My Recipe Box - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I made these cookies yesterday and we really enjoyed them. I thought they were a little too sweet and would reduce the amount of granulated sugar the next time.


Since it makes so many I would probably freeze half the dough mixture for future use.


UPDATE:

Just made these again, and suggest that 350 degrees is high enough and just bake a little longer so that they do not become too dark.

EASY BEST OATMEAL - RAISIN COOKIES


Printed from COOKS.COM


1 1/4 c. butter (2 1/2 sticks) or 283.5 g


3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour I use gluten free

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt, optional

1 tsp. cinnamon, optional

1/4 tsp. nutmeg, optional

3 c. quick or old fashioned oats

1 1/2 c. raisins



Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices; mix well. Stir in oats; stir in raisins.Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes for chewy cookies, 10-11 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack. Store tightly covered. Yield 4 1/2 dozen.

Foodie Fryday - London

I posted about Brick Lane in London on Tuesday under Thirsty Tuesday.

As a quick recap it is an Bangladeshi area in the east end of London that features many curry houses. We ate here twice on our visit last year.

Toronto Thursday

Also found at the Cabbagetown Festival a couple of weekends ago Girl Can Create.

These photos are from her website.




A sample from her Etsy shop.

Thirsty Tuesday - London England

Even though I had been to London many times I was unaware of this area until I read (and loved) the book Brick Lane.

Last year we visited the area twice, once for dinner with a Toronto colleague who just happened to fly into London that day. The second time was a more leisurely visit for several hours on a beautiful Sunday.

Brick Lane in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of Osborn Street. Today, it is the heart of the city's Bangladeshi community and is known to some as Banglatown. It is famous for its many curry houses.

Brewing came to Brick Lane before 1680, with water drawn from deep wells. One brewer was Joseph Truman, first recorded in 1683. His family, particularly Benjamin Truman, went on to establish the sizable Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Book Journey is hosting It's Monday What Are You Reading and I'm linking up.

I started The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk. According to his website:
The Black Book, in which the streets, past, chemistry and texture of Istanbul are described through the story of a lawyer seeking his missing wife. This novel was published in Turkey in 1990, and the French translation won the Prix France Culture. The Black Book enlarged Pamuk's fame both in Turkey and internationally as an author at once popular and experimental, and able to write about past and present with the same intensity. In 1991 Pamuk's daughter Rüya was born. That year saw the production of a film Hidden Face, whose script by Pamuk was based on a one-page story in The Black Book.




I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish this. I recently read his autobiographical book Istanbul which I enjoyed but think mainly because I have been to Istanbul and could relate to the areas he described.


Read last week:

Weekly Menus - What We Ate

Monday - Saturday's leftovers from our roast beef dinner.

Tuesday - I was out to dinner with a GF. Great fun but crappy fish and chips at Hemingway's.

Wednesday - hamburger stew using up lots of the vegetables that were in the fridge. Leftovers were great for Thursday's lunch.

Thursday - homemade pizza with pepperoni, green peppers, onions.

Friday - Spaghetti with with turkey meatballs and bread with homemade garlic butter.

Saturday - steak with baked potatoes and grilled snow peas, green peppers, mushrooms and onions.

Sunday - Chicken a la orange with naan bread.

My Recipe Box - Turkey Meatballs

I had never used ground turkey until this recipe. I had come across some recipes and decided to give these a try. I loosely followed the ingredients below. Feel free to improvise. 

They were very good added to spaghetti sauce and served over pasta with toasted garlic bread.

Meatballs:

• Cooking spray - for pan
• 1 pound ground turkey meat
• Breadcrumbs - I make my own from stale bread
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup finely grated carrot
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced 
• Italian seasoning to taste
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the broiler. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. I forgot and they definitely will stick!! Combine the turkey with all other ingredients in a large work bowl. Form into 2 1/2 -inch balls ( I use an ice cream scoop) and place on a baking sheet. Broil for 10 minutes, or until browned and  cooked through.

New Blogs This Week

New blogs I started following this week.

Personal Finance
Mr Money Mustache a man's take on finances.
Beantown Happy Homeowner
The Debt Myth

Food
Grilled Cheese Social the blogger makes different themed grilled cheese sandwiches using unique ingredients.
The Travelling Chopsticks
Mrs. Bent's Diary


Photography
And Then She Snapped

General
Boyett-Brinkley

Recipes To Try

Oven fried onion rings

Blueberry cream cheese muffins UPDATE made these last week and have a post with the outcome and recipe.

Wienershcnitzel - had this in Russia and really enjoyed it.

Buffalo chicken wraps because I am always looking for chicken recipes.

Sweet potato brownies great way to use them up and uses a lot less sugar.

Homemade taco seasoning something I've always wanted to make as I don't like store bought mixes and this is from Kevin  from Closet Cooking a Toronto guy and one of the first food blogs I followed.

Easy chicken Cordon Bleu

Grown up chicken fingers from Mitzi'sa Winnipeg Chinese restaurant. Featured in Saveur's magazine no less.

My Recipe Box -Garlic Butter

                                     Source

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened or margarine 1 tablespoon minced garlic, fresh or from a jar 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, combine softened butter, minced garlic and parmesan cheese. Mix until smooth.

We used to buy garlic butter but couldn't find it a while ago so I decided to make our own. After Googling some recipes I took my favourite components of several using what I had on hand.
I took a partially used container of margarine and mixed the other ingredients into the margarine.


I made sure I used a Sharpie to write on the label so no one got any surprises at breakfast the next day.

Saturday Sightseeing - Texas

The Alamo

Toronto Thursday

We came across Buzzz whose motto is "Pretend help in an all too real world" at the Cabbagetown Festival last weekend and thought it was a great gift idea.
Who wouldn't want a cabana boy at your beck and call??

And minions?




Photos source

Pinterest

I've set up a Pinterest account to collect random ideas. you can find me here - Jake Porter

Thirsty Tuesday - Portugal

From a trip to Albufeira, one of many towns we visited while staying in the Algarve in Portugal.

Food Bloggers of Canada

Please check this out Food Bloggers of Canada.

Weekly Menus - Update

Sunday - roast pork with carrots, onions and potatoes all roasted.

Monday - last night's leftovers.
The remainder was be made into pork stock for an Asian inspired soup.

Tuesday - Quiche made with bacon and spinach, not my usual broccoli and ham. I also made cheddar cheese biscuits to go with the quiche. I should have made salad as well, but didn't.

Wednesday - ????

Thursday - Fried eggs with a fresh loaf of bread that I made.

Friday - Sweet potato fries, mushrooms, green peppers and onion sauteed with chicken breast bbq with Montreal Chicken rub.

Saturday - had an overnight visitor so we had roast beef, gravy, corn, turnips and carrots mashed together, Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes. Raspberries and cream for dessert.

TGIF Friday - Fall Garden

Just some random photos from the garden in September.

Toronto Thursday

I was waiting for a subway train a couple of weekends ago and stumbled upon this photo shoot. I couldn't decide if it was a modeling shoot or a real wedding shoot.
I'm hoping the photographer's angles didn't include the garbage can.

My Recipe Box - Pork Stock

I took the remaining meat from Sunday/Monday's roast and sliced it thinly. It will be added to the soup stock when I complete the stock and make it into a meal.

Pork bone with any crackle
Ginger
Onion
Bay leaf (frozen from my plant last winter)
Garlic
Water to cover
Salt

I have some leftover chicken stock that I will add at the end.

Cover, bring to a boil then simmer for a few hours.
Strain and put in fridge until the fat rises to the top and can be discarded.

One recipe I have made with this stock is Asian meatball soup but this time since I have the sliced meat will
likely make this Asian pork and ginger soup.

My Recipe Box - Broccoli Soup

• 
• 
  
• 
  
• 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature or olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh broccoli
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Directions

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in heavy medium pot over medium-high heat. Add broccoli, onion, carrot, salt and pepper and saute until onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, until the flour reaches a blonde color. Add stock and bring to boil.

Simmer uncovered until broccoli is tender, about 15 minutes. With an immersion blender, puree the soup. Add salt and pepper, to taste, and then replace the lid back on the pot. 

What I've Been Up To - Monday Update

It's been seven weeks since I stopped working and have pretty well just enjoyed myself. Lots of trips to the garden centre, coffee/lunches with friends and some cleaning of closets. The last month has also been filled with career counselling sessions and a fantabulous trip to NYC.
Got the house almost back in order after all that painting.

New rug

 Some art rehung

Bought the blinds for the living room and TV room and DH installed them.

Made a video for a cousin's birthday.
Had friends in to dinner.
Drying laundry outside, I have NEVER done that in this house.
Lots of nooks and crannies are getting tidied up and cleaned out.
Rearranged the living room - moved the lamps to better locations.
Decluttered lots.
Weeded a lot.
Planted lots of plants bought at those garden centre visits (four!!). Rearranged back end of garden. It still needs more plants. Also planted transplants from a friend's garden, white hostas to continue my white theme.

Joined Costco.
Cleaned freezer to make room for above purchases.
Made 5 soup stocks. Used my crockpot for one of them.
Blogged a lot and read way too many blogs.
Switched phone service over - received VOIP box today will see how this works out.
Booked 2 more vacations using timeshare. We never could do this before as easily due to vacation allotments. New Bern NC for golf in October and Hilton Head for golf in March.
Booked flights for Hawaii in November - this was already planned before I stopped working.
Drove to Montreal for a weekend.

Booked a trip to Cityline.
Bought a coupon for a photography class for myself and a BF.
Bought coupon for cooking class for DH and I.

Caught up on some reading:
Gladdy's Wake
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Istanbul Memories and the City
Sugar Street - gave up on this, didn't finish it.
Chicago
Hide and Seek
Knots and Crosses
Tooth and Nail
Exit Music
Priest



It's now the second week of  "back to school" so it's time for me to start counting my accomplishments now that I have an extra (yikes) forty hours a week!!

Tuesday - first day of school.
Called to schedule furnace cleaning and a rad repair and also to get railings for front steps.
Tried to book a maid service using a coupon from LivingSocial a deal a day site. GC Nexus informed me that they were fully booked until the expiration of the coupon so I could either go on a waiting list or else contact LivingSocial and ask for a refund. So basically they've had my money for six months and now want me to do the work to get my credit. I emailed LivingSocial and they agreed to process the refund.
Made a banana bread in my breadmaker. But will be looking for another recipe as it required mixing in my blender, therefore dirtying more things.

Wednesday
Tracked down Four Hour Work Week blog which I had come across in a bookstore a week ago.
Followed up on Let's Go Global expo and marked it for September 24 to attend. It covers topics on working and volunteering abroad.
Followed up on the ST. George College book sale Oct 14-18 at  15 King's College Circle.
Trinity UT sale is  Oct 20-24.
Went shopping!!
Got my hair cut.
Met a friend and had a quick chat.
Investigating a yoga class in the area that has day classes. Thinking that The Yoga Sanctuary offers the best deals.
Checking out some volunteer ideas. The YWCA is a good option as is Times Change.

Thursday
A day out with a BF. Husbands golf and we hang out and go shopping. Spent a whole $4 not counting lunch in the food court.
Skipped drinks with work friends in the evening.

Friday
Got hair cut, went shopping on Bloor St.
Got the last plants in the ground (for now). Hot sweaty work.

Saturday
Now this is the kind of day you realize you wouldn't enjoy as much if you had to work.
Friends came over for lunch and then we headed to Cabbagetown for the festival.  So nice to feel relaxed and not worry about what isn't getting done and having to think about work on Monday!!

Then over to Underdown pub as it was participating in the Cabbagetown Festival as well as celebrating its first anniversary this weekend. Had family join us so it was an extended evening with much fun and laughter and catching up.

Sunday - mooched around. DH went to help BIL fix up apartment at the Underdown. I went downtown looking for celebrities in Yorkville where a lot are staying for TIFF. Did some shopping.

Monday - laundry, reading, blogging.