Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kind of the best cookies ever.
Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies
Originally from this site
2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
8 Tblsp unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup Nutella
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped and reserved
splash of whole milk, if necessary
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
Coarse Sea Salt, for sprinkling
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the Nutella and beat until smooth.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla bean seeds.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  If necessary, add milk, a tablespoon at a time, if the dough is crumbly or the flour isn’t able to mix in.  Stir in the chocolate chis and hazelnuts.  Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.  Or alternatively, portion the dough at this point onto the baking sheets and either refrigerate for an hour, or freeze to use another time.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Portion dough onto cookie sheets, and sprinkle each with a bit of sea salt.  Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes for tablespoon-sized cookies, or 12-14 minutes for 1/4 cup-sized cookies.

It’s Christmas Time!

Annnd…that definitely applies to much more than the world of sweets and cookies.
To represent the Christmas main-dish world, we have:
Pomegranate Chicken!
(you could make this into cranberry chicken or even cranberry-pomegranate chicken. They’re both red. They’re both Christmas-ey. They’re both delicious.)

Originally from this site.

Sweet and Sticky Pomegranate Chicken
(serves about 3-4)

2 pounds chicken wings or legs (We used thighs)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce**
1/3 cup pomegranate juice (or cranberry juice or cranberry-pomegranate juice)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 lime, juiced
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
pomegranate arils for garnish
freshly chopped parsley for garnish
optional: dash of red pepper flakes

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix together chili sauce, pom juice, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, brown sugar and garlic.

Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place in the skillet and sear on each side until deeply golden and brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove chicken and place on a plate, turning heat in the skillet down to medium-low. Pour in pomegranate juice mix and whisk, allowing the sauce to bubble and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Place chicken back in the skillet and turn and toss to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove chicken and serve with chopped parsley and pomegranate arils.

For a vegetarian option:
Stir-fry celery and broccoli and a bit of fresh garlic until just tender. Add about half a can of great northern beans or some other protein of choice. If you were thinking ahead, you would have saved out some of the sauce and not poured it over the chicken. If you were really thinking ahead, you would have kept this simmering slightly for a while, to bubble out that vinegar-y taste. So…then you would dish out a serving of brown-and-wild-rice-yummy-mix, spoon the broccoli and celery and bean stir-fry over the top of that, and then pour a semi-thick yummy sauce over the top of that. Cashews go decently well with it as well.

**If you don’t have sweet chili sauce, and don’t really want to buy an entire jar and leave half of it unused for the rest of…a long time…you can make this recipe: (note that this probably will give the sauce a very different taste than if you had used real sweet chili sauce. But…we liked it anyway…)
”Sweet Chili Sauce”
1/2 cup. tomato sauce
2 T brown sugar
1/2 T vinegar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of cloves
dash of allspice
1/8 teaspoon chili powder

Yummm…Happy Christmas, everyone!

Banana Bread II

So…what happens when you’re clearing everything out for the year, and discover three mushy bananas, a bag of flour, chocolate chips, and sugar…? Banana bread, of course. Oh wait…I don’t have any eggs. Or honey. Or yogurt. Or milk. Hmmm…

This is what happens.
Banana bread with six ingredients.

Originally from this site.

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup not very packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (well…I didn’t have any butter either. Unless you call spreadable fake Tesco’s margarine butter! ‘cause that’s what I used. I know, kinda gross but…:))
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (maybe a bit less because of the decrease in sugar)
2 cups flour (I did half white and half wheat, with some flax seed and wheat germ thrown in—about two teaspoons of each. Remember that if you do half wheat flour, you’ll probably end up with a denser loaf, and it may cook faster. So keep an eye on it! :))
Optional: 1 cup chocolate chips. I used pretty massive ones.

Directions:
Mix mashed bananas and sugar.
Add melted butter. Mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda, and mix gently until just together. Do not over-mix!
Pour batter into well greased and floured loaf pan. Smooth the top.
Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake.

For Muffins:
Put batter into 12 standard muffin cups/muffin tin.
Bake muffins at 375 for 10-15 minutes.