Chocolate Chip Cookies (a basic -but delicious!- recipe)

It's been a long while since my last recipe post! In fact it's been about 5 months, since March when I made ceviche! Wow, way too long.

But I made these chocolate chip cookies a couple of weekends ago (remember from my weekend when I was left all to my lonesome?) and I just had to share the recipe with you all!

I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that chocolate chip cookies are a fave guilty pleasure. Even though they're so basic, they're so delicious.

Especially homemade, from-scratch chocolate chip cookies.

There are TONS of recipes out there. It might drive you mad trying to find one to use. Well, look no further. I've found a winner. One, I promise, you won't be disappointed in.

These babies are soft, moist & FULL of chocolate chips! The secret: using MINI chocolate chips!

I'm a big fan of Cookies & Cups. Every single recipe Shelly posts looks so amazing, I just want to lick the pictures right on the computer screen (don't worry- I don't really do that).

This recipe is adapted from her "Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies". And I can now attest to why these are her favorite. They are so darn good. This is definitely my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe from now on!

Ok, no more talking- let's get to the recipe:

First, a note: Shelly highly recommends making the dough & letting it sit in the fridge 24-48 hours in advance-- and so do I. It makes a difference. But of course, if you can't wait that long, make 'em ASAP. They'll still be delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
{printable recipe}

Adapted from Cookies & Cups

Makes about 24 cookies.

Cream together on medium speed for 2 minutes until fluffy & light:

1 Cup Butter

3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

Add in & continue mixing until incorporated:
2 eggs

1 Tbsp.vanilla

Turn mixer on low and add in:
2 3/4 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Mix on low until evenly incorporated.

Stir-in until evenly distributed:

1 (12oz.) bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cover dough with plastic wrap & refrigerate up to 48 hours.

To bake:

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Use an ice cream scoop or tablespoon to drop dough 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-10 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes:

- Shelly uses sea salt in her recipe. I didn't have any so I used regular salt instead. They still came out awesome.

- Mini chocolate chips are best as you get more chocolate per bite!

Easy. Basic. Delicious. Badaboom. Badabing.

Does anyone else love chocolate chip cookies like me? Do you have a favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe? If you try this one out, let me know how it goes!

Ceviche

Today, Jason and I made one of our favorite dishes—ceviche. Ceviche is essentially raw fish marinated in lemon or lime juice and seasoning. It comes in many different varieties (Mexican ceviche often has tomato sauce; in the Philippines and many other tropical places you'll see a similar dish that adds coconut milk) but the version we're going to show you today is one of the simplest, and probably closest to the style of ceviche you find on the Peruvian coast. Due to its simplicity, making this dish fantastic really depends on the quality and freshness of ingredients. For example, it is possible to make this dish from frozen fish (thaw it first), but the fresher the fish, the better the dish will taste. We're lucky enough to have a local fish market where fish are caught and sold daily.

Ceviche

{Printable Recipe}

Makes about 4 servings of 1 cup each.

Ingredients:

1 kilo fish – light meat works better. Works pretty well with many types of tuna, but today we used dorado (mahi-mahi) with excellent results. 

½ Cup fresh cilantro, chopped 

½ Cup lemon/lime/calamansi juice – as always, fresh squeezed is best 

1 ½ Teaspoons salt 

2 medium onions, chopped – Use what you like. We chose red onions for this recipe. 

3 fresh chili peppers, chopped – Again, follow your taste here. We had the tiny, super spicy peppers common in southeast Asia (Thai chilies aka Bird's Eye Chili), so three of them were plenty to give the dish a little kick without being overwhelming.

Ham and Chicken Calzones

Here in Borongan, where we live, the choice of good restaurants is very limited, so J and I cook at home all the time. We've been on a clean-eating diet since January, but every Wednesday is our "cheat day." This past Wednesday, we were craving some pizza (and pizza places here are terrible), so we decided to make calzones. A calzone, for those who don't know, is basically a pizza folded in half.

When it comes to cooking, J and I are pretty much polar opposites. I like to follow recipes; he just makes stuff up. I guess I'm lucky to have a husband who can cook, since 98% of the time the things he creates come out good. When we combine our efforts in the kitchen, we usually make some delicious stuff. I don't mean to brag, but these calzones are no exception.

For this recipe, I made the dough and J made the filling. You might notice from the picture that these things are absolutely GIGANTIC. Underestimating the size of the dough, we just split it in 2, which gave us calzones that could easily feed 3-4 people. Instead of doing that, we recommend dividing the dough in 4 to make 4 regular-sized calzones that work well as a hearty portion for 1 and can even be shared.

Cranberry White Chocolate Pistachio Pudding Cookies

Quite a mouthful to say, right?

Every Wednesday is cheat day for my husband and I where we get to cheat on our diet and eat whatever we want for lunch (well, as long as it's reasonable of course). Today we had homemade hamburgers and fries. And I also decided I wanted to bake some cookies since I haven't baked since we started this diet. It's our 8th week on the diet-- the 2 month mark-- so it's cause for celebration, you know?

This recipe is a mix of a couple of recipes I came across on the web. I've never tasted this combination of flavors before and I wanted to give it a try. This is the first time I've ever used pudding mix in my cookies, and let me tell you- I'm a huge fan now!

These cookies taste so good. The flavors of the cranberries, pistachio pudding and white chocolate chips go together really well. It's like a combination made in heaven. The sweetness of the pudding + white chocolate chips + the tartness of the cranberries= really yummy! These cookies are extra soft and the texture is just right- not too cakey and not too dense-- I'm sure the pudding mix has something to do with that.

Yellow Curry Vegetable Soup

Bags of pinakbet veggies we pick up at the market.

We've been on a strict diet for about 8 weeks now, only eating fresh fruit and veggies. Every three days or so we go to the market and pick up our "groceries" which usually consists of fruits, salad veggies (cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, a couple of bags of shredded carrots and sayote mix and and a couple of bags of shredded cabbage & carrots mix), and a couple of bags of pinakbet veggies to steam.

The other day, it was steam vegetable day for lunch, but I wasn't feeling it. I've been getting a bit tired of  eating the same type of stuff everyday, so I decided to switch it up and make a soup. I had two bags of the pinakbet vegetables and looked around to see what things I could use in the soup base.

Now, this isn't completely healthy because I did use a chicken bouillon cube, so it was a semi-cheat day for us. I threw some other things into the soup for more flavoring- and it came out really good! I had two huge servings and my husband had three!

Free recipe organizer software!

I have had nothing but time on my hands since we've moved to the Philippines. It's actually been pretty nice- doing what I want to do, no stress because work, getting to spend all day (and night) with my husband.... I am taking full advantage of our situation right now because I know it won't last forever and we'll be back on the working grind again soon.

My recent interest in cooking has been making me spend a lot of time on Pinterest and Foodgawker finding recipes. I pin and save so many recipes on a daily basis- I have hundreds. And although I know I won't make every single one, I do plan on trying most of them {when I have the resources}.

The other day, I decided I wanted to organize all the recipes I want to try into a program that I could use offline and that would allow me to print the recipes if I wanted to. First I thought about doing it through a word processing program, like OpenOffice. But I didn't like the fact that I would have to open a new document for every recipe. So then I did some research online for free cookbook software-- and I found one that fit my wants and needs called “Cookbook Portable”. And yes- it is 110% FREE and I really like it.

Calamansi "Brownies"

My favorite month is upon us! Yay! Happy December everyone.

I came across a lemon recipe I couldn't pass up and just had to try-- "Sticky Gooey Lemon Brownies". But, lemons don't exist here in this little town, like you know from my Calamansi Crinkle Cookies. So I just exchanged anything "lemon" in the recipe with calamansi-- and they turned out PERFECT! They're so amazingly good and are a big hit here. We gave a few slices to some of the family here today- and I got two instant orders for the afternoon and two more orders for Friday! They are that good.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some left over pumpkin puree from my pumpkin pie I made for Thanksgiving, so I decided to make one of my all-time favorite cookies- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip.

I've come across quite a few recipes that were a bit complicated and required so many ingredients. This recipe is simple and delicious- and it's my favorite.

Calamansi Crinkle Cookies

Calamansi is a citrus fruit native here in the Philippines. It's green like a lime on the outside, but orange inside and is about a third of the size of a golf ball. It tastes sour, with a tiny hint of sweetness. It's the Philippine lemon, if you will. Calamansi is used in a lot of Filipino dishes and I love it!

I'm a big fan of lemon and anything sour. Unfortunately, there aren't any lemons here in the town I'm in. While browsing around Pinterest, I saw a recipe for Lemon Crinkle Cookies and it sounded so good! So I decided to work with what I have available here and substituted lemon for calamansi. These Calamansi Crinkle Cookies turned out delicious.

Recipe: Nips Cookies

I live in a small town here in the Philippines. There's only 1 grocery store, a small open market, a handful of small shops. And I like to cook, more specifically bake. So I've decided I won't let my limited access to ingredients stop me, I'm going to work with what I have.

Today I baked some Nips cookies. Nips are candy-coated chocolates... the Filipino version of M&M's, if you will. I love M&M's cookies, but M&M's are a little bit on the more expensive side here. But Nips- they're super cheap. They don't taste the same, but the difference is subtle. You can even find Nips at your local Filipino mart or Asian market (in some, not all). So I decided to take a stab at some Nips cookies. This recipe, of course, can be substituted with your favorite candy-coated chocolates, or even chocolate chips. Either way, your tummy will be happy.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Being that it's fall (well, not here 'cuz it's hot and humid all year round and the coconut trees stay green all the time), but somewhere in the world it's fall, which means, of course-- pumpkin time. I wanted to try and "feel" the fall spirit here in the tropics as best I could, and baking these pumpkin snickerdoodles filled the house with that all-so-familiar smell of pumpkin and cinnamon and I was able to feel the fall spirit for a little moment.

I found this recipe and the cookies came out so good! They were a big hit with everyone and were gone quick. My husband says the texture isn't like your regular cookie-- it's more "cakey." They're moist and nice and fluffy. We even had a couple for breakfast one morning. They're super easy to make! If you want, try putting a little chocolate or cream cheese frosting on top. And if you really want a stronger pumpkin flavor, add more pumpkin!

Sorry for the crappy, cellphone quality pic! My other camera wasn't handy. Either way- they're delicious!