Framed Friday: Cool Whip Cookies.

Hi there, this is Kate from Framed Cooks.  Framed Cooks started as a two week photography project, and two years later here I am, still trying to cook with teenagers and dogs constantly underfoot, still taking pictures of my supper, and still writing about my kitchen escapades for anyone who wants to listen to me!  My basic rule of thumb is this: everything I cook needs to be easy enough to make when you only have about 30 minutes to get dinner on the table… AND it needs to be something you haven’t made a million times before, because suppertime is so much happier when the food is interesting.

So those of you who have been following this blog for a little while know that I have this, um, obsession with cooking. Which sometimes works out okay if I am making soup or other things that can be stowed in the fridge and eaten for leftovers later on in the week.

Where I tend to get into trouble is with the whole baking thing. As in cookies. Because I live in a house where the Southern husband is perfectly capable of eating one cookie and leaving the rest in peace in the cookie jar, so unless the teenager is home with her usual horde of friends, the rest of the cookies sit there on the kitchen counter calling out to me. (And by the way, WHO eats just one cookie? I ask you.)

So over time I have learned that the solution to this particular situation is to pile those extra cookies onto a paper plate and bring them into the office, where I lay them out on the kitchen counter and send out a cookie alert on my Facebook page, and a few hours later when I stroll past the office kitchen the plate is empty. Sometimes a person or two will say “nice cookies!’ to me, but in general the empty plate is the way I know they were a success.

Until I made the Lemon Cool Whip Cookies.

Now to be totally honest, the only reason I made these was because I had a container of Cool Whip that I had bought for something else and never used. So I Googled “Cool Whip Recipes” and in addition to those scary Cool Whip Jello salads that you inevitably run into, I found this cookie recipe that called for a container of Cool Whip, a box of cake mix, two eggs and some confectioner’s sugar. That’s it. And while I am not usually a big cake-mix-user, since I was already down the road with the Cool Whip, I figured what the heck, and I made them, using a box of Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix.

My first hint was the Southern husband. When I make cookies and ask how many I should leave at home when I pack them up for the office, he usually says “Two.” (Two!!  I mean, really!). This time he said “Ten.”

Hmm.

Then I brought the rest in and put them in the office kitchen as usual.

I got phone calls.

I got emails.

I got messages on my Facebook wall.

I got an actual little handwritten thank you note that someone left on the empty plate.

Who knew that Cool Whip and cake mix were all I needed to spread such joy and happiness throughout the land? Now, a couple of notes about this recipe. You can make it with whatever flavor of cake mix you want – chocolate, vanilla, lemon, strawberry, Funfetti – your choice. And for that matter, you can make it with whatever flavor of Cool Whip you want as well. I have heard rumors that there is chocolate Cool Whip out there somewhere.  I haven’t actually SEEN it, but I’ve heard.

Second, when you mix up the ingredients the dough is going to be VERY sticky. Popping it in the fridge for about 30 minutes will make it a little easier to work with, but it’s still not a dough that you will want to use your hands for. My best advice is to scoop out about a tablespoonful with a spoon, drop it in the plate of powdered sugar, and then use a second spoon to help roll it around until it is nice and coated. Scoop it up and plop it on your cookie sheet and you are all set.

So there you go. Life is better with Cool Whip.

Lemon Cool Whip Cookies

from Allrecipes

• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 eggs
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar for decoration
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets.
2. Beat together the whipped topping and eggs together. Add the lemon cake mix and continue to mix. Dough will be sticky.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Drop by teaspoonfuls into a bowl of confectioners’ sugar and roll to coat. Place cookies on the prepared baking sheets. Bake  for 11 minutes. Cool on racks.

Posted In Framed Friday, recipes

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Framed Friday: Overnight Oatmeal.

Hi there, this is Kate from Framed Cooks.  I am a mother, a wife, a redhead,  a dog-lover, a bookworm, a first-born, a photographer, an avid cook, and just a little bit of a hypochondriac. Framed Cooks started as a two week photography project, and two years later here I am, still trying to cook with teenagers and dogs constantly underfoot, still taking pictures of my supper, and still writing about my kitchen escapades for anyone who wants to listen to me!  My basic rule of thumb is this: everything I cook needs to be easy enough to make when you only have about 30 minutes to get dinner on the table… AND it needs to be something you haven’t made a million times before, because suppertime is so much happier when the food is interesting. And if it includes bacon and/or chocolate, even better!

I think I am overdue in terms of singing the praises of one of my very favorite kitchen appliances, which is my beloved, faithful, trustworthy slow cooker. I’ve had the same slow cooker for years and years now – it’s a basic Rival Crockpot model – and I’ve made everything from the best beef barley soup in the world to a really incredible chocolate pudding cake and a lot of stuff in between. There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you toss a bunch of stuff in the crockpot in the morning, go out to work, and then come home hours later to a house that smells like heaven and the glorious knowledge that dinner is already made!

Most of my crockpot recipes are dinner-oriented (Well, except for that cake. Which I would happily eat for dinner, but that’s just me.) This oatmeal recipe also makes a fantastic comfort food dinner recipe, but it’s my only crockpot recipe that is perfection for breakfast. Here’s how it works, and why I adore it so much.

First of all, you must use steel-cut oats – none of those regular rolled Quaker Oats for this recipe. Steel cut oats are those hard little round oats – they look like teeny little pebbles and you will wonder how on earth they are going to turn into anything edible, but have faith. You toss them into your trusty slow cooker with some water, a little half and half and some dried fruit. I used dried cranberries and chopped up dried figs, but I think probably anything you have around will work just fine – raisins, dates, etc. Set the slow cooker for 8 hours on low, and go to bed. The next morning you will wake up to an unbelievably amazing aroma of sweet and creamy oatmeal. It has slowly cooked away all night look, and the fruit has somehow broken down and blended into the oats, giving the whole thing a wildly delicious, comforting, sweetly creamy texture. No additional sweetener is needed – just warm up a little milk and grab your favorite bowl.

Take hold of a spoon, close your eyes and dig in.  It’s comfort food extraordinaire, and you may never go back to those little oatmeal packets ever again.

Overnight Oatmeal

from Alton Brown

• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup dried figs, cut in quarters
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 cup half and half

1. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and set on low.  Cover and cook for 8 hours.
2. Stir and scoop into bowls.  Pour warm milk over each serving.

Posted In Framed Friday, recipes

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