Two Real Simple Recipes

Last weekend, I made two recipes from the October issue of Real Simple. It seemed like the right thing to do, since I actually had enough time in my life to cook for once. Plus, you know, it is October and all—even though I refuse to believe it because I'm pretty sure I lost September somewhere.

The first recipe was Shrimp Pot Pie with Fennel, and I made it for Conservative Boy and Conservative Mom on Friday night—the perfect kind of meal for a dreary, chilly day.

Pot pies seem like they'd be a lot of work, but this one had very few ingredients and involved puff pastry, which I happened to have in the freezer, so it was a cinch. And very tasty, the sort of meal that warms your insides. I recommend trying it yourself. You can get the recipe from the Real Simple website.

Then, on Sunday, I tried the Peanut Butter-Cup Cookie recipe.

I'm a huge fan of peanut butter and chocolate and cookies, so of course I had to make them, particularly once I found mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups at the store.

I'll tell you this: They're incredibly tasty. But mine did NOT look anything like the ones shown in the magazine, which appeared light and chewy and still showed hints of the telltale edge of the peanut butter cup.

I'm pretty sure they didn't bake their cookies all the way before the photo shoot. It's the only reasonable explanation.

The reason I think this is because I cooked mine for less than 10 minutes, as opposed to the 12 to 15 recommended in the magazine, and they came out flat and crispy and thoroughly melted.

Good, but crunchy.

Is this the fault of my overzealous oven? Perhaps. Did my baking soda spend too much time hanging out next to the bad corn starch? Maybe. Or it's possible these cookies are just destined to be a bit crunchier than the other recipes I make.

I know some of you, dear readers, love a good crunchy chocolate chip cookie, in which case these babies are for you.

Conservative Boy and I prefer big, fat, soft cookies though, so these took some getting used to. Still, they are pretty good, so I can't complain too much.

Try them yourself—again, you can get it from the Real Simple website. And let me know how your cookies turn out. Is it just the baker? Or are these cookies destined to be crunchy every time they're made?