Miserable Musings

I'm sorry for the down-trodden title of this post, but the last few days really have been fairly miserable here at the IveSeenSomeThings Headquarters. You see, I came down with a cold just about a week ago, and I'm only just now beginning to feel 'better'.



It all started with an ear-ache that turned into sinus congestion and then a runny nose that worked its' way down into a sore throat and phlegmy cough... for a day or two there I couldn't figure out which was worse to deal with: the congestion or the cough; in fact, I'm still not really sure because they're both about equally frustrating.

I worked through it the first few days but then on Friday I lost my voice and had to take the day off, and then today my voice wasn't much better so the boss-man told me to stay home and get better. The two days off to lay around and recover really did help (along with the other cold-remedies above...) my voice is still raspy and coughs abound, but in comparison to the past few days, I'm feeling much better.



Today was the first warm day we've had all week, so we did a little spring cleaning... we cracked open the windows and sanitized the whole apartment with sprays and wipes, changed the sheets to something a little more colorful and 'spring'-like, and we rearranged the furniture in the living room, again.



We didn't decide to rearrange the furniture on a whim though... there's one more part to this whole miserable week - after already losing our tv to unknown circumstances a few weeks ago, Friday morning Shawn's computer decided not to start up. After much frustration and fussing-around he's narrowed the problem down to the hard drive, but since he doesn't want to erase what's on his current one (hm, lets see: all of the music that he has made, all of his digital art, all of his photos from the past 3 years- basically, everything...) we need to see about getting a new hard drive.



In the mean time, we're now down to our third and final technical entertainment option: my laptop. Hence, we re-arranged the furniture to make it easier to hook up the laptop to the monitor without sacrificing 'computer' use. (And yes, that is the uselessly broken television on Shawn's desk in the corner, not a gigantic computer monitor.) Consequently Netflix also loads way faster on my laptop than it did on Shawn's computer, so Yay for that!

Decidedly, we actually really like the new living room layout. It's much cleaner than our previous set up and it's actually cozier too. Plus, we're kind of thinking it'd be nice to eventually get a new tv and keep this set up as is and put the tv in it's original location (where the printer is now). Then we can throw some beanbags behind the couch and Shawn can play video games while I watch Scrubs at the same time... oh, to dream of days to come. (And I'll remind you that although it may not appear as such, we do more than just sit around and watch tv all day... I swear!)

So this miserable week is coming to a much less miserable end, with temporary solutions (primarily cough syrup and computer monitors) and some colorful bed linens, hopefully next week will be a little nicer to us.

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And now for something completely different! (& incredibly delicious):

Since I make my money making pastries and interacting with customers over coffee, I get a lot of questions about the yummy baked things I make. But there's one question I hear more often than others: "How do you keep yourself from eating everything you make?" The answer is simple... when it comes to pastries, I have one weakness: cookies.

Indulgence in things like decadent cakes, pies, brownies aside, there is just nothing better than a freshly baked, still warm from the oven, ooey, gooey, chocolate chip cookie. I love making cookies because they're so versatile... you can tweak each ingredient for a varied effect and texture. One day I'd like to open up a bakery in a cozy place where we only serve cookies straight out of the oven... the only way they should be served.

These oatmeal cookies are a take on my beloved chocolate chip cookies - with a little extra brown sugar for some chew, and some oats and cereal for a little crunch.

Yummy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chunks
1/4 cup corn flakes

- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Beat together the butter and both sugars until light in color and creamy in texture.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and then add them to the wet ingredients slowly, until combined.
- Add in the chocolate chunks and corn flakes, plus any other ingredients you have around (suggestions: coconut flakes, nuts, dried fruit, other cereals... be creative!).
- Scoop the dough out onto your cookie sheet and bake for about 17 minutes, or until the tops look cracked and golden.
- Enjoy!

The Real Double-Stuff

Remember the other day when I teased you with this picture?



Well today I'll be nice and share the recipe with you. I don't think I need to say much about these cookies, I mean, it's an oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie, what more is there really to say?

'Oreo' Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of finely chopped chocolate (mini chocolate chips would also work well)
12-15 oreos, or similar sandwich cookie varieties.


- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream the butter and sugars together until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then the vanilla extract.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl, then add all these dry ingredients to your wet ones until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips, then form your dough into balls. I use my cookie scoop to make sure they're even, but you can use a spoon and your eyes to make balls that are about 1 tablespoon in size. Once you have all of your cookie dough balled-up, the fun starts!
- Take an oreo and use two balls of cookie dough to cover it; the best method I found was to put one ball of dough on top of the oreo and one on the bottom, then gently flatten everything between your palms and work/mold the dough down around the oreo cookie. After doing a few of them I felt like I was working with play-doh... and you really can treat it as such! Just work the dough around the cookie however you need to make sure the oreo is fully covered.
- Arrange your super cookies about an inch apart on your cookie sheet and bake them for 16 minutes, or until the cookie dough is golden brown and cracked on top.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan until you deem them solid enough to move to a cooling rack, then let them cool completely. These cookies taste great warm, but they taste even better if you have the patience to let them cool down completely. (The oreos are more intact once the cookie is completely cool!)
- Enjoy!

Super Cookie: deconstructed



If anyone's curious, I used Trader Joes' Joe Joes instead of Oreos. But I'm sure you're not surprised.

Monday shenan-agains

We don't have very much to blog about these days... life has been pleasantly quiet around here. The tease of warm weather did get us out of our winter funk and back to our (almost)daily walks around the neighborhood though... and the neighborhood squirrels are back in action! We caught one happily bulking up his tree-trunk nest the other day, and this morning I had one greet me at the kitchen window while happily munching on a bread crust... these squirrels keep us way too entertained.


I also got some happy baking in this weekend - it was my dad's birthday on Friday so I made a shaker lemon pie. One of my customers at work had made it not long ago and insisted that I should too, and since meyer lemons are in season lately I decided to go for it.

The pie was a w e s o m e. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just awesome. The butter crust smelled delicious while it was baking too. The pie was a big hit - we almost finished it off between four people, but I was able to save two slices for later before they got devoured too. I'll definitely be making it again (maybe soon, since I still have two meyer lemons in the fridge!) but I want to get a mandolin first, I just couldn't get those lemons sliced thin enough with our not-quite-the-sharpest knives.


Another meal worth mentioning is the beef stew Shawn made while I was at work Saturday afternoon. Even though we got it back in December, it's the first thing we've made in our new slow cooker! The beef was super tender and moist, and although we had no celery to add to it, the celery salt Shawn's mom gave us for Christmas worked wonders in terms of flavor. I can't wait to slow-cook some more stuff!


But back to the baking - I promised Shawn a chocolate cheesecake for Valentine's day (since food is our favorite gift) but I never quite got around to making it. So after devouring that lemon pie this weekend I finally started on the decadent cheesecake. I'm happy to say that Shawn was pleasantly satisfied - it has the texture of a light chocolate mousse cake but it's not too heavy on the tongue or stomach. Cheesecake isn't one of my favorite desserts, I'm a cheesecake purist and don't really want anything other than graham crust and sweet tangy cream cheese when it comes right down to it. But this wasn't for me, it was for Shawn, and I'm just glad he enjoyed it :)



On a closing note, check out our latest sans-tv setup. Shawn got tired of not being able to use his computer while watching 'tv' on the big monitor, so he set up a dual monitor system.... now we're really wired. Unfortunately, it's not the most attractive set-up, but it'll do for now. It makes us feel like the geeks we know we really are.

Until next time!

I'm such a tease...

Oh blog, how I've neglected you for the last two weeks.... I may not have posted any new recipes (shame on me!), but I did manage to work up a new layout. It's clean and simple, and I like it. I hope you do too!

The last few days have been so incredibly sunny and teasingly warm - great walking-to-work weather, and also great photography weather - my camera takes such better photos when it has some natural light to work with!

All winter I've had to edit photos like crazy to bring out their color because otherwise they look like this:


So I was so happy this morning when I woke up to a sunlit kitchen and was able to take unedited photos of last night's cookie ventures and this morning's breakfast...


Is that what you think it is? If you're thinking oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie, then you're absolutely right! Is it possible? It is! It is!


Green pepper & onion omelette topped with cheddar cheese and fresh smoked bacon from the farmer's market - that's a mouthful.

I'm sorry to tease you with such delicious looking things, but a real recipe post will have to wait until tomorrow! Happy weekend!