Spam and Pineapple Fried Rice

Whipped up this number again and even with all of my failed short cuts, it didn't disappoint.  It was also Wade's first spam! That's a milestone, right? He approved...and then drank lots of water.  Perhaps the reduced sodium can next time.

Potential shortcuts:

For this batch, I used canned pineapple instead of fresh. I thought it was lacking in pineapple flavor. Steven was wolfing it down too fast to notice.  

I also tried to cook the spam and onions together and it burnt my onions, not bad enough to effect the taste but it would be easier to cook the onions separately. 

And lastly I didn't think I had enough 'old' rice so I cooked a new batch, spread it on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for, well, far too long. It got weird. Fresh rice would have been better than frozen rice.

Spam and Pineapple Fried Rice

Cowboy Cookies

Hide your choking hazards, electric cords, and puppy dog tails - Wade is crawling.  We got this boy baptized this weekend so we had to plenty of family in time to eat all the cookies I accidentally made.

Both boys were napping (!) and I told myself to exercise but found myself checking to see if I had all of the cowboy cookie ingredients. And I didn't....but I had most of them. So I went for it. Making cookies, not exercising. 

I was definitely in a rush and didn't look at anything but the ingredient list but this made 3 and 1/2 dozen of the biggest cookies I have ever made. The dough was overflowing my stand mixer. You use a 1/4 measuring cup to scoop it. Holy cow! Thank God my father in law ate about a dozen of these in a 24 hour visit. 

Cowboy Cookies

3 1/2 dozen large cookies

Adapted from New York Times

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (this is when I should of realized how much cookie I was making)
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 sticks butter, room temperature (I use salted butter because the more the better)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups unsweetened flake coconut
• 2 cups chopped pecans (about 8 ounces)

Preheat however many ovens you have to 350F.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

In a stand mixer cream butter at medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Then add the vanilla.

Change the speed to 'stir' or 'low' and push in the flour mixture until combined. Then stir in the chocolate chips, oats, coconut, and pecan.

Drop 1/4 cup of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet 3 inches apart on a silicone baking mat (or parchment paper). This was like 6 cookies per medium baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or when the edges are lightly browned.  Remove cookies to a rack to cool.