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Practically Perfect Cookies

When I need a warm dessert in a hurry, these are my go-to cookies. I usually have all of the ingredients on hand except the chocolate chips, so plan ahead. I've subbed in mini-chocolate chips, mini-M&Ms, dried cranberries and pecans, chocolate chunks, but the best cookie by far uses everybody's good old standby, Nestle Tollhouse Semi-sweet Morsels.

I usually make a half recipe, but the full one is great for a platter of treats to take to a party. I made the full recipe for a Super Bowl Party this year and they were gone in under 45 minutes.

the fixins

• 2 ¼ C flour (I mix 1 C of whole wheat pastry flour in with unbleached white)

• 1 level tsp. baking soda

• 1 level tsp. salt

• ¾ C white sugar

• ¾ C light or dark brown sugar, packed

• 2 sticks butter, softened

• 2 large eggs, beaten

• 1 tsp. good vanilla
  

• 1 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips

the directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the two sugars together. Using a mixer, cream sugars with the softened butter until pale, light, and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beaten eggs and beat until well blended.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet gradually—I like to mix by hand with just a spatula until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Drop the dough one teaspoonful at a time on an ungreased cookie sheet an inch or two apart.

Bake 9-11 minutes until cookies are brown at the edges. Let cool on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Eat warm—with milk!

Chicken Pot Pie

Who says pot pie isn't a treat? Trust me, you live in Wisconsin for a winter and then decide whether or not its a treat. This is a one crust pie, too, so if you make enough crust for a top and a bottom, then you can save half the dough and freeze it for your next pie. And trust me, there will be a next pie.

the fixins

CRUST

I defer to a higher power here. Check out the Cooking Junkies recipe, or try your own family recipe. But I do have two tips for this pie: tip one, try substituting chilled chicken broth for the ice water, and tip two, have a beaten egg diluted with a little water (an egg wash) on hand to brush the top with before baking.

MIDDLE

• 6 Tbsp butter

• scant ½ C flour

• 1 ½ tsp salt (I like Lawry's season salt)

• ¼ to ½ tsp paprika

• ½ to 1 tsp Bell's Seasoning

• 3 C rich chicken broth (Pacific Natural Foods free range organic)

• 4 C cooked, shredded or cubed chicken*

• Vegetables of choice . . . if you want.**

*I either use leftovers from a roasted chicken or I boil raw chicken in salted water until it falls apart. You can use any cut you'd like—whole chickens work well, but if you're looking for a leaner version, try a tray of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

**I like a straight meat pie, but Expat likes his veggies. Carrots, cauliflower, and green beans are a nice touch and won't get overcooked if you throw them into the pie raw.

the directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make your crust, but don't roll it out—pat it into a flat round, plastic wrap it, and stick it in the fridge. (If you made a double crust recipe, divide it and stick half in the freezer.)

Prep baking dish. I use an oblong 6 X 10 inch clear Pyrex dish that my mom gave me (I don't even know if you can get that size anymore) but a round pie dish should be okay, too, just be sure it's either deep enough or wide enough for your pie. Put your shredded chicken (and optional veggies) in the dish and set aside.

Melt butter in saucepan on a medium heat—stir in flour and spices until smooth. You're making a roux, here, so think gravy. Once the roux is smooth, stir in the chicken broth and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once mixture boils, remove from heat. Pour over chicken (and optional veggies) in baking dish. Rinse the saucepan now so you don't have to do it later!

Take crust out of fridge and roll to about ¼ to ½ inch thick. I do this using another trick the Cooking Junkie taught me: put the crust round between two sheets of waxed paper, “pin” the loose ends of the waxed paper against the countertop by leaning against them, then roll with a rolling pin as usual. By pinning the waxed paper, you keep the dough from sliding all over the place while you roll, and by putting it between the 2 sheets of paper, you prevent it from sticking to your rolling pin. (Pretty neat, huh?)

Once the crust is sufficiently flat, place on top of the chicken-and-gravy-filled baking dish, do whatever you want to the edges, cut a few slits in the top, brush with the egg wash, and stick it in the oven on a middle rack. To prevent a bubbled-over mess, slide a cookie sheet onto the rack below the pie dish to catch any gravy drips that might dribble out while cooking.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crust looks nice and brown. Serve hot in bowls with big spoons.

truly scooteriffic tip: This pie can be reheated with ease—just refrigerate the leftovers in the same dish with a piece of plastic wrap. When you want to eat the rest of the pie, simple put it in the oven and set the over for 400 degrees. As the oven warms, it will bring the temperature of the dish up slowly (and safely). Heat in the oven until the pie smells fragrant and you can hear the sauce bubbling when you open the open door.

truly, truly scooteriffic tip: A splash of white wine in the gravy makes a really nice-tasting pie. Just sub out ½ cup of broth for ½ cup of whatever white you have on hand.

What’s India Got to do with It?

Most typesetting of regular old American-English books is now done overseas in India, where there are no particularly fair labor laws, by people who speak English as a second language and who will work for $10 a day. In fact, in an effort to streamline production and make it ever cheaper, more and more publishers and publishing vendors are moving copyediting and proofreading overseas as well, leaving native English-speakers hanging out on this side of the Atlantic, doomed to a life of Quality Control (QC) inspections and the occasional final review.

Thank god that my Very Corporate company has not worked all of the bugs out of this system just yet. For the time being, I am still an editor and my future as a QC inspector is just a teenie dot on the horizon.

Definitions

Publisher: A company who reads your book, buys your book, and markets your book.

Publishing vendor: A company hired by a publisher to do the dirty work of copy editing, typesetting, styling, proofreading, and in general to make your book look like a book.

Publishing company: Loose term for companies that works in publishing; is sometimes applied to publishing vendors but more commonly used in reference to publishers.

Why Scooter Nation?

Sparky doesn't own a scooter. She hasn't, in fact, ever driven a scooter, either. She simply admires scooters and the mindset they seem to lend to those who do own and drive them. Scooters are Big Wheels for grown ups. They encourage spontineity, tempting you to take a different route, to scoot along off the beaten path, so to speak.

And that's what Scooter Nation is all about: the scooter mindset. Start thinking scooters and everyone wins.

Who are Sparky and Expat?

Sparky was called thus her freshman year of college by a composer of electro-acoustic music who never explained himself.

Expat became Expat upon moving to the States some 6 years ago. He still refers to bastards, bins, boots, caps, knickers, wankers, and Sepos.

Sparky likes Expat, her family, sweaters, Birkenstocks, carbs, ivy, singing really high notes, baking, New England, matzo ball soup, Shastikovitch . . .

Expat likes Sparky (when she doesn't wake him up too early), interesting beers, ESPN, VOIP calling to Australia, cooking good food for Sparky, rugby jerseys, hoodie sweatshirts, baseball caps, good public transit systems . . .