DC wine festival

Over 600 wines to try, and try we did. Happy valentine's day!

Oatmeal chocolate chip orange cookies

Baked during the blizzard of 2010 in Washington DC, otherwise known as "Snowmeggedon", with the last eggs in the store.  (Recipe poached graciously from CariCooks.com)

2 1/4 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

1 c unsalted butter (soft)

1 c light brown sugar

1/2 c sugar sugar

2 eggs

1 T vanilla

zest from 1 orange

1/2 t cinnamon

2 c oats

chocolate chips or cut up chocolate bar

The methods are standard: cream the butter and sugars, add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, zest, and cinnamon.  Stir in the flour/bakingsoda/salt, then eventually the oats and chocolate bits.  Bake at 350F, for approx 12 min (less than the 15-18 minutes that the original recipe said, as I like them chewy!)  Also, to keep the cookies chewy, allow them to cool for several minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them elsewhere.

I like these cookies.  They are not my favorite, but they make a nice change.  I think that I either had too much orange flavor due to the best-cheese-grating-micro-planer-in-the-world being slightly too good at the zesting action or my amazingly large Whole Foods orange!  Dark chocolate was a definite plus, although the dark chocolate and orange combination always makes me want to add some hot chili element to it... maybe next time!

For the brits: 1 c butter = 16 Tbsp = 227 g and our oranges are probably bigger (albeit I'd like a tad less orange!)

The Orchid

Apparently this orchid likes it when I pay no attention to it! And mom says plants are like children... regardless, I am very pleased with my IKEA purchase!