Making Cookies and edgar's DVD Storage System......

Gentle Friends I thought today I would cover two subjects - a little baking I did Sunday and a little more DVD talk.  

First up would be the cookies - these are Called Cowboy Cookies and this recipe is from my dear friend Dale.  He made these all the time and became one of my favorite cookies!!  Why they are called "Cowboy Cookies" I haven't a clue, and I have found the recipe all over the Internet, so it really is no secret.  I did make a few changes, and I talk about them as I go along........  the recipe....

Cowboy Cookies 

Ingredients

2 C AP Flour

2 C Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1 teas Baking Soda

1 1/2 teas Baking Powder

1/2 teas Salt

1 C (2 sticks) Unsalted Room temperature butter

3/4 C White Sugar

3/4 C plus 2 Tbl Brown Sugar, packed

2 Large Eggs, room temperature

1 teas Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 C Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 C (4oz) Chopped Toasted Walnuts

That's the basic recipe, I added and manipulated some of the ingredients....

Directions

Whip the first 5 ingredients in medium bowl to blend - set aside.

With a mixer, beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time and vanilla extract, mix thoroughly.

Add dry ingredients and beat until just blended, this is stiff dough.

Stir in chips and nuts - it's here that I made the biggest changes, I used 1/3 white chocolate chips and the rest semi sweet.  I also used three kinds of nuts,

 Pecans, Almonds and Walnuts to make up  the cup, and it was more like a 1 1/2 C of nuts that I used.....  I also tossed in 1/2 C of shredded coconut, I thought the texture would be a nice addition, and it was!!  When I make these again I will also add 1/2 C dried chopped cranberries or dried cherries, I think the addition of some fruit would be super!!!

After everything has come together you are to cover this and put into the refrigerator for about an hour.  I made it when we got home from Mass, and then sat down to watch a movie, so two or so hours later, after it was good and cold I started to bake.  You could even make it a day ahead without and issue.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees - Form dough into balls...

When ever I make cookies I like to use a small scoop, this is a #40 size, so that they are all close to equal in size and cook evenly.  Set cookies 2 inches or so apart. 

Flatten the dough balls with your fingers - the dough is sticky -   Bake about 10 to 15 minutes - Mine were cooking at about 12 minutes, at the 10 minute mark I turn the pan around so that they will cook evenly.  My oven is basically a piece of crap and cooks at about 25 degrees hotter than the setting and has a couple of hot spots, so I know what will work.  You'll have to adjust for your own oven.  When the cookies are done take out and cool on racks...

This recipe makes about 42 cookies...

They were a hit at my work, and Rico's work and we had some left over to have with coffee last night after dinner.....

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Here's my system for storing and sorting my DVD Collection.  I found a while back that with acquiring so many DVD's that they were just going to pile up in unmanageable stacks.  As this happened it kept getting harder and harder to find a title -  I knew it was just going to get worse as I was not going to stop buying DVDs' and Blu Ray's.  So I implemented a system that works for me.

Here's were I began by keeping the movies on some shelves I got at Ikea...

... and this worked fine, so long as there was room for the newest purchase(s).  After I got the 7th shelf, and it filled up,  I had run out of room for the shelves and they were completely full (700+ DVD's).  It was then that  the stacking began, on top, on the floor and to the side were piles of DVD's.  I did have my basket of movies...

....this I change out weekly with titles that I think I will watch or plan to watch, either by genre, actor, season, or what mood I am in decides on what I put in the basket and carry downstairs.  This alleviated very little congestion at the main heap of DVD's. So I had to think of another system... and came up with this....

... I found a CD binder, and started taking the overflow DVD's and throwing away the black cases, and putting the DVD's in here.  I keep the covers in a file in my desk, so that if I ever want to go back to the case system I can.  After I filled this one, with just four movies showing, I got this....

and it has when opened....

...8 movies showing.  So, now I have two of the large Body Glove Binders, and the narrow binder, so between the three binders I have stored about 800+ movies, and I still have a few stacks at the shelves, I need another binder.   The Blu Ray's I try and keep separate, downstairs in their own cabinet, hold long this will last depends on my spending.

So there you have it, a crazy system for a maniacal movie fan.

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar