Lovin' From the Oven

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

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Man, Starbucks has been all kinds of disappointing as of late. I JUST got my gold member status and what do they do? Take away the best perks of having a Starbucks reward card: no more free syrups and no more free soy milk.

Starbucks tried to make it sound better in the email they sent out by saying that the program was going to give you “fastier, tastier rewards.” I don’t care about the free drink for every 12 stars instead of 15 (uh, do you know how long that takes me to drink 12 Starbucks?), just give me my free soy milk back!

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I spent all that time making sure to reload my gift cards and use it on every purchase so that I would get those dang stars. Now, it’s all gone to waste. I guess that’s what I get for supporting a huge corporation. Back to ma & pa coffee shops for me… where they have friendly service and 8 drink punch cards!

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You might mistaken these cookies for snickerdoodles. Nope, they’re just plain ol’ cinnamon sugar cookies. What’s the difference, you ask? They’re missing the key ingredient that would make them snickerdoodles: cream of tartar. Without that, you just have regular cookies.

Maybe the bar is set too high with my usual snickerdoodles, but these cookies were pretty plain. Don’t get me wrong, they were by no means bad. Perhaps they’re the perfect kind of plain to go with some tea or coffee. They have that wonderful crinkle on top and the nice crusty outer layer with a tender center. Recipe adapted (only in the directions part) from AllRecipes.

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Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions

  1. Mix the 1/2 cup white sugar and 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
  2. Cream butter with the 1/4 cup of white sugar and brown sugar. Mix in the egg and vanilla.
  3. Slowly stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  5. Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and and form them into balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture, making sure to coat every side.
  6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
https://lovintheoven.com/cinnamon-sugar-cookies/

Beer Chicken in a Crockpot

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Continuing my previous post… this is the chicken I served with my lemon garlic pasta:

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A lot of people cook with alcohol, whether it be beer or wine. I thought I’d give it a try since I had some beers in my fridge leftover from having friends over and I don’t drink. My initial impression was that regardless of the kind of alcohol I used, it would burn off and not leave any distinct taste. Boy, was I wrong… Even a crockpot cooking for 6 hours didn’t do the trick!

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Now, since I don’t drink beer, I’m the last person to know anything about beers. I posted a status on the Facebook fan page about my experience cooking with Pale Ale and luckily, Jennifer came to the rescue. According to her, Lagers and Belgian style beers cook up well, while German weisse beers are great for braising. Mentally noted, thanks Jennifer!

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Overall, it wasn’t bad. If you love beer, you’d love this chicken. It was juicy, fell apart at the touch of a fork, and had a very strong flavor. The taste was just a bit strong for me. When the chicken’s cooking throughout the day, your house smells like beer. Straight up beer. I don’t know if that’s a pleasant smell or not, but I’d much prefer the smell of pumpkin or baked apples.

Here’s to experimenting in the kitchen!

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Beer Chicken in a Crockpot

Ingredients

  • 3-4 frozen chicken breasts
  • 1 bottle of any kind of beer (read note above)
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp dried onion
  • 1/4 tsp italian seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp garlic salt
  • pepper

Directions

  1. Put the chicken breasts in the crockpot.
  2. Throw the rest of the ingredients on top of the chicken and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8.
https://lovintheoven.com/beer-chicken-in-a-crockpot/

Lemon Garlic Pasta

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I had a “Final Destination” moment on the freeway the other day. You know, where things go falling off of a semi and crash into cars on the freeway.

My DB and I were driving back from a little trip to visit Stanford since he’s never been, and we passed by a semi holding eight porta potties onboard. We didn’t really think anything of it as we drove by. For some reason, both of us were looking in the rear view mirror when we saw it happen it slow motion.

One porta potty fell off to the left of the semi, just a couple yards from us. Luckily, there wasn’t a car close behind, so no one was hurt. Just seconds after the first one fell, a second porta potty came tumbling onto another lane of the freeway.

I kid you not, this stuff really does happen all the time. And it’s dangerous. Really, really dangerous. Can you imagine if there was a car right next to the semi when it happend? What if all the cars behind him were going 80 miles per hour? What a disaster that would be!

So I’m not crazy when I say I won’t drive behind semis that are transporting things.. whether it be cars, logs, or porta potties, I’ll be avoiding them as much as I possibly can.

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Whenever I’m a loss at what to make for dinner, I turn to my usual: pasta. I can eat pasta and pizza everyday. Although, I probably wouldn’t recommend that diet to anyone unless you want to gain 10000 pounds.

This recipe is easy to whip up and I’m sure the majority of you guys already have the ingredients in your pantry. I served this with some chicken, but it tastes great alone if you just want plain ol’ pasta.

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Lemon Garlic Pasta

Ingredients

  • 8 oz fettucine
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • juice of 1/4 of a lemon
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • cracked black pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Cook pasta until al dente according to the package's directions.
  2. When done, drain. Return the pasta back to the pot and add in the rest of the ingredients. Stir until evenly coated.
https://lovintheoven.com/lemon-garlic-pasta/

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