Like most people; I can only assume; when the weather starts to cool off the urge to start up the oven definitely takes over. It not only helps take the chill out of the house and makes the house smell yummy! It saves you from starting the furnace sooner than you want to.
Photo above taken by: Steve Fernandes – I LOVE this photo!!!
Before we built the home we live in today, we lived in a much smaller home where the only form of heat we used was a wood stove. That makes for VERY chilly mornings and even chillier evenings when we got home from work; at least until you got the stove going. I think that is where my love of cooking started especially when the air changes. I would cook anything that would keep the oven going for a few hours; just to get the house as warm as I wanted. Sometimes it would get so hot we always ended up opening a window. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner was definitely worth 2 or 3 windows AND the front door. I am not complaining I really liked my little home.
Since living in New England my entire life we have always had a wood stove; fireplaces are pretty but very inefficient. When we started the new house I was MOST concerned we wouldn’t be having a wood stove or fireplace. What no wood to cut, split, stack and clean up after. I did have many sleepless nights and brought up the subject quite often. Well I am converted now, the whole house is radiant floor heat by propane and I would NEVER go back willingly to wood. There are no cold spots in the house, no cold floors, no cold anything; the whole house is the same temperature. We do keep the bedrooms colder than anywhere else and the ceramic tile in the bathrooms are AWESOME!!! But my love for cooking was born out of wanting to be warm!
Today being the first full day of Fall and boy can I tell; Not only are the leaves turning and dropping; I swear the color of the trees in the swamp just up the road from my house are almost at peak. I have already cooked a Roaster Chicken, a Ribeye Roast, made chicken stock for the freezer, took all the tomatoes that I haven’t done anything with from the garden and braised some Chicken thighs with them plus even more just this week. I haven’t done anymore baking since all the zucchini & banana bread that I made a couple of weeks ago. BUT I did just make a Sam’s Club run today and bought some flour and sugar. I must also take a trip to the local orchard up on Norway Hill to pick some yummy macintosh apples. I can almost smell the apple pie and crisp cooking.
Tonight we are having Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops with apples for dinner and I might just have to make some chocolate chip cookies for dessert. A couple of years ago my husband and I had a “who can make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie challenge”. Not a great thing to do if you are watching your weight. It probably took us a month of both of us making cookies every week; it might have been even longer, I honestly can’t remember. While his cookies LOOKED better than mine, I won the taste portion – Though I can’t remember how long it took us I do remember who won; funny thing is he seems to think he won.
Bad picture but awesome cookie!
Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies – How I make them!!!
2 Cups flour plus 2 Tbs All Purpose flour
½ Tsp Baking Soda
½ Tsp Salt
5 Tbs unsalted butter – room temperature
5 Tbs Margarine – room temperature
1 Cup brown sugar
½ C Sugar
1 large egg Plus 1 egg yolk
2 Tsp Vanilla
1 Cup more or less semisweet chocolate chips
These make about 18 large cookies – Bake at 325’ for about 15 to 18 minutes
Large cookies – take about ¼ cup of the dough into a ball, split the ball in half and take the jagged edges of the dough and place them side by side sticking them together with the jagged edges facing up; place on either a parchment covered cookie sheet or spray the cookie sheet with cooking spray. Do not overcook but cool them on the sheet, once cooked remove using a metal spatula.
Rich watching his cookies so they come out perfect!
