Top Cookie Recipes

I am off to South Carolina for the week.  After the weekend, I finally feel like things are back in place. Unfortunately, Mr. J will be left on his own all week and I never know what I will find when I get back.  The great thing about coming back this week...next's weeks vacation!  I cannot wait.

I am hoping that during this trip I will be able to get back into my blogging routine.  I have tried to spot check your writings and recipes here and there the last few days but to be honest I was overwhelmed.  I was already about five days behind.  That is a lot of missed posts. Believe me. A lot.

I have been a bit lazy.  We have been cooking. Nothing beats a homemade meal after no power. But they weren't blog worthy though.  My pictures weren't worth sharing.  What I do know is everyone loves a cookie and here are some of my top recipes.

6 Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies (Flourless)

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ultimate Ginger Cookies

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Oatmeal Carrot Cookies


Which one would you pick?

I love them all but the oatmeal carrot cookies are super healthy. That means cookies all day long.  And makes a smile on my face.

Surviving

Is it really September?  I am not sure where the last week went.  I was in DC enjoying stressing enjoying my time with friends and family. 

Then the hurricane struck.  I was in DC when it made landfall.  We had rain most of the day Saturday and through the night but woke up to beautiful skies on Sunday.

The mess came with trying to get back to Connecticut.  Amtrak was not helpful at all.  They kept canceling our train, only for us to call and get advice like "Its August.  Things are hot. Maybe the water will evaporate fast from the tracks."  This is no joke.  They would not reschedule us till after the time came for our already canceled train. By then everything was full.  We ended up renting a one-way car and drove back Monday morning.

We came back to Connecticut only to find our apartment without power.  Apparently the storm hit hardest in three shoreline towns. Mine was the one in the middle.  I would say that we were lucky though.  We had no damage.  No flooding.  Just no POWER.   

I always try to be prepared and think in advance.  Well, my preparedness of stocking the freezer was not a good idea. We had to throw out so much food. It literally broke my heart.  I don't have a ton of pictures during this time as blogging was not high on the priority list but I will say that I never thought I would...

1. Venture out to use someone else's bathroom
2. Hang out on the floor of Barnes and Noble charging about 7 electronics at once for 3 hours
3. Wait in line for an hour and 15 minutes for $20 of ice
4. Pay $20 for ice
5. Be so happy to have ice

As for Mr. J, his dad is in the construction business.  He has never been without power for more than 30 minutes in his whole life.  They have lots of generators.  We got power on Thursday evening. Those 4 days were the longest days of Mr. J's life thus far.

Thank goodness for our grill.  We were able to have a hot meal each day. You get pretty creative with no power and little food.  Food was a priority for us and we ate pretty well.

During the midst of the chaos, Mr J and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.  The freezer defrosted just in time for us to have a bit of our wedding cake.  Now our cake was amazing and a year later it was still great.  The frosting had dried out some but the cake itself was so delicious.  You can definitely whip away some of your hurricane sorrows with chocolate cake.  I am just saying...

We had to say goodbye to these little fellows. You kept us great company and I was sorry to say our goodbyes.

This weekend was met with some much needed fun. We took off to Boston on Sunday for some birthday present shopping for me and an afternoon Sox game.  The day was a perfect day for a ball game.  Too bad, the Sox were just not that motivated to win.  I will not tell you the finally score but it was not pretty.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Labor Day!

America Eats

Update: We are still without power in Connecticut.  Tomorrow I am planning on posting about the big storm, how we managed, and lessons learned.  I keep hoping that power will be restored and I will be back to blogging and reading all your wonderful posts soon.  Until then, computer batteries are reserved for the absolute essentials, mainly work. 

I consider this somewhat essential though.  America Eats is a Jose Andres restaurant.  On July 4th he opened America Eats to coincide with the Smithsonian exhibit "What's Cooking Uncle Sam" at the National Archives.  The exhibit explores how the government has shaped America's eating habits over time.  It was fascinating to say the least.

The menu at America Eats is a history book in dish origins.  It is like a mini history book for food. You can find out where the Cobb Salad was created and Presidential Favorites.  Bill Clinton loved gazpacho.

We started off with some homemade donuts and a bread basket. 
The best part was the blackberry jam and butter.  So delicious!

As soon as I saw the menu I knew I had to get hush puppies.   We each ordered an appetizer and did the whole pass the plate around the table.  It was great to sample but I think my hush puppies were the winner in this round.

Buffalo wings anyone?  Of course, this origin was a given...Buffalo, New York.

Cannot get more American than a hot dog served with homemade mustard, catchup, and relish to boot.

Johnny Cakes

Po'Boy sandwich

Reuben sandwich

The food portions were a bit small and the prices were a bit much but the concept is completely cool.  I took about 30 minutes to go through the whole menu reading all of the details. 

The meal ended with a bit of dessert.  Strawberry shortcake for Mr. J and key lime pie for a few others.  The key lime pie was deconstructed.  According to all though it was delicious!

The restaurant is only opened for the length of the exhibit.  So if you are in DC and can make it...go fast!