You're A-Peeling!

"It's not that monkey card I found in the car, is it?"

NOPE, but that would have been pretty cool. Maybe for the next Balemtimes. This year, I revisited another Simpsons classic:

-Let's Never split!

Such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you

snapshots of 2010

A lot of eating, loving, livin' and saying goodbye.

Happy Fun Time Cookies

They are called 'Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies' and you can find the recipe under the lid of a carton of Quaker Oats. You can also find the recipe on their website under the same name, however on the interweb some of the proportions as well as the baking time differ. This being said, I wish I had checked online first and had used that recipe instead... BUT i didn't. I used the one under the lid and made some slight "modifications":

Ingredients
1 cup green butter*, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup of Trader Joe's Golden Berry Blend (golden raisins, cherries, cranberries & blueberries)

Heat oven to 350°F.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugars.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.

Add oats and raisins; mix well.
Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto Silpat lined cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. (the website version of the recipe suggested baking time: 8-10 minutes )

Yields 4 Dozen

*3 sticks of unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cups of shake&leaves heated over very low heat for 4-5 hours, strained and cooled. The best recipe I found regarding the infusion process suggested using a 50/50 ratio of shake to butter in a crock-pot on low heat. I don't own one so I used very low stove heat and residual oven heat for the extraction. At all cost avoid cooking the shake OR bringing the butter to a boil. Doing so would ruin the finished product.

For the record calling these cookies 'vanishing' is not just clever marketing on the part of Quaker. They are incredibly satisfying. I had 3 and wanted more BUT had to stop myself because of the green butter. This is why I mention earlier maybe using the online version of the recipe that calls for less butter. That way you can enjoy more than 3 of these tasty cookies at a time without passing out.