Just call me Cookie Monster.

I did so little baking for the holiday that I think I am making up for lost cookies lately. Sure, we did our sugar cookie cutouts which may have included a witch and a ghost. I picked up a little trick along with that recipe which calls for you to roll out the cookies with powdered sugar instead of flour!

Anyway, cookies just seem like the winter thing to do. You know, the oven will help heat the house! The Boss is always eager to help! We get cookies at the end! There are cookies waiting for me after the kiddos are in bed! There are just a lot of positives that go along with cookies. Lately, I've been craving those with warm spices and such. Cinnamon. Ginger. Nutmeg. Cloves. These have it all. And if you are in that camp that believe chocolate chips help everything, it has those, too.

The only downside is that you have to chill the dough. Which means waiting. My almost four year old exclaimed "We have to wait TWO HOURS?!" Anything longer than immediately was going to be a long time for her. So we shoveled some snow. 'Cause that's also the winter thing to do.

Martha Stewart's Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

7 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups plus 1 TBSP flour

1 1/4 TSP ground ginger

1 TSP cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 TBSP cocoa powder

1 stick unsalted butter

1 TBSP freshly grated ginger (I omitted this)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 TSP baking soda

1/4 cup sugar

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar and beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 TSP of boiling water. Beat half of the flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap and refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.

Heat oven to 325. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Santa will like these.

These aren't a special holiday cookie, but one I spied on the back of a flour bag when making pizza dough one Friday afternoon. Peanut butter. Oats. Chocolate. It had to be a winner.

It was! Definitely eat one warm and then the rest are great dunkers.

And I promise, Henry's double chin is not a product of eating the cookies. Now back to my regularly scheduled program of kissing a chin dimple.

Robin Hood Flour's Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup quick cooking or old fashioned oats

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugars, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs until creamy and well blended. Stir in flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown (I made mine big and they took about 14 minutes). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

They're practically health food.

The other day I told Hank I was done baking for a while after a slew of holiday cooking and baking events. I made it 5 days.

These have 3 whole cups of oats in them which makes them practically health food, right? These Oatmeal Crispies are thin and crispy with a bit of chew to them--Hank's favorite kind of cookie. "These are amazing! I love the texture! " he said with his mouth full. The Boss instantly pointed out the error in his manners.

If you need someone to keep you in check with your new year's resolutions, The Boss is your girl. Just tell her the rule and she'll quickly point out when you break it. Let's not talk about how she follows the rules. We best just move on to the recipe.
Oatmeal Crispies
The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl
also found on her website here

A few things: I don't generally have shortening on hand and prefer to use butter anyway so that's what I used. I also added about 1/2 cup of butterscotch chips to half of the dough before forming the logs. You can add anything you want to these, but I knew someone in this house would go crazy for the butterscotch.

1 cup shortening (I used 2 sticks of unsalted butter)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening (or butter) with both sugars until well combined.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs together. Add vanilla and stir to combine. Add to the shortening/sugar mixture and mix well.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix carefully into the egg/shortening mixture until well combined. Now add the quick oats and mix well again. Finally add the finely chopped pecans and mix well to combine.

Divide the dough in half and place each half of the dough onto a sheet of waxed paper. Roll the dough into a log and then wrap it tightly in the waxed paper. Now you can either chill or freeze the dough until later or you can go ahead and slice the dough evenly into cookie rounds.

When you are ready to bake them place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (I found my cookies needed about 13 minutes) until they are golden brown.

Allow cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

My attempt at world peace.

The G20 summit is here in Pittsburgh today and tomorrow. While I've already had my fill on all the "(Sigh-Groan-Snicker) I have to go to Pittsburgh but then I got there and it was cool!" articles everywhere, it is kind of nice to have the city in the spotlight.

I don't know how it's all going to play out during the next few days with the protesters and such, but I do know is that these cookies should be served at any G20 related event (or even better, to your family!) to ensure world peace. Just after one bite, especially if still slightly warm, you'll think world peace is a sure thing.World Peace Cookies
Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours
A pretty lengthy preview of this cookbook can be found here

I've made these quite a few times before and this time I used a dark variety of cocoa powder and wish I hadn't. Usually, I think the darker the chocolate the better, but in this case, I think the flavor of regular ole cocoa powder is much better in this recipe and is nicer contrast to the bittersweet chocolate .

Makes about 36 cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you're cutting them — don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.