my {failed} attempt at applesauce cookies

one of my new year's resolutions/goals was to cook more and learn how to cook. so this week i have attempted to partake in a little bit that will head me in the direction of that goal. my first attempt was applesauce cookies. i learned to make cookies from my mom and ours have always turned out flat and crispy, which don't get me wrong are fabulous, but i have always pined over soft, moist, delicious, non-flat cookies. i had heard that applesauce in your cookies improves them health wise and softness-wise. so i found a recipe online and went at it (chocolate chip was the kind as in my mom's house there really is no other kind of cookie :]). i then got real ambitious and decided to add oatmeal to them on my own account (should have been a sign of demise #1; i should never try to make things on my own especially as an inexperienced chef).

then once i got all the ingredients mixed together my "dough" looked like this:

should have been sign of demise #2.... it was just a big goopy mess. now i'm usually a pretty hands on type of person and i didn't even want to touch this. so i made my "balls" with the spoon and glopped them onto the cookie sheet. well, apparently this is not a good method and i must have made them too big because when i looked into the oven i saw this:
ugh... pretty much one big massive cookie. so i knew that i needed to make the "balls" much smaller next time. i let the cookies settle for about 5 minutes or so hoping they'd be hardened enough to easily take off the cookie sheet. and of course they were not, but little did i know they would never get hard enough to hold themselves as a cookie.

i went to open the container the next day to have one and the edges that were once crispy were completely soggy. in fact they all were completely soggy: one big soggy cookie in the container. FAIL. i'm not sure what went wrong but i read something about maybe needing to strain the applesauce first to get out excess water? i don't know but i still used all the same ingredients as i would have in regular cookies that recipe did me no good in my "healthier" cookie attempt. oh well, we'll try something new and different next time.

some of my other cooking "firsts" and "attempts" this week:

• steamed carrots
• steamed cauliflower
• grilled tilapia
• grilled shrimp
• turkey burgers

i had never steamed anything before and i love the taste of the steamed carrots and cauliflower!! will be done mucho in the future! i had never made grilled fish or shrimp before; i need to figure out a better blend of spices to put on the fish to mask the fishy taste a bit more but it was good! and turkey burgers are nothing new or exciting i just had never done the actual turkey burgers before, just browned the ground turkey.