January 17, 2012

Cheesy Spaghetti Bake and Chocolate Chip Cookies

The southwestern part of Idaho is expecting a huge snow storm starting this evening.  We haven't received a-n-y snow this winter, which has been pretty unusual for our area.  The snow plows, tire companies, and commuters are gearing up for tomorrow's big dump.   Here's how me and Miss Mosey prepared for tomorrows snowy descent:
...


We made cookies.
You never know if the power might go out and leave us without an oven when a sudden cookie monster craving hits. 

Sheesh.  Good thing we are prepared!

Nothing is better than homemade cookies right out of the oven.  
Wait there is...
A new cookie recipe cookie right out of the oven that is super ooey gooey, light and fluffy yummy and tops all your other chocolate chip cookie recipes is.  Yup, I found my new and true cooke recipe with a secret ingredient.  See if you can point it out.  Recipe is below.  
 Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients: 
3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened 
3/4 c. brown sugar 
1/4 c. granulated sugar 
1 egg 
2 tsp. vanilla extract 
2 c. all purpose flour 
2 tsp. cornstarch 
1 tsp. baking soda 
1/2 tsp. salt  *I like more salt in my cookies so I added a full tsp.
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips *I like less chips in mine so I added about 3/4 cup.

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely. 

*For me, it made 2 dozen.  And that doesn't include the 4 that I ate after dinner... 

Whaaaaat?  The baby in my belly said he needs them ;)

For the second batch I remembered that I like oatmeal in my cookies, so I added oatmeal.  I also love to add craisins.  And coconut, white chocolate chips, coconut, pecans--but I was out of those. 
Delish! And the secret ingredient?  Corn starch?!  It supposedly makes the cookies have more fluff.  I love anything with more fluff to it.  Now to help myself to a tall glass of ice cold milk.
Ahhhh.

For dinner (pre-cookies, of course) I was in a time crunch to get something in mine and Mosey's belly before it got too late.  I'm not a huge fan of spaghetti but this is a fun spin off that only has 4 easy ingredients.  4!!  
Super fast and Mosey LOVED it. 
 
Boil up some penne pasta (1.),  dump the pasta water and add spaghetti sauce (2.).   Eyeball in some whole milk (3.) to make it creamy(you can also use half and half, or heavy cream-whole was all I had on hand).  Sprinkle in some oregano, basil, garlic powder-or any other spices you wish, then CHEESE(4.) it up.  
You can cut up chunks of mozarella in the bake and add shredded parmesan on top, but what I did was cut up three string cheeses (again, all I had) and mixed it in with the noodles and sauce, then sprinkled a bag of Italian shredded cheese on top.  
Pop it in at 350 for about 25 mins, add some crusty french bread and whooo-la!
*I broiled the top for a few minutes to get a nice browned cheese on top for a nice cheesy layer.  

For a healthier option use wheat pasta-which I love and normally would put in, but I have failed to trick the hubby into eating wheat pasta in the past and it does not fly with him.  :( hmm.   Also it would be just AWESOME with fresh basil.  Nothing beats fresh basil in your dish.  I have unfortunately let my plant go.  It is no longer with us.  Poor thing...    
For some protein, add chicken, beef, or shrimp.  Sounds simply delightful!  Yeah?!
Recipe adapted from: howsweeteats.com
Nothing like a happy s'ghetti and cookie plastered face.  Looks like I get Mosey's stamp of approval. :)

Enjoy!


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1 comment:

  1. oh man oh man! I've been having a cookie craving, and this recipe is not helping! I think I'll make the cookies first, then the cocoa mix...hmmm. Hope you're enjoying the weather and haven't lost power yet (although no power can be pretty fun!)

    ReplyDelete

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