Oatmeal Cookies w/ Dark Choc Chips & Walnuts

I'm back! Here's a treat too...a RECIPE!

Now that I'm not working at the cookie factory anymore, I actually enjoy baking cookies at home. Here's a good one I love:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter flavored shortening
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup all purp flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 8oz bag of walnuts
1/2 bag of dark choc chips

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. mix sugar, eggs, shortening, extracts, salt and baking soda until the shortening has been incorporated evenly and the mixture starts to lighten and be kinda fluffy (no chunks of shortening left!)
3. add in the flour in 1/4 cup increments until mixed well (do not overmix!)
4. add in oatmeal and mix until evenly incorporated (do not overmix!)
5. add the chocolate chips and bag of walnuts and mix just enough to evenly distribute among the dough.
6. use a small cookie scoop and scoop balls of dough that mound over (just around 1 in diameter sized). place on cookie sheet (i highly recommend to use parchment paper on cookie sheets so the cookies are easy to slide off from the sheet onto a cooling rack). make sure to leave 1.5-2in of space around to around each ball of dough.
7. flatten dough 1/3 of in diameter before placing in oven.
8. depending on your oven, it should only take 8-10 minutes to bake. the trick to cookies that stay chewy and soft is to pull them out when the edges get a bit golden brown but the middles are still a little light and puffy (also fully cooked aka doesn't look liquid anymore). Make sure to keep an eye on the 1st batch because every oven is different!
9. when you take them out, simply slide the entire parchment paper sheet with the cookies on it onto a flat, heatproof surface to cool, or a cooling rack if you have one.
10. enjoy once they've cooled down! (around 5-10 min).

this is so wrong...

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/09/butt-shaped-mooncakes-for-the-mid-autumn-fest.html

Zhongzi! Sticky rice goodness wrapped in bamboo leaves

Fun but reallyyy hard and time consuming to make

We put in ___ with the sticky rice:

• Shiitake mushrooms
• Ground pork w/ onions and dried shrimpies
• Chinese sausage

prepped all the stuff and laid it out to assemble

wrapping is hard >_<

tying them up is hard too >_<

lol...the roomie is getting frustrated...she kept overstuffing so it would be extremely hard to wrap closed

steaming them, i actually overcooked the rice in the beginning so it was a bit harder to work with when stuffing, but takes shorter steam time

tada!...we did all the wrapping while watching the 2 hour season opening of Grey's =]

we definitely can improve on it but they still turned out pretty decent and they still taste yummy!

~~ Austin Restaurant Week ~~

Almost every big city has one... but this is our week. Austin Restaurant Week is upon us. Enjoy!

http://restaurantweekaustin.com