Wednesday, August 31, 2011

GLUTEN FREE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES and Hurricane Irene


We had an earthquake and then we had a hurricane, the first month of living in Maryland. It was quite an adventure. 

I would be so ungrateful if I did not say "Thank You" to everyone that wished us well while dealing with Hurricane Irene.  I cannot tell you how much your comments, well wishes and words of concern reached into our hearts.  We truly felt your concern and love towards us.  I spent several days cooking before the storm actually hit us.  One of the things I made twice was the GF Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe below).  They were so yummy and hit the spot for a quick snack or pick me up.  I have shared links to some of those wonderful pages that kept my family in their thoughts last week.  I went to each site and pulled a recipe that had chocolate, chocolate chips or oatmeal in them.  There are a few pages that I could not find recipes on their sites but I need to mention them here:  


What's for Dinner? Ally's Kitchen- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Basilmomma, a busy Mom who likes to cook- Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Chef in Disguise- Oatmeal Date Biscotti
Dishing the Divine-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
Simple Fare, Fairly Simple-Mama B's Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Southern Lady Cooks-Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies
Running with the Devil(ed) Eggs-Chewy Oatmeal Apple Cookies
Lark's Country Heart- Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones

I try to post a gluten-free recipe as well as a "regular" recipe for the things I cook.  After all, I did cook for 25+ years before going gluten-free and have some amazing recipes to share.  Unfortunately, this is not one of those times.  I cannot find the recipe that I used to make.  I hope that you enjoy the recipes that I have found on these pages that I follow.  All of these sites that I have shared above are foodies that have become my friends.   



GLUTEN-FREE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon arrowroot or corn starch
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.

2.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.

3.  Combine the dry ingredients, except for the oats and slowly mix into the wet ingredients.

4.  Mix in the quick oats and chocolate chips.

5. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Use a cookie scoop, with the dough tightly scooped to create a softer and thicker cookie. If the cookie scoop is loosely scooped the cookie will bake and go flat.  It still tastes good just slightly crispier on the edges.

6.  Bake for 12 minutes in a preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on sheet before transferring over to a wire rack to cool.


I will share some pictures with you from our week with the hurricane.

When they said that we were in the path of Irene, I honestly believe that most people where I live did not believe them.  My family took the warnings seriously and immediately started planning and preparing for the worst.  We did not know what to expect.  We gathered our 72 hours kits and had them ready so if the call came that we had to leave, we would.  We are not superheroes and we did not want to take any chances with our lives or those of the many people that may have to rescue us if we chose to stay against the council to leave.  We bought food, gas, water, propane.  We filled our bathtubs, checked our generator, tied down our stuff outside and watched with anticipation.

This is my handsome husband that did so much!  When we lost power for 3 days he spent some of his time reading. 

We played our favorite game during those days without power.  Settlers of Catan is an awesome family game. Drake won three games in a row!
Even with a hurricane, Isabella was dressed like a princess.  She is so cute!
After two days of not having a shower, I could not stand it and had to do the ol' "boil water and use bucket" set up.  It worked and it felt great to have clean hair again!

I prepared meals that we could use on our outside gas grill.  BBQ chicken legs were a huge hit and super easy.

I cannot tell you how happy I was to have our NUWAVE .  It allowed us to have homemade fries. I had an oven if we needed it.  I love this thing.


I should have made more, the kids devoured them!


The damage was not as bad as some places that we have seen.  We were lucky that we did not have any flooding like some areas.  Our neighbors dealt with wind damage and trees.  This one lost his fence.

Trees in power lines were everywhere, hence our not having any power for a few days.

Branches and limbs were everywhere.

Even a few trees landed on several homes.  I felt bad for these people.  I can only imagine the scare they got when they heard the tree land on their roof.

This is a picture of how one tree knocked another tree and another over.  It was like dominoes.


Written by Sherron Watson

3 comments:

  1. Wow Sherron! Thanks for sharing all these great pictures and for including me on your cookie list! So glad Y'all are ok!xo Bia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for sharing this post, cookies, your journey through Irene with us!! I feel so lucky that we were not affected in any way besides with strong winds & lots of rain! I hope that everything is back on track now!!!

    Thank you also for sharing my recipe!! That was incredibly sweet of you!! ;) Talk soon!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow these cookies look awesome! Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

    ReplyDelete

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