My first foray into a new cookbook

So here was my challenge. I own many, many cookbooks. I cook regularly out of three or four. I have cooked out of about 20% my collection. I am determined to cook at least one recipe from each of the cookbooks I own.

Last night was my first meal with a new cookbook. I think I need to shift my expectations. Some of it has to do with my eaters. Some of it has to do with the cookbooks I own. Some has to do with the ingredients on hand. I think I had visions of.... well, I'm not sure. But I was a little embarrassed to realize that my first recipe was for something called Chili Mac. I had ground beef that needed cooking. I had most of the ingredients on hand. I needed dinner.

The cookbook is a Cook's Illustrated book called Cover & Bake. Truthfully, I'm surprised that this was my first recipe from this book. The recipes really look pretty good, and they are tested to within an inch of their little lives.



The Chili Mac was good. The boy and the girl had seconds. I thought it was warm and comforting. Perhaps not gourmet but good.



I made some minor changes. I used a mix of beef and turkey, and I used about half the cheese called for. It's now in the "definitely make it again" pile.

So that's one down, and about 130 to go. Anyone else try a new recipe from their collection this week?

*** I don't post recipes from books. Copyright law and a lawyer husband and all that. If you'd like the recipe, I'm happy to e-mail it to you.

Again, not a TWD. Instead, a challenge

So, this week's pick was Floating Island.  It totally sounds like a cool recipe. Essentially, it's poached meringue lumps served in a custard sauce.  Get it.  Floating island.  And though it does sound like it would be delicious, it did not get made in my house.  Shari, of Whisk:  A Food Blog, who makes sublime and wonderful things, will have a gorgeous photo and the recipe.

What is here, however, is a challenge for me and anyone else who has the same dilemma.  As noted in a previous post, I love food magazines.  I have many subscriptions and many copies. My collection of EVERY Cook's Illustrated magazine predates my husband.  I also have an enormous collection of cookbooks.

I love cookbooks.

I read them like novels.  I love the pictures.  I love the commentary.  I love the possibilities.  Apparently, what I don't love is cooking out of most of them.  I counted today.  I own 168 cookbooks.  I have, to the best of my knowledge, cooked out of 29 of them.  That's 17%.  I always find recipes that sound fun and fabulous.  And then I never cook them.  I rely on the same three or four books and supplement with the magazines and the internet.

I decided that this has to change.  So I am challenging myself.  And you, if you're game.  I have decided that I am going to cook through my collection of books.  It's not going to be a Julie and Julia situation.  I'm not making every recipe.  I'm going to make one recipe from one new book each week.   I'll let you know the name of the book and the recipe I make.  In theory, this is a three year project.  We'll see what gives out first -- my will or my collection of books.  Though the collection seems to be growing all the time....

Come back next week to see the cover recipe from the Dorie cookbook.  And check in every so often to see how I'm doing on my journey.  

TWD: World Peace Cookies

So this week we made Dorie's world famous World Peace cookies. (I'll run off on a quick tangent or two. I didn't realize I had the recipe in another cookbook of mine. I have a copy of Paris Sweets. The original recipe, named Korova cookies, is in that book. I really do need to read my cookbooks again. And to further my tangent, my Paris Sweets book and my Baking From my Home to Yours books -- both are signed by Dorie. Tangents done!)

Anyway, back to the cookies. I found these to be a pretty basic, pretty easy to put together chocolate butter cookie. The thing that sets it apart from other cookies? Fleur de sel. That's a fancy name for sea salt. (Oooh! Another tangent opportunity! About seven years ago, we were on a vacation in Vermont. We made a pilgrimage to the King Arthur store. I was in awe. And slightly overwhelmed. I really wanted to buy something, but I didn't know what it should be. I walked away with an assortment of salt. I know. All those choices, and I buy salt. But I finally used the last of the "Fine Sea Salt" up!) These are a "slice and bake" cookie, which is one of my favorite kinds. Easy peasy! The dough was very crumbly, but a bit of mashing around and rolling fixed that right up.

I stored mine in the fridge for a couple of days. I didn't end up with slicing problems the way some other bakers did. I think the fridge time may have helped. I actually got 36 cookies, just like the recipe says.



Here they are! (I hope my tye-dyed background won't go unnoticed. You know, peace cookies. Tye-dye. Ok, so it's not really a theme. I tried.)

I have to say, that while this are a nice, tasty cookie, we didn't go crazy for them. We all liked them, but there are other cookies I would make before I made these again. They don't call to me the way others do. I can actually walk past the cookie jar and not grab one. The husband liked them better the second day.

Thank you to Jessica of Cookbookhabit for choosing this recipe. I've decided to skip next week's recipe. I love to bake, but I can't rationalize baking more than once a week. And some weeks, quite frankly, I'd like to try a recipe from another cookbook. Blasphemous, I know. On average, I bake three Dorie recipes to one "other" recipe. That sounds fair. Come look. I'll have "other" deliciousness here!

Mmmmmm. Dark chocolate. Good dark chocolate.

I am a dark chocolate kind of girl. Milk chocolate has a tiny little place in my world, but dark chocolate is king.

So imagine my delight when I received a free bar of dark chocolate from Amano Artisan Chocolate. (Thanks Blake!) It's a bar called Jembrana.

Holy smokes. And holy smokes I say again.



It's a single origin chocolate. It's made in small batches, and the passion clearly shows. It was dark and creamy and luscious, and I haven't shared any yet. Too bad I didn't eat it all before I posted this. This is the kind of bar to be savored.

Thanks Amano for giving me a chance to try it. Go check out their website to see the Jembrana bar and some of their other bars.

TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

I was really excited when I saw this recipe. Chocolate? YUM! Ginger? YUM! Chocolate and ginger? YUMYUMYUM. This recipe did not disappoint.

My favorite ginger recipe of all time is for Double Gingersnaps. I've been making this cookie recipe for forever. I haven't ventured much into other ginger baked goods. There are three types of ginger in this recipe: fresh, powdered, and candied. The chocolate is in chunks in the cake, melted and added to the batter, and in the frosting on top.

This was a slightly fussy recipe. Only slightly, though. The fresh ginger needed to be chopped fine and mixed with some sugar (1). The dry ingredients needed to be mixed together (2). The chocolate had to be melted (3). The chocolate that wasn't melted had to be chopped (4). Then all of the components eventually had to be mixed together (5). Plus there was the baking pan. That's SIX cooking vessels for one recipe. Thank goodness the husband does the dishes! (Thanks, Honey! Love you!)

Anyway, I followed the recipe as written, except I didn't put the cake on a baking sheet. That usually messes with my baking. The house smelled wonderful as it was baking and for quite a while after.

This was baked in a 9-inch square pan. Dorie advises turning the cake out on to a rack to cool and then flipping it over to ice. I didn't even bother. I had a lovely square cake bottom looking up at me. After it was cooled, I made the icing. It was much more glaze-like. (tangent -- what's the difference between frosting/icing/glaze?) This was EASY icing to make. As a matter of fact, I think this is my new go-to glaze for things like tube or Bundt cakes.

I decided to put my cake right on the serving plate. Dorie noted that we might want to trim off any brown edges, and she cuts the cake into squares before serving. I did not. The icing had a lovely glossy sheen. I poured it on top and let it drip down the sides a little.



Here is a cross section of the newly sliced cake.



Here's my slice. Don't even think about trying to take it from me!



A slightly different view where you can see the icing.



We all really liked this cake. This is definitely a recipe that will be made again at our house. We were divided on the frosting, however. The boy and I liked the cake with the icing. The husband and the girl didn't mind it, but thought it might be better without. Or maybe with some sweetened whipped cream instead. Regardless, it didn't last long in my house. I'm glad we didn't cut off the brown edges. They were really good. Maybe I should have, and then I wouldn't have had to share.... Anyway, this cake gave us about 16 slices and not the nine that Dorie called for. Those would have been pretty big slices.

Thanks, Heather, of Sherry Trifle for picking such a great recipe. I'm glad to add another ginger recipe to my arsenal. Next week -- the world famous World Peace cookies. Looking forward to it!

Not a TWD. Instead, I show you another cake

I did not make Dorie's Berry Surprise Cake this week. I'll start with the excuses. First off, I'm lazy. There I said it. This was a cake that had four separate components. That sounded fussy to me, and I rarely do fussy. The second reason had to do with many of the other bakers. This was a recipe that just did not do what they wanted it to do. Too many problems with sunken cake and bland cream. Thirdly, have I mentioned that I'm lazy?

Instead of the berry cake, I will show you the cake that I made for my friend Dave's birthday. It just looks fussy.

Here is the unassuming backside. Ah, just look at all those toffee bits smooshed into the coffee whipped cream.


And then, when you turn it around and look at the cut edge.....


Mmmmmm. Six layers of chocolate deliciousness separated by more whipped cream and toffee.



And the beauty of this cake? It just looks fussy. It's an amazingly easy three layer buttermilk chocolate cake, filled with flavored whipped cream and pre-crushed Heath bars.

The trickiest part is cutting the cake layers into more cake layers. And that's not so tricky when you use a long serrated knife and a round metal tart pan bottom.

The cake received raves from the dinner group. I really liked it as well. The cake is moist and wonderful. The whipped cream with flavored just enough to add a little something. And the taste and the crunch of the toffee candy pull the whole thing together.

I didn't post the recipe for various and sundry reasons most having to do with having a husband who is an Intellectual Property Lawyer. It's from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that is OLD. If you'd like the specific recipe, e-mail me, and I'll send it to you. If you'd like to fake it, use your favorite three layer chocolate cake recipe. Whip up some cream with a little instant coffee or espresso. Sprinkle with chopped up Heath bars.

I will definitely be participating next week when the main ingredients are ginger and chocolate. YUM!

Magazines

For some reason, I've been thinking about cooking magazines today. And for some reason, I've assigned all of my magazines a relationship status. Let me explain.

Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country are my BFFs. I have, literally, every copy of each of these magazines. I love them. I actually use them. I have gotten some of my favorite recipes from these magazines. They are well written, have good recipes and tips, and help me to be a better cook.

Another steady is Cooking Pleasures. It, too, has good recipes. It's a nice standby. Oh, and it has lovely glossy photos. On a side note, they do one thing that just mystifies me. When you subscribe to this magazine, you join their "club". Occasionally, I receive offers to make me a life member. It's around $300. I'll get certain benefits and a subscription for life. One of the benefits is a "gourmet cookware set valued at $370". Here's the thing, if you are a cook, and I am, don't you already have a set of cookware? (All-Clad here) How about if they keep the cookware, and just let me be a life member for free? Anyway....

Bon Appetit and I are friends with benefits. We stray, and then every so often, when they offer me a really cheap subscription, I sign up again. I can't take all the ads, though, which is why I'm not a consistent reader.

I have flirted with Everyday Food, Gourmet, Cooking Light, Eating Well, Saveur, and probably a few others. (At magazines.com you can find most of these magazines)

So, internet, is there a cooking magazine that is your BFF? The one you look forward to every month? Is there one that you had to break up with because of just too many disappointments? Curious readers want to know!

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This was some good timing. Right now in Chicago it's very snowy and cold. Mind you, I'm not complaining. I need to have a change of seasons. Check back with me in two months when I just DO NOT WANT TO SHOVEL ANY MORE. But for now, I'm enjoying it. I was so glad to have the chance to make something savory. We enjoy cornbread a lot at our house. The girl and boy like anything bread-like. But the girl really likes mini corn muffins.



Good thing I have a mini muffin pan!

These were not standard corn muffins. They called for sweet red pepper, cilantro, chili powder, and jalapeno (Which I skipped. Too spicy for the kids. My kids, anyway.) It added a really nice touch of color. I also used a more coarsely ground cornmeal. It gave the muffins and extra bit of crunch to the texture. I did use the full three tablespoons of sugar. I like the crust on the muffin when sugar is added. They were incredibly easy to make. Two bowls, one muffin tin, and one rubber spatula brought it all together.



The red of the pepper and the green of the cilantro added to the appearance of the muffins. You can even see the specks of chili powder.



These ended up being nicely corn flavored but pretty mild in terms of the other flavors. Maybe I should have added the hot peppers.

We enjoyed this recipe. I would certainly make it again. I will admit to having a favorite recipe that goes into my cast iron skillet. But, if I wanted to make a muffin version, I would certainly try this again.

Thanks Rebecca from Ezra Pound Cake for choosing this recipe. You can find how to make these on her web site. I'm pretty sure I'm skipping next week's recipe. It's fairly labor intensive. Mostly, I need to have fewer sweets in my house so I'll eat less. That's the theory, anyway. We'll see what I end up doing.

TWD: French Pear Tart

This is so cool! Because it was the first anniversary of Tuesdays with Dorie, Dorie herself chose the recipe! So cool!

As I've said before, I'm not much into the fuss factor. This recipe was chock full of components, but none of them were very difficult. There are essentially three parts to this recipe: the crust, the almond cream, and the pears.

The crust was very easy. It's a cookie crust that gets pressed into the pan. No rolling involved! I love that. It sat in the freezer while I made the almond cream. Oh, and I used the same (read - not cleaned in between) food processor for the crust and cream. The almond cream came together in seconds. It went into the fridge while I worked on the next step. The pears could have been much easier, but I did chose the most difficult of the three options.

Apparently, very often canned pears are used for this recipe. I happened to have a big bag of pears that the boy wanted me to buy and then never wanted to eat. Option two was to use the fresh pears as is. I went with option three, which was to poach the pears. This was also much easier than I was expecting.

While the pears were poaching, I partially baked the crust. That way they could be cooling at the same time. I will note that my crust could have stood a little more baking. When the crust was cool, I spread in my almond cream. The cutting of the pears worried me a little. There wasn't a picture in the book of the finished tart. I guessed. Apparently from other pictures I've seen, I guessed wrong. However, I like the way mine came out. It bakes for an hour. And then you get this:



The almond cream puffed up just the way it was supposed to.



Here's a close-up of my pear fan.

I needed to dry my pears a little more so that the almond cream wouldn't be as soupy. All in all, though, it's a great recipe. I would absolutely make this again. It was easy enough to do, and almost all the parts can be made ahead.

Thanks for thinking up and choosing such a great recipe, Dorie! You can see her tart and the recipe here.

Google Reader is overwhelming me

I have a terrible guilt complex.  Google Reader is not helping.  All of the TWD blogs are right there for me to read on Google Reader.

Every Tuesday I have such high hopes.  I start early in the day reading TWD blogs and commenting on as many as I can.  I love to see the comments that people leave for me, so I assume that it's the same for others.

Then maybe I'll come back on Tuesday night.  And the 46 or so active posts have become 120 or so.  So I try to get through some more.

Then on Wednesday there are even more posts.  Some of them aren't even TWD!  (Where do these people find the time and topics?)  So I fall further and further behind.  By Friday I just try to comment on any post from blogs that I missed on Tuesday or Wednesday.  This is murder on the control freak in me.

And now it's Sunday.  I just cleared my Google Reader in preparation for the next TWD.  I erased over 400 active posts.  

I need to get over the idea that I can comment on all the TWD posts.  I will make my peace with Google Reader one day.  In the meantime, sorry for the posts I haven't read, the comments I haven't left, and the recipes that I've missed.

And next week I'll try again.

•••• Edited to add:  The control freak in me had a field-day this afternoon.  I (literally, possibly sadly) looked at every blog on the TWD blogroll.  Originally, I had 478 blogs listed.  If the blogger hadn't posted a TWD post for the month of December, I deleted it from my list.  Now the only people on my list are TWD bloggers.  I still won't comment on everyone, but my narrowed list makes me feel better.  Control freak.

Not a TWD. Instead, I talk about breakfast

This week's recipe was for cheesecake. I am not really a fan of cheesecake. I could pretty much go the rest of my life without eating another bite of cheesecake and never miss it. Are those gasps that I heard? For some of you, I'm talking crazy talk. I understand. I'll be back in full TWD swing next week with a recipe chosen by.... Dorie herself!

Ok, so breakfast. I love breakfast. I could, and do, eat any time of the day. Breakfast is just good food.

Here is a very common sight at our house:



It's a waffle iron. A pretty old and messy waffle iron now that I look closely at the photo, but anyway.



This is a slightly underdone waffle just coming off the iron. (It's because I put the extras in the freezer, and they brown and crisp up when I toast them.)



This is a yummy, crisp waffle just waiting for butter and maple syrup. Or peanut butter and jelly. Or peanut butter and maple sugar.

I never quite understood the pre-made frozen waffle thing. Waffle irons are pretty cheap, and I think they pay for themselves rather quickly. They are amazingly easy to make (thank you Alton Brown) Mostly, they are just good. You can play around and add cinnamon and vanilla. Or ginger and molasses. Or cocoa and orange extract.

Each batch makes plenty. So the extras go in the freezer for those during-the-week waffle breakfasts. So now I've taken away the "frozen waffles are so convenient" arguement.

Here's all I'm saying. Give it a try. It really does beat the boxed frozen version.

Oh, and this is an English Muffin that I tried making. Not very successful. For now, I'll stick with the store-bought kind. I'm open to recipes and/or suggestions.





Next week: French Pear Tart. See you then!

TWD: Real Butterscotch Pudding

After all the cookies, I was happy to tackle something else. Last time we made pudding, it was amazing. I had high hopes for nothing less this time.

This recipe called for real scotch. Dorie recommends a single malt. I know for some of you, this was an issue. Why buy a bottle of scotch when you need only three tablespoons? I had no such problems. The husband is a..... collector of single malts. This is what I had to choose from:



Yes, there are eight bottles of scotch on my table.

So with the scotch procurement handled, I started on the pudding. Like the last time, it was an easy recipe. Not diet food for sure. Egg yolks, heavy cream, butter, and whole milk make up the bulk of the ingredients. And scotch.

I still hate the smell of boiling milk. I skipped the food processor for the pudding this time. I could tell a difference. This was slightly heavier and thicker. But, I didn't want to make the mess I made last time.

This pudding certainly isn't going to win any beauty contests.



We did have to dress it up a little. Whipped cream from a can is so much fun. And the cookie nestled in the bowl? Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shorties from Smitten Kitchen. It is a cookie more delicious than any cookie has a right to be.



Anyway, back to the pudding. I liked it. The girl and husband liked it as well. The boy liked the whipped cream and the cookie. It was pretty boozy. The alcohol doesn't cook out, so the scotch flavor is pretty prominent. I would make it again. For adults. No one was getting tipsy, but it did have a decidedly adult flavor.

I have another bonus side recipe. I found a great thing to do with the three egg whites that were left over after I made the pudding. Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Nuts. You know, similar to the ones that you can get at any county fair? I love these.

Slightly out of focus but delicious candied cashews and pecans.



Here is my sad, almost empty container.



I can't remember where I got the original recipe, but here's the version I use:

3 egg whites
1 T. water
1 T. vanilla
1 1/2 pounds of nuts (usually pecans, but I've used almonds and cashews as well)
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt (if you use unsalted nuts)

Preheat oven to 250. Line a sheet pan with a Silpat or foil. Froth the egg whites with the water and vanilla. Toss the nuts in the mixture to coat. Mix the sugars, cinnamon, and salt (if using). Add to the nut mixture and stir well to coat. Pour onto pan. Spread the nuts to cover the pan. Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Try to separate nuts with each stir. Depending on the dryness of the day or the liquidity of the eggs, it may take a little longer. These will dry out and crisp up as they cool. Store air tight as long as they'll last.

Thank you Donna from Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases for choosing the pudding. She'll also have the recipe on her site for anyone who is interested. I'm opting out of next week's recipe. It's cheesecake, and we're just not cheesecake people here. I'll try to have something else interesting to show you.

•••• Edited to add -- I think I may have put in three tablespoons of scotch.  That's why mine was so boozy.  Ah well.

TWD: Linzer Sables

This is a tricky TWD month. We were allowed to make the recipes in the order than we saw fit. This was the recipe I was supposed to make when I made the Buttery Jam Cookies instead. I swapped. Like I said, tricky.

Anyway, a Linzer cookie, as far as I have gathered is a traditional shortbread cookie layered with jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. A sable is a French butter cookie. Now just by themselves, those things sound wonderful. Dorie uppped the ante a little by making the cookies with ground nuts. It definitely adds a little something.

This was a pretty easy cookie to make. It came together well. I used ground almonds for mine. I've said before that I'm not a fussy cookie person. This verged on fussy for me. My rolling skills leave a little something to be desired. I rolled out my two pieces of dough into (relatively) level rectangle-like shapes. The two pieces of cling wrapped help keep it all neat. I used my 2" cookie cutter for the bases and "frames". I found this star cutter in a box of old cookie cutters from my mom.

Just a little tangent -- I know that I re-roll more than I should. It's just that wasting even a little dough kills me. Thank goodness there was no extra flour with the rolling. Ok, back to the main post.

My cookies baked a tad unevenly because they weren't all the same thickness. I sandwiched them with either raspberry or apricot jam. They actually turned out pretty well. They look nice, and they are tasty as well. I'm not sure that I'm rushing to make these again, but I'll keep them in the arsenal for an afternoon tea or something.



These were made with the star cut outs. Not as pretty.



Apricot jam. Mmmmm.



This recipe was chosen by Dennis from Living the Life. I should be back on track with butterscotch pudding next week. And it uses real scotch!

TWD: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookie

Another cookie with a mouthful for a name! This week I'm up to speed and doing what everyone else is doing.

I don't really have a "go to" sugar cookie recipe. I don't actually tend to bake many cookies that call for sprinkles and decoration. In a word, I am lazy. (I'll even admit to taking the easy way out on this one) I have made them in the past, and I like them. When I'm baking cookies, however, I usually go with something chunkier. Or chocolate. Which is interesting, because I almost like chocolate chip cookie dough without the chips almost more than with. But I digress.

These cookies were a pleasant surprise. They are an easy easy cookie to make. I used my stand mixer, and the dough came together in about five minutes. I did mix in the last bit of flour by hand. I chose to make slice and bake logs instead of rolling and cutting. See, I told you I was lazy. I put the logs in the freezer for about half an hour to speed up the process, and then kept them in the fridge until I was ready to bake. You can also make a couple of disks, and then do the roll and cut thing.

The boy helped me choose the sugar sprinkle colors. We chose to roll one roll in pink sugar. That made a pretty cookie with pink edges.



The second log got different colored sugars sprinkled on top. Green, orange, or yellow.



I like that the logs can be stored in the freezer for a while. This would be a perfect dough to have stashed away so that I could slice and bake pretty much at will. And I think the possibilities for variations are endless. I'm already imagining mini chocolate chips, or orange cream cheese frosting (I have to find that blog!), or a dab of jam, or crystallized ginger, or.... See. Endless.

This is definitely a keeper recipe. It's a good basic. Thanks, Ulrike from Küchenlatein for this choice. Next week I'm making last week's recipe. I know. It's confusing. You'll see. It all works out in the end.

TWD: Buttery Jam Cookies (Surprise!)

This is an interesting month for the TWD crowd. We've been given permission to make the December picks out of order! I know!

This one sounded yummy, and, to be frank, didn't require much effort on my part. My kind of cookie! After the food fest that was Thanksgiving, I needed a little bit of a break.

This was an easy cookie to make. The ingredients are all things I have on hand. Before I read the recipe, I was expecting this to be more like a thumbprint cookie. But, the jam gets mixed into the dough. I used a home-made cherry jam. (recipe here) It's a drop cookie, which was just right for my energy level. Instead of milk, I substituted egg nog. It's what I had, and I thought it might add an interesting taste note. There is also a touch of ground ginger in the recipe.

Look! Real cherries!

The dough was fantastic. The cookies, while they were warm were "eh". It was a good butter cookie, but there was no real flavor to it. I couldn't taste cherry, ginger, or egg nog. A few hours later, however, I had a change of heart. These are some pretty tasty cookies. The fruity flavor stands out a little more. The egg nog and ginger add a richness that really complements the fruit.

These are chewy cookies, and they just keep getting better with age. I would definitely make these again. I'm interested to try other jam flavors and see how they turn out.

Not the prettiest cookie I've ever made...

Heather of Randomosity and the Girl chose this recipe. Next week I'll have another of the December recipes. It's a mystery!

The best appetizer ever, and why I'm an idiot

So here it is. The best appetizer ever. I have a cast of characters. I have the in process photos. I have the all ready to go in the oven photo. What I don't have is a photo of the finished product. Idiot. So, you're going to have to make these yourself and see what they look like.

Ready for all the ingredients? Here we go: pitted dates, parmesan cheese, thick-cut bacon.
Yup. That's it.

Pitted dates


Parmesan cheese cut into matchsticks



Thick cut bacon cut into thirds


Here's the instructions: Take a matchstick of cheese and put it inside the date. See how the pitting makes a nice hole just waiting for cheese? Ok, blurry hole.



And here it is all filled




Then you take a piece of bacon, wrap it around the date, and stick a toothpick through it. Strictly speaking, if your bacon is long enough, you don't need the toothpick. Put it on a foil-lined baking sheet. Put it in a 350 degree oven, and bake until the bacon is cooked. Usually that's around 20 minutes.



Now, if I wasn't such an idiot, you'd have a picture here of golden crispy bacon wrapped around a sweet, chewy date with just a hint of parmesan leaking out. These are best served warm. But seriously, even if they were cold I'd eat them.

They take very well to being made ahead of time. The day or two before you need them, but them together and throw them in a plastic bag and refrigerate. Bake them as needed.

I hope that was worth the build up! Enjoy!

Cookie Carnival: The Ultimate Chewy and Soft Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Whew! That's a name to rival Dorie!

I'm a chocolate chip cookie baker from waaaaaay back. It's the first cookie I ever made. I have the Toll House recipe memorized. I'm savant like that way. There are lots of Johnny Come Lately chocolate chip cookie recipes, but I tend to like my Tollhouse version.

Still, I was game to try this recipe. I do have a quirk about my chocolate chip cookies. I tend to halve the amount of chips needed. I really like the brown sugary taste of the cookie with just a hint of chocolate.

This was fairly similar to most other cookie recipes like it. There was the usual cast of characters. It made a medium size batch. They came together easily.

Here's what was interesting. I didn't really like these cookies when they were warm. I know! I was just as surprised. I thought it was just as well. I certainly didn't need any more cookies on my hips. Then, as I was walking past the jar the next day, I decided to try one. What a difference a day makes! The cookies had taken on a deeper flavor with a caramel note. They were really good! I may have to give these another go.

Cookie pyramid!



Mmmmm. Chewy and brown sugary and chocolatey!


You can find the recipe in this cookbook.

See you next month!

TWD: Waiting for Thanksgiving

Well, I'm not making the pie.  (Pumpkin aversion, tree nut allergy at host's house)  But I am making a roasted vegetable salad, an appetizer, and gingersnaps.  When all is made and photographed, I will post.

See you all on Thursday!  Or Friday.  I may need a day to recover.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my TWD friends

I'm just going to apologize here.  Normally, I try to comment on as many TWD blogs as possible.  I love seeing what people have done.  The variations and flavor combinations are interesting and adventurous.  

But here's the thing.  I have nothing good to say about rice pudding.  Nothing.  I tried to muster up some positive comments.  Really.  I did.  But the thought of the stuff just creeps me out.  Again, no good reason, but I can't do it.  Looking at posting after posting of it was just too much for me.

So here's a blanket "Nice job on the pudding!  I'm glad you enjoyed it."  I'll be back next week oohing and aahing over the Twofer pie.

TWD: Arborio Rice Pudding

I have a confession to make. Rice pudding gives me the heebie jeebies. I have no good reason for it. I'm pretty sure I've never eaten it. But the thought of it makes me shudder.

However, my family has no such aversion, so rice pudding it is. I happened to own some Arborio rice from my one and only attempt at risotto. I think I need to try that again. Anyway, there were a few cooking steps. The rice is cooked with water, then drained and cooked further with milk and sugar. That was pretty much the main ingredients and steps. I found out through a comment that Dorie herself made that there was a typo in the book. The rice and milk are supposed to cook for 55 minutes and not the 35 minutes listed in the book. Oooops. Have I mentioned how much I can't stand the smell of boiling milk? No? Ok. I cooked my rice and milk for about 60 minutes. The liquid looked pretty well absorbed.

I decided to make two versions, the black (chocolate) and the white (vanilla). The chocolate version added chopped bittersweet chocolate, the vanilla version called for vanilla extract. Then it was into the fridge for a cool down. Plastic wrap went on top. I am anti-skin even on pudding I refuse to eat.

I dished out a little bit for the three members of the family who will eat rice pudding.



See, this week I got smart and put all the bowls together. Now we'll never know which was the boy's, girl's, or husband's. Bwah ha ha ha.



The verdict was pretty unanimous. Everyone liked the puddings. The rice was cooked enough, and it wasn't soupy as I'd heard from other bloggers. There was a strong preference for the vanilla version. I'm not sure I'll ever make this again, but if I do, it's the vanilla. I think if I'm making pudding again, it's Dorie's chocolate pudding.

I'm not making the next recipe. It's a Thanksgiving Twofer Pie. It's a double layer of pumpkin and pecan pie. First of all, my dislike of pumpkin is well documented, and second, we have a tree nut allergy at our Thanksgiving host's house. I will be making Double Gingersnaps, Cashew Brittle (for our house) and my favorite appetizer ever. Come back to see what it is!

Check out the recipe on Isabelle's blog: Les Gourmandises d'Isa.