and serve hot with injera.

Note: How to Make Awaze

Combine 1/4 cup berbere, 2 T vegetable or canola oil, 2 chopped garlic cloves, 2 T red wine, a dash of salt, and 1 t ground mustard seed; mis all ingredients to make a paste.

Salmon Cakes and Broccoli

When I was home for Christmas I had a chance to peruse an issue of Eating Well, which was both interesting and bursting with promising recipes. I read a feature about canned salmon, and ever since then, I've been intending to purchase canned salmon and do something with it! Last week, I revisited this intention by, well, doing just that.

With a quick effort on Eating Well's comprehensive website, I pulled up a recipe for salmon cakes, and promptly decided that half of such a recipe would be plenty of food for my one-person dinner! It occurred to me that salmon cakes, by themselves, weren't quite a meal... so I also pulled out a favorite cookbook of mine: For Goodness Taste, produced by the Junior League of Rochester! That's Rochester, New York, and the cookbook is much like you might imagine it - the ladies of the Junior League appear to have gathered up family favorites, thrown them into categories, and printed themselves a cookbook! I am lucky enough to own a copy, and I flipped through the flagged pages until I found a good companion for salmon cakes: Broccoli with Lemon Cream Sauce. As a bonus, one recipe needs an egg white, and the other recipe needs an egg yolk! Waste not, want not.

Here are the recipes, as I cooked them. I ended up only cooking half the salmon cakes, and when I cooked up the other half the next day, they were even more delicious. The recipe takes about 15 minutes from start to finish, so if you can mix it a day ahead of time, then it'll take about 8 minutes to do that... and another 7 minutes to cook them whenever you're ready to eat.

Salmon Cakes (2 servings)

Combine:

1 (6-7 oz) can of boneless, skinless, Wild Pacific salmon, drained

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 egg and 1 egg white, lightly beaten

1.5 tsp grainy mustard

1 tsp dried dill

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/8 tsp salt

Add:

2 cups frozen shredded hash browns (I found a brand called Mr. Dell's in the frozen vegetable section. There are other brands in the processed frozen breakfasts section, too.)

Mix this together, and shape the cakes. (Make them one at a time, packing them into a one cup measure, and then turning them into the pan, and flattening with a spatula to create 3-inch cakes.) Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a pan (mine is cast iron, which I recommend), and cook the salmon cakes, 3-5 minutes on each side.

Serve with ketchup, sour cream, or this sauce:

1/3 cup sour cream

1.5 tsp capers, chopped and rinsed

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Broccoli with Lemon Cream Sauce

Steam and drain one bunch of broccoli. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 Tbsp butter. Stir in 1 cup of half and half, and heat to boiling. Boil 5 minutes until mixture is slightly reduced, stirring often; remove from heat. Stir a small amount of mixture into an egg yolk, lightly beaten. Slowly combine this combination back into the saucepan. Stir in 1/4 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Return to heat and cook on low, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Pour sauce over broccoli and serve immediately.

Quick and Easy

The second sentence on the US Census form, and one that most people will probably skip right over, says "It is quick and easy, and your answers are protected by law." For me to fill out this form will, in fact, be both quick and easy. I live alone, and I can comfortably answer, for Question 8, "No, not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin" and then for Question 9, "White" - not everyone has such form completion luxuries. I can't figure out who (or what) my answers are being lawfully protected from, but that sounds fine.

Each Wednesday evening, for about 10 months now, I have taught English to a class of adults (funny, interesting, complicated adults) at a learning center operated by the Minnesota Literacy Council (MLC). Between 5 and 15 students show up each time (they commit to attending two hours of class, four nights a week, and this is on top of jobs that often require a more than eight-hour-a-day commitment, and family responsibilities). Tonight, I decided that day 7 of 12 in the health unit (symptoms, body parts, and how to make a doctor's appointment) could be swapped out for another reality based unit: the US Census, why it's important, and how to complete it.

I received my Census form in the mail this afternoon. As I mentioned earlier, it will take me all of 2 minutes to complete, and that's if I read the first section about how I shouldn't count any relatives that are living away from home, in an institution (jail, college, or the Armed Forces), or at a nursing home. It took my students that long to sort out (in a general way) who the US Department of Commerce is, and why their Economics and Statistics Administration is sending this form to every home in the country. This information is in fine print at the top right-hand corner. I bet you didn't notice it on your form.

I learned this evening that my students, who tested into "High Beginner, Low Intermediate English Class" at the MLC, and who have jobs, pay taxes, and send their children to American schools, knew of the Census, but didn't know much about the Census. One woman told me that she had completed her Census form carefully and thoroughly, but was told by her coworkers that she was crazy, and that she shouldn't send it in - she cleans planes at the airport, and specified that her opinionated coworkers are "American and not American." Another woman arrived at class concerned that she had thrown out her Census form but now wants to complete it, and anxiously wrote down the number I gave her (which was on the back of my Census form) in hopes of requesting another one. Yet another woman proudly produced the empty Census envelope out of her purse, though she had left the form itself at home for safe keeping.

Before we even looked at the form, I introduced the big picture concept: the United States, tries, every 10 years, to pick a day and count everyone. This thought received a round of laughter from the 12 students in attendance, who began to consider the size of such a challenge. We talked about how schools, hospitals, roads, and even English class, receive funding from the government based partially on how many people they think live in that community. We discussed the fact that the Census Bureau can not legally share this information with anyone, anyone at all, but that struck some students as hard to believe. As I saw the doubt on their faces, I too found it a little hard to believe.

So we started at the top of this form, and we began to read through. The guidelines that are offered make the whole thing seem quite complicated, actually, and so I kept returning to the original idea that the government is actually just trying to count everyone. Once.

I was asked, among other things:

- Should I count my son's child, who is living in a foster home now? No.

- Should I count my daughter, who is currently in Mexico on a trip, but usually lives with me, and will be back shortly? Yes.

- Should she count her baby? (this from a woman sitting next to the visibly pregnant woman she was referring to) No, not if the baby isn't born yet on April 1.

- Should I count my son if he is in jail? (this was posed as a hypothetical question) No, he will be counted by the jail.

After all the time we dedicated to these guidelines, we were pleased to discover that the whole purpose of Question 2 is to confirm that you read the guidelines and answered Question 1 correctly: how many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010. A number of students indicated that life isn't terribly predictable, and so they'll wait until April 1 to complete the form. One woman suggested that it wasn't very clever of the government to pick April Fool's Day as the one time, after 10 years, to count people. She has a good point.

Questions 3-7 were simple, and had obvious answers. Rather than tell you what these questions are, I encourage you to keep an eye out for your Census form. Be counted!

Question 8 asks if the person in question is "of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin" - and for about half of my students (and myself), that was an easy "No" - for the other half of my students, they were then faced with a variety of "Yes" options, most of which tied this same person in question to a nationality as well. One student discovered that he'd have to select the 4th "yes" - "Yes, another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin" and then take the "print your origin" option, to fill in "Guatemalan" in the space provided.

Then came Question 9, which asks, straightforwardly enough, "What is Person 1's race?" (it was noted earlier on the form that Questions 8 and 9 are both to be answered, as "For this census, Hispanic origins are not races.") The members of my class who had just searched for which "yes" they should select on Question 8 looked at the form, looked at me, and asked what I suggested that they do. They could pick, as one student pointed out, "White, Black, or Chinese...." (in fact, lots of specific Asian nationalities were deemed to represent a race of people, as determined by this census), but that if you did, in fact, identify as Latino.... you had to select "Some other race", and then "print race" in the space provided. The Hmong students learned that for these purposes, they should check the box "Other Asian" and then "print race" of Hmong (which was one of the examples provided as an "other Asian race"). This series of discoveries motivated me to make an impromptu speech about how forms sometimes try to put us all in a particular list, but that humans are rather more complicated than that, and that I understood if they were stumped by Questions 8 and 9. I encouraged them to use the short answer spaces liberally.

Then came the extra persons. Is person 2 related to person 1 as a boarder or a roommate? An in-law or an "other relative"? What about person 3? And person 4? One student offered that his brother (person 3) and his wife (person 4) live in his basement as boarders. I suggested that person 3 be listed as a brother, rather than a boarder... and that he could pick, for person 4... other relative, boarder, or other nonrelative. I acknowledged that none of those options seemed quite right for his circumstance, as sister-in-law was not one of the in-law options that was provided.

This is when someone piped up to ask what happens if you have, in your household, more than the 12 people for which space is allotted, and someone else suggested that if you called the number I had written on the board earlier, the government would surely send a supplemental form. After all, the goal is to count everyone, right? Right. And that is why I spent an hour and a half of my life this evening explaining the US Census to 12 individuals, and encouraging them to have patience with this imperfect, frustrating, complicated, and entirely necessary form that they received from the US Government.

An adventure in cooking Ethiopian food, Part One

The meal we made (for two of us, keep in mind) included injera, doro wot, collard greens, misser wot and lamb tibs. I'm going to include the recipes for just the injera and doro wot, because the doro wot was my favorite, and, well, the injera goes with it! I'll also include the recipes for spiced butter and berbere spice, since they are necessary to make doro wot. I'll follow up with the recipes for misser wot and lamb tibs soon!

If you've ever had Ethiopian food, you'll understand why we wanted to make so many things. First off, it's all so delicious, and second of all, I always eat Ethiopian food with a group of friends, we order as many dishes there are people, and it comes on one HUGE serving platter, that we just spin a few degrees anytime someones ready to eat something they can't reach. So we made a lot. We made a few half recipes, but the doro wot and the misser wot were so good, I could have eaten them forever, and they made WONDERFUL leftovers, so...no reason not to make a lot!

Here are the recipes we used. They're all from Recipes from Afar and Near, the cookbook sold at the Lucy's Legacy exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.

Injera (Traditional Bread) Makes 6-8 Eight Inch Injera

Ingredients: 2 cups self-rising flour, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup teff flour (can be found at Whole Foods), 5 cups lukewarm water.

Directions: Combine flours and water and mix into a smooth, fairly thing batter. Let the batter ferment at room temp, covered, for up to 3 days. The batter should be thinner than a pancake batter but not runny. Heat a nonstick skillet until a water drop dances on the surface. Pour a small amount of batter into the skillet, covering the entire bottom in a very thin coating. Cover and let the steam create the injera; this should take about 2 minutes. Do not let the bottom brown. The book says "practice, practice, practice!" and it also notes that though this is the most simple recipe, it is the most difficult part of an Ethopian meal.

Side Note: We messed this up, so it wasn't rising. To make it kind of work, I just used a balloon whisk to whisk the heck out of it till the batter had bubbles and would immediately put it on the pan so that the bubbles would cook into it....a last ditch effort, but it kind of worked! :)

Doro Wot (Chicken Stewed in Berbere Sauce) Serves 8-10

Ingredients: 2-3 lbs chicken, cut up into small cubes, 1 cup spiced butter, divided (recipe below), 3 lbs onions, diced and lightly pulsed in a food processor (don't puree though!), 5 garlic cloves minced, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger, 3 heaping T berbere (recipe below, or buy at a spice store), 1/4 cup tomato paste, salt, 3 cups water or chicken broth, 10 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and slightly scored.

Directions: Prepare the chicken and score each piece to ensure the sauce can penetrate. In a large stew pot, melt 1/4 cup of the spiced butter. Add onions, garlic and ginger and saute on medium heat for 15 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add berbere and tomato paste and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes (when we made this, it wasn't at all moist enough to do that, so we skipped the 'simmer for 30 minutes' part). Add salt to taste if desired and slowly add the chicken, stirring as you go, coating each piece well with the sauce. Continue to simmer, adding enough water or broth to maintain the consistency of a thick soup. When the chicken is half done, add the hard boiled eggs and remaining spiced butter. Cover and continue cooking until the chicken is done. Serve with injera.

Side Note: The eggs seem weird, but they taste really delicious, so just go with it! Also, these are forgiving recipes full of delicious ingredients, so if something seems weird, just add more spice, or turn down the heat, or add more chicken broth, and it will work out!

Nit'ir Qibe (Spiced Butter) Makes 1 lb, reduce the ingredients to meet your needs!

Ingredients: 1 lb unsalted butter, 4 t grated fresh ginger, 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped, 5 garlic cloves, chopped, 1 t ground fenugreek, 1 t ground cumin, 1 t cardamom seeds, 3/4 t ground turmeric, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 t dried basil leaves.

Directions: Melt butter in a heavy saucepan on moderate heat. Bring butter to a light boil. When the foam rises to the surface, skim off the top and discard. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Reduce the heat to low and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Store in a covered container at room temp.

Berbere (Red Pepper Spice Mix) Makes about 1 cup

We just bought this at a local store that sold a wide range of spices, but if you can't find it, here's the recipe.

Ingredients: 1/2 t whole allspice, 1 t cumin, 1 t fenugreek, 2 t ground ginger, 2 t onion powder, 1 t ground cardamom, 1 t ground nutmeg, 1/4 t ground cloves, 1/2 t garlic powder, 1/2 cup dried serrano chiles, ground fine, 2 T salt, 1/4 cup paprika.

Directions: Grind allspice, cumin and fenugreek. Combine with all remaining ingredients. Store in an airtight container.

Oatmeal Cookies

Well folks, I've been doing a fair amount of cooking lately, but I've been bad about posting. Early in dating, my boyfriend and I wrestled a fiesty, very large (3 1/3 lb) dungeness crab into a pot and after picking the meat he made delicious crab cakes. On Valentine's Day, we avoided the crowds and instead stayed in and cooked one of our favorite cuisines - Ethiopian! We made Doro Wat, Lamb Tibs, red lentil stew (which I can't recall the name of) and greens. We made injera too, but that wasn't quite so successful, though I'm not giving up! When I find my misplaced cookbook, I will post the recipes for those items, and some pictures too.

As for the this post, as the title suggests, we made oatmeal cookies last night. They are so delicious. The cookie dough from oatmeal cookies is by far the best cookie dough, the cookies themselves are delightful, and they are so easy to make. And they have oatmeal in them, so they've got to be kind of good for you, right? Excellent.

Ingredients: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter (1 stick, cut into smaller pieces), 1 egg, 1 t vanilla, 1 T milk, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/2 t baking soda, 1/2 salt, 1 cup rolled oats, 1 cup chocolate chips, raisins, and /or nuts (optional).

Directions: In a medium bowl, mix together the sugars and butter, blend a bit with a mixer, and then add the egg, vanilla and milk. Blend until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend well. Add oats and stir with a spoon or if you have a strong mixer, continue to blend. If you so desire, add in any other ingredients (though I like my cookies pure!).

Cook at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool, serve warm with milk(okay, okay, serve however you wish with whatever beverage, but warm with milk is the best way)!

Butternut Squash... Pasta!

Lately, a lot of restaurants in the Twin Cities have been posting specials that involve some combination of butternut squash and pasta. It's often offered up in the form of ravioli, and it's usually served in a light but creamy sauce that has some sage in it. Having enjoyed this at a number of local establishments, I realized that I had a butternut squash that was waiting to be eaten, and decided that I'd take a stab at this concept - and it worked!

I chopped the squash up into chunks and roasted it in the oven until soft. Meanwhile, I cooked a chunky pasta. When both were cooked, I removed the peel from the squash. Then I stirred the pasta and the squash chunks together, mashing the squash up a bit, and added a spoonful or two of sour cream, a few tablespoons of butter, and a sprinkling of dried sage. With a generous shaking of salt and pepper over the top, I had a warm bowl of butternut squash pasta, and it was delicious. Give it a try!

Berry Cobbler

Growing up, a very favorite summer dessert of mine was the Blueberry Peach Cobbler that our mom made - with fresh Maine blueberries and canned peaches, if I remember correctly. I have learned that just about any combination of fruit and berries (fresh, frozen, or canned) works pretty well, and makes this a good year-round option for a fruit based dessert that is quick and easy. I recently made it with a can of pears (drained), and about 1 cup of frozen berries - odds and ends from my freezer that needed to be used up or thrown away.

Here's the recipe: filling, crust, and topping.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cook until thick:

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup cold water

Add to that mixture:

3 cups of fruit (see above for ideas)

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Pour this fruit filling into an oven-safe dish.

Mix the following crust, and pour it on top of the fruit filling in the dish:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

1/8 cup oil

Mix the following topping, and sprinkle it on top of the crust:

2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Put the whole production in the oven, and bake it for 30 minutes. It's good warm and cold, with ice cream or whipped cream or plain. I usually eat the leftovers for breakfast. Enjoy!