Last week, The New York Times ran an article on the perfect chocolate-chip cookies. It can be found here. It is a brief, but interesting read and after Kelly expressed a desire to have a chocolate cookie, I decided I should try them out. The article talks about three secrets that are…

1. Let the dough rest for 36 hours after mixed. (I didn’t have time for this as I’m going to Seattle today)

2. Use great ingredients, especially great chocoloate of at least 60% cacao. (duh)

3. Sprinkle some sea salt on top of the cookies just before baking.

The last secret could be seen as highly debateable. I like the sea salt there, but some (like KCS) thinks it makes them too salty. Salt should defintely be in the recipe as it should be with almost all desserts, but whether you go as far to sprinkle some on the top is up to you. I think it adds a nice touch.

Because I was leaving, I decided to halve the recipe except I didn’t really have all the ingredients. I went to Whole Foods determined not to spend much money and succeeded even if it did hurt to buy 6 eggs of which 5 I’m pretty sure I’ll never use.

I was still short a 1/4 stick of butter but decided to wing it by cutting out a little flour by eye. I know people say baking is highly scientific and it is. Measurements need to be pretty right on or things don’t turn out quite right, but it isn’t rocket-science either. If you’re close with cookies, you’ll probably still get something pretty tasty.

When I came home, I realized I didn’t have enough chocolate either, having bought just a single 5 oz bar of premium chocolate. So, I went to the freezer to dig out some chocolate pieces from other sources and maybe came up with what seemed enough. I think cut these up into rather large pieces. Too large as it turns out. Oh well, lesson learned.

The end result tasted good right out of the oven but I can tell it was short on butter and had too much of the leavening agents.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I gotta tell ya, after finishing my cooking series at the FCI, I didn’t do a whole lot of cooking. You’d think with all the new knowledge gained I would want to put it all to good use, but the size of our kitchen along with everything else going on led us to many restaurant trips. We went to Peasant (a couple of times), Dovetail, Supper, Esperanto, Savor, Oh! Taisho (multiple times), etc. After awhile, restaurant food starts to lose its appeal. You crave homemade food.

We started doing a little more cooking at home.

And then I installed MS Money and organized our bills…

Our ‘Dining Out’ in May was insane! It was a little artificially bloated by a big dinner party bill we put on our CC in Florida for 15 people, but still, it was BAD. June was better, but still high and this wasn’t even including everything we paid cash for. New rules had to be instituted and one of them was to cut our Dining Out bills (another thing we’re trying is Kelly is going to cut her clothes shopping and I am going to cut my “drinking out” - hard!).

This was pretty easy with Drew in town because NY really isn’t a place where you bring your kids out to dinner with you. On a side note, I’m always amazed at how many people bring their kids out to dinner other places - my parents never did.

So, in the last month, we’ve made lots of good stuff and it all came out well - which is always a welcome surprise. I bought whole pork belly a couple of times and braised it down for half a day, combined that with the mango-truffle oil salsa (from Richard on Top Chef), which has a surprisingly good flavor. Pork belly is so rich that it is a lot to eat as an entree, perhaps better suited to a shared entree.

Pork Belly w/ Mango Truffle Salsa

Yes, I did realize too late that my mango dice was way too big.

I also made moquecas, a classic Brazilian dish made with coconut milk, tomatoes and usually seafood (though I used some chicken I had around) that is sort of a Latin curry.

Moquecas

Kelly made a delicious roasted tomato soup that Drew claimed to be the best thing he ate while in NY. She also used some homemade chicken broth and made a broccoli and dumping soup after returning from Philly.

Roasted Tomato Soup

For Andrew, we made some family friendly food like mashed potatos (using the ricer my mom got me for xmas - they come out incredibly fluffy), homemade fried chicken, chicken with Hunter’s sauce and other things.

And now I just want to cook more but we’re off to Seattle for a month. I would really love to grill, something we don’t have access to here in the city. So, if you want a cook for a night, let me know!

After three weeks on the East Coast, mini Diesel, aka Drew, is back in AZ.  It’s been fun and at the same time busy.  I’ll miss the little guy and got some unexpected insights from him…

On being asked about whether he has a girlfriend

Mini Diesel (MD):  “Well, I don’t have one.”

Me:  “Why not?”

MD:  “It’s my hair…it’s too long.”

On Diesel’s joke about how the Home Depot should be called the “Apartment Depot” in NY because most people don’t have houses

MD:  “Dad…if you weren’t married and you said that to a girlfriend, she would not go out with you anymore.”

On Asians

MD:  “Ya know, Jing (the Korean guy in “Lost”) is like us.

Me:  “What do you mean, he’s like us?”

MD:  “Well, Asians look different, but they’re not really different from us.”

On his taste in girls

Me:  “So did you have a girlfriend at camp?”

MD:  “Well, no.  Cuz you know, most of the girls were African-American…I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with that.  It’s just that…”

Me:  “I know.  It’s fine. Everybody has their preference.  Some people like blondes, some like Asians.”

MD:  “Yeah, like my Dad.”

I’ve been meaning to pass on this hilarious and at the same time inspiring video that Molly posted on her site:

A little background on this:  Matt is an average Joe who one day quit his job to trave through Asia.  One day he did his little dance and when the video was posted on YouTube he achieved quasi-celeb status.  He was then able to get a sponsorship from the folks at Stride Gum to travel the world and dance, which was followed by another dancing trip, but this time with locals joining him.  For more on Matt–who currently lives in Seattle!–go to his website.

Or a whole tree!

KCS got me an olive tree for my birthday…in Italy!

Actually, the tree is only mine for a year, but we do get its full harvest of oliva oil in spring and autumn packages. You can get more info here.

I’m very hard to shop for and this was an excellent present. Thanks KCS!

It’s your bday.  You’re OLD.  Almost as old as me!

]]> http://twoforone.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/happy-bday-dies/feed/ http://twoforone.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/donut-plant/ http://twoforone.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/donut-plant/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:27:32 +0000 eternal http://twoforone.wordpress.com/?p=267

I forgot to mention, we went to the Donut Plant yesterday for Drew’s send-off breakfast. It was awesome, maybe the best donuts I’ve ever had. We got the tres leches and blackout cake-style donuts and a vanilla cream-filled coconut and a strawberry jelly and vanilla glazed yeast-style. The vanilla cream was NOT a dense, thick pastry cream, it was more of a liquid. I should have taken pictures, but I didn’t. These defintely rival the donuts from Top Pot in Seattle, which I now find to be a little too big and sweet.

We dropped Andrew off with the YMCA staff members yesterday for his first week of camp. He was pretty excited to go and I hope he comes back complaining that he couldn’t stay a second week. He is going to camp McAlister, up by Hugenot, NY. The activities of the day are canoeing, swimming, horseback riding, etc. No cell phones or PSPs allowed. Hooray! I hope he has fun.

Afterward, we stopped at the mall at Columbus Circle for some iced-tea (it was HOT yesterday), Kelly hit J-Crew for a little while and then we went to meet a few friends at the Central Bar to watch the Euro Cup Finals. Everything was packed, but we were lucky enough to get access to the newly opened upstairs and great sits by the projector.

Unfortunately, Germany lost 0-1 to a better Spanish team. Germany did well for the first 10 minutes and again later in the second half, but Spain just handled the ball better and took a lot more shots on goal. It sucks that the only goal was really just a miss-step on behalf of a German defender and his goalie.  My favorite player, Lukas Podolski, was a non-factor as was much of the German offense.

Now we wait for World Cup 2010 in South Africa…

While on vacation last week, I stumbled across a “special” fare to Barcelona. So, K & I quickly determined the best dates (Nov 6-16, right after her NY marathon) and booked our tickets. Total fare per person on this nonstop flight was $325! Including taxes and fees! What a deal! Now, I’m trying to find someone to trade my United upgrades coupons for American ones.

Of course, with the American dollar being worth almost nothing, I’m not sure how we’ll keep the rest of the trip inexpensive. Kelly assures me she is willing to go backpacker style - one backpack, no suitcases, stay in hostels - and with it being November, I’m sure we can find some inexpensive accomodations. The current plan is only to spend a couple days in Barcelona and make it up north to San Sebastian and Madrid (maybe me a big loop?). If anybody has any suggestions or has access to a place to stay, let us know!

After random book club members dispersed, John, Molly, QB and myself stuck around Solas for some more chit-chatting.  Luckily QB got another couple of drinks because we were kinda threatened by the bartender there, who was annoyed that we had the back booth but only bought drinks at happy hour prices.  Whatever, it’s not that the bar was crowded, and honestly, we just made the bar look better.

Anyhow, we were going to part ways, but then Molly came up with a brilliant idea:  see for ourselves if the line at Artichoke Basille’s Pizza is really shorter after 10:30pm.   So ok, it was 10pm, but we just couldn’t wait any longer, especially after having talked about it compulsively the day before during our exploration of a new Chinatown spot, New Chao Chow.

One word to describe the famous artichoke pizza:  HEAVENLY!  Simply and truthfully put.  That’s what the pizza is.  Artichoke and spinach swimming in the gooyest, creamiest most delicious cheese.  OMG, must go there again.

The three of us are now obsessed with the place.  In fact, QB, as myself, devoted a whole post to her transcendental artichoke pizza experience.