Oatmeal Skillet Cookie with Crumble Topping

I spend a lot of time by myself. I've read four books since we moved to Ligonier. We get to name our house this month and I have a list narrowed down. I make sure the dogs get fed, my work gets done. I hate folding laundry and I love when I smell the dirt and concrete in the air from a passing truck kicking up gravel.

I told Nolan we can't leave anytime soon. We can't move again. I showed off my house to my best friend, Carissa, when she was visiting last weekend. I called it ours instead of mine and that shift in a possessive pronoun echoed like a foreign chord in the dining room. I'm still not used to having it be ours, but I love the idea of it all the same.

I told him we can't leave until our dogs are ready and they may never be. They've moved too much, from California to Pennsylvania. Milo flew home with me when we thought we could start all over again. They need consistency, we owe it to them now.

And for me? Home was never a place, but has always been something to run away from. I would walk up a hill in front of my childhood home and see how far I could go before it got dark, before I got tired and scared. Before anyone would know I wasn't in my bedroom. Home has been invented over and over and over again. And each time I found myself awake in the night, I'd be anchored to the spot by the sounds from my window.

The frog in the creek bed. 

The lazy moths that hit the window.

The lost cricket from the woods and the only thing separating me and the coyotes was a chain link fence.

We moved back last year and bought a house. Things have changed and I go back to the theme of creating home through food. One that I can't run away from. And so here is a skillet cookie with butter and oatmeal and a crumble topping. It smells the way comfort does and tastes just as good as normalcy can. I make oatmeal for the dogs a lot; they've come to expect it. So this recipe, in the silliest way, feels like home for us, too.

Oatmeal Skillet Cookie with Crumble Topping

Ingredients for Skillet Cookie (inspired by one from The Food Network)

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 6 TB shortening, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/3 cup dried cherries

Directions for Skillet Cookie

1. Preheat oven to 350*F and prepare a cast iron skillet with oil and flour
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together fats and sugar using the paddle attachment
4. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla
5. Turn mixer off and use a spatula to stir in your flour mixture
6. Finally, stir in oats and cherries
7. Turn out into your skillet and press down

Ingredients for Oatmeal Crumble

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
• 2 TB maple syrup
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 TB candied ginger, diced

Directions for Oatmeal Crumble

1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and pinch with your hands until fats are incorporated wholly into the mixture
2. Pour over the top of your cookie
3. Bake entire dish for 1 hour, cover with aluminum foil (to prevent burning) and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
4. Enjoy with whipped cream for up to three days in an airtight container

Chicken and Lentil Mini Pot Pies!

What a peaceful few days it has been. Each day, our house begins to feel more like a home. Less hand-me-down. We got a new mattress last week and sleep so much better these last few days. 

Our three dogs sleep in bed with us and we curl around one another. Murphy sleeps at the top of the bed, Milo at the bottom, and Elsa comes and goes throughout the night. And when the alarm hits 6:30 we are all up for coffee and oatmeal and to start the day.

I spend most days alone since I work from home and Nolan does not. This means  make dinner for everyone, too. Most nights I roast a chicken or vegetables and maybe some hummus to snack on before he comes home at 9. Other days, I want nothing but junk food: fries and a salad that is more ranch dressing and chicken tenders than lettuce and tomato.

But one afternoon I had the whole day with nothing to do. No work, no cleaning, no posts, so I experimented with some lentils I've had since we moved in and the rest of the chicken that was sitting in the fridge and made this dish: Chicken and Lentil Mini Pot Pies. So easy, so satisfying, and the most work is boiling the lentils, if you're using some leftovers like I did.

Chicken and Lentil Mini Pot Pies!

So easy, so delicious, and the crust is a perfect compliment to this recipe. I used Ina Garten's pie crust recipe, but did not add sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust (see author's note above)
• 1 large chicken breast, shredded
• 1 cup green lentils, prepared by box directions
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 gloves garlic, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Egg wash (one egg + 1 tablespoon water, whisked)

Directions:

1. Grease a large muffin tin (or a regular-sized muffin tin, but the baking time will be reduced by about 5 minutes!)
2. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except the egg wash
3. On a floured board, cut your dough in quarters and roll out about a 1/4 inch thickness
4. Cut out a round that is large enough to press down into the muffin tin (I just used a 6-inch plate and it worked perfectly!)
5. Mold each round into the muffin tin
6. Scoop your mixture into each cup
7. With the remaining dough, cut out a round to fit on top
8. Place each top on your cups and brush a bit of egg wash on the perimeter of the top rounds
9. Press top and cup together and brush more egg wash for each to have a nice golden brown
10. Poke a couple holes on top to vent
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown
12. Allow to cool before unturning from pan
13. Enjoy! Can keep for up to 2 days!

Panko-Crusted French Toast

It's Wednesday and I am still in bed, dressed and ready for my day to start. We got a new bed, a bigger one for our three dogs, and silly sheets with ostriches on them. Mornings are my favorite around here, as I'm sure you can tell these days. 

So here's a short post as I get my day started. Panko-crusted french toast, because I'm all about a fun take on a classic.

Almond and Panko-Crusted French Toast

I thought I was so clever when I "invented" this, but then I realized that the Pioneer Woman had already done something like this. Ya win some, ya lose some.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 TB pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1 TB cinnamon
• 1 loaf of hearty bread (I used store bakery Italian here)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F
2. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
3. Lay out two shallow pans
4. In the first one, whisk together your eggs, extracts, and milk
5. In the second, whisk together your dry ingredients
6. Now, take a slice of bread, dip it in the wet mixture for just a second and then press gently into the dry on both sides
7. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet
8. Repeat with remaining bread slices
9. Bake for 15 minutes; turn over and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until golden brown and crisp
10. Serve immediately with maple syrup or your favorite French Toast accourtrmement 

Super Easy Stroopwafel, in Partnership with Red Star Yeast

It's the hardest thing to wake up in the morning when you're surrounded by snoring dogs and a snoring boyfriend. The floors are cold but the coffee is warm. Only Elsa and Milo wake up with me in the morning; Murphy stays in bed until 9 or 10. 

I open the door and they rush to greet the day. Small shadows in the morning light, I sometimes only see the puffs of their barks, shotguns in the pale and deaf morning. They are crepuscular, active when the light stretches the most. Milo and Elsa play with sticks, bite at birds that rest on tree branches just above their heads. I saw a hawk attach a finch the other day through the kitchen window. I just stared until I remembered to call the dogs in.

And there are deer tracks that roam our yard in circles. Whole family come to eat from our yard, as quiet as snow the dogs don't even hear them in the midnight. A mouse has found his way into our garage from the cold and the world seems unfair if you think about it long enough.

I always wake up at six and on the weekends we sometimes pull out the sofa bed and watch I Love Lucy in the mornings, trying to keep warm and keep calm and remind ourselves what a year can do to two people.

Quick and Easy Stroopwafels

This recipe was inspired by Food Network's but I didn't have the waffle cone iron they mandated in their recipes. Instead, I used my basic waffle iron and baked the yeasted dough into a thick round, dipping half in Ghiradelli's dark chocolate and molasses for that signature bite.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole milk, warm to the touch
• 1/2 sachet of Red Star Platinum Yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 oz dark chocolate
• 2 TB heavy cream
• 1/2 tablespoon dark molasses

Directions:

1. Whisk together milk, yeast, and salt and let sit for five minutes or until yeast begins to bubble
2. In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, and cinnamon
3. Add butter and pulse until fat is pea-sized
4. Add egg and vanilla, pulse
5. With motor running, add wet and process for five seconds or until dough forms
6. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead five or six times 
7. Rest for an hour in a greased ball
8. While dough is resting, get your waffle iron ready!
9. Cut into 8 equal pieces, roll each into a ball
10. Use your waffle iron to bake each 
11. Allow to cool while you prepare your chocolate
12. In a double boiler, whisk together chocolate, cream, and molasses until fully melted
13. Dip your stroopwafels into the chocolate mixture and allow to cool on wax paper
14. Eat with your favorite coffee or tea. These can be stored for up to three days in an airtight container

Thank you to Red Star Yeast for sponsoring this post. I believe in using quality products when it comes to baking and I am always confident my dough will rise beautifully with Red Star! Check out the active dry yeast I used for this recipe and others on their website, follow them on instagram and like their Facebook!

And while you're at it...like my Facebook and Instagram too!

St. Patrick's Day Puppy Chow!

I can't believe it's almost St. Patrick's Day! We've officially lived in this house for two months, in a kitchen that is wood and olive-colored and a dining room we play Scrabble on. The dogs bark at the birds that dance in the trees and I wait for Nolan to come from a 12-hour shift before we eat dinner. This St. Patrick's Day will be quiet, as they tend to be now.

I used to wear green paint on my face and black out on the strip of bars downtown in Pittsburgh. My fake ID would bend in my wallet and beer was cheap and dyed. Three years in a row and it never felt like I was doing it right. And in California, when it was just the two of us, I had no reason to really celebrate then. 

But it's different here, as I tend to say. I celebrate the small things, the holidays that aren't just for gifts and drinking. I made this Lucky Charms puppy chow with Nolan one Saturday and we laughed and kissed along the way.  It's these small victories of getting older that make me appreciate Nolan standing by my side.

Lucky Charms Puppy Chow

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups confectioner's sugar
2. 3 TB matcha powder
3. 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
4. 1 1/2 cup peanut butter
5. 1 cup white chocolate 
6. 2 TB unsalted butter
7. 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8. 1 box Lucky Charms
9.  

Directions:

1. Shake to combine sugar and matcha in a large brown paper bag
2. In a Dutch oven, heat marshmallow, peanut butter, chocolate, and butter on medium-high and stir constantly until melted
3. Add your box of cereal and stir to coat completely
4. Add salt to taste (it will be sweet and the salt will cut a lot of this)
5. Allow to cool slightly and then add in parts to your paper bag
6. Shake to coat and pour into a bowl
7. Repeat and enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! And celebrate the immigrants that made this country.