Date Night Dinners - Happy Birthday!
There were a lot of celebrations this week. In my family, when you hear the word celebrate, you tend to associate it with gluttony. I have learned that celebration means you surround yourself with happiness: people, events, but most importantly, food.
That was just the start of the celebration. Like I said, my actual birthday fell on a Monday; with retired parents and the need, okay want, to take a staycation celebration day for myself, we got to eat and celebrate and eat some more. We had an enormous lunch at my favorite cannoli place, Vaccaro's, where I of course enjoyed my favorite cannoli after trying some of the actual food, a panini with hot chocolate. After some shopping and nail art with my mom, it was time for dinner at my my favorite sushi spot, Sushi King. Yum. Are you full yet? I think I am still recovering from this weekend.
Here is to happy celebrating. Now go make a cookie and enjoy the festivities, whatever they me be.
* To get 1 Tbsp egg, crack into a small bowl and which until the yolk and white are well blended. Then measure out 1 Tbsp. Reserve the remainder for the personal cookie you will be making the next day, and the next.
But that's not all. My dad's birthday is two days after mine. I got a brief reprieve, before we dined out again, in celebration on Wednesday. Again it was delicious. Again I ate a ton, and again I was so satisfied, but so so full.
While all of this was going on, I was nannying (aka. cookies, chips and other snacks everywhere), dog sitting (aka. ice cream galore), and trying to fight the urge to by all of the Valentine's Day candy in the store. Can we talk about sugar overload.
Somehow Brenden and I had managed to accumulate a ton left over food, but no left over sweets. Did you know Maggiano's has a fabulous two for one special (no, I was not endorsed). We were fooded out. (Is that even a word? You know what I mean though...right?) We had enough leftovers to last us the week. Thinking of something to make, and cooking was the last thing on our minds. We heated up our leftovers and enjoyed some more good, gluttonous food. But something was missing. After all those days of birthday desserts and random sweets, our tastebuds were expecting more.
We didn't want to make a whole batch of sweets, we only needed something to satisfy the urge, the nagging craving. How perfect was it I had found a recipe for one chocolate chip cookie a few days before. And, I was dying to try it out. It took a only a few seconds before I had coerced Brenden into the idea as well.
Per usual, it was a fairly simple recipe. The hardest part was measuring out one tablespoon of whisked egg. And really how hard is that? I think figuring out what to do with the left over egg was harder (or was it simple...make another cookie the next day of course). The recipe called for many of the same ingredients a normal batch of chocolate chip cookies does, but for some reason making a single cookie instead of a batch was way less work.
The cookie came out perfectly. The edges had just the right amount of crunchy chewiness to balance out the perfectly soft and gooey center. The entire cookie was golden brown with plenty of sweet, melty chocolate chips in each bite. It was not an overwhelming dessert, but one that you want to keep eating - just one more bite; no, one more - without getting nauseous. And even if you want to eat until that point (not recommend, we know from experience), the recipe saves you because it only makes one cookie.
One huge cookie, so don't worry about being disappointed with only one or two bites of deliciousness. This is not one regular sized cookie; it is more of a panera sized, extra-large cookie. Brenden and I even agreed it was enough to share, rather then make two batches (one each), and Brenden does NOT share food.
Here is to happy celebrating. Now go make a cookie and enjoy the festivities, whatever they me be.
One Extra-large Chocolate Chip Cookie
Recipe adapted from cookingclassy.com, One Chocolate Chip Cookie
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp salted butter, melted
- 3 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 Tbsp whisked egg*
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farhenheit.
- In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients.
- Stir with a spoon until well combined, about 30 seconds.
- Shape the dough into a large disk, about 3.5 inches wide and place in the center of a parchment lined baking tray.
- Place the baking tray in the preheated oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cookie is cooked through and the edges are golden brown.
- Remove the cookie from the oven and enjoy your personal, warm and gooey, chocolate chip cookie.
* To get 1 Tbsp egg, crack into a small bowl and which until the yolk and white are well blended. Then measure out 1 Tbsp. Reserve the remainder for the personal cookie you will be making the next day, and the next.
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