The Best Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies... EVER!

Today, I'm bored. Noah's at daycare, Hubby is working, and baby is sleeping. I could nap, I could clean the house, I could re-write my ''Get Organized!'' post that I managed to delete, but, I was craving cookies... and so I baked. I looked up various oatmeal cookies, and played around with a few of the recipes, adding a little bit of that here, and taking out a little bit of that there, only to discover that I had made the Bestest, chewiest Oatmeal-Cinnamon cookies a mouth could hope for.... and so I had to blog about it too.

1 cup butter or shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp vanilla essence

2-3 tbsp molasses (3!!!)

1 cup of flour
1-2 tsp cinnamon... I use one and a half.

1 pinch of salt (1 tsp)

1 tsp of baking soda

3 cups oatmeal (Not instant)!!!

optional: Chocolate chips, nuts, raisins... I didn't add anything, except for my last batch, where I sprinkled a few miniature chocolate chips to please the kiddos!... and most probably the hubby aswell!

Action:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cream the butter or shortenning along with the sugar

Combine with eggs (well beated beforehand)

Add Vanilla essence

Add molasses ( I actually forgot the molasses until the very end, but still added to the batter, and the cookies still turned out delish!

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, the salt, the baking soda and the cinnamon. Sift together.

Combine to the egg-sugar mixture.

If adding any of the optional additions, do so  now.

Add oats last and stir mixture together.

Spoon onto greased cookie sheet. (Confession: my cookie sheets were's so neat, and so I decided to add parchemin paper, and grease that... horrific idea. The cookies were pretty much glued to the paper... but oh so tasty and I know because I had to help myself to the bits and pieces I had to scrape off... of course!)

Bake for 10 minutes (either top rack or bottom rack). Remove from oven, place on cooling rack and let cool... and Enjoy! Get in my belly!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Spice Cake, or Bread, or Cake...with Maple Frosting. Yummo

I'm supposed to be keeping away from sweets, but as I've mentionned in my ''Sabotage'' blog, that's not really working out. So, in keeping with my utter failure, and to make myself feel better, I made cake, er... bread... or cake. Let's call it bread for the sole purpose of making  it sound healthier than it is... At least it's not too processed, as it is made from scratch.

I've made this recipe before. I messed it up a little the first time... and this morning, apparently, I didn't learn anything from my previous experience. The recipe calls for a 13 X 10 banking pan. I don't have a 13 X 10 baking pan, so I used whatever round cake pan I had. Mistake. This made the 30 minute baking time turn into 1h15 minutes, the worst part... when sticking a sharp knife in the middle to verify the doneness, although it came out clean... the middle was still kind of mushy. In any case, it still remained one of the very bestest delicacies (cake, bread...whatever), I have ever eaten! (that doesn't have any chocolate). Ok, back to what I was saying... I didn't learn. I still don't own a 13X10 dish (note to self: buy one!). And so this time, I used a bread pan (so I can respectfully call it bread right?) Well, after an hour and a half (recipe calls for 30 minutes ?!?!?), I took my cake (bread) out, tested with a knife, (came out clean), and flipped the pan to remove the cake *bread* from it. and the cake *bread* split down the middle with oozy pumpkin.... crap. What did I do? Stuffed it all back in the pan and tossed it back in the oven for 15 minutes. It came out ready.... and a complete disaster. Ha!

SABOTAGE

I'm a victim. I'm a victim of a vicious attempt to mess up my plans. The culprit, is none other, than my dear husband, Dan.

 I set up to do something. I had my mind set but a stick has been put through my wheels. I had a plan...but there it goes, down the drain.

As you'll recall in my "Welcome 2010" post, I didn't have any health resolutions per se... they were a given. But, I did plan on making healthy changes. I wanted to cleanse my system of all the crap out there (or in here I should say). I wanted to avoid processed foods (with small exceptions here and there...How anyone can live without chocolate is beyond me!) I wanted to eliminate white floured foods (white pasta, white bread, etc), and I wanted to avoid sweets (minus the occasional chocolate.... piece).

Christmas Baking, and I'm new at this! (Oreo Truffles, and Holiday Kisses, Chocolate Bark shortbread cookies

I'm 28, and I've discovered that I LOVE cooking and Baking! I also discovered that through blogs and Twitter posts, one can find amazing food ideas and recipes.

I just wanted to share my most recent cookie experience:

First, The FABULOUS Oreo Truffles:

SO, so so EASY: All you need to make 3 dozens:  1-pkg cream cheese, 1 pkg Oreo cookies, Chocolate to melt (I used one package of Baker's semi sweet and about 4 pieces of Toblerone Chocolate), and something to coat ( I used grated  Holiday Hershey's kisses), but you could use Coconut, more cookie crumbs, other chocolate, oh! Even crushed candy cane pieces: