Cookie Backslide

Chris actually preferred my status quo cookies, the ones that are slightly gooey, mushy, a little greasy. So, I thought I'd try to adjust the Chocolate Chip Cookie #10 to make them a little chewier for him. I compared the #10 to the Nestle Toll House recipe, and the only difference, really, is that #10 calls for two egg yolks instead of two whole eggs, and the cooking time is longer but slower, since it's at the same temperature but all the cookies are in there at the same time (lowering the temperature of the oven). I thought I'd change the egg thing, adding one whole egg and one egg yolk instead of two egg yolks, just to see what happened. It was really unsuccessful. As you can see, they all melted together into a cookie glob. Very greasy.

It could be the eggs that did it. Or, it could be that my baking soda is flat and that's why the cookies didn't rise. But I think it went wrong from the beginning. I think I over-melted the butter. I sort of forgot about it in the microwave and by the time it beeped the butter was foaming, and the milk solids separated from the liquid. The butter and sugar just never creamed right even though I was beating it for something like 10 minutes, and it all went downhill from there.

I think in the future I'll not melt the butter. Actually, I don't know why it called for the butter to be melted in the first place; Alton kept making a big deal about how to properly cream something the butter CAN'T be melted. So it would seem to me that melting the butter is the WRONG thing to do, even if I hadn't over melted it. Hmmmm....

Grilled Pineapple with Rosemary

I got Suz the "hot" new cookbook called the Flavor Bible. I, er, bought her the present a week before I wrapped it so I could, ah, do some "quality testing." It was pretty cool, it lists just about every edible ingredient and then the flavors that go best with those ingredients. I looked up pineapple and lo and behold, there was all this talk of rosemary. I thought it was just hooey, but I tried it and it was great. All I did was cut up the fresh pineapple, chop up some fresh rosemary and sprinkle it on top, then broil (or grill) until get browned in spots. Couldn't be easier, but it seems impressive, so you get lots of points with guests. You can't really taste the rosemary, it's not very strong, but it really mellows the sweetness of the pineapple.

Harper and I saw a rainbow on our walk today. (This picture is similar, although not exact. It was a pretty impressive rainbow.) I've decided that rainbows are the few things in real life that actually resemble children's drawings.

I'm choosing to interpret the rainbow and the monarch butterfly caterpillar I also saw today as good omens for house hunting, which begins tomorrow.

Cheese Straws

Going to a potluck barbecue. I had some puff pastry in the freezer that I've been needing to use up + It's strawberry season again (the market smelled so gooood) = I thought to make something for the potluck with puff pastry and strawberries. And then I tasted the strawberries. I'm not sharing. They're all for me. So I made these instead. My friends need never know....

From the Gourmet cookbook, that giant yellow behemoth:

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from a 17 1/4-ounce package), thawed
• 1 large egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup finely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (about 4 ounces)
• Course sea salt (I don't think table salt would work at all. Use course salt or nothing.)

1. Put a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 425.
2. Generously butter two baking sheets (I used my silicon sheets and skipped the butter)
3. roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 14-by-12-inch rectangle. Cut crosswise in half to form two 12-by-7-inch rectangles. Brush both with the egg wash. Sprinkle cheese evenly over one rectangle and top the other rectangle, egg wash side down. Press firmly on the pastry to force out any air pockets, then roll out gently to make the layers adhere (it should end up about 12.5 by 7.5 inches). Brush the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle with course salt.
4. With a pastry wheel, pizza cutter, or sharp knife, cut pastry crosswise into twenty-four 1/2-inch pieces. Twist each strip two or three times and place on the baking sheet, pushing down the edges to keep the strip twisted. Put 12 strips on the sheet.
5. Bake until golden, about 10 to 12 minutes, then let cool for a couple minutes on the sheet.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the strips for the other baking sheet and bake when the first batch is done.
7. Loose baked strips with a metal spatula (I could just pick them up from the silicon) and cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

RESULTS: These might be all for me, too.

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto

I finally got to the market early enough today to find asparagus. Thusly, this from Alice. Good ol' Alice...

4 servings

Snap off the ends of 1 lb asparagus. Cut spears on the diagonal into 1/4-inch pieces. Remove the zest from 1 lemon and juice. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. Ass 1 small onion, diced fine. Cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add 1.5 cups risotto rice. Cook the rice, stirring occasionally, until translucent,* about 4 minutes. Do not let brown.

Meanwhile, bring 5 cups chicken broth to a boil.

Stir the lemon zest into the rice, then pour in 1/2 cup dry white wine. Cook, stirring, until all the wine is absorbed. Add 1 cup of broth and cook at a vigorous simmer, stirring occasionally. When rice starts to get thick, pour in another 1/2 cup of broth and add a little salt, depending on the saltiness of the broth. Keep adding broth, 1/2 at a time, every time the rice thickens. Do not let the rice dry out. After 12 minutes, stir in the asparagus. Cook until the rice is tender but still has a firm core, about 20-30 minutes in all.

When rice is about done, stir in half the lemon juice and add 1 tablespoon butter and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Stir vigorously to develop the creamy starch. Taste for salt and lemon juice and adjust as needed. Turn off the heat, let the risotto sit uncovered for 2 minutes, then serve. Add a splash of broth if the rice becomes too thick.

RESULTS: ok, first of all, whenever I see a recipe that calls for a heavy-bottomed pan, I get "Fat-bottomed girls" by Queen stuck in my head. And now you will, too, ha, HA!

I like making risotto because I think my culinary Achilles heel is that I lack patience. Risotto sort of seems to demand patience to get the best texture. Today I was making this at the same time I was making some Cheese Straws, so my attention was split, which may explain why the risotto turned out so great today. It was neither mushy, nor was it crunchy in the middle. It was perfect. Woo-hoo! Oh, I also liked the flavor a lot. Things I changed: left out the cheese, didn't have a lemon so I used lemon juice at the end, no wine, and I only added the butter at the end, I used olive oil at the beginning. Also, the farmer's market had onions, but they were the young onions with green stalks still attached. I wanted to use the greens, so I added those, chopped up, when I added the asparagus at the end. I might have also gotten by with adding it later, but not earlier.

*I think this must be a typo, rice turns opaque, not translucent. It starts translucent. Or am I misunderstanding the terms?

Well, as you've probably been able to guess from the lack of posting, life has been busy lately. First, work was so hectic that the last thing I wanted to do was look at the computer after hours. Now life outside work has sped up a bit as we've had some very welcome visitors and been amping up moving preparations. Stay tuned for a couple recipes from Jean's trip here last weekend.

Origin of the Swine Flu

Chris sent this to me a while ago, been meaning to post it.