Cookie Swap Results & Plans to Bake an Apple Pie

OK, so the cookie exchange turnout was low - just 3 different kinds of cookies including mine, but one group brought a great-grandmother's recipe for "Maple Peanut Yummies," and they were quite yummy. Maple and peanut butter: tastes you don't really think would go together, but they do!

And 'tis the season - the baking continues. Some friends and I do an annual "holiday feast" on our own since we're still young enough to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with our parents - and because some of us still live with our parents. It started my junior year in my Charter Oak apartment at UConn right before Thanksgiving. We had coupons for turkeys, and all the fixings' ingredients were on sale, so we figured, why not? Then it continued to my friend's real apartment last year, again right before Thanksgiving. This year we were a bit busy, so it's closer to Christmas, but it's the same idea.

I'm making desserts, so I've got the cookies described in the recipe below, and I'm going to bake an apple pie. I really like the Apple Pie by Grandma Ople on allrecipes.com. It has the highest rating and most reviews when you search "apple pie" on the site.

This pie has a lattice crust, which already looks impressive, and because you pour a syrup over the crust and into the pie, the crust has a nice sweet coating. I've made this before, but I doubled the recipe, and I'm not sure if I put quite enough flour in. When I make this pie either tomorrow or Saturday morning, I think I'm going to add a touch more flour or a little cornstarch (depending on my mood) to make sure the syrup is thick enough. I don't want it too thick like molasses, but last time, the pie was really runny and kind of spilled the syrup everywhere as I transported it.

Even with the thin syrup, this pie was delicious. It brought out the flavors of the apples, and my entire family enjoyed it. I also brought some slices to work, and as people who have sliced up a lattice-crusted pie from the pie plate to a container and then from the container to a plate know, it looked like a pile of apples at the end. Despite this, my co-workers thought it was pretty good.

*Above is a picture of the pie I baked.

Cookie Swap at the Bristol Library tonight!

The Children’s Department at the Bristol Public Library is holding its first annual Family Cookie Exchange tonight at 6. I'm covering it for the Bristol Press, but check back here tomorrow because I'm also blogging about my experience participating in it.

Participants are asked to bake two dozen of their favorite cookies, bring the baked cookies to the library with the recipes, and remember to bring an empty container for cookie exchanging, according to a press release. For the occasion, I baked my extra chewy chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal and caramel. A few years ago, I took a chocolate chip cookie recipe and substituted some flour for oatmeal and some chocolate chips for Hershey's caramel kisses. I just typed out the recipe in mass quantity for the swap, and I've included it below. I hope to find some delicious cookies at this swap, and I'm going to blog about my favorite ones.


Here's my recipe:

Extra Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal and Caramel Kisses

Makes about 3 dozen, takes about an hour.

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp water
2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 of a 12 oz. package of chocolate chips
1/3 bag of Hershey's caramel kisses

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. Unwrap the Hershey's kisses, mash them up with a potato masher or big spoon. Set aside for later.
2. Beat butter and sugars together. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and water, blend well.
3. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add in oatmeal. Gradually stir flour/oatmeal mixture into butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and then mashed up Hershey's kisses.
3. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Tip: These cookies are really sticky because of the caramel, so I recommend using parchment paper on the sheets first.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Cool.

This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies. Enjoy!

Mark Mulcahy Tribute Concert (12/11)

This was one great show. As the Connecticut release party of "Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy," a CD that came out two months ago, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I bought the CD, and a lot of the bands at this show were local, ones that didn't appear on the album. However, the bands rocked it that night at Toad's Place, and they played some great Mark Mulcahy covers as well as their own songs.

The lineup was as follows: The Furors, Frank Critelli, Spike Priggen, Dumptruck, Mr. Ray Neal, The Zambonis, Senator, Peacock Flounders, Boy Genius, Jounce, School for the Dead, Winterpills Chris Collingwood, Elvis Perkins, The Reducers, The Butterflies of Love, Chris Harford.

Frank Critelli (representing my hometown of Meriden) did a great cover of "She is Staggering," one of my favorite songs from Polaris, the house band of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, which Mulcahy was a part of. The Zambonis came out later in Whalers jerseys and other hockey attire - they are a band that plays all songs about hockey - and were a lot of fun. I was actually excited to see them because we stopped in for a quick dinner at Yorkside Pizza next door, and they were right near us. Jounce came on later, which was exciting because the lead signer is Daniel Tamberelli, the kid who played "Little Pete" in Pete & Pete. They were actually really good, and we bought their CD afterward.


Highlight of the night: Mark Mulcahy came on stage with Jounce and Michael Maronna, who played Big Pete. I tweeted that it was a dream come true to see Big Pete, Little Pete and Mark Mulcahy all on stage. Mulcahy sang, and Maronna played guitar as they performed a Miracle Legion song. I made my way up front to take some pictures.

Some bigger names that played included Chris Collingwood, of Fountains of Wayne, and Elvis Perkins. Both are on the actual tribute album.

The crowd at the show was a little older - it was mainly made up of the people who were part of the New Haven music scene in the 1980s, back when Mulcahy was part of Miracle Legion. There were also people there my age who remembered Mulcahy from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, which was, and still is, one of my favorite shows. I went into Toad's Place around when doors opened, and there was like no one there. However, it quickly filled up, which was really nice because it meant there was a lot of support for Mulcahy, whose wife died and left him with two young twin daughters. The tribute CD and show were to support Mulcahy and make sure he can keep doing what he does best - make music. The merch table was filled with CDs, all donated from the local bands, where proceeds went straight to Mulcahy. There was also a cool silent auction with things like a signed Ramones poster, again with the proceeds going to Mulcahy.

For more about the "Ciao My Shining Star" project, check out the CD review I wrote for this blog a little while ago: "Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy."

I'm mentioned in the New England Newspaper & Press Association legal briefs!

The brief refers to my Freedom of Information Act request to the state Department of Environmental Protection. We wanted to know what was in the barrels that were illegally dumped around Bristol, Plymouth and Harwinton between Aug. 14 and 15. It took about four months, an FOI request and lots of phone calls to find out.

Check it: "Conn. reporter seen pivotal in release of pollutant records"

Pretty cool.

Mastisyahu (12/1) Review

This show could have been called "Matisyahu and friends" because it seemed like one big party on the Webster stage Tuesday night.

The Jewish reggae artist, who is known for his uplifting songs about unity and peace, put on an awesome concert, showing off his rapping and beat-boxing skills. An added bonus: During his performance, he let a bunch of guest rappers came on stage to show off their own lyrical skills, some even pandering to the audience by mentioning the Hartford Whalers and UConn Huskies. I couldn't really keep track of them, but they were all pretty cool, and they came in during a lot of good, fun, upbeat songs.

The opening band, Soja, was also good with the same funky reggae feel - and they got even better after they offered their CD to everyone in the audience for however much we wanted to pay for it. I paid $5.

The lead singer from Soja even came onto stage with Matisyahu to do a Bob Marley song together.


(Yes, I took these photos with my cell phone.)

Matisyahu fake ended with a long, really emotional version of "One Day," but then came back for a kind of weird encore. It was exciting at first that everyone came back, but then it turned into a long jam session. Then some guys left the stage while others kept playing. Then the last two guys left, and it just sort of ended. I think the people who stayed were waiting for a big finale, maybe a real song, but they didn't get it. I think the Webster was even confused because it took a little while for the lights to go off.

On the brighter side, Matisyahu's friends were wayy cooler than Arlo Guthrie's family.