best. oatmeal. cookies. ever.

I wish I could remember where I pick up some of this stuff, but half the time I don’t know. This one may have came from a PBS cooking show I watched more than a decade ago, and is incredibly easy.

To bring out the flavor of the key ingredient in oatmeal cookies, use only “old-fashioned” style oatmeal (the slow cook kind -- little ovals of flattened oats) and while the oven is pre-heating, spread the oatmeal on a cookie sheet, toasting it until it’s light brown and the kitchen smells like bread. Make sure you keep an eye on it and stir the oats with a wooden spoon every now and then to ensure even toasting. I’ve nearly burnt more than one batch because I forgot they were in the oven. You also need to completely cool the oats before adding them to the cookie mix; you don’t want to melt the butter because it will change the consistency of the cookies.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm….oaty goodness….

Garden Journal for March 21 and 22, 2009

back yard

• Swept out, removed pine garland protecting base of white climbing rose, moved protected pots away from house to get more sun and rain (bay, coral climbing rose, blueberry)
• Put new bases on 3 remaining barn siding boxes, topped up soil and covered with mulch.
• Pruned white climbing rose, retrained shoots, and raked out some mulch & dead leaves. A few leaves were dried out on the canes – removed those. New growth coming in.
• Pruned coral climbing rose. Removed leaves that were dried out. Aerated soil and added ~1/2 cup used coffee grounds + 1 banana peel cut into ½” pieces in a ring around base – about 2” deep. Loads of red, new leaves coming on.
• Pruned lavender (“fat spike”) back to base: all but 2 branches were dead
• Pulled up lavender (hidcote): pruned earlier this year back to base in hopes of saving it, but it got too cold and died?

diseases
Removed a few leaves with black spots and maybe 1 with powdery mildew (or starling poop?) from coral climbing rose.

observations

• Buds are looking good on rhododendron, and bleeding heart not up yet in front yard.
• Peony buds are popping up -- will I actually get blooms this year? If not, consider planting in a deeper pot?
• Lilac is leafing out nicely. Hope it blooms this year -- even a teensy one!
• Not sure how blueberry bush will do this year; it bloomed late last fall and started to form little berries that didn’t fall off and now look hard and dried out.
• Lettuces and a couple carrots planted late last fall are coming up like gangbusters. If we put a hoop enclosure on them this fall, we might be able to harvest greens and root vegetables all next winter (assuming winter is as mild as this last one was).

weather
Sun seems to rise due East now (stood in the middle of an east-west street this morning and it was dead center). Good light throughout the day for more than half the backyard. Sun still not hitting tree box in front, but inching closer.

planning

• Keep an eye out for succulents, drought/heat resistance plants, and interesting pots for roof deck plantings.
• Move bleeding heart so it gets more shade when sun shifts in mid-summer?
• Plant sweet woodruff against house wall in front yard? Guy at Fragers Hardware said it’s not as aggressive as mint, comes back every year, smells good in sachets, and he loves it. Grows up to 18” high and is meant as ground cover, so it could replace some mulch.
• Use dark, finer mulch in front yard this year. Red cypress isn't providing enough contrast and is tending to grow fungus in lower layers.
• Paint inner walls of steps with blackboard paint? Need to find out if it's weatherproof.
• New lemon thyme plant is probably needed – current one looks dead. Water for a few weeks and see what happens.
• May need to transfer lilac to a bigger, deeper pot. Defitely need to construct a bamboo "trainer" to keep it growing up and not out.

Music to make cookies to

I forgot to mention that while making the aforementioned shortbread cookies, I was rockin' out to a couple classic albums: U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and the lesser-known Migrations from The Duhks. Folks who know me well know I'm a bit mad for U2. I am the girl who got up at 2:55 AM one weekday to try to snag tickets online for a Dublin performance of the "Vertigo" tour. (I failed, but the Boy Scout later surprised me with tickets for Verizon Center and took me out for a pint of Guinness beforehand – definitely one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.)

The Duhks are an entirely different animal – an interesting mix of traditional Irish, zydeco, Appalachian, Acadian, gospel, blues, and thoughtful covers (be sure to check out “Mountains O’ Things,” the Tracey Chapman song from her 1990 self-titled album). I listened to Migrations twice while making those cookies, and it wasn't because my dough-covered hands prevented changing out the CD. The Duhks got a new lead singer and percussionist since I saw them live in XM’s wee live performance studio a couple years back, but if anything, their new stuff sounds tighter. Still bluesy, still full of soul and longing and quirky style.

Flaky Shortbread Cookies

I read the Wall Street Journal this weekend; the back page of Section A in this photo says it all. Baking cookies seemed like a fluffy activity in light of these recent developments, but I often do my best thinking while creating something, and I felt like spreading around a little buttery-light helping of love to my friends on this side of the Atlantic. This particular recipe was published in the Washington Post food section as "Big-Hearted Shortbread" a few years back.

Wishing all my Northern Irish friends and the rest of the folks in Ulster peace and luck this St. Patrick's Day -- and beyond.

cookie ingredients

• 2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c cornstarch
• 1/2 c tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 c powdered sugar

glaze ingredients

• 1 1/2 c powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5-6 tbsp heavy whipping cream or 3-4 tbsp milk
• kelly green paste or gel food coloring
• light green sugar

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instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees farenheit, placing rack in center of oven. Line one large baking sheet with parchment paper if making super-huge cookies (4" or greater) or two baking sheets if regular size cookies. Both are yummy.
2. In medium bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Tip: if you don't have a sifter or can't be bothered, mix together thoroughly with a wire whisk.
3. In a large bowl on mixer's medium speed, beat together butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy. This may take a few minutes. Make sure you stop periodically to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture until it's all incorporated and the dough holds together when pressed. It will be more dense than a good pie crust and not as sticky. Pat dough into thirds.
5. This is the most important step in the whole recipe: use a silpat liner when rolling out the dough. You won't have to add any more flour, which means the cookies won't be hard as hockey pucks after baking. Roll dough to 1/4" thick and cut out shapes, placing on parchment-lined baking sheet ~1" apart. Keep gathering and re-rolling scraps until you can't cut out any more shapes.
6. Bake one sheet of cookies at a time until the edsges and bottoms of the cookies are lightly brown, about 20 minutes, making sure to turn the sheet around halfway through. Ovens are usually hotter in the back, and turning the sheets ensures even browning. Do not over-bake, and after removing sheet from oven, let cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. For the glaze, mix together the powdered sugar, cream or milk, and vanilla in a small bowl, adding coloring with a toothpick until you reach the shade you want. The glaze should end up a spreading consistency, like thin peanut butter. Using a knife or frosting spatula, spread glaze on each cookie, let set for 5 minutes, and sprinkle with green sugar. Place on wire rack until icing dries completely, about 2-3 hours.

makes ~10 super-huge cookies or ~30 regular cookies

Big Doin's This Weekend

I'm cleaning up my completely-trashed craft room and working on some long-delayed home improvement projects. The components for one of the latter are almost all assembled and it's been in the making for years, y'all. Years.

You know how sometimes you have a problem, and you make do with half-hearted solutions for a while, and you keep muttering and sketching on the margins of your notes during excruciatingly boring meetings at work and puttering around with tape measures and even little cardboard models, trying to figure out how the HECK someone hasn't resolved this already because SURELY there's at least 7 other people in the sea of humanity on this planet who have your exact same problem -- and then one fine day, after months of periodically Googling it just to see if someone's come up with something new, you find the suppliers and plans and examples you need to finally, finally solve it? I'm there, thanks to a crucial suggestion from the Boy Scout, and I am absolutely posting the steps and results for that sucker.

What's that you say? You want a hint? Coriander seeds, star anise, mace, garam masala, and herbs d'Provence.

Moxiecat Roz defends the laundry

One of our cats, Rosalind (Roz) loves clean laundry so much, she will prevent its folding at all costs. She's a Mountaineer at heart, she is.

Fastest Way to Thread a Needle

This tip came from my Grandma K, another Mountaineer of Moxie, who started learning how to quilt when she was 70-something years old. This method is almost foolproof for threading the teensy eyes of quilting needles. First, make sure you cut the thread straight across with a sharp pair of scissors, then wet the eye of the needle. Put the dry thread through the needle's eye and bingo: you're set. If you wet the thread, the fibers will swell and you'll end up re-trimming and kinking and cussin' and having no fun.