Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011!!

Crazy cookies be in my hizzouse!!



This was so much fun to participate in! The ladies at Love & Olive Oil set up a swap whereby bloggers across the nation signed up to bake their pants off and share the spoils. It was a sort of Secret Santa, as you were sent three names and addresses but couldn't blog about who you were assigned to "gift" your dozen cookies to. Your information was also sent off to random participants, who sent you a dozen cookies.

I chose to bake my favorite Sunflower Seed Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. They are great for people who either don't like or are tired of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They also don't have dairy.




Sunflower Seed Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: about 3 dozen 2-inch or so cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sunflower seed butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon water
1 12-ounce package of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Stir flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl.
Beat shortening, sunflower seed butter, eggs, sugars, vanilla, and water in another Bowl until creamy.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and blend well.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by spoonfuls (about a teaspoon-sized spoon) onto greased or parchment paper-ed baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cool until you can't wait any more (which for me means not at all and I end up burning my tongue, but that's OK)

I ended up making lots of different sizes and cooked-ness so I could pick and choose the best to send to the other bloggers. Here is the multitude of cookies:



I hope that my Secret Santa bloggers enjoyed my cookies!

Suzanne
Kokocooks
@kokocooks

Mackenzie
The Caramel Cookie
@Caramel_Cookie_

Kelley
Mountain Mama Cooks
@mtnmamacooks


So far, I've received these delicious cookies:

1. Literally Damn Delicious Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Damn Delicious



2. Totally Tasty Peanut Butter, Toffee and Pretzel Cookies
Life on Food



Thanks you so much for all the great cookies!!

One of my favorite restaurants!

I love eating out, but, most of the time, I can’t afford to. My budget allows me to cook at home and only occasionally eat out. In such a large metropolitan area, finding the perfect dining spot can be grueling, time-consuming, and expensive work. Your corner bodega just doesn’t cut it. I play in the big leagues when it comes to all-purpose dining. The price has to be right. Each customer should be free to set their own atmosphere. The establishment needs to sell bags of ice. If you haven’t figured it out, I’m about to wax rhapsodic about 7-Eleven.

Where else can you get year-round outdoor dining, three square meals a day, and toilet paper? I’ve always had a soft spot in my gut for 7-Eleven. (Actually, I probably have a soft gut because of 7-Eleven.) No matter - it remains one of my favorite restaurants.

It is damn-near impossible to find a spot in NYC where I can get a buttered roll. Does anyone eat buttered rolls anymore? I want a buttered roll and a coffee either vanilla-flavored via the grinds, or via the sugar sludge that calls itself International Delight. I want to be able to get this buttered roll and coffee at any time of the day. I want to have the option of seeded or unseeded rolls, avec butter. I want there to be a bagel option for those extremely rare times I want a bagel. I want to be able to take my buttered roll and coffee outside and sit on the curb in the parking lot to eat it before I go on my merry way.

I want to be able to have outdoor dining, 365 days a year (a curb is made for sitting on, after all). The only dress requirements are: no shirt, no shoes, no service. During the winter months, be sure to bring your parka so you can enjoy al fresco hard boiled eggs and a Snapple, curbside.

A Slurpee was my air conditioning throughout childhood. There is no equal. All of those fancy iced drinks, smoothies, and other assorted frozen beverages will never win over the silky smooth texture of a Slurpee. Dr. Pepper must have creamed his pants when the Dr. Pepper Slurpee came out. Did you know that most Slurpees are kosher? I just Googled that, but believe me, it is true!

I want to eat a Truck Stopper and a Jolt at midnight, or 6am. I want to buy toilet paper with my vitamin water without walking all the way to the Rite-Aid, one block away. I want to buy smokes and a lottery ticket and a taquito. Those rubbery-looking hot dogs are merely a tool to galvanize your intestines. If you eat like a pansy all your life, you won’t survive in the jungle.

Most of these wants will remain unfulfilled. 7-Eleven doesn’t carry most of the products I adore. The NYC locations are hella different than the ones I knew in NJ. I relish my memories. I love you and I miss you Jolt (classic).

Note: I’ve officially added Slurpee to my PC dictionary.