Lost and Found Oatmeal Cookies

Oats, butter, dried fruit, nuts, booze, coconut, this cookie has it all

I have 10 or so systems for keeping track of recipes I plan to cook. Tearing out pages from magazines and newspapers was my favorite before print died. Favorite-ing on Photograzing, Tastespotting, and from Flickr Groups are the easiest way to forget a recipe. Epicurious has a pretty good recipe box that Ive successfully been using while browsing food ideas for years. Emailing myself recipes and making simple text documents saved to my computer are the only way I can search for old recipes. If I can remember 1 or 2 ingredients in the missing recipe, technology will do the rest.

And so with a little determination and digging in every possible spot this oatmeal cookie recipe, lost for 3 years, has come back to me! It was on my Mac as part of cocktail party menu, copied from an online version of the Gourmet 2001 recipe. I substitute dried fruit for chocolate. The proportions of this cookie are great, and coconut always adds the oooh factor. Ooh being saturated fat. I discovered the importance of soaking dried fruit with this recipe. Ive brought these healthy cookies to lots of house warming parties, birthdays, and more because they go well with everything and stand as a meal on their own when a group gets together.

Lost and Found Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups finely chopped mix of dried fruit

(raisins, cranberries, figs, apricots, dates, etc.)

1 tablespoon brandy or rum (optional)

hot water

2 sticks (1 cup) butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp molasses

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup flour

2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut

3/4 cup almonds chopped

Mix dried fruit, booze, and hot water in a bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Strain fruit, pressing to remove excess fluids, and set aside. The juices that drip off the the fruit are excellent with a little bit more brandy. Yum.

Combine butter, sugar, and molasses and beat with a mixer until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add in vanilla, baking soda, and salt, and beat for another minute. Add flour and mix until just combine. Add oats, shredded coconut, soaked fruit, and almonds. Mix until just combine. Chill for 2 hours or up to days covered in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop cookies in 1/4 mounds on to cookie sheets, keeping 2-3 inches between each. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

Great for dunking in coffee, tea, or milk!

Brooklyn Dirt Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening

The first Brooklyn Dirt talk is Wednesday at Sycamore. I organized this event with Sustainable Flatbush, and Im looking forward to "digging deep."

Prospect Farm and Sustainable Flatbush are proud to present Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening.

Talk One: Dirt and Soil

With Speakers Jay Smith and Chris Kreussling (AKA Flatbush Gardener)

Sycamore Bar and Flowershop

Wednesday February 16th, 2011

7 - 9:30 pm

1118 Cortelyou RD, BK

Q train to Cortelyou

21+

$5 suggested donation

proceeds benefit Prospect Farm and the Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative of Sustainable Flatbush

Event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188915917798918

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Jay Smith is a lifelong environmentalist, member of several environmental organizations, member of the Park Slope Food Coop, completing a Certificate of Horticulture from BBG, deeply interested in Urban Agriculture and re-localization of food production in anticipation of food issues in the wake of the peak oil crisis.

Chris Kreussling (AKA Flatbush Gardener) is a garden coach with more than 30 years gardening experience in NYC. Chris is also the Directory of the Urban Gardens and Farms initiative of Sustainable Flatbush and a community member of the Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities advisory board, a project of the Cornell Waste Management Institute, and earned a BBG Certificate in Horticulture, 2009.

http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in their Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.

http://sustainableflatbush.org/

Prospect Farm is a community group in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn that is working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot, with the mission toward creating a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm that can serve our community. Prospect Farm is the community leader for the Kensington/Windsor Terrace neighborhood group for the Brooklyn Food Coalition.

http://prospectfarm.org/

Bread and Burritos in Springy San Francisco

San Franciscos best Tartine bread basking in 4:59 pm light

I havent been updating Cantaloupe Alone much, but I have not stopped eating. I know some people love to blog, twitter, and post while on vacation, but Im in my element away from electronic devices. Today is my first day back from a quick 2 day trip to San Francisco visiting good friend and food lover / artist extrodianare Ava.

First stop: Tartine. Hands down the trip could have ended after a morning of sampling 1 gougère (light and cheesy), 1 scone (just nice), 1 almond croissant (monstrous and delicious), and 1 morning bun (the classic). The morning bun was so much more sophisticated then I imagined. Flaky croissant dough with crispy caramelized top with crusty and sweet bottom, hints of orange, rich but not overpoweringly decadent. Worth waiting in line for. Perfect with their bottomless coffee. I didnt remember my camera!

Tartine bread several minutes old

The next afternoon we happened to be biking home from nearby Dolores Park at approximately 4:50 pm. Several minutes before their famed bread comes out of the oven. In perfect time we snagged a loaf with zero wait. Fortuitously Josey Baker Bread happened to bike by for a with a 3 gallon drum of flour under arm. A real San Fran moment in gluten history. I found the bread incredibly flavorful with a great sour dough tang. Our bread was still steaming inside. We were perhaps a few minutes too early cutting the loaf in half before the hot moisture finished absorbing into the thick loaf, as explained by Mr. Baker Bread. Later on when the bread was cool I found the texture silky and soft with a big chew. Easily one of the best bread experiences ever.

Ceviche from El Farralito

You cant visit San Francisco without eating Mexican food in the Mission. I had a veg bean burrito with drips and drops of all the different salsas from El Farralito. Avas ceviche was the winning item at lunch. California has some choice produce and seafood that make every flavor bigger and fresher.

El Farralito burrito

Other food moments of note included sushi from Japantowns grocery store, Italian food in North Beach, Its It ice cream sandwich, ice cream, ice cream, more ice cream, and homemade spaghetti, and numerous sweet California oranges. Ill have San Francisco on the brain for a while. Its a great city to get to know. I was lucky to see so much in a short time with the help of two bikes and a fun friend.

Vegetable Hunting in Early Spring

I spent a solid 3 weeks consuming bread, cheese, meat, sugar, and dairy. Less of a craving, and more situational testing out recipes (scotch eggs, mac & cheese with bacon, shepards pie, mushroom pot pie, rolls, crackers, and more obscene baked goods Ill show you later) and cooking for a big dinner party. This week I decided to veg out at the Grand Army Plaza farmers market in Brooklyn. Its been a cold and wet spring in the New York City area, but you can still make a weeks meal from the goods at the market. Cheese, meat, yogurt, flours, grains, legumes, pickles, jam, bread, cookies, and doughnuts are popular 52 weeks a year at the market. Hard vegetables and and hardy leafy greens are out too. Here is some of the veggie porn for your viewing:


Mushrooms, as expensive as meat but hardy and full of minerals and fiber. Dont chop the character of these unique shrooms as an ingredient in other dishes. Saute them in butter or oil and let them stand on their own feet as a beautiful entree or side dish.

Spinach, cool weathers great irony, green gift for salads, layered in lasagna and pastas, soups, frittata, or simply steamed and tossed with sauteed garlic.

Potatoes are everywhere, parsnips are fewer found, but sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes) are harder to find. Sunchokes with a smooth, nutty tuber taste can be lightly steamed and then sauteed in butter (really all farm fresh veggies are excellent this way), sliced and fried into chips, pickled, or roasted with other root vegetables like parsnips or carrot.

Apples are around most of the year too. Its a New Yorks specialty. Winesaps are my favorite orchard apple; crispy, tart with just a little sweetness. Perfect for eating raw. These winesaps reminded me of the kind I used to pick growing up in Ohio.

Radishes, turnips, kohlrabi, and daikon of all shapes, sizes with varying spicy flavors. These groundlings make awesome pickles, are great shredded or chopped into salads and slaws, sliced into discs for dip, or try a savory Asian daikon cake.

I also saw an abundance of carrots, squash, cabbage, leeks, onions, herbs, and ornamental flowers. Just a few stands had pea shoots. More of those plus ramps will be on their way soon. And oh I cant wait for my CSA to start up too.