It's almost cookie time

Engineers are lazy.

I'm not sure if you've seen the wiener dog and the tennis ball launcher, but that's the best example I've seen on the internet lately. People see it as so innovative and creative... dude invented a machine so he wouldn't have to throw a ball for the dog. Lazy as fuck.

Lemme tell you, if someone hadn't already invented a dishwasher, I'd have a prototype hooked up to my sink right now.

And when a prof gives tells me I have to do a 5 minute free form presentation on anything I want (as long as I can somehow tie it to the class material), I spend hours trying to figure out how I can do this without actually doing any work.

Totally figured out how to have cookies be my schoolwork.

Which covers off this week's blog post.

Double lazy.

Ginger-Orange Brown Sugar Cookies

totally lazed out on the name too.

• 1/2 c butter
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• zest of one orange
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange juice
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

This is a bit of a variation on a typical sugar cookie. The brown sugar makes it a lot more caramelly, but also means you really have to watch them in the oven. Which you should preheat to 325. Lower temp for the brown sugar too.

Cream the butter and sugar with the ginger and the orange zest.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until it's light and fluffy and looks like it would make an awesome icing for a cake.

Don't forget the oj.

There was no baking powder in the picture. Dammit.

The dry ingredients will turn this into a very soft dough. Very soft. Might be worth letting it chill in the fidge for an hour or so, but I was impatient so I started rolling it.

If I was going to cut this into anything other than rectangles, I would have chilled it.

But, rectangles. Easiest thing you can cut a cookie into. Lasy person's cookie shape. Only drop cookies are lazier, but I had a goal here so I had to cut them.

And bake them. For barely 10 minutes.

I really need an oven thermometer. I looked for one today, but all I could find were fridge thermometers. Fridge? Really? Have to admit, I've never worried about that temperature. Brown sugar cookies in a nearly antique oven with serious calibration issues, I worry about.

Once they were cooled, I had to turn them into strain gauges.

Yes, strain gauges.

Yes, strain gauges. This is a school project remember.

But from this angle, they look like scary monsters.

The other way, and we have happy little music notes...

A bit of melted chocolate in a small sammich bag goes a long way. But be careful about explosions.

For another purpose, I'd say make these circles and put the chocolate around the edges. The bittersweet chocolate works really well with the zesty orange, and the fresh ginger (yeah, you could use dried, but seriously, try the fresh) gives the familiar warmth but with a sharpness that seems to lighten the usually warm and heavy spice.

I'm going to have to make these again once I'm done school. Perfect for sharing at work.

What's your favourite lazy way out of work?

Dates for squares

It's still February, and we're still 2, so I'm still making square things.

And these dates are as close as I want to get to anything called a "date" this close to VD. 

Date Squares

• 3 c dates
• 1 1/2 c water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 c quick cooking oats
• 1 c flour
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 c cold butter

My oven is already pre- heating to 350.

First, the filling. Dates are very sticky and sweet; measure them whole, packed into the measuring cup like you would brown sugar, then dump them out

and chop them

See? Sticky.

Dump the chopped dates into a pot with the water and vanilla and put them over medium-low heat. They only need about 5 or 10 minutes in the pot. Stir them from time to time, and you'll know they're done when most of the water is gone. At that point, mash them.

Apparently you could dump them in a food processor, but I'd rather wash a potato masher than a food processor. Also, my food processor is already in the dirty dishes pile.

While the dates are cooking down, you can put the crusty parts together. Dump all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them together.

Then add the cold butter, chopped in chunks, and use a pastry cutter to turn it into soft, moist crumbs.

They should hold together like a sand castle when you squish a handful.

Press about 2/3 of the crumbs into a buttered, parchment-lined square pan. I don't know if mine is 8 or 9 inches but I'm pretty sure it will all fit.

Next, the mashed dates, spread out to the edges.

Dump the last of the crumbs on top and gently spread them out.

Pan, meet oven.

Let them cool in the pan for a while before lifting them out (parchment is so handy) onto a cooling rack. I've seen suggestions to let the big square chill in the fridge for a while before cutting into little squares, and I think they might be onto something.

They did hold their shape, but they'd have been better at it if they were colder. Even still, I recommend eating with a fork, all fancy like.

What kind of squares do you eat by hand?