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Feel-Good Food - It's In The Bag

Lynn Kessel, Tribune Correspondent

Carrot chocolate chip cookies are a good way to get finicky kids to eat carrots.

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By LYNN KESSEL, Tribune Correspondent

Published: February 27, 2008

Updated: 02/25/2008 07:13 pm

My friend Connie recently dropped off a shopping bag full of cooking magazines - a culinary bonanza of recipes.

Burrowing my way through the bag, I was reunited with a decade of Taste of Home magazines. As I was a subscriber in the 1990s, I was thrilled. It was better than a morning of yard sale hopping.

At first thumb-through, I realized I could make every recipe in these skinny little magazines. There were no brownie recipes that go on for three pages, no posh presentations, no parade of professional culinary experts and no celebrity chefs hawking pots and pans.

Instead, the Reader's Digest-owned magazine puts a welcome emphasis on simple family meals - uncomplicated and satisfying.

I really don't like the over-used term "comfort food," but recipes like Buttery Bubble Bread, Creamy Hash Brown Casserole or German Hot Noodle Salad remind me of feel-good foods I had in my childhood.

The Wisconsin-based company's slogan is, "The magazine edited by a thousand country cooks!" All recipes are sent in by home cooks just like you and me, from places such as Columbus, Neb., and Macon, Miss.

Every issue offers regular features such as Potluck Pleasers, My Mom's Best Meal, Getting in the Theme of Things, Super Snacks and Appetizers, and Clip and Keep recipe cards.

My favorite is Shortcuts Worth Sharing. I'm fascinated by the kitchen tricks folks come up with to solve everyday problems. For example, when making frosting for cookies from confectioners' sugar, use seedless jam for color and flavor instead of food coloring. It's easy, quick and much more natural. Why didn't I think of that?

Occasionally, when I have visions of spectacular meals like roasted shellfish with coriander, fennel and Meyer lemon, I'll make a trip to the newsstand for issues of Saveur, Gourmet or Fine Cooking. But when I'm craving something nostalgic, comfort me with mom's salmon loaf and mashed potatoes mixed with peas, please.

This recipe for carrot chocolate chip cookies is a good way to get finicky kids to eat carrots. It comes from the Light Bites section featured in the February/March 2002 issue of Light & Tasty.

CARROT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup fat-free milk

1/3 cup canola oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup raisins

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, milk and oil. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and nutmeg; add to egg mixture and mix well. Stir in the chips, oats, carrots and raisins. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yields about 7 dozen.

Source: Light & Tasty magazine

Lynn Kessel can be reached at lkessel@mac.com or P.O. Box 286, Ruskin FL 33575-0286. Readers are encouraged to send in their favorite recipes, comments and suggestions.

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