My Grandma was famous for her pies

My cousin Sonya just sent me a copy of a newspaper article written about my grandmother and her pies ~6 months before I was born.

Orange-Cardamom Cookies

I used this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/orange-cardamom-cookies-240927

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

EXCEPT I doubled the cardamom as suggested in the comments on the recipe, I used a whole egg instead of an egg yolk, I used half-and-half instead of heavy cream because it's what I had in the fridge, and used tangelo zest because the tangelos were on sale.

I also didn't roll and cut - I made a log, froze it, and sliced rounds to bake.

They were really good - light and crisp.

Chocolate muffins

Not dinner, breakfast :)

Does anybody else remember when Williams-Sonoma had actual catalogs:

And when they sold a ton of really cool stuff that was actually affordable? I used to love poring through the new W-S catalog, and actually bought some things from them. I still use my stainless steel measuring cups - AND the odd-size cups as well - and miss the broken Japanese fish soup bowls that have gotten broken. I'm pretty sure I actually purchased the animal muffin pan on the cover of this catalog (Fall 1984), but gave it away a long time ago because I could never get it properly seasoned and the muffins always stuck to the pan!

ANYWAY, the ingredients listed are from the original recipe, my mixing order is different.

Preheat oven to 400 (recipe calls for 425)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder

4 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Melt butter, warm milk slightly and add to butter, blend eggs slightly and add to milk/butter, add vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

Mix dry ingredients and sift into wet ingredients, mix just until combined. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. (recipe claims yield is 24 muffins; 18 is what I usually wind up with)

These are lovely; not overly sweet.

Menu planning

I tried something new the first week of school:

I posted the weekly menu on a whiteboard on the fridge.

The Karate Kid loved it! The only thing he seemed to not like was that I didn't have the weekend meals on it :)

Thinking about next week...
Sat. - Leek quiche (I made a leek frittata before and it was awesome; TMOTH would've preferred a crust, so crust it will be.
Sun.. - Pizza we had soup instead
Mon. - Pork chops
Tues - Taco Tuesday! (suggested by the Karate Kid)
Wed. - Bean soup Waffles
Thurs. - Spaghetti and meatballs
Fri. - Grilled chicken

Banana Chocolate Chip cookies

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/11201/banana-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Tastes like banana bread in cookie form! Both The Lovely Daughter and the Karate Kid loved these; the Small Man, not so much. TMOTH didn't like them at all - too soft for him (one reason Karate Kid liked them so much).