Dark Chocolate M&M Cookies! - Cooking Post

Okay, so last week I had this grand idea that for our weekend baking extravaganza (that's right - every weekend we're baking a treat!) I decided that I just HAD to HAVE chocolate chip cookies, but I didn't necesarrily WANT chocolate chips, I wanted color... I wanted pizazz... I wanted M&Ms. So I enlisted the help of JR and we set to work. 

Once you go dark chocolate, you realize EVERYTHING tastes better with it

I had found this recipe online, and decided that it had a solid base. We tweaked it a little bit because I dont believe that nuts should EVER be in cookies, unless we're talking coconuts.  

Ingredients

2 cups dark chocolate m&ms
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons hot water
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup brownulated
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened

Directions1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, and at the last possible moment the m&ms. 

3.Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

JR is super helpful!!! 

4.Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

I dont particularly like brown edges, so mine were a bit soft/fall-apart-y

So that's the recipe, but here's my main opinion... this cookie (and I can't believe that I'm about to say this) was WAY TOO SWEET. I recommend upping the salt by 1/2 tsp, and using dark brown sugar instead of the brownulated sugar that I used. I think that those two changes would definitely improve this recipe for the better.

Other than that... it turned out EXACTLY how we wanted them - tasty! Just because it was too sweet doesn't mean we didn't devour them, just put them with salted caramel ice cream for a delicious ice cream sandwich.

This weekend - red velvet brownies!!! We'll let you know how they go.


Happy Cooking! 

SALSA TIME

So I have a problem, nay, an OBSESSION with salsa. I'm not talking that store bought bullshit that has more vinegar in it than an easter egg... I'm talking pure homemade/restaurant delish that makes you devour an entire bag/basket of tortilla chips before you can even breath.

Give me this salsa bull-shit and I will puke on your shoes.

My favorite tex-mex restaurant from back home recently closed it's doors... and I was devastated... not because of their tasty margaritas or because of the amazing re-fried beans (because they were actually disgusting), but because their salsa was a salsa that the heavens sing about.

Heavens or the radio.... at one point in time they had a commercial with some catchy lyrics, "I'm going to Chula Vista cause I'm a hot sauce head. I ordered up a meal, prepared just right. I could eat a Chula Vista all day and at night!" And I could. All day. Errry day.

But in the despair that wracked my heart from their recent closing, I realized I will never again be able to just pick up a pint when I visit my parents... Instead I'm going to have to figure out what made it so tasty... and make it.

Now, full disclosure, I've been trying to replicate this salsa recipe for over 6 years (ever since I came up here for college back in 2006). Unfortunately none of them turn out how I want them to, but everyone else seems to suck them down.

All of my salsa recipes are semi-homemade. Sometimes I dice the chiles, the tomatos, but it's always a mixture of fresh and canned, because I have a feeling that Chula Vista wasn't making it fresh either.

Salsa Attempt #1

1 can Rotel
1/2 small onion diced
1 small can Hunt's tomato sauce
water
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp TexJoy Steak Seasoning (if you have it... if you don't get it... if you don't want to you can leave it out)

1. Dice the onion. Fill a small bowl with enough water to cover the chopped onions, then toss the onions into the bowl. (This is to make them in my opinion "less pungent." I want none of their sulfur dioxide or whatever it is mixing with my tasty salsa).

2. Open the can of Rotel.  Puree the tomato/chile tastiness in a medium sized bowl (I used an immersion blender, I'm sure you could do the same thing with a food processor or an actual blender).

3. Add the Hunts tomato sauce. (Why Hunts you ask? Because I like it. I've tried a bundle of other brands/non-brands and I always come back to Hunts.... and it's my recipe!)

4. Fill the Hunts tomato sauce can 1/2 full of water, pour into bowl. Stir the two tomato-y-nesses together.

5. Add the onion powder, black pepper, garlic powder, salt, and TexJoy Steak Seasoning (if you don't, sucks for you).

6. Stir.

7. Strain the onions from the water then add the onion to the bowl of red. Stir.

NOM ON DOWN!

This makes quite a hefty batch to be honest, a lil more than I was expecting, however, a couple days after making I used it as a base and simmered a few chicken breasts in about a cup of this, and used it for really really tasty enchiladas. SO GOOD.

This one isn't quite Chula Vista's it's a little too Rotelly, but still tasty.  I also was missing scallions, but I'll add/tweak the next recipe to see how close I can get it. Keep your eyes peeled!