ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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  7. This is random, but do you have any favorite cookie recipes?

    The reason I ask is because my mother is a physician at a children’s hospital, and I’ve always loved baking lots of cookies for her to take and give to other doctors and nurses she works with. It makes them happy, so it makes me happy too. Cookies are easy to pack individually, which makes it more hygienic to take into a hospital environment. I especially love making European recipe cookies since they’re not typically found in US bakeries, and they feel a bit more special.

    Any suggestions would be very appreciated 😀

    • I have one recipe that I love because it’s very easy to fiddle with for your own preferences.

      2 sticks of butter, softened
      3/4 cup of sugar
      2 eggs
      2 teaspoons of vanilla
      2 cups of flour, and a little extra if your batter needs it
      1 teaspoon baking soda
      1/2 teaspoon salt
      2 cups chocolate chips

      1) Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a 9×13” baking dish with parchment paper.
      2) Cream together your butter and sugar. I use a hand mixer, but if you need to get arm day in or you have a helper, a regular whisk is fine ????. Make sure you don’t skimp either way; the more time you spend with your mixer/whisk getting everything really creamy looking, the more your cookies puff up at the end.
      3) Add in your eggs and vanilla. Mix very well. In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, and salt. Use a fork or whisk to stir together.
      4) Gradually add your dry ingredients to your wet, stirring well after each addition and occasionally scraping the bowl and moving your dough so you can get any flour pockets on the bottom. You will probably need to switch to a spatula to stir at some point.
      5) Once your batter is uniform, add your chocolate chips and stir well. Then spread your dough in the baking dish, evening it out with a flat spatula or knife (or whatever implement suits you). Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top, and a toothpick comes out clean.

      I love this recipe so much because it’s so easily amended. I’ve used wheat flour or gluten free flour in place of AP, and it comes out lovely. You can cut back a little on the flour and add cocoa powder to make double chocolate cookies. As long as you have two cups total of add-ins, you can make whatever you want. My fave so far has been chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and Heath bar bits ????

      I haven’t tried flax eggs or chia eggs yet, but the baking soda-vinegar egg substitute works fine. With a little experimenting, you could make these vegan/dairy-free and gluten-free. Not setting off food allergies in a hospital = muy bueno. And the plus side of making sheet cookies in the casserole dish? You can cut the cookies into uniform pieces that fit in the palm of your hand and stack easily during packaging ????????

      …can you tell I’ve gotten a little baking obsessed during the plague? ????

    • Here are some of my favorites:

      Red Velvet Cookies

      https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/red_velvet_cookies/

      White Choc. Macadamia Nut

      https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-cookies/

      Ginger Snaps (I like this recipe because it uses oil which makes the cookies less chewy and gives them more of a “snap”)

      https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10757/moms-ginger-snaps/

      Tea Biscuits (family recipe)
      1 Cup Butter (softened)
      1 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar
      1 Egg
      1 tsp Vanilla Extract
      2 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
      Press/cut/shape cookies however you like; generally the thinner the better. These are NOT drop cookies and will keep their shape in the oven. Bake 8 minutes at 375 deg. Fahrenheit.

        • Easy Betty crocker sugar cookie mix biscotti. A little on time consuming with the double bake, but amazing. If you are making a single batch, use a jumbo egg. I usually made a double batch, using 3 regular eggs, split the batter into 2 batches, one with and one without chocolate chips. I also reduced the chocolate chips for a single batchntom1 cup. I’m a lousy baker, and I can’t screw this one up. I also like using a food processor to keep the flour in the air down. It will be a stiff dough.

          • I haven’t figured out how to cut and paste a link. Just Google Betty crocker sugar cookie mix biscotti.

  9. Thank you for a new thought for today.
    It was beautiful (and the cats didn’t hate it.)

  11. After working with so many different animals in my zookeeper career and hearing all their different vocalizations I came to the conclusion that it inspired humans to create music just to replicate the animals. This is such a great representation of that.

  17. Amazing. Everyone coming together to compose a song based on a scared/mad cat.
    Sounds like an earworm for sure 🙂

  18. Oh my gosh, thank you! That brought a smile to my face this scorcher of a morning. ????❤️

  22. My officemate showed me that when it was just the cat and the guy who added the original music. This is the updated version where apparently people posted their harmonies and he incorporated into this new video.

  23. That put a smile on my face. Always good to have reminders that good things are happening. Thank you for sharing.

  29. That was really fun, thank you. It reminds me of a Ted talk I saw by Ben Mirin who dj’s using bird sounds to make some really cool music.

  31. Well thats fun but as a Bach lover I can only take a little bit….the basic melody is a but redundant , but enjoyable

  33. Wow. I just shared this video with friends last week. Cool coincidence!
    It was a very interesting video.

  35. Wow! I love the around the world mash ups. First one I’ve seen with a feline element. Just wowza.

  38. Have you seen the Meredith Bull one? (instagram) She has this one and a bunch of others where she mixes it and adds actual lyrics (like what the animal *may* actually be thinking). They’re hilarious and even better than this version

  40. Okay humans (and cats) are incredible. This has single-handedly restored my faith in the world

  41. OMG. I loved it! Forward the video from His YouTube Channel to my Family and friends.

  42. Thanks for sharing ????

    Who can say that cats can’t sing? ????:-)

    Katzen brauchen furchtbar viel Musik
    (= german lyrics for the aristocats song)

    Everybody wants to be a cat
    Because a cat’s the only cat
    Who knows where it’s at
    Tell me, everybody’s pickin’ up on that feline beat
    ‘Cause everything else is obsolete
    ………
    I’ve heard some corny birds who who tried to sing
    Still a cat’s the only cat who knows how to swing….

  48. Currently on nights in the ICU. This was totally unexpected and it delighted me. Very much appreciated.

  58. Absolutely haunting and mystical. Listen to it every day.Kiddos to all involved!!!!

  60. So funny seeing an SA artist’s post that I follow on my favourite authors website. Kiff is SA slang for nice and he has kept us laughing and sane through this appalling disease. We are in our 3rd wave. No vaccines in sight but we are still smiling.

  62. Bwah ha ha ha. Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. Sounds like my evil Siamese Felix did when he would spot maintenance people from his window post and he was locked in my apartment. I ROFLOL with memories. Thank you.

  63. AWESOME!! My cats all looked up, eyes wide to listen, until I told them it was ok.

  68. I’m seeing Kiffness a day late but oh so timely for me…been having not so fun but woke up early and saw this after a couple hours fighting to reset my cc to sites when I just had to replace a stolen one…
    Saw one of my favorite addressees “Ilona Andrews” in my mailbox and somehow missed Kiffness yesterday…it soothed my soul!!!!

    Thank you!

  72. This is amazingly clever, but I had to stop it because my gray and white cat, Frodo, started looking for the encroaching tom. The yowl and throaty chuckling are exactly what he does when facing down another cat.

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