My Friend Julie Makes Better Cookies....

BUT these turned out pretty damn good!

It was a long day of writing and I had a sudden urge to make cookies- ADD can be fun- so I wandered away from the computer and started searching for ingredients.

I had a serious hankering for peanut butter and chocolate but the peanut butter was almost gone so I came up with orange chocolate chip cookies.

The batter tasted sooooo good that I'm lucky to have kept some for the actual cookies.

But I did.

I ate a few before remembering I haven't worked out very much this month so I sent some to my daughter, froze some for my son who visits next month and had The Husband hide some for me later.
And I'm mailing some off to my friend Julie.

"Sometimes me think what is love, and then me think love is what last cookie is for. Me give up the last cookie for you." Cookie Monster

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest or OJ or dried orange peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into and set aside. Cream butter, sugars, orange zest and vanilla extract together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time beating well after adding each one. Add dry ingredients and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips and mix until well blended. Try not to eat all the cookie dough.
4. Drop dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake cookies for 15 or 16 minutes or until golden. Cool on the cookie sheets. 
5. Hide most of the cookies so you don't eat them all at once.

Another Freakin Holiday Food Post...

but seriously, can you blame me?

It's St. Patty's Day, a day of beer and leprechauns and Lucky Charms cereal and Bushmills and...well I could go on, but I have a life to lead cha-cha.

Suffice to say ( I always wanted to write that) I am very busy earning a pot'-o- gold or two and  I wanted this meal to be as easy as finding a four-leaf clover. (Trust me, I have found 100's in my time.) But the thought of boiling a piece of meat that has already been brined in water did not really excite this Scottish/Polish/English/Chickasaw gal. So I mixed things up a little. Like Ireland and England.
Enjoy!

So I opened the bag-o-beef and threw it in the crock-o-pot. I added some leftover wine---a rare commodity---and ignored it for a few hours.

Sometime after Happy Hour I rescued the corn (corned?) beef and slathered it with a soy sauce/mustard/apricot jam glaze and threw it in the oven at 400 degrees.

Then I tentatively approached the chou-chou.

I tossed it in boiling water for a couple o' minutes... (are you catching on to the theme?)

I boiled some Yukon Golds and mashed them with sour cream, half & half  and butter. Lot's o' lots o' butter. (I'm out of control.)

Here is the brilliant part; I tossed the warm, buttery cabbage into the mashed potatoes. Oh sweet Jeezuz!

Sliced the baked corned beef...

Mixed it all up on my English China....and ...Ifreann na Fola! Delicious! 
I'm as surprised as you are!

And for dessert- Irish coffee and molasses cookies...I actually had some left from this afternoon. Ahem.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, May good luck pursue you each morning and night. ~Irish Blessing