Has anyone introduced you to Shauna Niequist? If not, I am THRILLED to be able to do so. I was first introduced to Shauna at a creative arts conference a handful of years back. It was right around the time that she had come out with her first book, Cold Tangerines, which she talked about at the conference. I was hooked right away. I bought the book while we were there and had probably finished it by the time we got home. Shauna has a way of writing that speaks right to me. She’s honest, vulnerable, and willing to admit to spending entire days in yoga pants and a comfy t-shirt. I can’t really relate to that last part though. I’m always dressed to the nines, especially when I’m at home all day, with the boys. Shauna also loves cooking and food and feeding people. And I am right there with her. One of my most favorite ways to spend a day is tinkering in the kitchen all day, in preparation of having friends or family over for a meal. I dream of having a house big enough for a dining table that can fit 20. For now, our 700 sq ft back house doesn’t even come close, but we’ve dragged our expandable Ikea table into the backyard, added a card table, and managed to squeeze quite a few people around it.

Since Cold Tangerines, Shauna has written Bittersweet and most recently Bread & Wine. I love Bittersweet and I have loved browsing Bread & Wine, but I hate to admit, I’ve had trouble finding the time to read it from cover to cover. Finding time to sit & read with a 7 month old & 2 1/2 year old has been a good challenge. I probably need to break down and buy the audio version so I can listen on my commutes to and from work.

Now, just because I haven’t read it all yet, doesn’t mean I haven’t loved flipping through all the yummy recipes that Shauna included in this latest book. I’ve tried a couple already, most recently the breakfast cookies. How on earth could I pass up an opportunity to make cookies for breakfast without feeling guilty about them? These were so yummy, not too sweet, and even gluten free & vegan. I did leave out the shredded coconut and swapped the coconut oil for olive oil, though. Not everyone in our house is a fan of coconut. I thought about posting the recipe here for all to try, but I really want to encourage you to buy this book or borrow it from a friend. I think we can all learn from it and be spending more time around the table, with the people we love.

One more order of business, for anyone still reading this. The other night, when I was getting ready to make these cookies, I started listening to a podcast from Willow Creek Community Church’s midweek service. Would you believe it if I told you it was Shauna speaking on the one I started??? Well, it was, and it was really good too. Her message was called “What it means to change the story” and she was talking about how we all live stories that we’ve been told about ourselves, but they aren’t always true stories or good stories. Some of the work that we have to do, as we become adults, is working to tell new stories that God wants to tell in and through us. I would highly recommend listening to it. You can find it to watch or listen to on Willow’s website here, or you can get it through iTunes in the podcast section. Here’s a link to the iTunes version here or you can search for the Willow Creek Midweek Service, and it’s from 8/14/13.

I hope you check out some of Shauna’s work, even if it’s just on her blog. I hope you listen to the podcast, and I hope it inspires you to think about the stories you’re living. And most of all, I hope you make some cookies for breakfast, because of course.

love and butter,
amy

thanks for the pic, Emily!

I don’t know about you, but around our house, weekday breakfasts need to be fast, and they need to be easy. I want to be able to stay in bed as long as my children will allow and then be able to get breakfast on the table as quickly as I can. Enter, this recipe. Less than 5 minutes of prep the night before, and we can wake up with breakfast ready to eat as soon as we want it. This is a super basic recipe that you can customize to the many different preferences in your house too.

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

Adapted from this recipe

2 cups Steel Cut Oats (I buy mine from the bulk bins at my market, and don’t even think about using regular rolled oats. You’ll end up with something you can use for paste in a preschool classroom.)
4 cups Unsweetened Almond Milk (we usually have the plain kind in our house)
4 cups Water
2 tspn Vanilla Extract (I don’t measure, just add a couple splashes)
Pinch of Kosher Salt

• Add everything to the slow cooker, stir just to be sure the oats are all mixed into the liquid.

• Set to cook for 4 hours on low. I start mine around 10-11pm the night before, and it automatically goes to a “warm” setting until morning.
• In the morning, there’s usually a little right around the edge that’s gotten too dry, just toss that part.

I know it’s not the prettiest, but it’s sure yummy.

Top with any number of things like fresh or dried fruit, nuts, honey or maple syrup, cinnamon, and peanut butter even! You can also add sweeteners, spices, or fruit before cooking for a different variety. The options are really endless. I like to keep it simple so that everyone can eat it the way they like it.

A word of caution…this is how I make mine, but every slow cooker is different, and you may have to tweak the method or proportions of liquid to oats to get it just right for you. The recipe I started from was basically half the quantity of oats & liquid, but cooked for twice as long. It just got way to dried out in my slow cooker. I tried again with more liquid, still not great. I’ve landed on the same proportions, but double the amount. That seems to work best for me.

Is this the most exciting breakfast ever? Nope. But, it’s easy, and being able to pop (ok, slump) out of bed and be eating breakfast in minutes, makes it taste that much better. Also, after this oatmeal, you’ll never want to eat that 1 minute in the microwave stuff again.

love and butter,
amy

I figure there are at least a handful of you out there that aren’t into lots of sweets. How is this possible, you ask? Well, I’m married to one. I know you exist, and that’s ok. We can still be friends. I’ll be honest, as much as I love to bake, some of my favorite things to eat are actually savory dishes. I hope to be frequently sharing savory dishes here at stay and have a cookie.

Earlier in the summer, we were spoiled with an abundance of homegrown tomatoes from family & friends. Now don’t get me wrong, I can pop raw cherry tomatoes like they’re potato chips (and I did), but I was looking for a new way to use some of bounty of summer goodness. Bonus, these are really easy. I mean really. Second bonus, they’re delicious on just about anything.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes (Any color & any amount is fine, whatever you’ll eat in one sitting)
Garlic Cloves (I have a Costco sized bag of peeled garlic in my freezer and just grabbed a small handful)
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt (the only kind of salt in my kitchen)
Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

• Preheat oven to 400° F (I’ve been using our toaster oven a lot this summer, because it’s usually just too hot for the big oven when you don’t have air conditioning.)
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil for easy clean up.
• Lay tomatoes & garlic out on the baking sheet.
• Drizzle with just enough olive oil to lightly coat everything.
• Sprinkle with salt & freshly cracked black pepper.
• Toss everything together to evenly coat the tomatoes & garlic.

• Cook for 20-30 minutes, depending on how well done you want your tomatoes. I like mine to be mostly busted open and starting to brown, and mine tonight were about 28 minutes. Don’t forget, I used a toaster oven, and I’m not super positive how accurate the temperature is in it. I don’t have a small enough thermometer to keep in there.

Now here’s the great part about these tomatoes. You can serve them so many ways, all delicious. Here are just a couple of the ways I’ve used them.

• One of my favorite ways to eat these roasted cherry tomatoes is with some crust on the the outside & soft on the inside bread. I drag the bread through the oil & tomato juice in the bottom of the pan, drizzle a little bit of balsamic vinegar on it, pile on some tomatoes and a garlic clove or two, sprinkle with a tiny bit more salt, and top with a few shreds of fresh basil. I’ve eaten this and only this for dinner at least 3 times this summer.
• One time I cooked up some pasta, I think it was bow tie, but it would be good with any kind. Once the pasta was cooked & drained, I tossed in the roasted tomatoes (I made sure they were almost all popped) and all the juices & oil from the bottom of the pan. Easiest pasta sauce ever.
• The other night, I just warmed up some leftover plain rice, from last night’s dinner, and topped it with all the tomatoes, garlic, and drippings. So simple. So good.

And there you have it. Just another way to use one of the greatest members of the summer produce family. What’s your favorite way to eat summer tomatoes?

love and butter,
amy

I have some good friends, Grant & Lindsay Morgan, that are in the middle of a journey that will take them to the other side of the world soon. They’ve both grown up with a heart for the world, and in the last couple years, an opportunity has developed for them to move to Stockholm, Sweden, to serve at New Life Church, for the next 2 years. As hard as it will be to see them move away, I am so proud to call them my friends, and I know that God has big plans for them.

Besides learning Swedish, one part of the culture that Grant & Lindsay have already started incorporating into their lives is Fika. Lindsay explains what Fika is on their blog, here, but in a nutshell, it means having coffee & something sweet to nibble on with good company & conversation. Ikea (one of my favorite stores ever) has even created a great cookbook with recipes for many different sweets that would be perfect for some Fika with friends. Even better than the recipes, I just LOVE the pictures in this book! It’s the kind of cookbook that would be great to set out on a coffee table for just browsing through.

So, the other evening, a group of friends hosted an evening of Fika so that Grant & Lindsay could share about themselves, their passion for Stockholm, and how we could help support them in the coming years. As my little way of helping out, I followed a recipe from the Fika cookbook and made Semlor Buns. I’ll be honest, as much as I have loved thumbing through this cookbook and looking at the pictures, this wasn’t the simplest recipe to follow. The ingredients weren’t all as straightforward as something like chocolate chip cookies, including the need to google “strong flour” & “fresh yeast,” and the directions were lacking some of the specifics that are helpful when baking. I like to know what speed the mixer is, or that I need to put something in the freezer prior to starting the recipe, etc. It was a good education. All that being said, this is still a fun cookbook, and not very pricey, so a fun addition to any collection. And these buns were super yummy. I wouldn’t make them all the time, because they were definitely a lot of work, but worth every bit for my dear friends.

“Semlor” Lenten Buns

Adapted from Fika
Makes about 40 buns

Dough
6-6 ½ cups Strong Flour (I used 900 grams for the dough and a little extra to dust my board when I did a little kneading) (Turns out this means Bread Flour, which is higher in protein than all purpose flour)
2/3 cup Superfine Sugar (This is sold is most big supermarkets, but I never buy it. I usually just pulse my granulated sugar in my bullet for a little bit, but not too much! You don’t want powdered sugar. HOWEVER, I was in a rush this time and just used granulated sugar, straight up, and I think they turned out just fine.)
4 ½ oz Butter, room temperature (9 tbspn) (I always use salted butter)
1 ¾ oz Fresh Yeast (This is a type of yeast that’s only used in professional kitchens, at least around these parts. So, after some research, I landed on using 3 packets of Active Dry Yeast which came to 21 grams.)
2 tspn Crushed Cardamom (I HIGHLY recommend buying whole cardamom seeds and grinding them fresh with a coffee grinder or bullet. You’ll get much more flavor from that. Otherwise, use double the amount if you buy pre-ground.)
1 Large Egg, room temperature
2 cups Milk (I used whole)

Glaze
2 Large Egg Yolks
2 tbsp Milk (I used whole)

Filling
100 grams Blanched, Slivered Almonds
Crumbs from inside the buns
¼ cup Milk (I used whole)
9 oz Marzipan (The marzipan I was able to find at Whole Foods came in a 7oz package, so that’s what I used. If you’re unable to find it in a store near you, or you just feel extra ambitious, you can find recipes for making your own. It’s mostly almonds and powdered sugar)

Garnish
2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
Powdered Sugar

• Before you get started, put your marzipan in the freezer. It needs to be grated later, and that’s easiest if it’s frozen.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer(I started with my beater blade attachment like this) add flour, sugar, butter (broken into pieces), yeast, cardamom, and yeast.
• Mix together on low until combined, less than a minute.
• Heat the 2 cups of milk on the stove to lukewarm (100° F) and pour it into the mixture in the stand mixer.
• Switch to the dough hook attachment on the mixer and mix for about 7 minutes on a low-med/low setting. The dough should be completely pulled away from the sides of the bowl and smooth, almost shiny. I had to turn the mixer off once or twice to pull the dough back down as it was coming up and over the attachment.

• Let rise in a relatively warm place, under a kitchen towel, for 30-40 minutes. Don’t worry too much about the warm thing, you don’t need to turn on the heat or anything, but you don’t want it to be cold and drafty right where you’re trying to let them rise.

• Place the dough onto a floured baking board and knead gently a few times.
• Divide the dough into 40 even pieces. I actually weighed the dough on my kitchen scale and then used a dough scraper to cut it into pieces. Once I knew how much the entire amount of dough weighed, I just divided by 40 and tried to get them all as close as I could. I split the whole thing in half again and again until I got down to what I needed. I ended up keeping all of mine between 40-45 grams each. The more alike they all are, the more evenly they will bake.
• Roll the pieces of dough into smooth buns and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I got 20 onto one of my favorite baking sheets. Cover each sheet with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for another 30-40 minutes. Again, I was in a major hurry and made it about 30 minutes before moving on.

pre-rising

• While they rise, preheat the oven to 350° F.
• Once done rising, spread the buns out onto a couple additional trays. I baked mine 10 per sheet pan, all parchment paper lined.
• Whisk together the 2 egg yolks & 2 tbsp of milk, and brush over the tops of the buns. This will help make them golden brown & shiny. I’ll be more thorough next time because it’s obvious where I missed on mine.

ready to bake

• Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Mine took about 8 minutes. I baked 2 sheets at a time and should have switched the trays and rotated them halfway through baking, because they weren’t all as even as they should have been.

• When done, let cool on a cooling rack. Everything up until this point can be done ahead, also. I baked all of my buns the day before I filled them. I just wrapped them with some press & seal to keep them from drying out.
• For the filling, lightly toast the almonds in a small skillet, over med-low heat. It won’t take very long, just a few minutes. They done once they’re starting to brown and you can smell them. They can burn easily so don’t rush this step. Once toasted, let cool for a few minutes and then roughly chop and set aside.
• Cut off the top of the buns, scoop out some of the crumbs from the center, and replace the top so it doesn’t get mixed up. Pulse the bun innards in a food processor (I used my bullet in a couple batches) until nice and crumbled like bread crumbs. Place the crumbs in a medium bowl.
• Now for the lovely task of grating the marzipan. I used my microplane, because it didn’t specify what type of grater, and I assumed it needed to be a small enough grate to incorporate well in the filling. Grate it directly into the bowl that has the crumbs in it. I recommend leaving most of the marzipan in the freezer and cutting off a chunk at a time to work on. It gets soft really quickly in the warmth of your hand and it was easiest to grate when it was hard.
• Add the ¼ cup of milk to the crumbs and marzipan and mix until you have a smooth paste. Fold the almonds into the filling.
• Pipe the filling into the buns. For something like this, I put the filling into a sturdy ziploc bag (this is not the time for thin, store-brand bags, unless you want a mess) cut the tip off of one of the bottom corners and voila, piping bag! You should have enough to fill all of your buns, as long as you don’t overfill the first ones that you’re working on.

• Whip the heavy cream with a hand mixer or I like to use my immersion blender with the whisk attachment. Pipe enough cream to just cover the open bun and replace the tops. Dust with powdered sugar using a fancy shaker like this or a small wire mesh strainer like I use.

• Serve immediately. Whipped cream isn’t something that hangs very well, especially at room temp. These are best when eaten soon. Stash in the fridge for a bit if you need to make them much ahead of time.

Whew. That was a lengthy one, but they are quite yummy, especially if you don’t like a super sickeningly sweet dessert. If you want to learn more about Grant & Lindsay and what they’re up to, check out their blog at www.grantandlindsay.com. And be sure to enjoy some fika with friends soon!

love and butter,

amy

When I started to think about what the first recipe I wanted to share with the world(or more likely all five of you that read this) was, I knew it had to be a cookie, because of course. And when I started to think about *the* cookie, I instantly thought of this recipe. Is it my favorite cookie in the whole entire world? Probably not. But this is one of the first cookies that I can remember making on my own, and it’s probably the recipe I’ve made more than most other cookies. I can’t take much credit for this cookie, though.

The first time I ever had this cookie was at Brooke’s house. I’ve known Brooke since we were younger than I can remember. She stood next to me as I married my best friend six years ago and I can’t wait to watch her marry hers next May. Brooke’s mom, Tanya, has whipped up many a sweet treat over the years, all of it delicious. This cookie is just one of the sweets I enjoyed at their house. I’m fairly confident that you could always find some of this cookie dough in the freezer, because you never know when you’re going to need a hot-out-of-the-oven cookie or let’s be honest, some cookie dough in all its raw goodness. Growing up, I burned my mouth on plenty of these cookies in the McLeod house, we just couldn’t wait. So, thanks, Tanya, for baking cookies for us, for french braiding my hair every time I slept over(my head hurts just thinking of how tight you pulled those braids), and for starting me on the road to this little blog.

A couple little disclaimers before we jump into the real reason you’re reading this…to get the recipe for these yummy cookies! I don’t know about you, but when I’m trying out a recipe for the first time, I want it to turn out well. If I can get super detailed and specific instructions, I’m thrilled. I want to be told what tools to use, how things should look, smell, feel, taste, etc. As I pass along recipes to you, I hope and plan to give as much information as I would hope to find in a recipe myself. Also, I don’t know how you usually measure your dry ingredients(flour & sugar), but after hearing & reading about weighing them instead of the scoop & level method, I’m a firm believer in the weigh method. In a nutshell, the way that you measure out flour can result in varying amounts of it, ranging by an ounce or more in either direction. To keep things as controlled as possible, when you weigh, you always know how much flour you have. Unfortunately there are also different opinions of how much a cup of flour weighs. Unless a recipe tells me how many ounces or grams it requires, I use the standards from America’s Test Kitchen of 5 ounces for a cup of unbleached all purpose flour and 7 ounces for a cup of sugar(brown or white). I use this scale, although there are lots of options. Just be sure it has the option of grams or ounces.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

1 cup Softened Butter (I always use salted)
1 cup Peanut Butter (I grew up using creamy Jif, Skippy, etc, but now the only peanut butter in our house is the kind that’s made with only peanuts, and it’s crunchy. The cookies were just as delicious, and with a tad less sugar)
¾ cup Sugar (5.25 ounces)
¾ cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar (5.25 ounces)
2 Eggs (room temperature is best, helps them incorporate better. I try to at least get them out of the fridge as soon as I start making cookies, so they can warm up a bit)
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2½ cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (12.5 ounces)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (This amount is definitely up for interpretation if you love a loaded cookie)

• Preheat your oven to 350º (I always, always, always have a thermometer like this in my oven because it can’t be trusted. When I set it to 350, it ends up around 375.)
• Prep some cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat. I always use parchment paper and I needed 4 trays for this batch of cookies.
• Measure or weigh out your flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk them together and set aside.
• Add both sugars and both butters to the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl.
• Cream together the butters & sugars on medium speed for 1 minute.
• Turn the mixer to low and add in the vanilla and 1 egg. Once incorporated, add the other egg and mix just until combined or you don’t see any super shiny streaks of egg left.
• Turn the mixer off and add in about a third of the flour mixture, turn the mixer on low, just until mostly combined.
• Add the rest of the flour in two more batches, just the same way.
• With the mixer off, again, add in your chocolate chips and mix on low until evenly disbursed.

• In order to get uniform cookies, use a cookie scoop to portion out dough onto the trays. I use a scoop like this, which got me 52 cookies that weighed 1 ounce each. I want to make sure my cookies have plenty of space to bake evenly, which means 12 cookies per tray.

• Bake for about 8 minutes, 2 trays at a time, or until just barely starting to brown on the edges, which yields a soft cookie. Again, interpretation is up to you on how well-done you like your cookies. I’m always an advocate of under-cooked cookies.

• Allow cookies to cool on the trays for a few minutes, and then move to cooling racks until completely cool.

One other option with these cookies is to scoop out the dough as individual cookies on the tray, then throw the tray in the freezer until the cookies are frozen. Once they’re frozen, you can put them in an airtight ziploc bag and back in the freezer. Bake them just the same way, adding only an extra minute or two. Perfect for those moments when you just HAVE to have a fresh out of the oven cookie.

love and butter,

amy

Over the years, I’ve had several people ask me if I have a blog. The answer has always been, “no, I’m not really much of a writer, so it wouldn’t be very good.” I still don’t consider myself to be much of a writer, but a couple of months ago, I was challenged to believe that as people created in the image of God, we are intended to also create. As a part of that, it’s not expected that we can all be genius’s at anything we set our minds too, right away at least. Sometimes, when we start something new, we won’t be very good at it, and that’s ok. Sometimes, we have to work at something for hours and hours and hours before it’s even just ok. So, for the sake of trying something new, for the sake of trying to be creative, and because I do enjoy sharing what comes out of my kitchen, here goes.

love and butter,

amy