happy monday! we are looking forward to a short week, a mother-daughter tea in both adie and ayla's classrooms - and a very, very laid back thanksgiving. this will be the first year that it is just the five of us - a little bittersweet - but i am looking forward to it as well. it reminds me of a lot of our thanksgivings as a teen where the formal roast turkey dinners with extended family gave way to a help-yourself smoked turkey and lots of football - and just the four of us. i will be making the favorites: roasted garlic and goat cheese mash potatoes, cranberries with roasted balsamic shallots in a port reduction {pictured here} , harvest dressing and a maple-orange roast turkey. these dishes have been the mainstay of our menu for nearly 10 years - there is something welcoming and wonderful about creating your own classics that you return to year after year. i had always relied on guests to round out the side dishes - this year, i think i might add cinnamon glazed baby carrots. and as previously mentioned i do prefer the simplicity of the perfect pumpkin pie over any other dessert during this time of the year.
and what of those little gems pictured above, you ask? like so many of you, we love having a stash of homemade cookies in the house - especially this time of year. this weekend i combined two of our favorites - my peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe with my friend's oatmeal cookie recipe - the result is rather divine and i had a very difficult time refraining myself from the batter last night.
the yet to be named cookies
~ 1 c. butter
~ 1 c. peanut butter
~ 1 c. sugar
~ 1/2 c. honey
~ 2 eggs
~ 1 t. vanilla
~ 1 t. baking soda
~ 2 1/2 c. flour
~ 1 t. cinnamon
~ 3 c. oatmeal
~ 1 1/2 c. chocolate chips
preheat oven to 350. smooth butter and peanut butter together - add sugar and mix until well blended. add honey and continue to mix. in a small bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla - add to butter mixture and incorporate well. in another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and cinnamon together - slowly add to wet mixture. scrap the bottom of the bowl several times to ensure all of the dry is properly mixed into the wet. stir in oatmeal then add the chocolate chips.
place the dough in the refrigerator for up to 30 minutes. prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. using an ice cream scoop {or tablespoon}, create {somewhat} equal sized balls of dough - spacing them about two inches apart on the baking sheet - gently flatten the dough with your fingers or the back of the spoon- just a little so they are not so round. bake each sheet for 12 minutes or until edges just begin to turn gold. pull from the oven and let the cookies stand for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
xoox~jla
p.s. thank you katie for pointing out i forgot the flour on the list of ingredients - all fixed now!
Hello,
Wow, your blog is beautiful, full of sparkling inspiration...I just skimmed, but have marked it to come back and explore more...thank you for filling my monday with beauty and the urge to bake some cookies :-)
Posted by: Melina Wallisch Photography | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 12:12 PM
how much flour do you usually add?
Posted by: katie | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 02:25 PM
omg katie! i forgot the flour - thank you!! i will fix it now!
Posted by: jla | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 02:40 PM
yum, might have to whip these up tonight!!!
Posted by: the purcells | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 05:50 PM
o wow. i definitely think making these.. and then eating them of course! will make my monday much much brighter~
Posted by: little room la | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 08:47 PM
Silly question but is t. a teaspoon or tablespoon?
Posted by: julie | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 09:21 PM
not a silly question ;) little 't' is indeed teaspoon - uppercase 'T' is tablespoon...
Posted by: jla | Monday, 23 November 2009 at 10:11 PM
love your blog! peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip are my specialty, i found the recipe in an old amish cookbook. i've never added cinnamon though, i had just bought the ingredients over the weekend and seem to have delayed baking long enough to learn about a new secret ingredient. thank you!
Posted by: Lisa | Tuesday, 24 November 2009 at 12:47 AM
There is nothing better than homemade treats... maybe because they are often made with love, not with a machine.
Posted by: Marie-Eve | Wednesday, 25 November 2009 at 06:56 AM
hmmmm...your blog is so sweet not just because of the amazing recipes : )
Posted by: maria | Wednesday, 25 November 2009 at 03:21 PM
i made them over the break, they were gone within an afternoon! thank you for the recipe :)
Posted by: Katie | Tuesday, 01 December 2009 at 12:00 AM
Where do you get your polaroid film!? I've been searching the interwebs like crazy and can't find any for a reasonable price.
Posted by: McKinsey | Thursday, 22 April 2010 at 11:46 AM