When I Take Over My World: What's Cookin' Wednesday

The pollen count is way high today. This whole week, in fact. The scale goes up to twelve and we are over eleven. It is windy out, and that doesn't help at all. Poor Randy is suffering more than I am. That is because he uses pharmaceuticals. I, on the other hand, use my sinus rinse and have ingested local honey to build up my resistance.

Either my allergies are getting a whole lot better, or my natural methods are working better than Randy's over-the-counter medicines.

Another little known remedy for allergies is homemade cookies. Monster cookies to be precise. I know these things - I used to be a Candy Striper in high school. Don't make clown cookies, though. Clowns are scary.

The Shrine Circus is in town this weekend. Randy mentioned something about us going. Hmmm ... not too sure 'bout that.

Anyway ~

I put a lot of research into finding the right recipe for monster cookies. I had to, our health and well-being depended on it. The recipe I ended up using is called 'Debbie's Monster Cookies' and I found it on TastyKitchen.com. Tasty Kitchen is a website of recipes hosted by The Pioneer Woman.

Being a not-as-thorough researcher as Randy, I based my decision on the name of the recipe and where I found it. Why read it through? Reading a new recipe through before you use it is for sissies, y'all.

I read enough to know that the cookies called for a cup each of M & M's and chocolate chips. I, on the other hand, had a better idea. I used instead 'Mezcla de Frutos Secos Indulgente' which is a 'decadent sweet and savory dream (?) of white chocolate drops, chocolate drops, peanut butter drops, almonds, peanuts, cashews, golden raisins and cranberries'. The bonus is that this yummy mix comes with it's own monster.

I was going to type the entire ingredients in Spanish, but lost interest after typing the title. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I figured out how to make a ° sign on a Mac. There was no way that I was going to hunt and peck my way through all that in Spanish and, on top of it all, try to find the little squiggly that goes over the 'n'.

Anyway ~

I assembled all my ingredients in an ill-fated attempt to be organized, neat and tidy while I dealt with the monsters. The recipe said to add all the ingredients in order and mix until combined. I wasn't too sure about that - every cookie maker knows that you cream the butter and sugar and then add the eggs. So that is what I did. While the mixer was mixing, I decided to read the recipe.

Oh, it calls for quick-cooking oats. I don't have quick-cooking so I substituted regular oats. There is plenty left from buying a nine pound box at Sam's Club before Christmas.

Hmm ... baking soda? Baking powder? I didn't see that on the list of ingredients. I check my favorite chocolate chip and sugar cookie recipe to see how much they called for. Then, remembering the construction advise of 'measure once, cut twice', I re-read the recipe and noticed two things:

1) 4 teaspoons of baking soda

B) No flour. Just oats.

The saying is actually 'measure twice, cut once'.

Anyway ~

I thought about customizing the recipe. How good could a cookie be without flour? But how much? Should I cut back on the oats if I add flour?

Being the smartest person in the house (Randy was in the garage), I decided to bake a test batch to see how the cookies turned out. If the cookies didn't taste good, I could somehow figure out how to doctor up the dough.

Oh, my are these cookies delicious just the way the recipe reads. The cookies have a dry and crumbly consistency, but soft in the middle (depending on how long they are baked), and are very peanut-buttery. Delicious.

Even the monster dog wanted to sample the monster cookies. I will take monsters and cookies over clowns and Benadryl any day.