Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I think cookies are an excellent little sweet pick-me-up.  They are easy to bake and quite satisfying.  Can you ever have just one?  I tell myself that these are good for you because they have oatmeal in them....  I like to tell myself these types of things....

Flour, 1 3/4 Cups

Baking Soda, 1 Tsp

Salt, 1 Tsp

Brown Sugar, 1 1/4 Cups, Packed

Unsalted Butter, 2 Sticks, Softened

Granulated Sugar, 1 Cup

Large Eggs, 2

Milk, 2 Tbsp

Pure Vanilla Extract, 2 Tsp

Old-Fashioned Oats, 2 3/4 Cups

Chocolate Chips, 2 Cups

Butterscotch Pudding

There is nothing more comforting than a bowl of creamy, velvety pudding with a dollop of whipped cream on top.  My flavor of choice is butterscotch.  I have to admit that I haven't made pudding from scratch in a long time.  I forgot how much goes into it.....

I got this recipe from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook, Comfort Food By Rick Rodgers, that my mom gave me for my birthday.  Which, by the way, is my new favorite cookbook; I want to make everything in it, especially while it is cold outside.

They say to cool the pudding in the fridge for 2 hours, but I had to have some right away....  I just couldn't wait, and warm pudding is delicious!  I should have taken a picture of the warm pudding, but I ate it too quickly for that....  The above photo is of the pudding with whipped cream after it had cooled in the fridge for the reccomended 2 hours.  Recipe, instructions and more pictures after the jump.

Cakes and confections

I love to cook.  That is probably why I went to culinary school.  I really like to bake and make sweets, especially when I'm stressed.  My coworker, Dan, said that I am going to give him diabetes....  Oops.  Well, my family, friends and coworkers benefit from my stress.  It makes me feel better.  Baking, unlike cooking, is regimented; you need exact amounts of sugar, flour and baking powder, or else it will fail miserably.  I am kinda good with numbers, so this exactness calms me.  And the sweet confections that are the results aren't so bad for my stress level either.  Moist cake, creamy frosting, velvety pudding, all delicious!

I sometimes dream of opening my own dessert place....  If I got stressed from work, would working there make me feel better?  I wonder....

This is going to be a catalog of things I make.  Things I do right, things I would like to change next time, and things I may never try again.

Thanks for reading :)