Apricot Exotic Chai Spice coookiiieeees [Wenatchee Photography + Design]

We have staff meetings at work about once a month. Each month it is assigned to one person to provide a safety tip and (in the past) provide a treat. Months ago, we all agreed that the treat was not necessary and that "we won't be doing that anymore." Well each month the treat (NO TREAT) person STILL brings a treat. Not required of course, but "hey, I did anyway..." Well, September rolls around and it's my month. Or I think it is. I don't remember if I am September-person or October-person but someone comes to me the night before and says "oh hey, you're safety tip tomorrow...so bring a treat." And we all kinda' laugh and I say "but we're not doing that anymore...?" And everyone AGREES, we are NOT...but ya know...if you wanted to...

So that night I decide there is no way I'm going to be the person who doesn't bring a treat even though we ALL AGREE we are not doing that. Not me, no way, not on my watch. A quick scan through my pantry reveals an assortment of partially filled (but not completely gone) things. Half a package of still-moist, dried apricots. About one-third of a package each of unsweetened and regular sweetened shredded coconuts. Some walnuts. Three-fourths of a pack of white-chocolate chips. Two almost gone boxes of cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats and Rice Krispies.) A box of Chai Spice tea. And my saving grace, a new box of Spice Cake mix.

I can work with this. Those can all go together and spice is perfect for September/October. Now, I'm not even sure if it's really MY TURN to be the safety tip/treat (no treat!) person ANYWAY, but I've been tapped to provide/not provide a treat, so spicey it is. I'm calling these "Apricot Exotic Chai Spice cookies" because "Apricot Exotic Chai Spice Coconut Walnut Honey Bunches of Oats Rice Krispies White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies" is a tad long-winded.

So here we go:

1. 1 regular package spice cake mix
2. 1 cup butter, softened
3. 2 eggs
4. 1/4 cup strong brewed Chai tea (I used 3 tea bags)
   
5. 1/2 cup crushed Honey Bunches of Oats cereal
   
6. 1/2 cup Rice Krispies cereal
7. 1 cup quick or rolled oats
8. 1 cup shredded coconut (I mixed sweetened and unsweetened)
   
9. 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
10. 3/4 cup chopped dried apricots (the moist kind)
11. 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
    
12. 2 tablespoons sugar (I used chunky Demerrera, again because it was in the cupboard and almost gone)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, brewed Chai tea and eggs; mix well. I used a hand mixer. The mixture is thick.
3. Add cereals, oats, coconut, walnuts, white chocolate chips and dried apricots; mix well. Now it is really thick. I used the hand mixer and then my muscles to try and get all the add-ins distributed as evenly as I could.
4. Use a big cookie scoop (mine was a 3 TBS scoop) to scoop and drop dough 2 inches apart onto parchement-lined cookie sheets.
5. Take a flat-bottom glass, rub a bit of butter on the bottom and dip in the sugar. Use this to flatten the cookies. (repeating the sugar-dip between each one and re-butter as necessary to keep the glass from sticking to the cookie.)
6. Bake about 14 minutes, or until set. Let cool 5 minutes then move to wire racks and let cool completely. Well, eat one first while it's still warm. Then let the rest cool.

This made about 20 large cookies.

(Paleo) Banana Zucchini Cherry Walnut Bread [Wenatchee photography + design]

Found a recipe that lived up to it's claim to be Paleo, easy and yummy. From the What Runs Lori blog comes this moist, hearty, delicious sweet bread (recipe on that link). Since it was Saturday, and we'd just gone to the Farmer's Market, I happened to have everthing on hand. It was all mixed in one bowl with no difficult prep, as can be common in trying to paleo-ize "regular" recipes and after one taste I knew I'd found my go-to recipe for using extra ripe bananas. I'll still consider it a treat and not a staple, but I'm happy to have found something like this my family and I can enjoy on occasion.

My only mods to the recipe as written were I used coconut oil (melted) in place of the olive oil, honey instead of maple syrup (on accident, I just put it in before I realized it wasn't syrup) and I used the NuNaturals MoreFiber insterad of the plain BakingBlend, because it's what I had on hand. Once they're out of season, I might sub the cherries with some chopped extra dark chocolate next time. Or maybe blueberries...I see a lot of options!

U-pick blueberries [Wenatchee photography + design]

Indie and went out to Sleepy Hollow Nursery, between Wenatchee and Cashmere, and picked blueberries. They have a u-pick farm and while the berries are always good, this year they were the biggest berries I've ever seen. The diameter of quarters and as big as cherries. And, as always, so sweet. I can't get enough blueberries this summer.

Paleo Dinner [Wenatchee food photography]

Anyone else living and loving Paleo/Primal? I'm not there 100% but probably about 75% and it is making big differences in just about every area of my life. Curious to see where it goes and how I continue to feel.

Making biscuits [Wenatchee food photography]

Called 7-UP biscuits or Popeye's Biscuits, these are super easy, with only 4 ingredients. The recipe is everywhere on the internet and I saw it at Cooks.com. Pair these with a homemade soup or chili on a snowy, cold Wenatchee winter night and you can't go wrong. We made Chicken Corn Chowder (recipe coming soon) and ate well the whole weekend.