Thick Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My standard breakfast has become oatmeal with raisins and sliced almonds, so I knew I would love these cookies that popped up on Smitten Kitchen in addition to having all the ingredients in my pantry. While my dad loves oatmeal chocolate chip pecan cookies, I'm a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies. I was baking a cake for a bake sale benefiting Second Harvest Nashville, and when it didn't turn out well, I was a little distraught. I knew I barely had time to make something else, let alone run to the store, when I remembered these cookies.

Sure enough, they turned out wonderfully, and I even kept about a dozen for our own personal consumption. You may remember that I made oatmeal raisin cookies before. These are much better. They're crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. There are plenty of raisins too, and the chilling step makes a big difference. I only had them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, but they turned out beautifully! This will be my go-to recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies from now on. You can also halve the recipe if you don't want so many cookies laying around.

Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
source: Smitten Kitchen
Yields 4-5 dozen tsp sized cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Giada's Lasagna Rolls

So this is a picture of the leftovers, which don't look as appealing as the original, so you'll have to use your imagination.
Imagine you're hosting your church supper club, and you spent the afternoon leisurely preparing a double batch of these lasagna rolls while your amazing husband cleaned the house and put together a killer playlist. The candles are lit, and the conversation and the wine are flowing. The timer goes off, and you pull out two trays of delicious lasagna rolls. The bechamel sauce is bubbling, and the cheese on top is perfectly browned.

Then, 10 minutes later, you all tuck into your plates overflowing with lasagna rolls, mixed green salad with feta and blueberries (courtesy of a supper club member), and focaccia. The blend of noodle and stuffing with the marinara and bechamel sauce mingles perfectly. And it looks so elegant, these little mini-lasagnas. Everyone compliments you, and you have plenty of leftovers.

I had these on my to-make list for a little while and was waiting for the perfect opportunity. I'm now convinced that this is the perfect supper club entree. Because everything was prepped before my guests arrived, all I had to do was pop the trays in the oven. And it looks so nice without requiring a ton of effort or fancy ingredients. I omitted the prosciutto because we had a vegetarian in our group, and I honestly didn't miss it. These lasagna rolls are not really a weekday meal because they require quite a few steps, but for a weekend or having company over, they're perfect!

Giada's Lasgna Rolls
source: Food Network

Ingredients
Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch ground nutmeg

Lasagna:
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
1 large egg, beaten to blend
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for salting water
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
2 cups marinara sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella (about 4 ounces)

Preparation

To make the sauce: Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk for 3 minutes.

Whisk in the milk. Increase the heat to medium-high. Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and is thick and smooth, about 3 minutes.

Whisk the salt, pepper, and nutmeg into the bechamel sauce.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Whisk the ricotta, spinach, 1 cup Parmesan, prosciutto, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl

Add a tablespoon or 2 of oil to a large pot of boiling salted water. Boil the noodles until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Arrange the noodles in a single layer on a baking sheet to prevent them from sticking.

Butter a 13-by-9-by-2-inch glass baking dish. Pour the bechamel sauce over the bottom of the prepared dish.

Lay out 4 lasagna noodles on a work surface, then spread about 3 tablespoons of ricotta mixture evenly over each noodle.

Starting at 1 end, roll each noodle like a jelly roll.

Lay the lasagna rolls seam side down, without touching, atop the bechamelsauce in the dish. Repeat with the remaining noodles and ricotta mixture.

Spoon 1 cup marinara over rolls and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Cover tightly with foil. Bake until heated through and the sauce bubbles, about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until the cheese on top becomes golden, about 15 minutes longer. Let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the remaining marinara sauce in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat until hot, and serve alongside.

Tomato Basil Soup

Growing up, my parents didn't cook very much, so we had a slew of restaurants that we did take-out from, one of which was La Madeleine, a chain of French bistro-type food. For a long time, I always got a cup of their tomato basil soup and spinach quiche. Their tomato basil soup was pretty famous, and eventually they started selling it in jars at nearby grocery stores, but it was never quite the same as what you got in the actual restaurant.

When I saw this recipe on Liz's Cooking Blog, it reminded me of that La Madeleine tomato basil soup, and I thought it would make a perfect weeknight meal along with some grilled cheese sandwiches (though it would also pair nicely with a quiche!). I thought it was the closest thing to the La Madeleine tomato basil soup that I had tasted in a while. Pureeing it with an immersion blender or carefully in an upright blender would make it more similar.

It was delicious and very quick to make. You can make this healthier by using milk and less butter, though I think the taste would suffer a bit so go ahead and splurge a little. It makes a fair amount, so for two, you could even half the recipe. I used a combination of fresh and dried basil because my basil plant is producing smaller leaves right now.

Tomato Basil Soup
source: Liz's Cooking Blog

Ingredients

• 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 14 ounces vegetable broth
• 18 fresh basil leaves, minced
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 6 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper, to taste
• grated or shredded Parmesan, for garnish

Preparation

In a large saucepan, bring the tomatoes and broth to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add basil and sugar. Reduce heat to low; stir in cream and butter. Cook until butter is melted.

Simple Salmon, Sauteed Spinach, and Smashed Spuds

On Wednesday, we get our grocery store circulars in the mail, and I was pleased to see that fresh salmon fillets were on-sale. Usually fresh fish is a little out of our budget, but I thought I might splurge a little bit. Since I was getting fresh fish, I decided to do a very simple presentation. I rubbed the fillets with olive oil, salt, and pepper and topped them with thin lemon slices. Then I baked them in a 400-degree oven for about 20 minutes. I served this with sauteed spinach and smashed red potatoes. All in all, I spent under $10 for the two of us, and it was a nice change of pace from our usual dinners.

Flax and Sunflower Seed Bread

I've been on a hunt for a good whole-grain bread ever since the recipe that came with my bread machine proved to be disappointing. One of my favorite sayings is that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, which was exactly what I had been doing with the whole wheat bread recipe that came with my bread machine. Then, someone on my cooking board pointed me in this direction. I overcame my fear of flax, bought some sunflower seeds in bulk at the grocery store, and made some bread.

This is exactly the recipe I've been looking for because it reminds me of the kind of bread I used to buy at the grocery store, with a lot of texture. I had to add a little more flour during the second kneading cycle, but it turned out perfectly. I plan on using it for sandwiches later this week, but our first taste of it was as toast with a breakfast of cheesy eggs and turkey bacon on Sunday morning. This will definitely be my go-to bread recipe from now on.

Flax and Sunflower Seed Bread
source: AllRecipes
Yields 1 1.5 lb loaf

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup flax seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Directions

Put everything except the sunflower seeds in the bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer. Select basic white cycle, and press start. When the alert sounds for the second kneading cycle, add the sunflower seeds. When finished, let cool 5 minutes in pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool.