Alli and Gina have to be quick cooks to make their personal
chef business a success. A huge secret of this
Quick Cook is making it look harder than it is. And that comes down to
preparation. Alli and Gina know that. And anyone who knows me well, knows that I
make lists of the lists I need to make! My sons call me OCD, but I think that’s
a bit harsh!
Being planful means that when we throw a big soiree I can
enjoy the party and not be stuck in the kitchen. Being planful means it looks
as if it took more time to do than it did. Being planful means I don’t run out
of my hubby’s favorite cookies. EVER!
One of the ways I am planful is to prep mixes in advance so
assembling the dish when needed is much faster. It takes almost no extra time
to pre-measure 2 zipper bags of David’s favorite cookie dry ingredients while I
am making the recipe in a bowl. Then, when the cookie jar is emptying, I can
cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla and dump in the dry stuff faster than if
I got out all the dry ingredients for measuring each time.
QC Tip #4
Keep basic mixes in
the cupboard for quick cooking.
Here’s how it works. His cookie recipe makes about 7 dozen
small cookies (he hates big ones). I measure out dry ingredients in my bowl. As
I measure the bowl ingredients, I measure two extra zipper bags of dry
ingredients (sans sugars, cranberries, and nuts) and put them in the pantry.
I mix, then bake the first batch. Freeze them. I make dough
balls for the second batch to bake later. Freeze them. Then I bake the
remainder to put into the cookie jar.
When the cookie jar is almost empty, I thaw the baked
cookies. When those are almost gone, I bake the dough balls. When those are
gone, that’s my signal to get a cookie mix bag from the pantry and begin to
mix, bake, and store the cookies in different forms again.
Measure once, bake many times. It is so fast, and that’s why
the boxed cookie mixes are so popular. But read the ingredients list! That is
not natural stuff. Make your own cookie mixes.
I published David’s
Cran-Pecan Oatmeal Cookies recipe here before, but it was a long time ago.
This recipe is one that is often requested after people eat a cookie, so I am
printing it again.
David’s Cran-Pecan
Oatmeal Cookies (about 7 dozen small cookies)
1 cup plus 2
tablespoons butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown
sugar
½ cup granulated
sugar
2 large eggs
3 teaspoon vanilla
extract
1 teaspoon baking
soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cups flour
2 ½ cups oats
¾ cup dried
cranberries
1 cup pecans,
chopped
Heat oven to 375°.
Beat butter and
sugars in a bowl with mixer on med speed until fluffy.
Beat in eggs,
vanilla, baking soda, and salt until blended.
With mixer on low
speed, beat in flour to blend. Stir in oats.
When well-blended,
add in cranberries and nuts.
Drop heaping
tablespoons (or use small cookie dough scooper) 1” apart on ungreased baking
sheets.
Bake 10-12 minutes
until golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, then put on cookie rack.
NOTE: When using the mix as above, I cream butter
and sugar and add eggs and vanilla. Then I add the cookie mix dry ingredients
in quarters. After blended well, I add cranberries and pecans.
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