New Year's resolutions - new recipes, weeks 7 and 8 - Cowboy Cookies and Butternut Squash

Took a hiatus from the blog, but not from my resolutions! Successfully entering the third month of the year at the end of this week, and so far, still on track with making one new recipe per week!

Two Sundays ago, I got to a cookie recipe I had bookmarked the first time I saw it: Cowboy Cookies from the NY Times website. As usual, I gathered all of the ingredients and the kitchen implements I would need to put these together.
That's a lot of stuff!! I was so intrigued by the combination of pecans, oatmeal, coconut and chocolate chips. Tell me that doesn't sound amazing! As I added ingredient after ingredient to the mixer, though, I did begin to wonder: is it all going to fit??
Once the base cookie was set, it was time to add the goodies - but the mixing bowl definitely wasn't going to be big enough! I improvised with our pasta bowl, and it turned out to be an inspired choice: easy to mix all of the add-ins and also turned out to be easy to scoop out the cookies to put onto the pan.
The recipe called for 1/4 cup of batter per cookie - and those turned out to be some BIG cookies!!
They are absolutely delicious, but unfortunately, I'm the only one that is really into them; Justin has had some and likes them, but I don't think the kids have tried them at all. I think if I make them again, it will probably be with the intent to bring them to a party or share them with friends!

Given the great success I've had with the NYT recipes, I decided to get a bit more adventurous with a side dish to go with our turkey dinner last Sunday. Instead of the standard sides, I thought I'd put a spin on the butternut squash with this Shredded Butternut Squash with Browned Butter, Sage and Pecans.
I got a thrill out of being able to use the shredder blade on my KitchenAid; much, much better than trying to do it by hand! I also felt a sense of accomplishment in actually finding all of the ingredients; I had to go to three different grocery stores to find the pomegranate seeds called for in the recipe.
The recipe wasn't too complicated, and I followed it step by step. The end result on my plate before dinner:
Yep, it was as unappetizing as it looked. I was disappointed - this was the first NYT recipe that turned out to be a bust. Nobody else liked it, either, so half of it got dumped into the trash as we did the dishes. I suppose it's good that not everything works out; now maybe I'll try a little harder to find a different recipe source and mix things up a bit.

Even when things don't turn out great, or if not everyone in my family likes what I make, I'm still enjoying the process and trying new things!

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