I Should Have Listened to Cookie Monster

I love cookies. I love cookies the way this guy does--shoveling them in as fast as I can crunch 'em up with crumbs flying everywhere. Somewhere along the way, though, I lost that inborn knowledge that every kid has: there is no such thing as a bad cookie.

As an adult with more sophisticated tastes and cook with stronger skills, I became a cookie snob. The only really "good" cookies were homemade from scratch. Sure, we indulge in the efforts of those famous elves and can lick 'n dump with the Trump like everyone else. But those don't count. It's like eating burgers for supper on the fly--it's food, technically but who views it as "good food".

Reform came to my house in the guise of a fundraiser. As a teacher, Mr. Bittersweet is often persuaded by students to help their cause. Mr B is the biggest cookie hound I know and I strongly suspect that fundraiser had his name as chief target on it. After spending that much on cookie dough, I wasn't about to let it rot in the fridge. I made some up for the grands. They loved them. (So did the quality control inspector who visited the kitchen.) I made up some more tonight while dinner cooked as a treat for a job well-done in the garden. So fast. So easy. Only what we needed for a small treat without all those others calling out to be eaten, too, so no guilt. I'm sold! I'm reformed! Those coupons for cookie mixes and dough will no longer be relegated to trade. Cookie Monster has the right idea--just enjoy!!!!

Baked Fish with Pasta-Veggie Salad

The heat and odd family schedules have put a damper on my cooking lately. Today was my day off, so naturally I worked like crazy to clean the house and catch up on laundry. Oddly enough, this kind of cleaning/nesting puts me in the mood to cook new things.

We've not had fish in a while and the tilapia was calling me from the freezer. It's a family favorite to bake it in a parmesan cheese-herb-bread crumb crust. The pasta salad was the new dish from one of Betty Crocker's cookbooklets "Great Pasta" . It was so yummy. I omitted the chicken as we already had fish on the menu and used more veggies from the garden instead. Shell pasta, about 2 cups of quartered cherry tomatoes, a whole bell pepper diced, and about 3 tbsp of olives. These are then tossed with 1/2 cup Miracle Whip (light) and 1/3 French Dressing (also light) then chilled. It was so creamy and tasty. Dessert was a blueberry cream cheese tart using fat-free cream cheese to keep the naughty factor down a little. Mr. B says he's saving the rest for breakfast tomorrow--as if it's all his! Looks like I need to change to date stamp on the camera. Poor thing keeps trying but hasn't been quite right since I dropped it in the lake on vacay. Oops.

What's For Dinner?

I'm really enjoying the quiet this morning. We're having one of those soft, soaking, spring rains that even the birds play in. Mr B's little herb garden is visibly growing it seems. Especially since he put up the little chicken wire fence to keep out the bunnies. Bad bunnies, nibbling on those baby herbs before we get to!

Last night was one of those quickie dinners that looks like Rachel Ray or Martha made. (I was so proud of it and basking in the compliments, I'll admit.) We had Pepperoni Grill Cheese sandwiches with Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms for Mr B and I and kids had Cucumbers in Sour Cream-Dill Dressing (they hate mushrooms).

Pepperoni Grill Cheese Sandwich
1 foccaccia bread (I use one from Walmart that comes with a pepperoni & cheddar topping, you could easily add that yourself)
Cheddar Cheese slices or Spread. (I found a super-yummy spread at Sam's Club 24oz for around $10 that family loves and actually goes pretty far.)
I simply slice the bread horizontally, spread on the cheese, re-top it, then slice it in half to fit on my Foreman grill. Grill it for about 5 minutes with a heavy object (canned good, flour bag) on top for the panini effect. Repeat for the other half. Feeds 4-5.

Mushrooms Stuffed with Tomatoes and Spinach
2 Portobello Mushrooms
1 large tomato, diced
1 cup free spinach, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, according to personal taste, minced
2 tsp dried basil (until our basil grows large enough to use)
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Rinse and pat mushrooms dry. Coat caps with olive oil using pastry brush. Place on baking sheet with caps down. Mix remaining ingredients in medium mixing bowl then fill the mushrooms with this "pesto". Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. You can also grill this outdoors and is wonderful.

As a side note for the thrifty cooks out there: This meal came in at around $7 total including kid's cucumber salad; feeding 4 of us and took about 20 minutes from start to finish.