24- war on women’s bodily autonomy

I mean would I be writing about the healthcare battlefield without touching on the war on women’s bodily autonomy during War Cookie Month? I mean, who am I if I don’t?

The Cookie Thursday is a Thing theme for May is War Cookies. Appropriately this is also the month of Memorial Day and was completely unplanned when I decided to do this theme. Apparently, my brain is smarter than my fingers.

This is the 5th Thursday of the month and I am making basic chocolate chipless cookies for the week. This is chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. Kind of a vanilla sugar cookie vibe.

Since this is War Cookie Month I would be remiss if I missed a chance to beat on the drum of women’s rights. Yes, again. They keep attacking us, keep whittling away at the rights they do deign to “gift” us. Since the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade, there has been a slow drip of rights being taken away. And then they realized that they could get away with more and the ripping away of women’s rights became faster and faster.

My tee shirt of the day is “They Won’t Stop at Roe.”

They aren’t even hiding the end game anymore.

Am I still mad as hell about the Dobbs decision? Fuck yes.

Will I still write about it in an unceasing drumbeat? Again, yes.

Am I alone in this? Absolutely not.

Are people not paying attention because it doesn’t affect them? Absolutely.

Vote in November. Remember what has been taken from women. And those who will be women when they grow up. And those who would be women because it is the best fit for them and that is truly who they are under the skin.

All of us are under attack.

Man the battle stations!

My next tee shirt will be a Ruth Bader Ginsberg one that says I am Tired of Listening to Old White Men.

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 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.

Cookie Thursday 12/14/23- gingerbread

This week continues the theme of Holiday bakes. I took a poll from the OR staff on what to make- gingerbread or sugarplums. The vast majority of the votes were for gingerbread.

This was a new recipe. But I was really surprised at how well it baked up.

It reminds me that gingerbread was the first thing I ever baked for the department. Way before I even thought about Cookie Thursday is a Thing I made gingerbread for the operating room every December.

This was a really simple recipe and came together quickly. This was a snacking cake, simple, short bakes.

Prepare a 9-inch square pan. I used parchment paper to make it easy to lift out.

1 stick butter, room temperature

3/4 c sugar

1 egg, room temperature

3/4 c molasses

Cream the butter and sugar together, incorporate the egg, and beat until well combined, add in the molasses and stir until combined.

2 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbs Gingerbread spices-ginger, cloves, cinnamon. I figure these kinds of spices can be measured with your heart

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

3/4 c hot water

Stir in hot water.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 22-27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes back clean.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes, lift out using the parchment paper. Cut into desired serving sizes.

Apparently, the Chex mix is more popular than I thought and I have agreed to bring in a few bags.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing 12/7/23-chex mix

The December theme of the month is Holiday baking.

And the “cookie” to start the month off with is Chex mix.

I make vats of it every year. I give it out for Christmas presents. There is always a dish of it at holiday events. I make a gluten-free version for my sister and give her bags of it.

I always start gathering my supplies at different times of the year.

I ordered, yes, ordered the Chex cereal in October! 8 boxes of it. 3 family-sized each of Rice, and Corn Chex and 2 Wheat Chex boxes. I mean, have you seen cereal prices?

I also ordered the nuts and gluten-free pretzels at the same time. I like the Planters Pistachio blend with almonds, pistachios, and cashews as I don’t really care for peanuts in the Chex mix. This is where the savings really were.

Funny thing about the butter this year. Butter prices remain astronomical, especially since I insist on using more than the standard recipe calls for. When I was at Aldi, in October, I noticed that the price of their Aldi-branded Irish butter was $2 for 8 oz. This is the CHEAPEST I’ve found a pound of butter all year.

I bought them out. I spent $30 on butter and got an entire refrigerator crisper drawer full.

No regrets.

The recipe I tweaked is

1 box each of Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Wheat Chex, if you aren’t doing gluten free
roughly 6-8 oz of nuts
roughly 2-4 cups of pretzels
any other mix-ins you want

Magic spice mixture (all spices are approximate and subject to change, depending on your mood, double down on some, less of others, it is where this recipe is REALLY customizable)
3 sticks butter
1-2 tbs garlic powder
1-2 tbs onion powder
1 tbs Lowry’s Seasoning Salt (I tend to use less because I don’t care for it being too salty)
2-3 tbs Worcestershire powder (If you have it, if not, add more Worcestershire sauce)
6-12 shakes of Worcestershire sauce

Mix the magic spice mix over medium-low heat until melted. Pour over cereals and pretzels and mix-ins.

Bake at 225 for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.

Be nice to hospital personnel this time of year. In the US, insurance deductibles have been reached and people therefore think that surgery is *FREE* for the rest of the year. And the units are full because of respiratory illnesses. It is exhausting.