OK, so here it is the long awaited potato chip cookie recipe.  Some of you have been asking for it F O R E V E R!!  I'm sorry about that.  I really wasn't trying to keep this recipe from you.  I've been making this recipe for a few years now, thanks to my good friend Molly, the one that NEVER leaves comments on my blog anymore.  Molly doesn't cook much, but what she does cook is always fabulous!    Here we go....

 ¾ c butter (room temp)
1 c brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup crushed potato chips….I use whatever I have on hand – I have even used corn tortillas (just don’t use BBQ, that might be BAD, very, very bad!!)
1 ½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla till light and fluffy.  Combine flours, & baking soda in a separate bowl, then  add flour mixture to sugar mixture ½ cup at a time, mixing thoroughly,. Add crushed potato chips and chocolate chips until just combined.  

Bake on insulated cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.

Oh baby….if you like a little salty/sweet action going on; you are going to love these puppies!

Merry Christmas from Seoul! As you read this in the States we are probably already finished with Christmas dinner and the kids are joyfully playing with their new toys. I’m probably drinking some wine and enjoying the company of S,R,E and J, not to mention G, B1, B2 and B3, and Max (our dog).  

So, wifey is doing great. Ha! Did you think this was your regular blogger today??? No, this is husband, AKA hubby, or H for short. I figured it was time for me to contribute to SixinSeoul after enjoying it for 9 months without ever adding to it. So, hopefully I will live up to the high standards of wifey. I’m also hoping to break her record for comments on one blog, so there may be some blatant flattery or even extortion attempts to get some comments.

Anyways, I thought I would blog about Christmas traditions; and maybe start by recalling some of my favorites. This is difficult for me though, as I can hardly remember anything from when I was a kid. I have chronic CRS. That’s not a technical description of my problem, but is very accurate nevertheless. Mostly I remember a certain white ceramic Christmas tree with huge neon lights that scorched my retinas and is probably the reason I needed lasik surgery to correct my sight. But, when I wasn’t shielding my face from the lights, I remember spending time around the Christmas tree as a kid. We always had a real Christmas tree, decorated with an assortment of homemade or family ornaments. Our trees were always put up by the whole family and were unique and beautiful. And, they usually smelled like dog urine and perfume. This is because our dog Strider would usually christen the tree very early in the holiday season, and M (who is referred to as Grammy in the August Blogs, but is M for my Mom in this blog) would attempt to mask the smell with perfume. To this day, I can’t smell Eau de Canine without thinking of our Christmas trees.

Living in Colorado, we usually enjoyed white Christmases as a kid. It was almost always cold, and bleak. Denver is an especially ugly place in winter. Yes, the mountains are pretty in the distance, but the buildings inside the city are dirty, the trees are bare, and the streets are grimy and sandy. The only thing worth looking at during winter in Denver are the Broncos. Yeah!! Hopefully the Broncos will win this week in San Diego and there will be a home playoff game in January. (yes, I suppose the average female reader is probably grumbling about this digression into football after just a few short comments on Christmas, but hey, this is what you get when a man blogs. Just go with it.) Besides, the Broncos are a Christmas tradition that I can actually remember. I always knew Christmas was near when the Broncos clinched a playoff spot. So, support the Broncos if you like Christmas. And, for all you Cowboy fans out there, Bah Humbug! 

My sister M (this blog privacy thing can be a real confusing thing) is a real stickler for tradition. I bet if we ate oysters for Christmas as a kid, she’d be serving them this year in Boise, even though she won’t eat them. Thankfully though, M (that one is Mom) never served shellfish. Instead, we usually had a traditional dinner. I think this was mainly because of GM and GP (Grandma and Grandpa). They were always with us on Christmas, which I absolutely loved. GM would always slip us a little extra Holiday cash, and then maybe grab our hiney, too (I have to say hiney because wifey doesn’t let the kids use the B word). But, speaking of shellfish, we just enjoyed a Christmas ‘snack’ of oysters and sushi. This is because we made a trip to the Seoul fish market today, in pursuit of mussels, but came home with mussels, oysters, sushi, smoked salmon and tuna. Lots of good meals in the future!

Okay, Boy 1 and I also just finished making a pie while Girl made deviled eggs with wifey. In the spirit of wifey’s blogging exploits, here is the recipe, but dumbed down for men to follow:

Oreo Pie

41 or so Oreos (this is just one package of them)
1/4c butter (c is for cup)
24-28 large marshmallows (or whatever is in the bag after the  kids sneak a few)
1/2c milk
3/2c heavy whipping cream

Melt the butter in the microwave for about 1 minute and let cool. Melt the mallows and milk in a pan and let cool (don’t do this on high!). Chunk up about 10 cookies.  Really chunk up all but five of the rest (maybe use a food processor for this, its for the crust). Combine this with the butter and smush into a pie pan. Whip the cream. Then fold in the marshmallow stuff. If you don’t know what fold is, its okay, just mix it all up. Oh, mix in the chunked up cookies too. Then put it all into the pie crust, slap the remaining cookies on top and put it into the fridge. And, viola, Oreo pie. Bon Appétit!

 So, back to Christmas traditions. A lot of the traditions I enjoyed as a kid in Denver, we do here in Korea. For instance, we always put up a plastic mistletoe. We mainly just ignore it, but occasionally someone is forced to smooch Mom or Dad because we ambush the poor child under it. Another tradition we also follow here is to open Christmas presents one at a time. This really prolongs the Christmas morning euphoria. Today it took over two and a half hours (!), but there were 10 of us opening gifts. After the gifts, we then dig into the stockings. These are handled individually. The highlight of this morning’s stocking ransacking was the pair of men’s underwear that I bought for wifey. Oops! They looked nice though. In my defense, they were purchased in a Korean store. I’m hoping she will at least try them on.

We have a lot of new traditions, too. For instance, instead of a traditional dinner, we all get to pick one thing for dinner. This year I chose mussels. Boy 2 wanted candy canes, Boy 3 asked for chocolate cookies, Boy 1 chose baked potatos, and Girl took pigs-in-a-blanket. Also, R, S, E and J wanted Beef Wellington, asparagus, pumpkin bread and sautéed mushrooms (this makes two of the special ‘é’s in this blog if anyone is keeping track). Wifey added a tomato mozzarella salad. She also added lemon crème brulee, at my request (isn’t she sweet?). So, quite the feast, and I can say with certainty that this is completely unique to the TemporarilyTeninSeoul Christmas Extravaganza. Oh, I also asked for celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese and green olives, which wifey calls celery stick thingies. Here is the recipe:

Celery Stick Thingies

Some Cream cheese
Some Green Olives
Some Celery

Cut the celery into smaller sticks. Chop up the olives and mix into the cream cheese. Put the olive cream cheese mix into the celery sticks. And, viola, Celery Stick Thingies. Bon Appétit! (Also, thanks to R for the correct spelling of viola, which is actually pronounced walla(!) for you people who don’t speak French)

 OK, I think this will qualify as the longest blog of the year. I’m going to end with the recipe for my all-time favorite Christmas food, the pizelle. This cookie has an absolute ton of memories for me. I remember GP (Grandpa) making these cookies when I was a kid. Some of these would taste a bit smoky too, if they remained too long at GM/GP’s house. I remember M making these for us as I was growing up, too. Later I remember making these with wifey, and now I make them with my sons and daughter. In fact, Girl was experimenting this year by adding cinnamon. I also remember eating these cookies in Iraq (thanks for all of the packages everyone), missing home and M and wifey and kids and bro and sis and friends and everything else, but these cookies brought me back home. All I have to do is eat one, and Christmas is there. I really hope everyone reading this blog is as blessed as I am to have such a great family and friends as I have (thanks for coming to Korea R and S), but if not, as least you can have pizelles:

 Pizelle (as handwritten by GM in 1978)

1c Sugar
3c Flour
½ TSP Salt
6 eggs
2 Cubes Butter
2 TSP flavoring  (my note: you must use Anise, vanilla is a poor substitute)

(GM did not have any further instructions. I usually mix the sugar, flour and salt together. I also melt the butter and mix it in with the eggs and flavoring. Then I mix it all together and bake the cookies on my pizelle iron.)

Happy Holidays!!

Earlier in the week S & I went to a cookie exchange here in the neighborhood.  Every cookie on the platter above was DELICIOUS!!These cookies, Coffee Toffee Cookies, are my new favorite cookie and are the cookies I took to the exchange.

It is not your imagination, the cookies are different colors.  I had to bake 6 dozen cookies for the exchange, so I used 2 different types of cocoa to see if I could tell the difference.  I could tell, but no one else could.  I like the cookies made with cocoa from Penzeys, the darker of the cookies, they were a little more rich & a tad more "chocolaty" than the cookies made Hershey’s.  Both were very good and I would not hesitate to use the Hershey's cocoa again.


Here is my variation of the recipe...the original is here.

2 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 TBL brewed espresso or strong coffee
2 tbl milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 8oz pkg heath bars (you know the ones broken up in the package)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunk
½ cup sliced almonds

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with Reynolds Parchment Paper; set aside. In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.

BEAT butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together in a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Add coffee, milk, eggs and vanilla until well blended.

ADD flour mixture gradually to creamed mixture; beat on low speed just until blended. Reserve 3/4 cup Heath toffee bits; stir remaining Heath toffee bits & 1 cup chocolate chunks into dough. Drop by heaping tablespoons about 2-inches apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Combine 1 cup chocolate chunks, almonds and reserved Heath toffee bits; set aside.

BAKE 4 minutes (cookies will still be wet on top.) Remove from oven; press cookie flat with the back of the measuring spoon. Sprinkle 1/2 heaping tablespoon almond-toffee mixture onto each cookie. Using the back of the measuring spoon again, lightly press topping into dough to form a larger round cookie.

CONTINUING BAKING 8 to 9 minutes longer or until cookies are set. Do not over bake. Slide parchment with cookies onto a wire rack to cool.

Life without the chocolate chip cookie would just be wrong. My love affair with the chocolate chip cookie dates WAY back.  My mom was not into baking,  and we never had baking ingredients on hand.  I remember my sister and I would scour the cook books looking for some sort of dessert we could make, but it always seemed we were missing something necessary, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, vanilla.  All of which are staples in my house now, and I normally have a backup "just in case".  

I remember when the Soft Batch cookies came out - they sent out a free sample. Wow, I was in heaven.  I was tempted to go through all the mailboxes of my neighbors and take their free samples.  I didn't do it.  BUT, every time I got a few extra dollars in my pocket this is what I bought......

So, today, I normally bake cookies or some sort of dessert (mostly cookies) a few times a week, you know, so my kids don't feel deprived like I did.  :)

This recipe is from the back of the Gold Medal flour bag.  I have been making it for years.  It makes a HUGE batch, so feel free to half it if you would like.

Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ½ cups butter (I use with salt)
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
1 TBL vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 (24oz) bag semisweet chocolate chips

Throw in 2 cups of nuts if you like that sort of thing.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars,  vanilla and eggs until light and fluffy.  Stir in flour, baking soda and salt – dough will be somewhat stiff.  Stir in chocolate chips.

On ungreased cookie sheet (I like to use a baking stone for these cookies & I preheat my stone) drop dough by tablespoons, 2 inches apart. 

I bake mine about 10 minutes…I like them very soft in the middle.  It you like them a bit more firm, cook them as per the directions, 11-13 minutes.

Makes 6 dozen luscious cookies

I like them best warm with a glass of cold skim milk!  

These cookies were SO GOOD!  Boy 1 and I rated them an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10.  Hubby rated them a 7, but what does he know?  Today I am going to try a variation of these with broken up pieces of peanutbutter cups - I'm thinking this will be even better!  I got the recipe off the back of the Nestle Chocolate Chunks package.

2 cups all purpose flour***
¾ cup cocoa
1 tsp salt
2 sticks + 2 TBL butter softened
1/2 + 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 + 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (11.5oz) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks

Preheat oven to 350 F

Combine lour baking soda & salt, set aside.  Beat butter sugars and vanilla in large bowl till creamy.  Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.   Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chunks Drop by tablespoon size onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or till cookies are puffy and centers are set, but still soft.  Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. 

***Most of the time I use Eagle Mills All-Purpose Unbleached Flour made with Ultra Grain.  "It contains 9 grams of whole grains per serving; looks, tastes and bakes like white flour".  I like to feel as if I am doing my part in making my cookies just a little healthier!  :)

Ahhh, the snickerdoodle cookie.  This is Girls favorite cookie by far.  She calls them cinnamon cookies.  She has loved this cookie for 2-3 years now, and considering she is only six, that is a long time!   I got this recipe from good ol' Betty Crocker herself.  

1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup shortening
2 eggs
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix together first 4 ingredients.  Stir in flour, cream of tarter, baking soda and salt.  Shape into 1 ¼ inch balls.  

Mix ¼ cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon together, roll balls into the mixture.  Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes or till set.  Cool.  (I like cooking them a little under baked, which is about 8 minutes in my oven)

This recipe makes about 40 cookies at about 90 calories per cookie.

The snickerdoodle cookies are pictured with a non-fat, sugar free vanilla latte with cinnamon sprinkled on top.  

Everyone loved these cookies and they are very easy to make!  (Kathie, even you can make them) They are best if eaten warm right out of the oven, if you can't eat them right out of the oven, just pop them in the microwave for about 15 seconds to heat them up.

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ½ TBL butter
1 egg
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup flour
¼ tsp baking soda


Melt chips and butter in microwave, heat 30 seconds, stir, heat 30 more seconds, stir, repeat till melted.  Set aside.

Beat egg & sugar about 3 minutes or till light and fluffy, beat in salt and vanilla.  Gradually add melted chocolate & mix until well combined.  Add flour, baking soda, slowly.  Batter will not be stiff.  Chill batter in fridge for about 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

Spoon batter by rounded tablespoonfuls and make 8 equally sized cookies.  Bake for 12 minutes, cool on cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.  Eat warm!

 

Call me boring if you wish, but my favorite cookie is the chocolate chip cookie.  I have tried and tested many different types of chocolate chip cookies, and I do have my favorite recipes,  someday I will share them with you.  However today is not that day, today we are going to focus on the Maple Gingersnap Cookie which caught my eye a few weeks back.  I found it out there in internet land however I can't figure out where I printed the recipe from,  I do remember the blogger had made homemade peach ice cream, (I am now kicking myself for not bring my ice cream maker to Korea) and Maple Gingersnaps.  Oh baby, the combo looked great together and I was drooling, but since I have no ice cream maker with me, I opted just to make the cookies.  These cookies were a big hit with the entire family, and I dream of the day I can have them with the fresh home made peach ice cream.

The recipe….

2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp white pepper
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 cup butter, room temp
1 egg

¼ cup + 2 TBL pure maple syrup, if you can find Grade B use it, if not Grade A is fine

In a bowl mix together first 7 ingredients (through salt) and set aside.

Cream butter and ½ cup sugar, and the brown sugar together for 2 minutes, or till light and fluffy.  With mixer running on medium, add the egg, then the syrup.

 Turn mixer down to low and add dry ingredients.

 Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes. 

While dough is chilling preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

 Roll dough into ¾ inch balls and roll in the remaining ¼ cup sugar.  Place balls on baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 3 inches apart.  Bake about 15 minutes, or till cookies are golden around the edges and but still a little soft in the middle.  Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before you transfer them to a cooling rack….if you don’t wait, they will fall apart – trust me, I know from experience! 

I remember the first time I had one of these.  It was at Disney World in 2002.  Since then I have made them a couple of times, but forgot about them until recently.  We were at the pool and they were selling them for $3 a piece, for us, that is $12 to buy one for all my kids; which I did.  So, I came home and made them and they will be a frequent treat for us during these hot, humid summer months.  

I feel silly even telling you how to do this, but I have some friends that are challenged in the kitchen…you know who you are.  Make or buy your favorite kind of cookie, put a scoop of softened  ice cream on the flat side of one cookie, top with another cookie, making sure the flat side is touching the ice cream, squish gently so your cookies don’t break (like the one on the left in my picture).  Wrap with plastic wrap and put in the freezer.  Your kids will love you even more.