Fall Preparations. Of the Raking and the Baking.

A few weekends back was the 25th annual Prepare Affair.

This year Cincinnati's non-profit construction company People Working Cooperatively coordinated around 3,000 volunteers providing assistance to low income elderly and disabled people.  This year volunteers raked leaves and cleaned gutters and helped out at 1,000 homes in the Cincinnati area.

A charitable endeavor, and more about what you can do with your own hands than how much money you can give.  It was quite stressful playing coordinator for an army of Good-Deed-Doers.  But our good deed was done by noon, with plenty of time to enjoy the gorgeous day we were blessed with.  

Ye, this is how we did procrastinate away from our own leafy mess

Then there came the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving.  In years past we have gone hither and yon, to D's parents and to my parents, which are both hours away and hours apart.  This year my parents (and my aunt) made the drive down to us... and then slept for a goodly portion of the visit.  I'd like to call "Do-Over!" .... But (sadly) I'm pretty sure this was a one-time Thanksgiving at Casa de O-Town.   

We prepared a dinner of turkey chili and turkey soup for my parents, and a cookie plate.  But the cookies were the real stars, and no mistake.  

punkin cookies and backup tollhouse cookies

The first to disappear were the drool-inducing Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies stuffed with Nutella by AmbitiousKitchen.  I did not add sea salt per her awesome recipe, and only used dark chocolate and milk chocolate chips.  No semi-sweets were added.  These cookies suffered no detriment from my subtractions.  "Enjoy," Monique says, and we did.  There were no survivors. 

By no means do I wish to deter you from making these.  They are my new favorite cookie.  They would have been a knockout without the nutella.  Here I mean to caution you.  When you are trying to delicately ball up chocolate chip cookie dough around nutella, you may suffer a Rage Embollism.  I so nearly did.  D got so enraged that he shook off his hands and stomped out of the kitchen.  The cookies are not pictured in the photo above.  (Those are the Safety Measure Tollhouse cookies that D bought just in case we were Recipe-Betrayed by the internet. ) 

Au contraire.  These cookies were perhaps the best I've ever made.

I took no photos because I was exhausted after handcrafting these Holy OmNom Grenades. (There is Recipe and CookiePorn to be found at AmbitiousKitchen's blogsite) I may not add the nutella next time I make them, but the chocolate chip cookie dough itself is strong enough to stand alone.  But as a Share-Type cookie, these nutella babies will wow your friends and enemies alike.  

The second batch, only slightly less awesome but also a new O-Town Tradition are the Iced Pumpkin Cookies from AllRecipes.  The dough is pictured above.  

These are crazy easy, and gratifying.  They smell and taste fantastic.  We will be making these again too, they are perfect for fall or whenever you want a bit more spice along with your sweet.  

We added cardamom, because we put it in everything we can conceivably put it in.  

Happy Cookie Season!

Edible Adventures: the plum cake

Bleh, my admiration for Fresh Market produce is tempered

I said I'd do it.  While D was at Aikido, I tried my hand at Savory Sweet Life's Plum Cardamom Cake. I found myself off to a bad start.  5 out of 8 plums had blackened flesh.  They looked gross and I don't know if this is acceptable plum flesh, but it is not acceptable plum flesh to me.  So I almost gave up, because I didn't want to go back to the store.  But we had strawberries.  So then I almost just made a strawberry cake.  But then I thought, what the hey, and I forged on with strawberries in place of the plums I might have used. 

Strawberries to supplement plum shortage

I recommend this batter be eaten on its own.  Because its tasty.

Actual steam from molten fruits

Nom

 It's good.  No question.  Not overly sweet, the spice isn't overpowering (though I did cut the cardamom by half a teaspoon in the cakebatter).  I think I skimped on the fruit, as I only had three small-ish plums and one cup of cut strawberries.  It would have been fantastic with a glass of chai.  Even better with a custard or a vanilla bean ice cream or something to supplement the spice. Hopefully next time I'll be better served by my bounty of aesthetically pleasing plums.