Apt because there are so many things about which to wonder once you eat one. Things like, "I wonder if I can resist eating another one!" or "I wonder if all of my teeth are going to fall out of my mouth!" and maybe even "I wonder if that tingly sensation is that bite going immediately to my hips!" My reaction was, "Oh holy Mary mother of Jesus, I wonder where I put my antacids…" because these cookies? They mean business. In both the best and worst ways.
They’re from The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider, which is an interesting book not only because the title describes my polar opposite but because of the approach it has towards both the recipes and the layout of the book itself. For instance, the other day I made one of the recipes demonstrating what she calls "close-roasting", a pork shoulder braised in its own juices by covering closely with aluminum foil in a dutch oven and marinated overnight in a "mole-inspired ancho chile, cinnamon and cocoa powder" rub. This was but one of 4 variations listed under the category of close-roasting – the next variation? Duck. So the goal is to show you the technique and how you might apply it to anything you have on hand, so that you might – get ready for it – improvise! Amazing how that works. We’ll see how that works out for someone like me, what with my panic attacks at having a different kind of paprika than a recipe calls for.
Anyway, my lemon cake was almost gone and I needed something to keep me from reaching out to Little Debbie, (she’s so good to me!) so I plucked this recipe out of the back since Warren prefers brownie or other chocolate + flour treats. A word of caution – these tell you heaping tablespoon or 1/4 portions of dough. If you make these with the variation I have written, they are nearly too big to be comfortably enjoyed due to the richness. If/when I make them again, I’m going to scale it back to a heaping teaspoon instead (if you do it now, remember that smaller portion = less time in the oven.) Then again, I had half of one for breakfast and two after dinner, so…
Continue reading ‘The Aptly Named Chocolate Wonders’
Once upon a time, my brain rewired itself overnight to make me want to learn how to cook, and cook well. One of the first dishes I made after that epiphany was a braised short rib dish – this one, in fact – and to this day, despite the mistakes I made while cooking it, it remains possibly the most delicious meal to grace my kitchen. So when I was scouting cookbooks at a local library branch last week, imagine my excitement to see the very book that recipe was culled from on the shelf: Sunday Suppers at Lucques.
The photographs are beautiful, far outclassing anything I’ve accomplished to date.The variety is impressive and it’s categorized by season, so you know if you’ll be able to find the produce the recipe will call for. That said, there are a number of ingredients used that, if not difficult to locate, are expensive to purchase – saffron and fleur de sel, as an example – that can be intimidating. For someone like me who is not much of a seafood eater, it seems to be a heavyweight item on the menus, but it all sounds so good that frankly I’m reconsidering my stance.
This particular recipe appealed on several levels – first, it contains pig and I am very, very fond of cooked pig. Second, it sounded relatively easy and had a new vegetable (that I was ultimately too cheap to purchase) to try as a side dish. Finally, the use of fresh herbs appealed to me. The end result did not disappoint and will, in fact, be made again soon.
Continue reading ‘Herb-roasted Pork Loin with Green Beans and Spring Onions’
The more gentle-minded may be inclined to say that it’s not failure, it’s learning, but let’s be honest: when the end result is not good, it’s a failure no matter how much you picked up in the process. A string of bad luck has made me very glad that tonight was taco night and even though it was a new recipe, you just can’t screw up tacos. They’re like a fancier peanut butter and jelly sandwich, especially when you grill the meat (or in my case, have someone else grill the meat for you so your house, dog, child or person does not catch on fire in the process).
But before I get to that, let’s go ahead and address the failures since they are sitting in my Flickr, waiting to be discussed on the internet by people just like me who are still new to this whole cooking/baking thing and still have to google the appropriate way to slice an onion (honestly, the knife skills class I’m taking at the end of the month cannot get here soon enough).
Continue reading ‘A Series of Failures, Part One.’
