Cook's Illustrated's Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

This is another Cook's Illustrated winner, we love this recipe so much.  If it weren't bone in chicken, it would receive a perfect 10 from all of us, but only the boys give it a perfect 10, Aaron and I give it a 9.  This is not a difficult recipe to make, but it does take a little time.  Each serving is about 185 calories per piece of chicken, but that is an average, so a little less or more depending on how big your chicken is and what piece you eat.  Anyway, this is such a great chicken dish, so flavorful and moist.  Here's what to do:

4 lbs of bone in skin on chicken pieces
1/4 c table salt
pepper
3 medium heads garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
2 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
1 T olive oil
salt
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 c chicken broth
2 T unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400.  Dissolve the 1/4 c salt in 2 quarts cold water, and brine the chicken for 30 minutes.  Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry, then season with pepper.
Toss the garlic and shallots with 2 t of the olive oil and salt and pepper and place in a 9 inch pie plate.  Cover with foil and roast until softened, about 30 minutes (or more), shaking the pan after 15 minutes.  Stir, and roast uncovered for another 10 minutes.  Remove the garlic from the oven and increase the oven to 450.
Heat the remaining 1 t of olive oil in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, and brown the chicken pieces skin side down.  Brown on both sides, then remove the chicken to a plate.  Discard the fat.  Add the chicken broth and herbs, scraping the brown bits from the pan.  Add the garlic/shallot mixture to the pan, then nestle the chicken skin side up in the pan.
Bake the chicken until the breast registers 160, and the thigh reaches 170 degrees.  When chicken is cooked, remove the pan, and remove 12 garlic cloves to press through a fine mesh sieve.  Transfer the rest of the garlic, the shallots, and the chicken to a serving plate.  Push the garlic through the sieve into the pan juices, bring the liquid to a simmer, then adjust seasoning to taste.  After thickened slightly and seasoned, remove from heat and whisk in the butter.  Serve with the chicken.

Michael Symon's Steak with Garlic and Bacon

So, I wasn't going to post this, because it seemed to be such a simple recipe, but these steaks were amazing!  We decided we had to share them, and everyone gave them a perfect 10.  Michael Symon's second cookbook, Carnivore, is full of such great recipes, we love his food, and this recipe for steak was no exception.

No pretty plate, but disregard the picture and make this, it's so worth it.  Each half of a steak was 488 calories, so an 8 ounce steak approximately.  Having the well-seasoned steak with the bacon and the garlic spread just was overwhelmingly great.  Michael Symon always has us season the beef the night before, and this was so great that way.  I don't have a grill pan, so I just used a regular pan I can put under a broiler.  Anyway, Michael Symon came through for us again.

2 T-Bone steaks

salt

4 strips bacon

Roasted Garlic with Parsley and Lemon spread

Season the steaks, then refrigerate them overnight.

Remove the steaks from the fridge 45 minutes before cooking.

Preheat the broiler, then cook the bacon in the pan on the stove top, leaving some of the grease in the pan.  Remove the bacon to cool slightly, then cook the steaks under the broiler, about 4 minutes per side.  Smear the steaks with the roasted garlic, and then top with crumbled bacon.  Serve.

Roasted Garlic with Parsley and Lemon

1 head garlic

1 T olive oil

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

.25 c chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 T chopped fresh oregano

.5 t salt

Preheat the oven to 350. 

Slice the head of garlic in half crosswise.  Drizzle both sides with the olive oil, and cover with aluminum foil.  Roast for about 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven to let cool slightly.  Squeeze the cloves out of the skins and mash the garlic.  Add in the lemon juice and zest, the oregano, parsley, and salt.  Spread over your steaks.

Chili Lime Garlic Shrimp

This recipe started out from Picky Palate, but I made a bunch of changes, so we have a different recipe that turned out really well.  Aaron, Noah and I gave the shrimp a 9, and Owen gave it an 8, since he doesn't like the spice :).  This was fast and easy, and I'm glad it turned out so well.  Here's what I did:

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 t chili powder
2 T butter
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper and garlic salt to taste

Melt the butter in a skillet.  Sprinkle the shrimp with chili powder, salt, pepper and garlic salt.  Add the garlic to the butter, then add the shrimp and cook for about 3 minutes, or until shrimp is cooked through.  Serve with cheesy quesadillas and fresh veggies for a great dinner!

Cook's Illustrated Sizzling Shrimp In Garlic Sauce

Another Best International Recipe hit, this was so easy and delicious.  Aaron, Noah and I gave this Sizzling Shrimp a perfect 10, and Owen gave it a 9, because it is pretty spicy.  This is traditionally a tapas, served with other food too, but we used it as a main dish.  This takes about 10 minutes total, and it is super delicious.  Make sure to have some crusty bread to dip into the oil, and we ate this with a big salad and it made a great meal.  Here's what to do:

2/3 c olive oil
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 1/3 T red pepper flakes (the source of the heat)
1 1/3 T minced fresh parsley
1 lb large shrimp
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 500.  Pour the oil in a shallow casserole dish, I used an 8 inch pie plate.  Add the garlic, the bay leaves, the pepper flakes, and the parsley, and bake about 2-4 minutes, making sure the oil is sizzling.  Add the shrimp to the sizzling oil and continue to bake, stirring once, about 2-3 minutes until shrimp are cooked through.  Remove the dish from the oven and discard the bay leaves.  Season the dish with salt and pepper and serve immediately with crusty bread.

Pioneer Woman's Valentine's Dinner

This dinner was in the Pioneer Woman's newest cookbook, and this was really delicious.  Aaron gave the potatoes a 9, while the rest of us gave them a perfect 10, because Aaron said he wanted more cream in them :).  The steak Noah gave a perfect 10, I gave it a 9, and Owen and Aaron gave it an 8.  This was an easy dinner to make, and tasted so darn good!  The steaks were 369 calories each, and the potatoes were 323 per serving.  Here's what to do:

For the steak:
3 slices bacon
3 small filet mignon steaks
2 T butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450.  Wrap 1 piece of bacon around each filet steak, then sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.  Melt the butter in a heavy ovenproof skillet, the place the steaks in the pan and sear them about 1 minute.  Turn them and sear them on the other side another minute, then cook them in the oven for about 3 minutes for medium rare, and serve them.

For the Potatoes:
2 garlic bulbs
1 T olive oil
salt
6 Golden potatoes
4 T butter, softened
1/4 c heavy cream
4 oz cream cheese, softened

Preheat the oven to 400, slice the tops off the garlic, place the garlic in a small pan and pour the oil over them, then salt them well.  Seal the pan tightly in foil, and roast the garlic for at least 1 hour.  Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water, then drain the potatoes and mash them with the cream, butter, salt and cream cheese.  Squeeze the garlic into the potatoes, and mash some more.  Adjust the seasonings to taste, and serve!

My family loved this, I did too, and it wasn't tons of work.

Picky Palate's Salmon over Garlic Corn

This is a superdy duperdy delicious meal ;).  We loved it, Noah and Aaron both saying it was their favorite fish ever.  Way to go Picky Palate!  This was such an easy dinner, as well as great tasting, we will have this again, and I love that it was such a hit.  Aaron and I gave it a 9, Noah gave it a perfect 10, and Owen gave it an 8.  We used a smaller piece of salmon than the recipe called for, so the calories for our dinner were 288 per serving.  Here's what I did:

salt
Tobasco Sauce
3/4 t paprika
2 T maple syrup
about 1 lb of salmon
2 T olive oil
1 can corn, drained
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T cilantro

Preheat the oven to 450.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Mix together some salt to taste, and the paprika.  Coat the fish with the salt and paprika, then put on a little tobasco sauce and then top with the maple syrup.  Place in the oven and cook for 12-15 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet and then add the garlic and cook for about a minute.  Add in the corn, cilantro, some more salt, and tobasco.  Stir, then serve with the fish.


Easy and delicious!

Garlic Rosemary Fish and Potatoes

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe before, it is one of our very favorites, and definitely our favorite fish recipe.  It's also fairly simple.  Aaron gave it a 9, Noah and I gave it a perfect 10, and Owen gave it an 8, because he doesn't love fish.  This recipe comes from Marcella Hazan, and I love it.  Here's what I do.

1 lb tilapia
4 sprigs rosemary
4 garlic cloves, peels removed and smashed a little
4 gold potatoes, chopped
4 T olive oil
salt
1 T bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large pan, mix together potatoes, garlic cloves, 2 sprigs of rosemary, 2 T olive oil, and salt to taste.  Make sure potatoes are covered with the oil.  Cook for 20 minutes, then stir potatoes to ensure even roasting.  Bake for another 15 minutes, then if potatoes are done, remove the pan from the oven, place the fish filets in the pan, then cover with the remaining rosemary sprigs, breadcrumbs, 2 T olive oil, and plenty of salt.  Return the dish to the oven and continue cooking for another 15 minutes.  If fish is done, let rest and serve.

This makes four servings, and each serving is 354 calories.

Anne Burrell's Garlic Steamed Mussels

We tried something new tonight, which is always fun.  I bought some mussels from my local market and we tried steamed mussels tonight.  They taste very similar to crab, not surprising, but they were tender, not rubbery.  Maybe it's because they were fresh, or maybe it was the mussels I bought, who knows.  Anyway, I followed mostly Anne Burrell's recipe for garlic steamed mussels, but I didn't serve them with Aioli which is how Anne suggests serving them.  I instead made pasta, and then was lazy and didn't make a very good sauce, just used the cooking broth and added some cream to it.  It had good flavor, but I should've reduced the sauce so it wasn't so watery.  Oh well.  Aaron gave this a 5, I gave it a 6, Owen gave it a perfect 10, and Noah gave it an 8.  It wasn't fabulous, but it was super quick and easy, dinner on the table in 15 minutes.  The calories for the sauce (which we had very little of, but if you eat the entire sauce, this would be the calories), mussels, and pasta all together were 515.  Here's what I did:

1 lb fresh mussels
1 t olive oil
4 garlic cloves
2 sprigs rosemary
3 bay leaves
4 c chicken broth
1/2 c cream
1/2 lb pasta

Wash the mussels and discard any open ones.  Cook olive oil and minced garlic cloves in a large pan.  When the garlic is browned and flavorful, throw in the mussels and coat them in the garlic and oil.  Add in the chicken broth, rosemary and bay leaves, and cook for about 5-6 minutes, or until the mussels have all opened.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta in well-salted water until ready to eat.  Remove the mussels from the broth, then reduce the broth.  Add in the cream, and a little parmesan if desired.  Serve with the pasta.

Olive Oil Poached Halibut with Fennel, Rosemary and Garlic

I think this might qualify as the most expensive meal I have ever made.  Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to make up for the exorbitant price I paid for the meal :(  Oh well.  This was good, just not worth the amount of money I paid to make it.  I found this recipe in Michael Symon's Live To Cook cookbook, and like all his recipes, it was good, flavorful, and everyone enjoyed it.  The boys gave it an 8, and I gave it a 7.  I love halibut, but it's hard to justify the price.  It's hard for me to assign calories per serving on this, since I can never figure out how much of the poaching liquid is used, and how many calories I need to count, but this is my rough estimate--255 for 3 servings.  This may be a little low, but it won't be more than 300 per serving.

1 quart extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 fennel bulb, quartered
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 shallot, quartered
2 T kosher salt
1 T crushed red pepper flakes
4 (I used 3) 3-oz skinless halibut fillets

Combine the olive oil, garlic, fennel, rosemary, shallot, salt, and red pepper flakes in a 2 quart pan and bring the oil to a temperature of 140.  Pull the pan mostly off the heat, maintain that temperature for about 20 minutes.  You want to infuse the oil with the aromatics and red pepper flakes without really cooking them by letting the oil get too hot.
Submerge the halibut in the oil and poach until the fish reaches an internal temperature of 110, 15-20 minutes.  Remove the fillets to paper towels before serving.

Crockpot Leg of Lamb

I love lamb, but unfortunately, not everyone in my family does.  Sigh...  We had this lamb for dinner on Sunday night, and it was worth it.  Yum :)  Aaron gave it a 6, I gave it an 8, Owen, Sean and Erin gave it a 7, and Noah gave it a perfect 10 :).  This is super simple, and I would've given it a higher score if I hadn't cooked it a little too long in the crockpot.  Here's what I did:

1 boneless leg of lamb
2 sprigs rosemary
2 lemons, juiced
5 garlic cloves, sliced
Salt and Pepper

Trim fat from lamb.  Cut slits in the lamb, and push garlic pieces into it.  Season generously with salt and pepper, rub with the rosemary, then put juice over it.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours (I cooked mine longer and it was too long), then serve.  I think some beef broth and tapioca added to the crockpot would give you some more moisture, and you could have a nice gravy at the end.  I'll try some more variations next time.

Shrimp with Garlic Lemon Butter

Tonight was a quick and easy dinner.  We had Shrimp with Garlic Lemon Butter from Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe Cookbook.  This was good, and a big hit especially with Owen.  He gave it a perfect 10, Noah gave it an 8, and Aaron and I gave it a 7.  The calories for 1/4 pound of shrimp were 253.  Here's the recipe:
Shrimp with Garlic Lemon Butter
1 lb shrimp
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 pinch sugar
2 T olive oil

3 T butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T lemon juice
1 T parsley
1/8 t salt

Shell and devein shrimp.  Mix the shrimp with the salt, pepper and sugar.

Heat 1 T olive oil over medium high heat.  Cook half of the shrimp until almost done, about 40 seconds.  Remove and heat the other 1 T olive oil and then add the second half of the shrimp.  Cook until almost done, then return all the shrimp to the pan.
Meanwhile, beat the butter till fluffy, add in the garlic, lemon juice, parsley, and the salt. 
Add the garlic butter to the pan with the remaining shrimp and cook until shrimp are cooked through.

Serve.

Super simple, and a quick healthy weeknight meal.

Tomorrow we're having something sweet :)

Honey Garlic Chicken and Garlic-Lemon Green Beans with Toasted Bread Crumbs

This was a really great dinner tonight.  Everyone except for Noah really enoyed it.  We gave the chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken, an 8 (Owen and I), Aaron gave it a 7, and Noah gave it a 5.  We used four thighs, and the calories for one serving, or one fourth, were 303.  This was fast and easy, and tasted really good.  We'll have this again.  I used frozen thighs, and it was done in just over five hours.
Our green beans were from Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe Cookbook, and just like all their recipes, this turned out great.  I cooked it a little longer than the recipe called for, and I used panko instead of fresh bread crumbs, but other than that I followed the recipe.  Aaron and I gave the beans an 8, and Owen and Noah gave them a 7.  The calories for 1/4 of the recipe, which is quite a big serving, were 195.  Here's the recipe:
Garlic-Lemon Green Beans with Toasted Bread Crumbs
2 slices high-quality sandwich bread, each slice torn into quarters (I used 1/2 c panko because I just didn't want to do more dishes)
3 T unsalted butter
salt and pepper
2 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese
6 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 t flour
1/8 t red pepper flakes
1 t minced fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 lbs green beans, ends trimmed
1 c chicken broth
1 T lemon juice

1. Process the bread in a food processor to even, fine crumbs.  (I obviously omitted this step.  I just melted the butter and stirred the panko into it.)  Heat 1 T of the butter in a 12 inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat; when melted, add teh bread crumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown.  Transfer to a bowl and stir in 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t pepper, and the cheese; set aside.
2.  Wipe out the skillet.  Add the remaining 2 T butter, the garlic, and 1/4 t salt; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the garlic is golden, 3-5 minutes.  Stir in the flour, red pepper flakes, and thyme, then toss in the green beans.  Add the chicken broth and increase the heat to medium-high; cover and cook until the beans are partly tender but still crisp at the center, about 4 minutes.  Uncover an dcook, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender and the sauce has thickened slightly, about 4 minutes.  Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper to taste.  Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle with the bread crumbs, and serve.

Again, I cooked this longer than it said, because we like our beans pretty tender, and this was great!

Tomorrow we're having some lamb and risotto.

Pork and Beans!

We laughed when we realized we were having pork and beans tonight.  That is not what it tasted like, but it really is what we had.  I made the beans using a recipe from Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe Cookbook, and I altered it because I don't like leaving food cooking on my stove top for hours at a time.  Here's the recipe the way I made it, and it's called White Beans with Garlic, Sage and Tomatoes.

Pork and White Beans with Garlic, Sage, and Tomatoes7 1/2 c water
1 lb great northern beans
2 small carrots, chopped in fourths
1 onion, chopped in half, not peeled
2 bay leaves
1 head garlic, top chopped off so cloves are exposed
salt
1/4 c olive oil
4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1/4 c sage, roughly chopped
28 oz canned tomatoes
1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into medallions

In a large crockpot, place beans, water, carrots, onion, head of garlic, and 1 t salt.  Cook on high for 4 hours, then turn to low.  Cook until 1/2 hour before ready to serve dinner.  When beans are done, reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid, then remove the garlic head and set aside.  Drain the beans, discard the bay leaves, the onion, and the carrots.  Smoosh out the soft garlic into the beans, and set aside.
In a 12-inch skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the sliced garlic and the sage to the oil, and shake the pan to evenly brown the garlic and sage.  Add in the tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes.  Salt and pepper the pork to taste, then add the pork, the reserved bean water, and the bean mixture to the tomatoes.  Cook for about 20 mintues, stirring occasionally, until the beans have thickened and the pork is cooked through.  Serve.

Noah and I really enjoyed this, he gave it a 9 and I gave it an 8.  Aaron only gave it a 5, he felt it was bland, and Owen gave it a 6 but I can't tell you his reasons ;).  The calories for 1/8 of the total were 260 per serving.

Tomorrow I'm making a cake for my Dad's birthday...yummy :)  I love good excuses to make cake!

Chicken Bacon Wraps, Bean Salad, and Mashed Potatoes

For dinner we had some really great recipes. The first recipe, Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps from Paula Deen were such a big hit, they disappeared before I could take a picture.  These were delicious, fast to eat, and fun.  Look at the link for a picture, that's just what they look like.  Aaron gave them a perfect 10, the boys and I gave them a 9.  I wish I would've salted the chicken before wrapping it in bacon, but other than that I thought they were awesome.  The calories for the recipe the way it was written are for 24 rolls, about 63 calories per roll.  They are actually much less than that though, because I used maybe 1/4 of the brown sugar mixture, which would lower the calories quite a bit.  Fun and not too calorific!  We like that kind of food around here. :)

Next comes our veggie.  My parents brought me a bunch of veggies from their garden, so I looked for a recipe online that would use both zucchini and green beans, but wasn't a soup.  There aren't that many, surprisingly.  This Keeping up with the Beans salad was delicious, and uses tons of veggies, so we really liked it.  We gave it a 9, and the dressing was great.  I used less than it called for, especially less balsamic vinegar, because we're not huge fans of vinegar around here.  Anyway, this is a great salad to make for all those veggies coming out of your ears days.  The calories will vary based on what kinds of veggies you use, but for 10 servings, ours was 189 calories per serving, and they are big servings.

Last of all we had some garlic mashed potatoes.  They are Guy Fieri's Johnny Garlic's Famous Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes.  The boys and I really liked them, but Aaron said they had a funky flavor.  Go figure.  I'm not sure what was wrong.  The boys and I gave them 8, and Aaron gave them a 4.  Oh well.  I cut the garlic down to 4 cloves rather than 4 tablespoons of garlic, and I only used 1 T olive oil, and only 6 potatoes, rather than 5 pounds of potatoes.  We got six servings out of this, and each serving was 143 calories.  Hopefully you'll like these as much as the boys and I did, and not like Aaron did :)

Tomorrow we're having shrimp fried rice and fried zucchini.

Chicken and Zucchini and Potatoes

So tonight was not one of our favorite dinner nights, but it was pretty good. We'll start with the chicken. The recipe was Chicken with Vinegar and Garlic, and the recipe is found in the Italian Slow Cooker cookbook and here's the recipe:
Chicken with Vinegar and Garlic
Skinless, bone-in chicken (we used 2 thighs and 2 legs)
3 3 inch pieces fresh rosemary
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 c beef broth (or red wine)
2 T balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Salt and pepper the chicken.  Place the chicken in the crockpot, arrange tomatoes, garlic, and rosemary around chicken.  Pour broth and vinegar over everything.  Cook on low for at least 5 hours, better if longer.

We liked this alright, it had a pretty good, if muted flavor, and it was super easy. Owen gave it an 8, and the rest of us gave it a 7. The calories are 305/serving.

Our veggie for tonight was not great.  It was also found in the Italian Slowcooker cookbook, and part of the problem was mine.  I didn't check which setting to place the crockpot on, so I put it on low and the veggies didn't get done.  Sigh...Anyway, here's the recipe:
Zucchini and Potatoes:
2 zucchinis
1 onion
2 potatoes
1/2 t oregano
1/4 c water
1 T olive oil

Place everything in crockpot and cook for 1 1/2-2 hours on high.  Make sure potatoes are done before serving.

I can't fairly rate this, because of having to microwave the veggies and still not having the potatoes done, but what we had only got a 3 from Aaron, a 4 from me, and Owen gave it an 8 and Noah a 5. Besides Owen we really didn't like this. The potatoes were bland, and everything except the zucchini was undercooked. The total calories for 1/6 of the total were 99. Try it and let me know if it's better when it's cooked correctly :).
Tomorrow we're having PW's Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich.

Pork, Potatoes, Rolls and Cookies

Tonight we had some delicious food! We had a recipe from Our Best Bites cookbook for pork, and this was so great. Here's the recipe:
Roasted Pork Tenderloin

4-5 cloves garlic, minced
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
1 lb Pork Loin Roast
1 1/2 t balsamic vinegar
2 t olive oil

Mix first four ingredients together and smoosh it all over the pork.  Place the pork in a sealable bag.  Mix together the vinegar and oil.  Pour over the pork.  Marinate for 4-10 hours.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes (according to the recipe, mine took a LOT longer) or until the pork reaches at least 135 degrees.  Let rest a few minutes, then serve. 

For six servings, the calorie count is 125/serving. Great, easy, and super moist and delicious. The boys gave this a perfect 10, Aaron and I gave it a 9.  Noah even asked for seconds.
Next we had Perfect Potatoes au Gratin from the Pioneer Woman.  This was also easy and delicious, and we will be having this again.  Aaron said it is his favorite potato recipe he's had in a long time.  The calories are 231 for 1/12 of the 9x13 pan.  Aaron and I gave this a 9, the boys gave it a perfect 10 again.

These rolls are fool proof and amazing.   They are Buttered Rosemary Rolls from the Pioneer Woman, and they are not even a recipe, just a really great idea for using Rhodes dinner rolls.  We loved these.  They are 135/roll (the calories depend on how many rolls you make, we made 9) and everyone gave these a perfect 10.  So good.

Last but not least come the cookies. We got this recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours from Dorie Greenspan. These are incredibly chocolatey and delicious. Here's the recipe:
Chocolate Chunkers
1/3 c flour
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
3 T butter, chopped into 3 pieces
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 eggs, at room temperature
2/3 c sugar
1 t vanilla
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz white chips (or milk chocolate chips)
1 c cherry Craisins (Dori calls for raisins or apricots)
(Dori also calls for 1 1/2 c coarsely chopped nuts.  Because I can't send any nuts to school, we went nut free)

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheet with parchment.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.  (I just whisked them together, I missed the whole sifting thing :))
Melt butter and chocolate together til smooth and shiny.  Set it on the counter to cool.
Beat together the eggs and the sugar until pale and foamy, about 2 minutes with a stand mixer.  Beat in the vanilla and scrape down the bowl.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add in the chocolate butter mixture.  Mix until just incorporated.  Scrape down the bowl again and add the dry ingredients.  Mix until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough, which will be thick, smooth and shiny.  Mix in the chunks.  Drop by spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes (I only needed 10), then remove from sheet to cool. 

My recipe made 24 cookies, and each cookie was 189 calories.  Aaron gave these an 8, saying he wasn't too sure about the fruit but thought they were great.  Owen and I gave them a 9, and Noah gave them a perfect 10.  It's nice he likes all my food so much :)  Don't those cookies look great!  I wish I could eat more of them, too bad they aren't calorie free.

Tomorrow we're having some crockpot chicken and crockpot veggies.