Don’t tell my husband about the snickerdoodle “libel” above - these are his favorites and will eat half a dozen on bake day (which is why you’ll see that I made just over THREE DOZEN in my accompanying instagram reel).

Ingredients1

• 113 g unsalted butter (1 stick, room temperature)

• 110 g granulated white sugar (1/2 cup)

• 33 g light brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp vanilla (measure with your heart)

• 185 g all purpose flour (1 1/3 cup)

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (diamond crystal)

• 1 tsp cream of tartar

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• cinnamon and sugar to make cin sugar mix (I eyeball a 1 part cinnamon to 4 part sugar mix)

Instructions

1. Cream together the softened butter, granulated white sugar and light brown sugar. This will take a good few minutes and you really want to make sure you get the butter sugar to a fluffy consistency.

2. Beat in the egg and vanilla; scrape down the bowl to make sure everything is fully incorporated (mix again if needed).2

3. With a spatula, fold in the flour, cinnamon, kosher salt, cream of tartar and baking soda - be sure to not over mix.

4. I prefer to portion out the cookie dough before chilling as the dough is easier to handle and reduces chilling time.

5. The dough must be chilled for at least half an hour - I usually let the oven preheat to 350 F during this time. Also prepare the cinnamon sugar mixture at this stage.

6. Once the oven has reached temperature and the cookies have sufficiently chilled, toss the cookie dough balls in the cinnamon sugar mix and bake on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

7. Bake cookies for 12 minutes total. At 9 minutes, you want to open the oven and bang the cookie pan to create some of the ripples in the cookie and to encourage spread, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and resume baking for another 3 minutes. Once the final 3 minutes is up, bang the pan once more before cooling on the counter for a few minutes before serving.

The dough can be made ahead and stored in fridge in an airtight container or bag for up to a week. If longer than a week, I would suggest freezing. You can bake from frozen, but your cook times may vary; if you can plan ahead, move the dough back into the fridge 24 hours before you plan to bake the cookies and bake as instructed in the recipe above.

Regardless of how you choose to store the dough, I strongly suggest portioning / scooping / balling the dough before you store it and toss in the cinnamon sugar mix just before you bake.

A simple soup for when weather the weather gets chilly (because we don’t get cold in Houston). My family’s preference is to pair the soup with crusty bread as opposed to grilled cheese; the bread functions like soup croutons and I love the texture it provides when the bread soaks in the soup while you dip and munch. Serve with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, fresh cracked pepper and a sprig of fresh basil. Also serve with your protein of choice on the side. This recipe serves 4 as a main and 6 if being served as a side dish.

Ingredients

Roasted Tomato Soup

• 2 pounds tomatoes (I prefer tomatoes on the vine)

• 1 red bell pepper1

• 1 yellow onion

• 5-6 cloves of garlic

• 3-4 cups of chicken stock (using better than bullion)2

• extra virgin olive oil

• salt

• black pepper

• dried oregano

• crushed red pepper

• fresh basil

• sugar

• balsamic vinegar, for drizzling

Garlic Bread

• fresh bread loaf

• minced garlic

• 4 tablespoons of butter

• grated mozzarella

• salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. De-stem and quarter your tomatoes, red bell pepper and onions. Peel (and smash, if you wish) your garlic cloves. Toss with evoo, salt and pepper, add to a ceramic baking pan and bake for an hour. Check occasionally to make sure your veggies char too much. If they start to blacken too much, just stir the veggies around.3

2. Once the veg is done roasting, add to a heavy bottomed pot and add 3 cups of chicken stock (reserve the remaining 1 cup). Blend with an immersion blender (or transfer to a blender and blend - add back to the pot once blended).

3. Let simmer for a few minutes and taste. At this stage, add the remaining cup of chicken stock if you feel like you want the soup to be thinner and continue to simmer.

4. Once simmered, you may want to add some sugar if your tomatoes are on the sour side. Season with salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and dried oregano to taste. Add some fresh basil and blend again.

5. Toast some garlic bread by combining minced garlic, salt and softened butter together and slathering onto some crusty bread. Optionally sprinkle with mozzarella.

Ingredients

Chicken Pot Pie Filling

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thigh

• 4 tbsp (half stick) unsalted butter

• 1 cup half & half

• 1/4 cup parmesan1

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour

• 1 yellow onion (I use the larger ones), diced

• 3 (fat) carrots, diced

• 3 (long) celery stalks, diced

• 5 garlic cloves, finely diced

• 1 cup frozen peas2

• 3 cups chicken stock

• 1 tsp fresh thyme

• Herbs de provence, smoked paprika, salt and black pepper

Cheddar Biscuit Crust

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1.5 tsp each of garlic powder, salt and sugar

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and grated

• 4 ounces of shredded cheddar (medium or sharp), cold

• 3/4 cup buttermilk, cold

• more (melted) butter for brushing3

Instructions

Chicken Pot Pie Filling

1. Season the chicken thighs with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Sear the chicken thigh in a skillet;4 no need to cook the chicken all the way through but you want to get a good color and crust on the chicken. Set chicken aside to cool.

2. In the same pan, add the 4 tbsp of butter and sauté the onions, celery and carrots until softened, about 6-8 minutes on medium heat. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Make sure to scrape up the chicken fond on the bottom of the pan.

3. Add garlic, fresh thyme, 1 tsp herbs de provence and 1 tsp smoked paprika, sauté on medium until fragrant, about 2-3 mins.

4. Add in the flour and stir well, cook for about 3-4 mins stirring frequently to avoid burning the flour. Turn down the heat a bit if needed.

5. A little at a time, stir in the chicken stock and mix and scrape constantly until no flour/veg clumps remain and then mix in the half and half until combined. Simmer on low until slightly thickened and stir occasionally.

6. Chop the chicken into cubes, add the chicken and peas into the filling and mix. Let the peas cook a bit since they are frozen and then taste and season the filling if and as needed. Optionally stir in the parmesan, it will add some saltiness and help thicken the base. (My husband and I prefer quite a peppery and herby filling so I really crank on the pepper grinder at this stage.)

7. Turn the heat off the filling and while it is cooling, preheat the oven to 400 F and work on the biscuit crust.

Cheddar Biscuit Crust

1. In a bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt and garlic powder. Mix to incorporate before adding the shredded cheddar and grated butter. (Optional - crack some black pepper into this as well. See comment about pepper love above lol)

2. Gently stir in the buttermilk until just incorporated. Avoid overworking the dough but it should be able to lightly pack together when you create mounds.

3. Using golf ball sized blobs that are lightly flattened, cover the top of the pot pie filling/skillet with the biscuit crust

4. Bake5 at 400 F for about 30 mins (Check the crust at 22 ish mins, brush the top with butter (or heavy cream, see FN 3 below) and sprinkle some more salt on the crust and bake for the remaining time) based on your oven it may take less than the full 30 mins.

5. Let cool for at least 10-15 minutes before serving. Add more black pepper if desired (again, we love pepper).

This recipe comfortably serves 6-8 depending on side dishes.

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