Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie

This recipe was another case of "I must experience this for myself now that I've heard about it."  Since I was a little impatient, I tried using cookie dough from the store instead of making it from scratch.

I actually made two attempts.  The very first was with storebought dough and I tried completely encasing the Oreo with it.  Unfortunately, the normal cookie dough is so fluid at baking temperatures, before it starts to set, that I ended up with chocolate chip saucers with an Oreo island in the middle.  Fortunately, short of burning the cookies entirely, it's still delicious.

My second time, I thought I'd leave the cookie dough as thick dollops above and below the Oreo, so as it settled during baking, it would, I hoped, just encase the Oreo.

Nope.  Close, but no cigar.

Obviously the storebought dough just isn't firm enough.  I'd have to do something like try making it by hand.  Adding extra flour might work, or substituting a fraction of AP flour for something with higher gluten like bread flour, but since I knew someone has already figured all these details out to have posted this idea online in the first place, I thought I'd see what they had to suggest.

The original recipe apparently comes from here.

After all that hassle, I came up with a workable, if inelegant, compromise:  muffin tins.

I overdid it, but it worked:  two cookie dough squares in the bottom of each depression of the muffin tin, then the Oreo, then two more squares.  It was almost too much cookie, but it held together and baked up just fine.

Big hit with my coworkers, even the diabetic one.  I just wish I'd made more to share.

I tried it again using a mini muffin tin and one square each on top and bottom (and mini Reese's peanut butter cups--I thought they'd melt and fall apart without the support of the tin--but let's not get distracted), but that didn't turn out as well.  The top squares spread out during baking and all touched, so I couldn't twist them out one at a time like I could with the regular size muffin tin.  They did bake up fine and were delicious, but I had a lot of cookie shrapnel piled up by the time I got all the cookies extracted.  But that's an adventure for a later time.

Avocado-quinoa dip

This dish was adapted from a salad recipe I got at Wegmans.com.  I like avocado more for its versatility, especially its capacity for becoming guacamole, so I thought this one might work better as a sort of dip.

The main cast:

• 10 oz red quinoa, cooked
• 12 oz frozen whole corn, thawed (or fresh, whatever)
• 1 c sliced green onions
• 2 plum tomatoes, diced
• 2 avocados, mashed
• 1 t minced garlic
• thyme, coriander, cilantro, and celery salt to taste
• 1/2 T lime juice
• 1 T sesame oil

The quinoa I cooked per the directions on the bag, except I added some chicken bullion after adding the water.  I should have added it to the water first, but I had been trying to redeem some vile s'mores vodka, and it didn't occur to me until it was too late.

Okay, so:  Cook the quinoa, chop up all the vegetables as you see fit, mash the avocados, and mix it all together.  The original recipe said to let the quinoa chill for 20 minutes first but I got impatient, and it didn't seem to hurt not to wait.  As for the herbs and spices, you can adjust those however you see fit; the original recipe called for a cup of chopped fresh cilantro but I only had dried, and it's not my favorite, so I thought I'd throw in the other things to bring it more to my wavelength.  Maybe subconsciously I was trying to make it more like guacamole but with corn and quinoa in it.  And tomato.  Well, whatever.

I thought it was phenomenal.  I got full on it and still wanted to keep eating the stuff.  Seemed to go better with tortilla chips than water crackers.  Probably could have used a third avocado and/or tomato, though.  Maybe a little sour cream would make it more dippy, but I might still have guacamole on the brain.

I really need to get a better way to present these dishes.  Sometimes the big red plastic bowl is just not amenable to presentation.