Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Meet Mr. Pie Plate (A.K.A. Chris).

He likes skiing, playing the cello, being extreme (check out the avalanche conditions) and me! He also loves chocolate. I have never met anyone in my life who likes chocolate as much as he does. Ever! I think it might be one of his food groups! Now, if I had a little more energy, I would whip up a pyramid of food according to my husband, and it would be awesome, but alas, I taught middle school children all day and am a little tired. I digress...

So Mr. Pie Plate loves chocolate and I love fruit! Sometimes, we disagree on dessert choices, but these cookies are a wonderful combination of the two. They also can be made with all chocolate chips if you have cranberry-phobic people in the house.

The recipe is loosely based on Hillary Clinton's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, which look very good but I can't justify using a cup of vegetable shortening in one batch.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ Cup Butter
½ Cup Sugar
1 Cup Packed Dark Brown Sugar
½ Cup Applesauce
2 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Tsp. baking soda
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 Cup chocolate Chips
½ Dried Cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together the first three ingredients.

3. Add the applesauce, eggs and vanilla.

4. Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and oats.

5. When all is combined, add the chocolate chips and cranberries and mix until combined.

6. Drop by tablespoon on to an un-greased cookie sheet or Silpat.

7. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden.

8. Let cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, than move to a plate.

9. Eat the delicious cookies!

Peach Jam Giveaway Results!

Thanks to all who participated, those jams all sound so delicious and you have all inspired me to make more jam!  I used Random.org to "choose" the winner, and the lucky winner is #5, HiLesha!  She loves blueberry jam!  Congrats to HiLesha, and I am so glad so many people participated in the giveaway! 

I love fruit!  No matter what the season, I love fruit.  My favorite fruit changes depending on what fruit is in season.  Right now I'm loving peaches!  I've gone peach picking at Bishop's Orchard twice in the last month, once with my sister and once with my friend Jac (who took these photos)!







The peaches are glorious right now!  They are the most beautiful color and so sweet! I've been eating a least two a day and I have enough peaches in the freezer for two peach crisps or pies.  We'll be able to have a little bit of summer when it's not so beautiful out! 

I've also made four batches of peach jam.  I am in love with this jam and have had it on toast every morning for the past week!  It also has a nice lemon flavor, which I adore.  Since I have 39 jars of peach jam in my basement, and Wednesday was the first day of school (my students are the best, by the way), I'm giving away one 4 ounce jar of my peach jam. 

The Giveaway:
To enter this giveaway, answer the following question in the Comments section of this post:

What is your favorite type of jam? 

One entry per person please.  The giveaway will close Wednesday at noon, EST! The winner will be randomly selected and announced Wednesday night.  Have a lovely weekend and Happy Labor Day!

How to Grill Pizza

We love pizza!  We love living in New Haven because there are so many wonderful pizza places!  We also make a lot of pizza at home.  In the winter, we use our pizza stone and it heats up the house, making everything toasty!  In the summer, it's not so wonderful to cook pizza in the oven, so we grill outside!  The first time we grilled outside, it was quite an ordeal, but now it's second nature.  And it's incredibly easy! 

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough
Tomato Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Toppings of your choice

You need a pound of dough and pizza toppings.  We get our dough from Modern Pizza in New Haven.  For a dollar a pound, it's a great deal!  We do individual pizza's on our household  because one of us likes veggies (me!) and one prefers meat lovers pies (Mr. Pie Plate!). 

Here are the steps:
1. Turn the grill on to low
2.  Cut the pound of pizza in half, or thirds, depending on how many different pizzas you want.
2. Stretch both halves to a pizza shape.  We use a pizza peal to spread out the dough.  I like when the shapes aren't perfect, like these ones!

3. Cover both halves with olive oil to keep the dough to sticking to the grill.  (I was hoping the oil would show up better in the photo... I'll have to experiment with my new camera a little more!)

4. Put the pizza dough on the grill.  Let it cook until the bottom side is browned.  This is about 5 minutes on my grill.

5. Put the pizza back on the pizza peal, cooked side up. 

6. The top the pizza with sauce and your choice of toppings. 

7. Put the pizza back on the grill and cook until browned on the bottom. 

8. Eat the delicious pizza! 
5.

Breakfast in the Tetons!

Today is day 32 on our adventure and we are back in Wyoming in the Tetons! This is one of my favorite places in the country, and Mr. Pie Plate and I are so happy to be back! This morning we breakfasted under the beautiful mountains and we are about to embark on a hike! It's going to be lovely. Good morning!

The Egg and I

Wyoming and Colorado Have many things in common: mountains, kind people, super adorable dogs and The Egg and I! The Egg and I is a diner-esque breakfast place that has great breakfasts! Today I had the Athena scramble: asparagus, feta, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms! Yum!

My to-do list!

Mr. Pie Plate and I have now been gone from our house for over twenty days. Living in a van is an adventure, but we will both be happy to be home in a few weeks! I have an ever growing list of things I want to accomplish when I get home, including figuring how to make a ruffle hem for an apron. I also learned how to knit in the round from two lovely women at the coffee shop we have been frequenting, and I think some folks will be receiving awesome hats for Christmas! And il hoping my tomato plants are doing well because I want to can! Thoughts of home have been lovely!

Greetings from Colorado!

Mr. Pie Plate and I are in Fort Collins, CO right now. We are both starting graduate work at Colorado State University. We are living in a van, and cooking on a camp stove. Needless to say, I haven't been doing any canning, baking or sewing... But here are some pictures! There is one of our campsite, one of the pretty flowers on our picnic table, and one of me "driving" a tractor, just for fun! I hope you all had a safe and very happy fourth!