I generally try to eat a healthy well-balanced diet free of junk like McDonalds, potato chips, and the Starbucks megacalorie latte of the season. However, I have two major weaknesses. The first is well-known to be ice cream, since I’ve become infamous among friends for consuming pints at a time, especially post-call. My other weakness is the homemade chocolate chip cookie.

I used to rely on the original ‘Tollhouse’ recipe that is ubiquitous on the back of most bags of chocolate chips. I’ve also played with the frequently forwarded ‘Neiman-Marcus chocolate chip cookie’ recipe, but they take forever to make. I’ve always liked to substitute oatmeal for some of the flour in my cookies (so that I can pretend that I’m eating something good for me when I go back for a fifth or sixth cookie).

Recently I stumbled on a different recipe I like even better. I found it in 365 Great Cookies & Brownies by Joanne Lamb Hayes and Bonnie Tandy Lebang. The cookies are so incredibly rich that I, a devotee of the cookie monster, can only eat a few cookies. They are also very quick to make (usually less than an hour from start to finish).

These cookies are made with butter so they spread out really thin and, combined with the oatmeal, make nice and chewy cookies. If youÂ’re like my mom and prefer a thicker cookie, you could partially substitute shortening for the butter. For the geeks among us, the shortening has a higher melting point and thus doesn’t allow the cookie to spread as much.

I’ve also used this recipe substituting cranberries for chocolate chips. Barrett insists that the cranberry cookies are even better than the original recipe. I still prefer chocolate chips. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 extra large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Kahlua (or other coffee-flavored liqueur)
1 cup (6oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stir dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, and salt) together in a small bowl and then set aside.

In large bowl, combine butter, white sugar, and brown sugar using an electric mixer until creamy. Then add in egg, vanilla extra, and Kahlua until creamy. Then slowly add small portion of the dry mixture blending thoroughly before adding the next small amount. Finally, add chocolate chips until just mixed through.

Drop 1-2 teaspoon mounds of cookie dough onto cookie sheet approximately 2 inches apart. Be sure each mound is equally sized so that that all the cookies will be done at the same time. Bake in an oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are golden brown throughout. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet approximately 2-3 minutes before further cooling on cooling rack.

This recipe usually makes about 24 cookies for me, even after I sample the dough a couple times.

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[Via Too Many Chefs]

In the previous installment, we made a roasted tomato salsa. Today – a sweet green tomatilla salsa.

The sour of the tomatilla here requires just a bit of sugar. You can add sugar to any salsa if you feel the sour/tart balance is off or if your tomatoes just weren’t quite ripe enough.

The recipe looks a lot like the Red Tomato Salsa recipe. To be honest, I copied and edited the previosu recipe to make sure you had all the recipes at your fingertips.

Once you master the technique you can make any roast salsa. You could try mixing tomatoes and tomatillas and see what you can come up with. Maybe bell peppers in red or green or yellow. Maybe some poblanos? You make it up.

Roasted Tomatilla Salsa
1 pound tomatillas
2 jalapenos
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon of sugar
big pinch of salt.

First, remove the outer papery husk from all the tomatillas, and rinse the fruit. There’s a sticky substance on the flesh of th efruit that you want to get off before cooking or eating these tomatillas. Pat dry with a towel.

Place the washed tomatatillas on a baking sheet with sides or in a big oven-safe casserole pan along with the jalapenos. Wrap the garlic in a bit of aluminum foil and place in the pan.

Set the oven to broil and slide the pan under the broiler. after five minutes or so (the tomatilla skins should be a bit blackened), turn the peppers and tomatillas and broil the other side for five minutes.

Remove the tomatillas and the juices from the pan. Check on the garlic and the peppers. If the garlic is soft remove it. If not, put it back in the pan and continue roasting, checking it and turning the peppers every few minutes. Remove the peppers from the pan and set aside in a paper bag for a few minutes.

Peel the peppers, peel the tomatillas, and dice the flesh of each, placing the results in a blender or food processor. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin into the blender.

Pulse the blender if you can or blend very briefly multiple times to get a chunky blended consistency. You may have to work in batches.

Rinse the finely chopped onion and drain. This removes much of the acrid flavor from the onion, leaving only a fresh taste. Add the onion and cilantro and sugar to the blended tomatillas, mix well and salt to taste.

Refrigerate for an hour or more before serving.

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[Via Too Many Chefs]

Here we have not one but two delicious salsa recipes adapted from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen cookbook.

Both of these recipes require broiling tomatoes or tomatillos until the skins slip off and the flavors in the fruit are concentrated and infused with a wonderful smoky taste. The fresh onions in each recipe add a nice light flavor to contrast with the richness of the main ingredients.

If you’re like me, you probably were a little reluctant to work with tomatillos the first time you ever saw them. Their pale green color and stange papery outer cover and sticky skins make them alien to most American cooks.

Well, get over it. Really, tomatillos are fun and add bright flavor to any dish. OK, maybe not every dish. I haven’t tried tomatillo ice cream, but I bet it’s coming up on Iron Chef this week.

Get some chips and some friends, make some guacamole and set out these two salsas to set off a feeding frenzy.

Roasted Red Tomato Salsa
1 pound tomatoes (I prefer plum tomatoes)
2 jalapenos
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet with sides or in a big oven-safe casserole pan along with the jalapenos. Wrap the garlic in a bit of aluminum foil and place in the pan.

Set the oven to broil and slide the pan under the broiler. after five minutes or so (the tomato skins should be a bit blackened), turn the peppers and tomatoes and broil the other side for five minutes.

Remove the tomatoes and the juices from the pan. Check on the garlic and the peppers. If the garlic is soft remove it. If not, put it back in the pan and continue roasting, checking it and turning the peppers every few minutes. Remove the peppers from the pan and set aside in a paper bag for a few minutes.

Peel the peppers, peel the tomatoes, and dice the flesh of each, placing the results in a blender or food processor. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin into the blender.

Pulse the blender if you can or blend very briefly multiple times to get a chunky blended consistency. You may have to work in batches.

Rinse the finely chopped onion and drain. This removes much of the acrid flavor from the onion, leaving only a fresh taste. Add the onion and cilantro to the blended tomatoes, mix well and salt to taste.

Refrigerate for an hour or more before serving. I’ll post the green salsa recipe tomorrow.

[Via Too Many Chefs]