November 18th: chocolate-stuffed chocolate chip peanut butter cookies and pork chops with Swiss chard and cranberries

I chalk it up to a bad case of baby brain. I set out to make my second batch of Christmas cookie exchange cookies, and the whole thing was a disaster. I'm still scratching my head as to why. It was Sunday afternoon. I had had a nap, so was well rested. Greg and Olivia were out, so the house was quiet. I scrubbed the kitchen top to bottom, so the setting was clean. In other words, there were no distractions and no excuses!


I set out to make an epicurious recipe: Chocolate-stuffed chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. Two chocolate chip cookies sandwiched together with a chocolate layer. Fancy, yes, but not over-the-top. I decided to replace the milk chocolate with darker chocolate for a richer and less cloying taste. And so I proceed:


I mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and set it aside. I mix the wet ingredients in a second bowl and set it aside. I turn on the oven and prepare my pans. I then begin scooping batter onto my pan. I'm a little concerned, as the batter is much runnier than a cookie batter usually is. Enough runnier that I decide to take a picture:

I set the first pan in the hot oven. I am thinking, maybe the batter is runny because they are going to be sandwich cookies, and they need to be flatter. At this point, I realize I've forgotten to stir in the chocolate chips. Okay, no problem; the cookies in the oven will be the bottoms and I'll add the chocolate chips to the remaining batter and they will be the tops. I decide to halve the number of chipits. Then I scoop out the second pan.


All this takes place within three minutes, after which time I am ready to prepare my chocolate filling, reach for the bowl and - oh - see that I have a full bowl of dry ingredients I forgot to mix into the wet! So that's why the batter was runny! I hastily grab the pan out of the oven and without even thinking, pour the batter (it is warm and runny and pours no problem) back into the bowl, whereupon it promptly sets the chocolate chips to melting. I do the same with the second prepared pan of batter, then dump in the dry ingredients and stir the whole mess together.


At this point, I think, a break to re-group is required. I leave the kitchen for an hour.


To sum up, I later re-scooped and baked the cookies, forgetting to set my oven properly, and ended up burning the first pan. Thus, I have half-melted-half-the-amount-called-for-chocolate-chips, improperly stirred in flour, half burnt, stuffed cookies, looking thusly:

Taste-wise, they were not awful. We ate the burnt-est of the burnt and I froze the rest - not enough in the end for my cookie exchange in any case. Maybe we'll bring them out for our Christmas party.


I'd like to say supper went better. I was cooking an old fave, also from epicurious: Pork chops with Swiss chard and cranberries. It's a slightly complicated recipe, so again, it seemed like this would be a good day to tackle it, what with having the house to myself and being all clean (the house) and relaxed (me, although slightly frazzled based on the cookie incident). I didn't go terribly wrong with this recipe, but did get a little overwhelmed at one point when I had all four burners on the stove on, plus the oven. But look how beautifully supper turned out:

It was delicious, too.