24- Billionaire Bites

The highest week of April’s theme of the Taxman Cometh.

Taxes are due on Monday.

I know it.

My husband reminds me of it DAILY.

My email knows it because it reminds me of it DAILY.

Last week’s cookie was Millionaire Shortbread.

Are you picking up on the way the cookies are going?

This week’s cookie is the Billionaire Bites.

This is a no-bake recipe.

11 oz caramel, melted over low-medium heat with 1 tbs of water until smooth

1 c rice krispies

1 1/2 c pecans. The recipe didn’t call for toasting. I did that all on my own.

Mix all of these together and portion out by the teaspoonfuls. The mixture is very sticky.

I let them dry overnight before I covered them in chocolate. They were still very sticky. The humidity of days of rain did not help. I am not sure if it is the fact that it’s been raining for days but the melting of 2 c melting chocolate wafers did not go smoothly until I added about a tablespoonful of coconut oil.

Dip the bites into the chocolate.

Start running out of chocolate halfway through. Decide to call those ones half-naked billionaires.

Get mad at the existence of billionaires. These are people who have billions of dollars when there is suffering and do little to help. You know the ones.

Let chocolate dry and package them up in a container for the trip to the hospital.

I don’t think anyone is going to get the half-naked billionaire joke. Perhaps if I named them the emperor is half naked they would get it. Maybe not.

Back to taxes being due on Monday. I will do the groundwork of the taxes tonight and file them. I won’t pay until Monday. The government will get my money when it is due. And not before. Even if is is only four days before. It is the principle of the thing.

Cookie Thursday 4/4/24- millionaire shortbread

Welcome to April in Cookie Thursday is a Thing. The theme for the month is the Taxman Cometh. Appropriate for April, no?

No, our taxes are not done. I wanted to get through the two assignments due this week. And then I’ll do the taxes. I have all the documents.

We always pay and with the 2017 tax breaks sunsetting for normal Americans who are not rich, I am anticipating a big bill. Even though I am in school that should theoretically offset some of that.

Some of my coworkers who have children are finding out they have to pay federal taxes for the first time. I remind them that since we are not the wealthy ones that Congress is so concerned about they put an end date to the 2017 tax breaks. A reminder that the corporate tax breaks do not have an end date. Makes you wonder about your worth as an American, doesn’t it?

This week’s make is the millionaire shortbread. This is a triple-layer cookie. There is a shortbread base, a caramel center, and a chocolate topping.

As always, I have thoughts. I should have scored the chocolate when it was half-set. I think then the caramel layer wouldn’t squish out as much. Because the caramel layer didn’t set appropriately.

The cookies are still delicious. Messy, but delicious.

Cookie Thursday 3-14-24-bought cookies

Happy Pi day. You know, the date of 3.14 is the beginning three numbers of the irrational number of pi that never repeats. Or, not that has been figured out. I imagine some AI is out there working on the problem now.

Normally I would make pie for Cookie Thursday is a Thing. Especially when it falls on Pi Day. But this is the last day of my marathon week.

I presented my Cookie Thursday is a Thing poster at AORN. I also got lots of comments. There will be a separate post for that. Did I mention that we drove 8 hours to the conference Friday, had busy, busy four days in conference Saturday through Tuesday, and drove home Tuesday? Since I was gone at the conference on my usual RA Monday, the professor and I agreed that I could work on Wednesday. I drove 90 minutes to the university on Wednesday, worked 10 hours, drove home, went into the hospital for 2 hours, was on call all Wednesday night. Deep breath, I’m nearly done. Today, Thursday I had a three-hour mandatory education class for the hospital at 0730. I went to two different stores for groceries and the fixings for St. Patrick’s Day, took the cookies to the hospital.

I am exhausted.

Currently, I am reading the material for tomorrow.

It is a good thing that this month’s theme was That Was Easy because I was not about to make/bake anything today. I bought cookies instead, and cut them in half.

The cookies that I bought at Aldi were Kitchen Sink cookies, Oatmeal with cranberry cookies, and Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

Wow. That WAS easy.

I will be back to baking next week.

I just have to find an easy recipe.

Oh! As we were driving down the mountain I saw ads for moonshine and my husband asked that since I made cookies with booze, could I make a moonshine cookie?

That will be for another week.

Cookie Thursday 2/29/24-jalapeno chocolate chip cookies

To cap off the month’s theme of favorites I made jalapeno chocolate chip cookies. This is the department’s hands-down favorite. I mean, I get the appeal. This is the cookie I was going to make last week before I got horribly sick on Thursday. I had already written the week’s selection on the board on Wednesday and then… I did not bake on Thursday. I barely got out of bed.

My stamina remains in the toilet and I have to be careful how much I do.

However, knowing that these are a crowd favorite, I did not want to disappoint a second time. My brain went off this morning at 0619. Again. I don’t think I’ve slept past 0700 since last week. There was also a hospital meeting at 0730 AND the 4th quarter awards at 1030. I did what any other workaholic would do, I got up and mixed the cookies. The first tray went into the oven at 0715. The meeting began and went on. Thank goodness for Zoom. I engaged when I was asked to engage and offered up ideas for the group. The meeting ended at 0815 and the last tray of cookies came out at 0832.

Neat.

However, I noticed that the cookies were not baking up to their usual cookie-ness. They were tender and flat. I think the baking soda is going bad, although I JUST BOUGHT IT in December. At least they tasted the same.

The jalapenos were not very hot at all. I had gotten them for free from a farmer I know back in September. I processed them to freeze them for use in cookies. I did have them come to room temperature before baking.

When I dropped the cookies today and rewrote what the make was on the board, one of the other nurses told me that some people were hot about no cookies last week. Especially, no jalapeno chocolate chip cookies last week.

Oh, well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Cookie Thursday 2/8/24-cheese straw cookies

Continuing on February’s theme of Tracie’s Favorites, cheese straw cookies.

I know, I just did a cheese month in January. Yes, there is still that much cheese.

I don’t care. This is what Tracie asked for.

I did ask qualifying questions. Whether what she had in mind was pepper jelly thumbprints, cheese straws, or pimento cheese straws. She chose straight-up cheese straw cookies.

Okay then.

All of these three cookies have the same base. Flour, butter, and shredded cheese.

It is the application of how much and what to do with it that is a bit different.

These are not a roll-out cookie. So there will be no chilling of the dough. As always, I am going to be doubling down on the spices. The recipe I am using asks for 1/8 tsp garlic powder. Um, no. I don’t think so.

Since I will not be rolling these out, I will use my smallest cookie scoop to portion out the dough balls. And bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven.

There is also the question of how crispy do I want to make these bakes? The longer the cookies are in the oven, the crispier they get of course. But I want a bit of chewiness to them.

The cheddar cheese should not be bagged cheese. There are anti-clumping ingredients added to the cheese when it is packaged. I will be grating my own.

Also, my grater was last seen while making Christmas dinner. I have looked everywhere. Either it got thrown out by mistake, or broken and then thrown out, no one knows. Moment of silence for one of the OG wedding gifts. It served me well for over 25 years.

I bought a new one. Did you know that they are not dishwasher-safe? Probably explains why it broke/got thrown away/ran away.

Cookie Thursday 2/1/24-Fudgy Cocoa No-Bakes.

New month, new theme. The theme for February 2024 was going to be favorites. And then my favorite nurse in the department put in her resignation. 😦

I mean, I know why she put in her resignation. She isn’t treated very well by management. Sound familiar? But she’s an amazing nurse and an amazing circulator. She always has the patient’s best interest in mind, no matter if that goes against the OR culture. Frankly, the department will be diminished without her.

The theme for February will be Tracie’s Favorites.

As I’ve written before, there were a few bakers at the beginning of Cookie Thursday is a Thing, and one by one they all dropped. Tracie has been involved with much of my planning and discussing of the monthly themes.

Although she never got behind the most popular CTIAT cookie, the Jalapeño Chocolate Chip Cookie. She has always seen it as vegetables in the cookies.

I am starting this month’s theme of Tracie’s Favorites with one of her most requested cookies- the fudgy cocoa no-bake. These go by a bunch of different names. Peanut butter oatmeal stacks, school lunch special but I call them fudgy cocoa no-bakes.

This is one of the recipes that is a good repeat. Quick and easy to make and they last forever. If they last that long.

This is the cookie that I made to bring to the in-person day at school. Speaking of school, Tracie has always been my number 1 cheerleader for school. That isn’t going away, but conversations at the hospital are.

Cookie Thursday 1/4/24- Happy Birthday, Cookie Thursday is a Thing. It is NINE years old this month!

Happy birthday to Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

Believe me, when I started this, I had no idea I would be able to sustain it for NINE freaking years!

Besides my 25-year marriage, this is the longest I’ve sustained something outside of work.

The theme for the month is Why is There so Much Cheese?

The cheese drawer is packed. And we got cheese from my brother-in-laws.

Every make this month will be cheese-related.

I wrote down 8 of the cheese recipes, including one of the department favorites, on gown cards and I walked around and had my coworkers pick.

A little gamification for the birthday celebration month. I could have made the 4 favorite cookies of the department, but there is SO MUCH CHEESE.

The make for this week is feta and spinach sconelets.

These are just little bite-sized scones.

Coincidentally I’ve not made these in about 6 years but they still made it onto the best list with one vote. Maybe this is a celebration month after all.

Cookie Thursday 12/28/23-the last cookie of the year, toffee crackers

This is the last Thursday of 2023. That means it is the last Cookie Thursday is a Thing or 2023.

It was also a very big day for my mom. She was going to have surgery. And I was going to be her helper in the OR, and, more importantly, her driver.

Okay.

So I make cookies on Wednesday.

But what holiday cookie to make to keep up with the theme?

I went to my baking pantry to find inspiration.

What I didn’t find was the club crackers that I had. I must have put them somewhere else.

But I did find tea cookies. That’s what it said on the package. These were similar to naked hobnobs. See also, biscuits in Britain.

After finding them in the pantry, I decided to make toffee crackers with chocolate on top. This also goes by the name Christmas Crack.

Oven 350-degree Fahrenheit

1 c butter melted

1 c brown sugar

cook together until boiling and boil for 5 minutes

The entire package of tea cookies on a cookie sheet, laid out in a single layer.

It is best to do this while the butter and brown sugar are doing their thing.

Top the cookies with the toffee, making sure to cover all the corners.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Pull from oven and top with chocolate chips, about 1 cup. Wait until the chocolate starts to get glassy before spreading the now melty chocolate over the toffee-covered cookies.

This recipe also works with saltines, club crackers, Ritz crackers, graham crackers, matzoh crackers, and pretzels.