Half Assed Kitchen

Peppermint chocolate chip cookies

 
The photo above doesn't really do these cookies justice. They are completely, mind-blowingly awesome. Make a special trip to the grocery store to buy peppermint extract if you have to, but just get some. These cookies are buttery and chocolatey with a good hit of mint. Girl Scout cookies don't hold a candle to these lovelies.

Rating: 3/4 assed

Here's what you need and how you do it

3/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 egg

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1-1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1/8 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients well in large bowl. Drop by spoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie sheets.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes.

Let cool for five minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

(You might as well go ahead and double this recipe. The cookies will disappear fast.)

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

UPDATE: Make these cookies small, because they do flatten a lot and if they're large, they'll tend to break. For some ovens, you may need to adjust the baking time and let them go only 8 to 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on the cookies as they bake.

Stir-fried green beans with shallots and herbs

This is a super easy (speasy?) veggie dish that's also kind of elegant. There are still good green beans to be had in the markets, though for how much longer we can't say. Throw beans with shallots together for dinner this weekend, or make these instead of the traditional fatty, calorie-laden green bean casserole on Thanksgiving.

Rating: 1/4 assed

Here's what you need and how you do it

1 pound fresh green beans, washed, with icky brown ends snapped off

Butter or olive oil

2-3 shallots, peeled and minced

Fresh herbs such as parsley or thyme

Salt (sea salt if you have it)

Ground black pepper

Add olive oil or butter to skillet. Stir fry beans for 3 or 4 minutes, then add shallots. (Otherwise shallots will cook first and burn before beans are ready.) Add salt and pepper. A minute or two before beans are just fork tender, add herbs.

Serve hot or cold.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Giveaway: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Head on over to Half Assed Kitchen's Reviews and Giveaways blog for a crack at winning the Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook.

Warm olives with marcona almonds

It's that time again! We're beginning our third annual Half Assed Holiday Apps series, where we'll aim to bring you a new appetizer recipe once a week from now until New Years Day.

This first hors d'oeuvre is as simple as it gets. It's inspired by a restaurant here in Seattle called Tin Table, which serves fantastic food–-this appetizer in particular. We order it every time we go to Tin Table and it never disappoints. The complementary combination of marconas and olives WARMED is so scrumptious, we can hardly keep from thundering down to our own kitchen to mix some up right this very minute.

Rating: 1/4 assed

Here's what you need and how you do it

Olive mixture (we get ours from the olive bar at our local grocery store)

Marcona almonds (Trader Joes and Whole Foods both carry these)

Herbs such as rosemary or thyme (optional)

In a medium-sized bowl, mix all ingredients. Heat in microwave 20 to 30 seconds and serve warm.

Kettle corn

 

Sweet, salty, and crunchy. What's not to love about Kettle Corn? Except maybe it's price tag of $3 to $4 a bag! We're here to tell you a secret: you can make it for about thirty cents. Seriously. And it's just as good as the store (or fair) bought stuff.

It's absurdly simple. But it burns easily. So watch it like a hawk.

Rating: 1/4 assed

Here's what you need and how you do it

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar (white makes classic kettle corn, while we've heard that brown gives you something more along the lines of caramel corn)

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels

Salt

In a large saucepan, heat oil, sugar, and popcorn over medium heat (do not go to a much higher temp than this, or sugary smoke will fill your kitchen).

Continually swirl pan around, shake it, whatever, just keep it moving while kernels pop. When the popping slows, immediately remove pan from heat and dump popcorn into a bowl (several kernels will remain unpopped, but in our experience, it's waste a few kernels, or burn the whole kit and kaboodle).

Add salt right away.

Let cool, at least slightly, and dig in.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

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