Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

For whatever reason, I have been on a major cookie-baking kick lately. A couple of weeks ago, Abe was really craving oatmeal raisin cookies. As many of you know, I am not a raisin fan, but because I love my husband. Also, making cookies that I won't gobble down 5 at a time is the only safe way to bake homemade cookies so I set off to find a spectacular cookie recipe. Normally, I would have just used the one on the top to the Oatmeal container (thanks Quaker Oats!), but, alas, we store our oats in plastic containers so we didn't have the Quaker recipe.

Then I remembered that Abe's Aunt & Uncle gave us all of the Cook's Illustrated (CI) volumes from the last 10+ years, nicely bound and indexed, for our wedding. A particular gift, yes, but for cooking enthusiasts, it really is a very cool and useful reference to have around. All I had to do was look up "cookies, oatmeal raisin" in the index and Voila! I had a tried and true awesome cookie recipe. The good folks at CI had tested multiple variations and methods to find the perfect recipe for chewy, delicious cookies (just ask the people at Abe's law firm who are the frequent recipients of my cookie-baking marathons). I also whipped up a batch of peanut butter cookies that day along with a tray of rice krispy treats (my fav).

Tonight, we are headed to the Alcantars' for our new Sunday night dinner tradition and we are bringing dessert. I thought it would be fun to make ice cream sandwiches with different varieties of homemade cookies. So I made another (and better this time) batch of Oatmeal Raisin, a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, and tried my hand at some soft & chewy sugar cookies. So if you need a good cookie recipe this holiday season - let me know and I'll pass along the Cook's Illustrated magic!