How modern electronics and a few cups of coffee, make my days off so productive.

I had a day off.  Two of them, in fact.  With no plans, nothing set in stone, aside from the fact that I should probably work out at some point on one of those days, since I am running in my first ever race in 3 weeks, it's 10 miles and I've never run more than 7.  But who's counting?  As one of my dear friends said, "I run because I love to eat" and those are my exercise beliefs in a nutshell.

So I had some time off, and lots of things I wanted to make.  We had finally ran low on the copious amount of granola from the prior post (which keeps really well for the record), and with the sweet knowledge that  two days off in a row from my job, comes with the dread that sometime in the not so far off future, I will have to work many days in a row before having 1 day off (see today, day 1 of 9) I wanted some good healthy snack options for me and the Monkey to eat in the week ahead.  So I made my list.

-Granola (a must)
-Hummus
-Bread

But wait.  As I was getting my thoughts and ingredients together, I had a horrible realization.

This is my cookie jar.  And something is very, very wrong.

THERE ARE NO COOKIES!  Oh, no, no, no!  This will not do.  A house is not a home without homemade cookies!  Isn't that a song?  Okay, so let's write a new list.

-Granola: (it's so easy, we can totally bust this out in no time.  See prior post.  So.  Easy.)


-Hummus: Okay, I've never written about this before, but if you own a food processor, could not BE any easier.


-Bread:  I will address my love for my new kitchen toy, my awesome bread machine, in a later post.  One when I'm feeling really lazy.  There is no skill, but I still love it.

-Cookies: Clearly the front runner.  So this is how it's going to work.

I had two cups of coffee while I worked.  I hadn't been on a cooking frenzy like this since we had our annual family making, pie and thanksgiving dessert extravaganza, which included my sister, my niece, and a LOT of red wine.  I started the bread machine first.  I have been trying to make my own sourdough starter for a few weeks, and it's going okay.  The bread doesn't quite have the amazing sour taste of a store bought kind, but it's pretty good in it's own right, and I'm hoping that the flavor will get stronger over time.  So I put together two recipes, one of a basic sourdough bread machine recipe, and another (which I had made before to excellent results) rosemary bread machine recipe.  Half white, half wheat flour.  It turned out really nicely, and I will continue to tinker with recipes and report back.

Next, once I hit that power button on the bread machine (that's really all it takes, folks.  If you can just remember to put yeast in last, you are set), I moved on to the granola.  Oven at 325, same for most cookies.  Perfect!  The granola is just as yummy as last time, but I forgot to buy coconut.  Bummer.

Moving on, granola is in the oven, I move on to hummus.  My favorite flavor that I have made is sun-dried tomato.  Take some tahini, garbanzo beans (or chickpeas, depending on what you call them.  Same thing), garlic (I like LOTS), lemon juice, olive oil (depending on how rich you like your hummus, just add more or less) and a little water.  Throw everything in the food processor, and blend. Add more olive oil/water or less depending on how thick you like it.  Then add anything else fun.  Parsley, roasted red peppers, or if you are me, sun-dried tomatoes.  So good.  And then it's done.

Finally!  The most important.  More important than the breakfast that is granola, the lunch of hummus, the dinner that could be rosemary bread.  Dessert.  Cookies.  I ask the Monkey what kind of cookie he wants.  The winner by a long shot, over oatmeal raisin (he's not a big fan) or peanut-butter is Molasses.  I doubled the recipe to freeze half the dough (because if you haven't guessed by now a) I'm lazy and b) I love entertaining and there is nothing I love more than baking fresh cookies for a gathering.  Even when they aren't fresh.  And they have been living in my freezer keeping the fake meat products and the frozen bananas for smoothies, company.  I also added chocolate chips to half of the dough, because who doesn't love a little bit of chocolate mixed in with just about anything?  The only thing I would do differently in the future is a little less sugar, as they were a bit sweet to my taste.  Also, instead of sprinkling/rolling them with sugar, I sprinkled them in a pinch of kosher salt.  The secret I learned recently, of a good cookie (specifically chocolate chip, but really this is pretty universal with any cookie) is add just a tiny bit of extra salt.

Thank you Gourmet, by way of Epicourous.  Enjoy these.  We are.  And the fake meat and the frozen bananas in the freezer seem to be pretty fond of them too.

Makes about 25 cookies.

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325°F. and lightly grease 2 large baking sheets.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter, shortening, and 3 cups sugar until light and fluffy and beat in molasses. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture and combine well.

In a small shallow bowl put remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Form dough into 2-inch balls and roll in sugar. On baking sheets arrange balls about 4 inches apart and flatten slightly with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake cookies in batches in middle of the oven 15 minutes, or until puffed and golden. (Cookies should be soft.) Transfer cookies with a metal spatula to racks to cool.