A GOOD BOOK & A PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

 

The other day when I was "working" at Hillcrest Thrift Shop, a paperback book by Elliott Roosevelt called Murder in Georgetown, caught my eye.  I picked it up and read on the cover below the title: An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery "Eleanor the private eye is utterly endearing."--The New York Times. Since it was a "slow" day, I decided to take it back to the check-out counter and read the beginning of it to see if I thought I would enjoy it.  I do enjoy a good mystery! A little later a customer saw it and said, "Oh, that is one of the books by Elliott Roosevelt, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's son." (That explained why the first sentence of the book was talking about Franklin D. Roosevelt.) After the customer paid and left with her purchase, I read on the back of the book: A delightful combination of history and mystery, the Eleanor Roosevelt novels bring readers back in time, as our most beloved First Lady scours the nation's capital for clues, while crossing paths with many of her famous contemporaries.

Well, that was enough for me to decide to give it a try. I really enjoyed Murder, She Wrote on TV and Jessica Fletcher. I thought about the show as I was reading. How Jessica was always asked by the police to help with the investigation. If you also liked the show, then I think you will enjoy the book. There are at least seven more Eleanor Roosevelt Mysteries that he left unpublished(he died in 1990) that some of his children decided to have published. I think I will give another one a try. It was a good light read.

Anyway, back to this afternoon. One of the enjoyable things about being retired is having time to simply spend an afternoon reading if that is what I want to do. And that is what I decided to do this afternoon. I have sewing projects for Hillcrest Thrift Shop and PWUMW Hope Circle I need to start on tomorrow, but I will do that tomorrow.

As I am reading this afternoon, I started wanting something sweet. I fixed myself a glass of iced tea, but that didn't completely satisfy me. Not having any "dessert" in the house, I decided to put down my book and search some of my recipes and see if I could find something easy to make. I found a recipe for a Chocolate Cake, but I didn't have all the ingredients and besides, if I make a cake, I'll have a lot to eat. So I kept looking in my binder of Recipes to Try. Loose in the binder was a recipe for Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that I had written the ingredients and bake 350 for 10-12 min. on a piece of paper. I have no idea where I found the recipe when I copied it down on the small piece of paper. Seeing I had all the ingredients and especially noting that it only called for 1 cup of flour, I knew the recipe would probably only make maybe 3 doz cookies AND I CAN EAT JUST ONE COOKIE. So in less than an hour, I was back reading about the First Lady and enjoying a warm cookie from the oven. Wherever I saw the recipe, I am glad I wrote it down. They were fast and easy and are so goooooood. I will print the recipe below as I wrote it down and put my substitutions in parentheses.

PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1   cup all-purpose flour

1   tsp baking soda

1/4   tsp salt

1   stick (1/2  cup) butter, room temperature (I used light margarine)

1/2   cup creamy peanut butter

1   tsp vanilla

1/2   cup sugar (I used 1/4  cup truvia blend)

1/3   cup light brown sugar

1   egg

1/2   cup rolled oats

1   cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars and vanilla -3 minutes-scrape sides of bowl as necessary.

Add egg and beat.

Add flour mixture with mixer on low speed.

Stir in oats and then chips.

I used my 1-inch cookie scoop to measure dough onto cookie sheet. Before putting the cookie sheet in the oven, I flatten the top of the dough slightly with a spoon.  

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove cookies to cool on wire rack.

The recipe made 3 doz + 3  small cookies.

It was not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  How did you spend yours?