I will reveal our latest adventure now! Drumroll please: We spent the month of November in Arizona. We have dear friends who live there during the winter and when we were visiting during February, we tossed around the idea to buy a second house there. But before we make the plunge, we wanted to be certain we liked it so we rented an awesome house in the same community that our friends live.
Now who were we kidding? It was -5° C (23° F) (but it felt like -10° C (14° F)) in Toronto while we were enjoying 28° C (82° F) with sunshine. Every. Single. Day. What’s not to like? The community is tagged as resort-style living with a gorgeous golf course and 4 swimming pools, a spa, workout facilities and a couple of restaurants. Yep, I could get used to it!
The community is located in Queen’s Creek. Queen’s Creek is situated in the San Tan Valley, south-east of Phoenix, Arizona. As another friend said, “it’s not quite the end of the world, but you can see the end of the world from there!”
It is also a mere 4.5-hour drive to the Grand Canyon and that is where we did our EPIC hike! We hiked 7.5 hours to Indian Grove and back. Going down was relatively easy, we bought good hiking boots and sticks, but going up was significantly more challenging because of the altitude and lack of oxygen. We stopped and rested a lot. Listening to your body is essential as is allowing your muscles to recover as you’re ascending. It took us 3 hours to hike down and 3.5 hours to hike back up (which isn’t bad for a couple of old folks!), the rest of the time we spent at Indian Grove eating a delicious lunch I packed. The worst part was the day and day two later, my calves ached like a demon. But it was worth it! I’ve put together s little slide show of our hike at the end of this post, if you are interested. And by the way, my stupid FitBit died sometime during our hike so I don’t even know how many steps we did, but if the last time we hiked only 1.5 hours down and back was any indication, we did 22,000 steps! This is my third FitBit Zip and when I called them that it was eating the batteries like crazy (one every 2-3 weeks) they said it was a known issue and they are working on fixing it but would do NOTHING ELSE. So I am done with FitBit, they let me down in one of the most epic hikes of my life and had nothing but “oh, sorry” to say about it. I am going to get a Garmin which I hear are much more reliable.
This cookie has nothing to do with the hike or our trip, it’s a cookie I made for Canadian Thanksgiving at my sweet cousin Lucy’s place. My dear blogging friend Liz (of That Skinny Chick Can Bake, blog) was the inspiration, I saw the recipe on her site a while back. These cookies were all the rave in the 90’s on restaurant menus but I haven’t seen one in ages. Liz’s recipe will change that for sure.
Skillet Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Makes 1 12″ Cookie
Please click here for the original recipe.
Click here to print this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 195 g butter
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 150 g brown sugar
- 15 mL vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 350 g AP Flour
- 3 g baking powder
- 5 g salt
- 100 g chocolate chips (I used Belgian milk and semi-sweet chocolate)
Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 375° F (I used the convection setting). Prepare a 30 cm cast iron skillet with non-stick cooking spray.
- Melt the butter and sugars in a heatproof bowl in the microwave, stir until sugars have melted. Cool slightly and then stir in the vanilla. Combine the egg and whites and whisk. Whisk into the butter-sugar mixture.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, add it to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until well combined.
- Fold in 3/4 the chocolate, reserving about 1/4 to dot the top of the cookie for garnish.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool to room temperature. Serve slicing fractions of the circle.
Notes:
- I like to buy Belgian chocolate disks (not molding chocolate) and melt them, spread them on a cookie sheet and chill until set. Then I break up the sheets by hand, making different sized pieces with a variety of thicknesses.
Click on the first photo to see the slideshow.
Finally, a cookie size that makes sense. This is a single serving, right? Your trip and your hike sound fantastic!
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Ha ha! You might want to break out the Alka Seltzer if you decide to consume this cookie in one sitting! Thanks for your kind words, the trip was awesome, wish I was there now.
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What amazing news Eva!! And good for you for hiking too. You guys are so fit! P.S. I must be losing my mind because I swear I left a comment on this post!
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Thank you for your kind words, Lorraine, we trained quite a bit over the summer to work up to this type of hike, it is definitely not for the occasional walker!
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Amazing news Eva! But gah, transitioning from Arizona to dem Canadian winters, not easy… I’m with you sister. Very wise to suss things out by renting first, so glad you loved the experience. Lots to look forward to! I always tell friends who are travelling to the Vegas area’ that the Grand Canyon is really where they want to be. What a yummy looking skillet treat for the holidays! Your family must have delighted in that one.
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Thanks Kelly, the cookie was a huge hit. I know what you mean about Vegas, I’ve been twice for about a week and both times we had to escape the noise and bustle. The first time we drove to a beautiful ski hill about 30 minutes from Vegas and the second time we went hiking at Red Rock State Park. The Grand Canyon is a trip unto itself.
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Great recipe! And great hike! Sounds like tons of fun. Have you ever read Colin Fletcher’s _The Man Who Walked Through Time_? It describes his hike through Grand Canyon National Park. Fun read. And fun post — thanks.
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Hi John, thank you for your comment. No I’ve not read that book, but I’ll put it on my list, it sounds interesting.
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This cookie is certainly the reward for a 22,000 step (3-hour) hike. So I’m guessing that you can have two skillets full after a 6 1/2-hour hike. I track my steps every day. I’ve set 12,000 as my goal (maybe I get a 1/2 skillet?) and I find monitoring daily keeps me close to my goal. I use the app called Health on my iPhone. GREG
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Hi Greg, thanks so much for your kind words.12,000 is great daily goal, I will look into the iPhone app, but I don’t carry my phone everywhere.
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The dreaded cold front will arrive tomorrow and I sure wish I had a trip to AZ in the works! So glad you had a marvelous time despite the aching calves and fit bit failure (my daughter’s on her 3rd and it’s starting to break apart—she won’t bother getting it replaced when it dies!). So glad you enjoyed this loaded skillet cookie!!! xo
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Thanks Liz for your kind words. I was quite distraught when the darn thing died, I could just imagine how many steps I’ve missed out on. My family loved your cookie, thanks again for the inspiration.
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Looks like a terrific hike and a great place to have a second home, Eva. Hope it works out for you guys! This cookie looks positively wicked, but with all that hiking, who cares?
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Thanks so much Betsy, the hike was absolutely awesome, I wish I could do it again soon. The cookie was rather tasty too.
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I too love Liz’s recipes! This is one gorgeous giant cookie. Awesome! Glad that you had a great time in Arizona.
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Thanks Angie, we are already thinking about going back.
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The cookie looks great and your photos are amazing! Congratulations on completing the hike!
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Thanks Michela, I would strongly recommend the hike for you, Kevin and Rowan, it is absolutely awesome!
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Cake or a cookie, I can’t quite tell but it looks sweet and delicous.
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It really was delicious, thanks Maria.
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