Monster Cookies and a Quick Hello

I wasn’t as adventurous with my meals as I could have been – when the opportunity arose for boiled crawfish I balked, since I’m not a big fan of seafood outside of shrimp (and when I was later informed that crawfish are basically big shrimp, well, I really kicked myself). And I passed on the fried alligator on a stick since it was lunchtime anyway and my hostesses and I were heading to a small café not far away – then passed on both the fried alligator appetizer and the alligator sausage po’boy in favor of the sampler plate with gumbo, red beans and rice, and jambalaya.

But that gives me something to try when I go back, right?

I did come back with a few things to try though – most notable being the Voodoo Seasoning.

The ingredients list doesn’t sound too terrifying (except for the “spices and herbs” part, which is followed by some specific spices and herbs) and they recommend sprinkling it on vegetables when grilling. I want to play with the supply I have and see what I come up with. For some reason I have “Honey Voodoo Chicken” floating around in my head

Until I do play with the seasoning, I leave you with some particularly yummy cookies. I’ve got a few recopies that I managed to bring back with me from New Orleans, so I’ll start posting them later in the week, along with a couple of links to sites for spices you can get online.

First, though – Monster Cookies.

Monster Cookies

3 eggs
½ cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ cups peanut butter
4 ½ cups oatmeal
2/3 cup chocolate chips
¼ pound plain M&M’s

Beat the eggs, then cream with butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Drop on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes (large cookie) or 10-12 minutes (smaller cookie).

Notes from the Hare

These are, without a doubt, one of my personal favorite cookies.

When I make these, I use a hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar, and a wooden spoon for the rest. It gets pretty hard to stir after a short while, especially since this doesn’t make dough, per se, more of a mixture that bakes well.
When I do small cookies, I generally use a ½ tablespoon for the drops. Larger cookies would be a tablespoon, or a heaping tablespoon.