Ore-o-no!!

So, after moving into our apartment, we've discovered a few problems (leaky drains, broken air-conditioning, etc...) and I've become fairly good friends with the maintenance team. However, I discovered the biggest problem when I decided to make those home-made Oreos for Ben.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees like the recipe said, but not knowing exactly how our oven worked, I decided to check the cookies at 5 minutes instead of cooking them for the recommended 9. I began to imagine how excited Ben would be when he came home to freshly baked Oreos, but was jarred back to reality when the smoke detector started beeping only 3 minutes after I had put the cookies into the oven! I pulled them out of the oven as quickly as I could as the smoke billowed out of it (melting my hot-pad in the process!) and started fanning the smoke away from the screeching device on the ceiling.

After I cleared out most of the smoke and got the alarm to stop beeping, I decided to do something rather drastic and turn the oven temperature down a whole 100 degrees! It seemed like a bit much, but after breaking one of the previous "cookies" in half and finding nothing but charcoal, I decided baking them at 275 for 7 minutes would be fine.

Boy was I wrong!

Imagine my frustration when only five minutes later the smoke detector started beeping again. I ran through the same drill, pulling the former cookies out of the oven and then running over to fan the smoke away from the alarm.

By this point I was hot and sweaty and disappointed about the two dozen cookies that now sat as a pile of charcoal nuggets in the garbage. I decided to try one more time. I made a single cookie and baked it for 3 minutes at 175 degrees and.... it worked!! I was so excited.

After far-too-much hassle, I ended up going to the dinner smelling like a campfire, but with delicious bite-sized Oreo cookies that I over-heard Ben say were "better than the real thing!" And now we know the smoke detector works. :)

................... Homemade Oreos

A word of warning: this cookie is rather sweet, calling for a whopping 1 1/2 cups of sugar! This would be great just by itself as a cookie, or maybe sandwiching some black cherry ice cream (or whatever flavor you like), but combined with the incredibly sweet filling, a few of these are liable to put you into a diabetic coma! If you're looking for something closer to the original, and more palatable so that you can eat them by the handful, take out a full half cup of sugar.

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F. (This temperature has worked for numerous other people, so unless your oven is as weird as mine, you shouldn't have any problems.)

2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass. *Note: it stays really crumbly for a while. Keep mixing! It will come together.*

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

**You can try numerous variations on this recipe as well - it's only limited by your imagination. Two that I plan on trying are adding mint to make Mint Oreos, or filling the cookies with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese frosting.

Enjoy!

Smiling in Ohio

I’ve been married for one week shy of a month now, and I’m finally getting to break into my role as wife and homemaker. You’d think after a month of marriage I would have been overjoyed at the chance to cook every day. Alas, last night was the first time I’ve made dinner for the two of in quite some time. A honeymoon encompassing three wedding receptions along with the drive from California to Ohio left little time for me to master, or even attempt, some form of culinary creation. Last night however, I made Butter Chicken with Sautéed Onions and Mashed Potatoes, with Cheesecake for dessert. The food, of course, was excellent. :) Ben loved it and it felt so good - not only be cooking again, but to make dinner for my wonderful husband and have it waiting for him when he got home from a long day at work.


If you had asked where I see myself in 5 years in January, Ohio would have been one of the last places I thought of, if I even thought of it at all. Yet, here I am! We’ve only been here for a couple days, so I can’t complain about anything yet. :) It does seem like a nice little place though, and we were lucky enough to get here while the weather's still a little cool, before the humidity really sets in. We have our very own little 2 bedroom apartment and I can’t get over the excitement of having my own place. (Ok, its not completely mine, but I’m sharing it with my husband, not 5 other girls.) Just opening the refrigerator is a joyous experience because I don’t have to dig through piles of food belonging to my roommates in order to find something with my name on it. So while Ben goes to work everyday from noon until around 10pm, I stay at home and do.... what? I'm still working on that one, so I'll have to get back to you.


Tuesdays we have small group dinners where some of the married folk feed the single ones. I’m in charge of dessert today and I'm rather excited. Ben is basically in love with Oreos – he has been since I met him, and probably long before that. I’m quite the opposite. I’m not really much of a fan of store bought/processed foods. If I can make it from scratch, I’d much rather do it that way. It’s definitely healthier and I think things taste better when made from scratch. Well, it just so happens that in one of my random recipe searches I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade Oreos that boast tasting just like the store-bought variety. So my project for tonight: make Homemade Oreos and test them on a group of guys who all know and love the “real” ones. I had to stop by the store to pick up some necessary ingredients and as I was checking out I had the following conversation with the cashier – a cute old man who looked to be in his 70’s.


Cashier: How’re ya doin’ today?

Me: Pretty well, how about yourself?

Cashier: Just fantastic. Couldn’t be better. If I was any better I’d be twins!


*pause as he starts ringing up my groceries*


Cashier: Ya know, people just aren’t as happy as they used to be. They don’t enjoy life anymore. If people enjoyed life as much as I do they’d sure be a lot happier.

Me: So tell me, what’s your secret to enjoying life?

Cashier: Keeping a positive attitude and Smiling. People just need to smile more. Ya see, I’m like a mirror. If you smile at me I’ll smile right back. Don’t you forget it either. Keep on smiling and you’ll enjoy life just as much as I do.


And you know, he’s right! As I left the store, I couldn’t help but smile - not just to myself, but at everyone I passed as well. Maybe it was the hint of “down home country” in his speech or the way that he said it, or maybe it was just my lack of human (other than Ben) in the past couple days, but whatever the reason, his comment hit me and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.




So, I guess that's what's been going on lately. I'll post the results when I finish those cookies later!