Vegetarian Foodie

The Best Cookie Recipe Ever!

With Christmas having come and gone we had our fare share of cookie making and eating in the past few weeks. We have sampled delicious bits of cookies such as pecan cranberry sugar cookies, shortbread, fudge balls, raspberry squares, chocolate chip classic etc. etc. By far, we all agreed around here that Giada's Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hazelnuts is the best ever. Not only do the cookies sport hazelnuts that have been toasted but also chips of toffee. Really these cookies are the business and I knew it to be true when the day after I made a batch, the husband confessed to eating 13 of the cookies upon waking. 13! An entire baker's dozen! And before 8 A.M.! I suppose I should be flattered however he proceeded to eat the cookies out of the fancy bags I had assembled as gifts for neighbors and friends.  All was settled when I angrily threw a bag of cookies at him by mid-day and then stashed the remaining bags of cookies in the back of the drawer that holds the rags, chopsticks and plastic lunch baggies. 

Make these cookies at your own risk.

1/2 Cup Oats
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Sticks of butter at Room Temp
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
4 Ounces Heath Bar or Skor Bar Chopped
1 Cup Hazelnuts Toasted, Husked and Chopped
1 Bag of Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Chop the Oats in a food Processor. Transfer oats to a large bowl and add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a different bowl, use an electric mixer (or in my case my hands) and beat the sugars and butter until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla.

Mix the flour bowl with the butter bowl and blend. Stir in toffee, hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

Drop the dough onto a cookie sheet (about spoon size) and bake until cookies are golden.. about 15 minutes.

Additional good news about these cookies is that the dough keeps in the freezer! Take dough out an hour or so before you plan to make some cookies.

Toasted Hazelnuts

Toasted Hazelnuts are pretty delicious bits and an essential ingredient in the Giada's Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hazelnuts recipe.

Toast hazelnuts: preheat your oven to 400 F. Spread hazelnuts out on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes. Do not blacken.

To remove the skins, wait until the hazelnuts cool. Then pick up handfuls and rub your hands together. The friction will encourage the skin to fall off.

Roasted Fennel

Normally I roast fennel and add the chopped pieces to a vegetable soup for extra flavor. Recently, I roasted the fennel and served it as a stand alone side kick to orzo pasta with olives, red onions, chick peas and tomatoes.

Roast fennel at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. I drizzle my fennel with olive oil and add salt and pepper before placing the roasting pan in the oven.

Websites for Foodies

So I was having a gander around the web earlier and as always I am impressed with the degree of innovation I see. I discovered TasteBook. Have you foodies heard of this?

Tastebook is a clever interface which allows one to design their own cookbook. Cookbook features include: 100 recipes, a hardcover,an easy open binder and 10 chapters. See the sample:

The creator of the cookbook can pull recipes from the provided database or better yet for foodies,upload original recipes, original photos, and voila-your very own cookbook arrives on your doorstep.

How much for this you are asking? $34.95

Another website for foodies that I arrived at was FoodTube.Net. FoodTube offers an enormous collection of video recipes, most of which are totally boring (and I adore a video of good food porn). Like public access, I see the potential and FoodTube which proves popular with the foodies and logs a big chunk of traffic. If you find any great gems-let me know.

Taste TV enjoys status as the indie food channel. Slick and entertaining indeed and is worth spending some time on when it is cold outside and you are wearing thick socks.

Raw Nacho Cheese

I had the pleasure of dining with two friends that eat a raw foods diet. My contribution to the dinner was downright embarrassing beside the creamy and savory nacho cheese drizzled over broccoli.   

A many thanks to Kirstin for sharing her raw nacho cheese recipe, if only I could talk her into a raw guest post occasionally...

Try this raw nacho cheese and drizzle it over whatever you like, I promise you won't believe how amazing it is. Beware, you may keep dipping and dipping...

2 Cups Cashews (soaked for 1-2 hours)
1 Red Bell
3/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1 clove of Garlic
Juice of 1 Lemon

Combine above ingredients in a blender. Add water as needed until the nacho cheese consistency is achieved. Salt or Braggs L. Amino to taste.