Change of plans & Nutella cookies

It's almost unbelievable how fast things can change. One minute you're busy in the kitchen with dinner party preparations and the next minute you're husband falls down the stairs and breaks his ankle.
That's what happened last weekend when I asked him to bring down my ice making machine. It turns out it's pretty risky to marry a crazy dutch foodie who want to make her own ice cream  ;).

After falling down the stairs...

As far as the ice maker; it was off course broken but the insurance company immediately compensated that.
My husband on the other hand had to undergo surgery and can't walk for at least 6 weeks :(.  After a few days I realized this was not only about my husband having a lot of pain and unable to walk. It also caused a change in a lot of other plans which I hadn't thought about before. We couldn't travel to the two Michelin star restaurant where we had a lunch reservation. But even worse; our planned trip to visit friends in Israel and spent a few days in the old city of Jerusalem in April  is probably not possible. My husband can't walk without crutches and this place was not exactly designed for the disabled  with all the narrow, cobble stoned streets ;).

And with my husband recovering at home it also meant  all of a sudden family, friends and colleagues came along to keep him company and were a welcome distraction for the pain.
So besides I had to do all the things at home all by myself now I also had to make sure all the visitors were 'entertained' with drinks and food. That combined with the fact I'm really busy writing my Bachelor thesis made me a bit stressed out and I decided to keep it simple. Well as 'simple' as a crazy foodie can be; I still refuse to get takeaway or microwave food. For me it's just cooking things that are easy to make and do not involve a lot of shopping for ingredients in different stores. 

So when my mother in law and her boyfriend came over I made lasagna the night before and served it with a green salad. For dessert I used the Doyenne du Comice pears, which I actually had intended to make ice from, in a crumble. My parents brought french fries and snacks with them and I made a tapenade with olives, sun dried tomatoes & Parmesan as an appetizer on toast. One day I heated up some leftover potatoes and sauerkraut-dish from the freezer and the day he came back home after the surgery we baked pizza's. 
And one afternoon, while my husband was talking to one of his visitors, I tried a recipe from Pinterest which was almost to easy to be true. 

It was a recipe for nutella cookies originally from the blog 'A Busy Nest' and someone who pinned it wrote a very clear instruction; DO NOT ADD SUGAR!
So I didn't and was amazed by the result; chewy chocolate cookies. A bit crispy on the edge and soft on the inside. And from start to finish it only took me about 15 minutes! Definitely the ideal recipe for unexpected visitors :). Meanwhile I found even more 'Nutella cookie' recipes on Pinterest with different additions like peanut butter or sea salt. Can't wait to try them all. In the meanwhile I safely stored them on my Pinterest board 'recipes to try'.

You can find the recipe through the blog link above; just leave out the sugar. They are sweet and tasty enough. Here I 'translated' the recipe to European measurements. For the Dutch version in PDF click here.

Nutella cookies

• 1 cup Nutella -> 200 grams
• 1 cup all-purpose flour -> 120 grams
• 1 egg (large)

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit/175 degrees Celsius. 
Blend all ingredients together well (I used a spoon first and then mixed it by hand).
Form into 2,5 centimeter balls (a bit smaller than golf balls).  
Place on cookie sheet & press down firmly with bottom of floured glass. 
Bake 7-8 minutes or until set (my oven needed a bit longer) and cool.

Even after a few days in a cookie jar they are still good!

Measuring cups to grams