Chocolate pudding made simple

This is the best chocolate pudding I have ever tasted. I took a basic recipe from Food Network and added several ingredients (salt, vanilla, instant coffee) for more flavor. I'm glad I did because the result was smooth, rich and satisfying - just what we are looking for when craving chocolate! Sorry, but Artie, my blender, did not help me with this. The recipe was so good, I wanted to write it down before I forgot it so I can make it again. This way, you can see it too. Try it, you'll like it!

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 white sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
dash of salt
1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
2 cups milk or 1 cup milk and 1 cup half and half (this is what I had, so I used it and it was fine)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Mix cocoa, sugar, salt and corn starch and coffee granules in a sauce pan.
2. Bring mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly over low to medium heat.
3. Add chocolate chips and stir in until melted.
4. Beat egg with a fork in measuring cup and add 1/4 cup of the pudding mixture to temper the egg. When thoroughly mixed, pour it into the pudding and cook over medium heat while whisking for about a minute.
5. Add vanilla and mix.
6. Pour into individual serving dishes, cover and chill for 2 hours before eating.

To make you drool cookies

Today I decided to make cookies. Ah, but what kind of cookies? Chocolate chip oatmeal pecan cookies, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I found a great recipe on another blog site, but needed to personalize it a bit, so I looked up cookie tips. What I learned is that in order to ensure I don't produce "looser cookies" (what my daughter Beth and I affectionately refer to all cookies that flatten out when they bake) I need to be careful not to over-beat the sugars, butter and eggs, and possibly reduce the amount of eggwhite called for in the recipe. I did both things and the results will make your mouth water! Since I was running low on Vanilla Extract, I used Brandy Extract also.
Here is the recipe I created:

Goodies:
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
dash of ground cloves
dash of cardamom
2 1/2 cups of old fashioned oats
1 cup toasted pecans

1 stick butter
1 stick margarine
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp brandy extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Steps:
1. Process the whole pecans and oats together in a food processor until the nuts are roughly chopped and the oats are reduced in size but not turned into flour.
2. Add all the other dry ingredients to the nuts and oats.
3. Cream the sugars and butter together on low speed for about 2 minutes. Add the whole egg, mix again on low speed then add the yolk and mix.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture using the mixer's #2 speed until moistened.
5. Place rounded tablespoon sized cookies on cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 8-11 minutes, depending on oven and desired crispness.
6. Leave cookies on the warm cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to cookie racks to finish cooling.
7. Try to keep everyone from eating all of them at one time.