Recipes (One Old, One New)

My mom invited me over to make cookies with her in her brand new awesome oven, and she said we could make whatever cookie I wanted!  I can't remember the last time I made cookies that were purely the kind of cookie I wanted, not what one of the kids requested, or what would make Adam's eyes light up, or what would be good for this church function or that family party, etc.  Well, it's been so long (probably 3 years or more!) that I had forgotten what my favorite cookie was, I had to dredge it up from the back corners of my memory...oh, yes, chocolate, it always has to be chocolate for me.  Here's the recipe we made:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cups flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven , or just until set.  Cool slightly on cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. 

I stopped making these cookies because Adam would complain about how they would go stale so quickly.  So just be prepared, just make as many as you're going to eat in a day or two, they won't be any good past that.  (Just so you know, I've since learned to just eat them all to avoid them going stale, cookies don't last a day at our house anymore!) 

(That night we also made this, which I've posted before.  Yum.)

I've also recently found a new favorite recipe.  I've told you about our love for Red and White Chili, and I love to eat it, but I don't always get around to getting the crockpot started in time to enjoy it for dinner.  So, I was on the lookout for something similar, but that I could whip up quickly.  Here's the delicious (maybe even better than the old favorite) new favorite:

(So, maybe not my best food picture ever.  But the baby started crying, and the kids needed something, so the sour cream kinda melted into the chili...ah, well...)

Southwest White Chicken Chili

adapted from this recipe on allrecipes.com

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes (or you could cheat and use 3 cans of chicken from Costco, but I would never do that...okay, that's exactly what's in that picture above)

4 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 large onion, chopped (you could totally add more if you like onion...like, a whole onion)

1 small can diced green chilies (you could also add a jalapeno if you like heat, but this was already a bit spicy for our sensitive Katie)

1 can cream of chicken soup plus

2 cans water (so, would that be a cup and a half?  not sure...)

1 1/2 cups frozen whole kernel corn

2 cans white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained

shredded Cheddar cheese and sour cream, to garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepan (or small pot) over medium high heat, then saute the onions until translucent.  Add the chicken and cook until golden (or if you are using canned chicken, just drain the chicken and dump it in with everything else).  Add the remaining ingredients except the cheese and sour cream, and heat through.  Garnish and serve! 

So, looking at this, it's a lot like my taco soup recipe: just dump in a bunch of cans and heat it up.  That's about as easy as it gets, but it really tastes yummy.