Monday Muse: My Cookie Recipe for Happiness and Baking with Chef Ryan

After watching Hector and the Search for Happiness (last week's Monday Muse) I had this idea that the pathway to happiness is a lot like a cookie recipe (stay with me on this one, it's gonna be one long metaphor here).  Everyone has their own favorite cookie recipe but all cookie recipes have similar base ingredients like flour, butter, sugar, eggs etc.  And in much the same way, everyone's recipe for happiness is different but with similar foundations (like Maslow's hierarchy of needs).  So here is my personal recipe for happiness.  

5 cups of basic needs: physiological needs (food, water, shelter) and security (living in a safe country and a safe neighborhood)

4 cups of quality friends and family

4 cups of a happy marriage

4 cups of financial security (this may seem high to some, but I'm just being honest here.  I learned in my marketing class that income dictates needs, and I have grown accustomed to certain needs.  For example wifi, LTE, and an iPhone and personal laptop have become needs).

4 cups of finding my element/the thing that gives me "Flow".  For a long time I had trouble finding this ephemeral "flow".  I was bored at my job and bored at home, and thus spent my time passively consuming (food, tv, material items, you name it).  Once I quit my job (and after a prolonged period of consuming--what can I say, old habits die hard), I've finally found my flow in producing (taking pictures, writing this blog, food and drink recipes, etc.). Now there's not enough time in the day to do all the things I want to accomplish.

3 cups of learning.  I just love learning, and do especially well in school-type environments (aka I'm a nerd) but I'm also learning the art of self-teaching (with the internet as my textbook).  Right now I'm learning all I can about marketing and specifically digital marketing, which I'm finding is the art/science of cutting through the daily internet noise so that your target audience can hear you (*wave* hello target audience!).

3 cups of physical activity.  For me this is mostly running and yoga.  For a while I neglected this part of my life and though I wasn't unhappy without it, my moods tended to stay at a lower baseline level.  Physical activity helps me clear my head and is a form of meditation.  Also it allows me to fully enjoy the next ingredient:

2 cups of delicious mouth-watering food (of all kinds).  I live to eat.

2 cups of meditation/a gratitude practice.  I also try to meditate frequently.  I find that by meditating I can bring my focus back to the present, it allows me to step away from my "monkey mind", and I'm grateful for more things in my life {Reading 10% Happier by Dan Harris helped me start my meditation practice.  I really like this book.}

3 cups of helping others/of being useful to people/making contributions to the world around you.

Season with large quantities of free time and a sprinkling of travel and a dash of good music.

Bake in good vibes/luck and at a low temperature.

Was that too cheesy for ya?  Well sometimes we all need a little cheese, or at least cookies.  And if you were expecting an actual recipe with this post, here is my recipe for my favorite chocolate chip cookies (I like mine soft but not too doughy) {found on Allrecipes 6 years ago}.  

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, line cookie sheet with parchment paper

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt

Cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar.  Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk.  Mix in sifted ingredients until just blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Drop 1/4 cup of cookie dough onto cooke sheets about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are lightly toasted.  Let it cool (or don't and then burn your mouth like I do).

And to showcase my point of different cookie recipes for different people, here is the recipe to Chef Ryan's cranberry oatmeal cookie (pictured above){adapted from Martha Stewart}:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cups packed light-brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temp

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 and 1/2 cups of dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, line cookie sheet with parchment paper

Cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar (if using a mixer, mix on medium high).  Beat in the vanilla and eggs (on high).  Mix in sifted ingredients until just blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Sift together the flour, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and wheat germ.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix on low for 10-15 seconds.  Stir in your cranberries.

Drop 1/4 cup of cookie dough onto cooke sheets about 4 inches apart.

Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the edges are lightly toasted.  Rotate rack half-way through for even baking.  Let it cool and store in air tight container for up to a week.

TGIF Drinks: Watermelon Mojito

This is the perfect drink for your upcoming 4th of July festivities!  It's so easy, requires no prep work, and nothing tastes more like summer than watermelon!  All you need is a watermelon (definitely go with seedless), mint, lime, club soda and rum.  Take about a cup of watermelon, muddle with a couple leaves of mint, and a wedge of lime in a shaker.  Shake with some ice, pour into a glass, and add about a shot (or two) of rum and club soda to taste.  If you're making a big batch of this I would say go ahead and blend up the watermelon to make it even easier for yourself.  

Hope you all have a safe and fun 4th of July weekend!

TGIF Drinks: Roasted Sesame Seed Infused Whisky

When you're flying United Airlines, do you pick up their inflight magazine that's tucked behind the barf bag and the safety instructions in the seat pocket in front of you? I usually don't.  But during my long flight back from Japan, I ran out of reading material, and so I read the May Hemispheres Magazine from front to back for the first time ever.  And I have to say, it's not a bad magazine.  They did a feature on Japanese whiskys and had a special recipe for a Roasted Sesame Seed Infused Whisky.  The recipe called for a specific whisky called Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky.  And though it's misleading, the whisky is not coffee flavored.  It's named that because they use a Coffey still imported from Scotland.  By itself this is whisky is pretty smooth (well ok, moment of honesty here, I'm not really a discerning whiskey drinker.  I only like whisky if it doesn't burn as it goes down the hatchet.  Lame, I know, but I'm working on it).  I didn't think I would find this Japanese brand whisky but the following week I just happened to pass a store called Epicurean Trader, in Bernal Heights, and they had it!  

If you live in the SF Bay Area, you need to visit this shop!  I think I already mentioned it once before, but this place is amazing.  It's all small batch artisanal food, carefully selected by an Australian couple.  And they have great taste!  Well when I found the Nikka Whisky there, I knew I needed to try the sesame seed infusion.

Sesame Whiskey recipe:

-4 cups Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky or any other whiskey you prefer

-1 cup white sesame seeds (ratio of spirits to sesame seeds can be changed according to aroma preference but 4:1 usually yields a pretty strong infusion)

Preheat a large frying pan over low heat and roast sesame seeds until golden brown (or until they glisten and start popping), about 2-3 minutes.  After roasting, let sesame seeds cool on a baking sheet.  Let it infuse overnight (or longer).  Once you get the desired flavor, strain through a fine mesh.  If you want a clearer whiskey then strain through a coffee filter.

Now just add some ice, or whiskey stones, sip and enjoy!  The sesame seeds adds an earthy flavor to the whiskey (and it still doesn't burn as it goes down).  So drink up and relax, the weekend is just starting!

Cooking with Chef Ryan: Porridge Pancakes and Paprika Sausage

One of the best things of having a chef as a good friend is that they don't mind cooking for you, even if that's their day job.  And they make delicious meals seem really fast, easy and simple.  My friend Ryan whipped up this brunch for us the other day of porridge pancakes with nectarine and sausage with herbs and smoked paprika (recipe below).

By the way this is Gibson, our friendly neighborhood kitchen stalker, peacefully waiting for anything that might fall on the floor.

For the sausage patties:

We used about 3/4 pounds of ground pork, 1 clove of garlic minced, salt and pepper, about 2 tsp of smoke paprika, fresh herbs (or you can use dried herbs but use a bit less) of sage, thyme, and rosemary of about 1 tsp total, and 1 tsp of brown sugar.

Mix all together and roll into small patties.  Heat oil in pan at about medium heat and cook until browned.

For the Porridge Pancake (This is adapted from a recipe found here)

Take yesterday's leftover hot cereal/oatmeal that's been refrigerated (probably works best with multigrain and thicker hot cereal mixtures as opposed to instant Quakers oatmeal).  Much like the sausage, flatten chunks into patties.  Lightly flour on both sides, heat some butter in the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side.  If you want it to be more like your usual pancake (i.e. a soupier batter), add the porridge to a bit of batter of flour and milk/yogurt.  Cook until golden brown on each side.

For the nectarine compote:

3-4 ripe nectarines pitted and sliced, about 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup of water.   Mix the sugar and water together and heat until it starts to thicken.  Add the nectarine slices and cook for 3-4 minutes.  You don't want to cook it for too long since it's nice to for the nectarines to have a bit of a crunch (it goes well with the softer porridge pancake).

Now just add a bowl of fruit and/or some mimosas and you got yourself a good brunch!