Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I like my chocolate chip cookies soft and chewy so I found this recipe on the spiffy cookie blog and yes, they are soft and chewing and disappearing fast. We have visitors this week, our first Idaho visitors since we moved so I wanted to make sure our kitchen was "stocked up", if you know what I mean. These cookies are passing the taste test so I can safely put them on my blog now. Our visitors are my brother and his wife from Boise, so it's really family visiting - not like I need to make a good impression or anything. But it's still my nature to make sure the kitchen is stocked. As far as Idaho visitors go, on Monday this week, I had two additional Idaho visitors come over. When it rains, it's pours! My other brother, Bob, who lives in Bellevue stopped by with his wife, Jennifer, and Jennifer's mom, Gail, who lives in Boise. Bob and Jennifer have been over before, including Labor Day but Gail hadn't seen our Seattle home yet so I gave her the tour. (If you haven't figured it out yet, both my brothers married women from Boise which is simply a coincidence. Just like all my sisters married men with last names starting with the letter B, including me - Bratney, Bissell, Buck, and Buchanan. I love the coincidences of life...) As soon as Bob, Jennifer and Gail left, I rushed down to the water taxi to pick up a dietitian friend, Michelle, from Idaho. She was in town for a training with a free day on Monday and was staying with her cousin in Pioneer Square, which happens to be very close to the water taxi. She was actually a dietetic intern of mine in 2011 so I was eager to hear about her life as a dietitian now. We had so much to get caught up on. So Michelle, Lauren and I went down to lunch at Cactus where I introduced her to the best jalapeño maragitas around and she was thrilled, not to mention the gorgeous scenery at Alki Beach. Lauren went back to work and Michelle and I headed up to Bakery Nouveau so she could take back some of their signature twice baked croissants to her cousin. As Michelle studied all that Bakery Nouveau had to offer, slightly overwhelmed and dazed, I heard her remark, "...maybe we should get dessert while we're here...". Dessert? Yes, but there are so many great dessert places, we must spread the wealth. So, I asked her if she'd ever been to a chocolate cafe. No? I knew just the place. We ended up at another one of my favorite places by Greenlake called Chocolati.

This was a perfect spot because we could walk over to Greenlake, enjoy the beautiful day and sip our most delicious, handmade Chocolati Chills.

We were able to hit three of my favorite Seattle food places in a just a few precious hours with my fellow dietitian-food-lover and Michelle was completely fulfilled. My mission was accomplished. Now, with my chocolate chip cookies innocently sitting in the cookie jar on the kitchen counter, another little urge for something sweet is getting fulfilled for my current Idaho visitors. It's the least a hostess can do.

Makes 4 dozen cookies

2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 egg + 1 yolk, room temperature
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. In a mixer bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

3. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.

4. Mix in the sifted ingredients in three batches until just blended. Fold in the chips by hand.

5. Roll 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball that is slightly taller than wide and place on a plate or tray.

6. Cover tightly and chill for at least 2 hours, but overnight for best results

7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.

8. Bake for 8 minutes or until edges are barely golden.

9. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party go

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas. Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play". That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play. Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is. And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas". Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br

Karla SlonakerOctober 1, 2015 at 9:58 AM
It's so nice that you had a sunny day in Seattle!!
Sylvia, RDNOctober 1, 2015 at 10:12 AM
Yes, and we made the most of it, too. I can actually count on one hand the number of rainy days since we've been here since the end of June. Not bad!
UnknownOctober 6, 2015 at 12:27 PM
It was an awesome day! Thanks again!!!

Sylvia's Scenario

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