arbofo

My boss made these cookies for Valentine’s Day. They’re so good, so irresistible, I have to tap into my iron will to avoid hoarding them inside the depths of my desk drawer.

Chewy Chocolate-Ginger Cookies

7 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp boiling water
1/4 cup granulated sugar

In a medium bowl sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

In bowl of electric mixer, beat butter until whipped (about 4 minutes). Add brown sugar, beat until combined. Add molasses, beat until combined.

In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in dissolved baking-soda, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate chips.

Turn dough out on to piece of wax paper. Pat dough to about 1 inch think, seal with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours).

Heat oven to 325. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place two inches apart on baking sheets. Do not press the balls down. Refrigerate 20 minutes.

Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until surfaces crack slightly, about 13 to 15 minutes.

No picture because guacamole’s not one of the more photogenic foods out there (especially this one, due to a strong tomato influence).  But don’t get me wrong- this version, from Women’s Health (I swear, a gift subscription from my mum!) totally tasty:

Spicy Guacamole

• 2 avocados
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/2 cup seeded and chopped tomato
• 1/2 a jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• Juice of one lime
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)

Mush it all together (I used my roommate’s food processor).

This vegetarian chili is so EASY, if it were any easier it would be straight out of a box.

• One 15.5-oz can red kidney beans, drained
• One 15-oz can great northern beans, drained
• One 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
• One 8-oz can tomato sauce
• 3/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup water

In a large saucepan combine ingredients. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Best served on rice, topped with a dollop of sour cream.

Another recipe from Women’s Health — They’re pretty good at convincing you to eat your veggies! My roommate and her boyfriend used to make these all the time. I never really knew what was involved, but DAMN these were easy to make. All you need is:

• 1 Sweet Potato
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Pinch of Salt
• Pinch of Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder Blend OR Paprika OR Chipotle Steak Seasoning

Peel the sweet potato and slice lengthwise into “finger-sized” slices (I just interpreted that to mean “fry-sized” pieces). Add the olive oil to a bowl, toss with potato to coat. Add salt, pepper, and spice of choice (I chose paprika with some red pepper flakes). Toss again to coat. Spread potato sticks evenly on a baking sheet and roast at 400F for 30 minutes, turning them once halfway through. (1 serving.)

OMG. Are carrots the nerdiest vegetable out there? I sure think so. They’re such eggheads that they’re supposed to be good for your eyesight and everything. So you can, you know, read. I know!  They’re so nerdy!  Okay, okay, I’m weirding you out.

Moving on. This is yet another recipe from Women’s Health magazine. Yeah, so these recipes are all from one article. I’m not going to try ALL of them- hm… maybe one or two more.  If you want to see the rest of the spiffed-up veggie recipes, check out the June 2007 issue for the “Vamp Up your Vegetables” article on page 102.

Here’s a recipe that actually got me to eat my carrots:

Honey-Glazed Cashew Carrots

• 1 cup baby carrots
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon Crushed Unsalted Cashews
• Pinch of Salt

Place carrots in a steamer basket, over boiling water. Steam til slightly soft (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat, drain. Return carrots to pot, toss in honey, cashews and salt- toss until carrots are totally coated. Makes 1 serving. Eat before they get cold!

When my roommate left for Germany, he happened to leave a bunch of fruit. Sure, I devoured the raspberries; I cleaned off the strawberries, and tossed the rotting banana. Now all that’s left is a whole lotta blueberries.

I needed something sweet for dessert, so I found this recipe on AllRecipes:

Blueberry Muffins

(Muffin Batter)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

(crumb topping)

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

(Makes 8-10 muffins, depending on how big you want them)

Preheat oven 400F. Grease or line muffin pan. Combine ingredients for muffin batter, except for the blueberries. Once batter is blended, fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups as desired, and sprinkle with crumb topping.

To make crumb topping: Combine ingredients. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking (I ended up not using all of the mixture- just too much sugar for me).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until done.

I finally got around to finishing the book S. shamelessly adores: the first of the Gossip Girl series. S. references the books occasionally, so I wanted to read at least the first book so I could see what’s what. The books, which are touted as “Sex and the City for the younger set” (Teen People) were covered awhile back by Rebecca Traister on Salon.com (actually, this is the same article I referenced for this ol’ entry).

The writing itself is intentionally vapid and occasionally tiresome. The back-stabbing characters astound me - another friend read S’s copy and freaked: “It’s terrible! It’s like those girls have no MORALS or something!” But I have to agree with S. and Traister that there is some merit to these books.

“You know you love me” is the signature sign-off that the anonymous protagonist always uses at the end of her gossip columns. Seriously, there’s something liberating about that. Sure, it does come off as careless, like a flippant remark you’d say after forgetting to pick up your mother’s dry cleaning for the zillionth time, but it also encourages the mentality that you are who you are. When you’re feeling down on yourself, wishing that you hadn’t said what you’d said or done what you’d done and feeling like a globby waste of space -as I was feeling yesterday- a little motto like that can save the day. So you did something kind of stupid. So what? They love you anyway. You can laugh at yourself and get over it.

While I wait for a roommate to exit the bathroom, here’s quote from Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon. It’s totally unrelated to my last post, but I wanted to share it, nonetheless.

Do any of you know that famous photograph by Robert Doisneau? It has two lovers kissing in the middle of a busy Parisian street? Well, whatever, here’s the quote:

Mostly, we shop at BHV, the department store on the rue de Rivoli, which has become our home, our Luxembourg Gardens. BHV—the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville, the City Hall Bazaar—is always called by its initials (bay-aish-vay), and it is an old store, one of the great nineteenth-century department stores on the Right Bankthat are the children of the Galeries Lafayette. As I say, it is on the rue de Rivoli; in fact that famous Robert Doisneau photograph of the two lovers kissing is set on the rue de Rivoli, just outside BHV. This is doubly ironic: first, because the narrow strip of the rue de Rivoli in front of BHV is about the last place in the world that you would want to share a passionate kiss—it would be a bit like kissing at the entrance to the BMT near Macy’s—and of course, it explains why they did it anyway. They are not sundered lovers but a young couple who have managed to buy an electric oven and emerged alive. Anyone who has spent time at BHV knows that they are kissing not from an onset of passion but from gratitude at having gotten out again (Gopnik, 50).

Hm… roommate’s still in there. Oh why didn’t I remember to grab my toothbrush on my way out of the bathroom this morning? WHY? Anyway, it’s a nice interpretation of the photograph, isn’t it?

From Thursday’s episode of the OC:

Ryan: “Who has been the greatest influence in your intellectual development?”
Summer: Um, Miuccia Prada.
Seth: You probably wanna say something more like Einstein or—
Summer: So you want me to lie?
Seth: No, it’s just, uh, I don’t think Prada is the answer they’re looking for.
Summer: Well this interview could determine the rest of our lives, right? Well, if I say something I don’t believe in I could end up with the wrong life. How awful would that be?
Ryan: She has a point.
Summer: I have to go get a mani-pedi.
Seth: Summer.
Summer: Cohen. If you memorize the answers you think they want to hear, that’s fine. But I believe in being myself. And by the way, Miuccia Prada combines styles from time periods in a way that people never even imagined possible.

It’s tough motivating yourself to try new things when it’s just you cooking for… you.

I have roommates, but our tastes diverge wildly. I mean, there’s THREE kinds of milk in the fridge. Cooking together simply does not happen.

There is definitely a nostalgic element to cooking. I almost always play music and keep a small glass of wine handy when I cook, because that’s what my dad always does. Growing up, the radio was almost always set to NPR. He’d usually abandon the kitchen in the middle of cooking to play his piano in the basement. “Well You Needn’t” is the refrain of my childhood, its melody forever sealed into my memory. I’m sure it’ll be what I incessantly hum to myself when I’m old and senile.

“DAAAAD!!!! DINNER’S BURNING!!!!” I’d holler down the stairs at him, and he’d ignore me until he was good and ready to part with his beloved jazz. He’d scuttle up the stairs just as the smoke alarm started to chirp.

Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue kept me company tonight as I experimented with this recipe.

3-4 (huge! heaping!) servings

• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 (14-16oz) can stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (12-14oz) package sausage
• 1 cup water
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/4 teaspoon dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed pepper flakes (or really, as much as you’d like)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 dash tabasco sauce
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 pound shrimp

1. Melt butter in large skillet and brown the onions, green pepper, and garlic until tender.
2. Blend in all remaining ingredients EXCEPT shrimp and rice.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and begin to simmer; add shrimp and rice.
4. Simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until water as boiled off, shrimp is cooked, and the jambalaya has a paste-like consistency. Stir fairly often to keep the rice from burning.

(Update: I made this again tonight and forgot the shrimp, used jalapeno sausage (I’m mad at Shaw’s, ’cause they were OUT of andouille. What kind of supermarket do they think they are?!), and was a bit liberal dumping the red pepper flakes into the mix. OMG, was my dinner hot, but YUM.)