The Beginning

A new year is here. For my New Year's resolution, I decided to embark on a culinary challenge. Okay, I admit it's not a huge culinary challenge, but it's a challenge nonetheless. 52 weeks, 52 new recipes. Each week, I'll try (at least but maybe more) one new recipe, whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert, and then I'll post my results here. Hopefully, you'll enjoy my newly found culinary treats and share ones with me that I can try as the year moves along.

 

One new recipe a week seemed like a manageable goal for me. I'm a busy, young woman, just beginning my legal career (I'm an attorney), and I didn't want to make the challenge something too big, like a new recipe every day, because I know that doesn't work with my schedule. I work long hours, and I don't always feel like cooking when I get home. I didn't want to set myself up for something that I knew wouldn't work for me like most New Year's resolutions.

 

I'm fascinated by cooking, and I love watching Paula Deen (The woman's amazing and makes you feel good. Don't believe me? I dare you to watch one of her shows when you're feeling down and not find yourself smiling by the end of the hour or half hour). I use to cook way more than I do now, mostly back in college and before my days in law school, and I'd like to get back to that. Hopefully I'll be eating healthier and saving some money this year by not eating out so much.

 

So here I am. One new recipe a week as I try to branch out with my cooking skills and stick to a yearlong adventure that should be a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it as much as I hopefully will. And to start, here is my first recipe of 2012.

Pudding Cookies

I found the recipe on Pinterest, one of my very favorite websites (it's beyond addicting). If you're not a member, you should definitely sign up. It's a free site where you can find great recipes, crafts, home and fashion ideas, and so much more. 

The recipe I found for these cookies comes from the blog Chef in Training. I'd never made cookies from scratch by myself before so I decided to give it a try. I might as well start with a bang, right? And besides, cookies for New Year's Day sounded like a good idea to me. 

So I started with my ingredients. 

1 1/2 sticks of butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 - 3.4 oz box of instant vanilla pudding

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

1-2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F.

2. Stir together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and both sugars together.

4. Add the pudding and beat until well blended. Just dump the powder right in. We're mixing the powder, not pudding already made.

5. Add the eggs and vanilla.

6. Gradually add the flour mixture in until well blended.

7. Roll into 1" balls and place on a greased baking sheet or parchment paper.

8. Bake at 350 F for 8-12 minutes.

Make sure you wait long enough for the butter to soften up, or you'll have a big mess on your hands like I did. Oops. At least I learned an important lesson. Paula Deen would be proud. 

Also, make sure you use a big enough bowl for mixing. Large should probably read very large. Another reason I had quite a mess on my hands. I probably should have taken a picture, but I'll leave that to your imagination. 

The cookies turned out quite well, but it'll probably be awhile before I try baking cookies from scratch again. I'll leave you here with the first batch and hopefully the beginning of a very fun, creative year.