GASP! A regular Wednesday Post!

Oh ho! I wasn't full of talk yesterday! I'm still in New Jersey, spending time with my family, and I still don't have my camera cord, so you'll have to wait to see how yummy these cookies look until I get back to LA on the 4th.

Today my mom and I baked our traditional cookies: Russian Teacakes. These are small, powdery, butter and sugar cookies that taste really, really good. We make them before Christmas most years, but since I didn't get down until right before and we had so many things to do, we baked them right before New Years instead this year :)

You will need the following:

1 cup (2 standard sticks) of butter (this recipe is easily made vegan by substituting margarine. But my personal opinion of margarine is extremely low. Butter is where it is at!)

1/2 cup powdered sugar (aka 10x, aka confectioner's sugar, depending on where you are from)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat that oven to 400 degrees!

First, soften the butter either in the microwave, or if you are like me when I am in my apartment and do not have one, by heating it very carefully over the store. Do not melt it. Just get it nice and creamy.

Then mix the butter, the powdered sugar and the vanilla until it is a delicious cream with a very similar texture (and indeed, the same ingredients) to my homemade frosting.

Next, add the salt and stir, then add the flour about a half cup at a time, continuing to stir it in. At some point, you may need to abandon your spoon and use your hands. The texture once all the flour has been added will be more powdery and flaky than doughy. This is OK.

Next, add the nuts. If you are going to chop or grind your own nuts, try to get them to about the size of an M and M mini (NOT A REGULAR M and M!) When you add the nuts, the texture will change and the dough will be easier to deal with.

Now, roll the cookies into one inch diameter balls. These cookies do not spread, so make them look like you want your cookies to look. You can also make them into finger shapes, but we never do that. Balls are easier for the last step.

Bake the cookies for ten minutes at 400 degrees. Take them out right away and go on to the last step.

Get two plates. Cover one plate in a big pile of powdered sugar. While the cookies are still pretty hot, roll them in the sugar so they get totally covered on all sides. Then put them on the other plate, from which they will be picked up and eaten by your adoring friends and family.

OM NOM NOM!

Penance (without pictures): Garlic Bread Stuffing

I have been a bad blogger indeed. My failure is made less noticeable by the other wonderful women that I share this blog with and their ability to do what they are supposed to do. But I will make it up to you. I will translate "I will update good noms every Wednesday, without fail" into Latin and write it in cursive 500 times!

Or, I could give you a recipe for garlic bread stuffing that made everyone happy and my young neighbor who won't eat vegetables eat celery without complaining.

Actually, I like that idea better.

Unfortunately, I will have to add in the pictures for this when I get back to California, since I left my camera cord there.

YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 roasting bird (chicken, duck or duckling, turkey, goose, pheasant, quail et cetera).
• About half a loaf of ciabatta, or similar, bread. A little stale is OK.
• 1 large cooking onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 3 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• oregano, basil (fresh is always the best) salt, black pepper and cheyenne pepper (to taste)
• The juice of half a lemon

To start, heat your oven to 400 degrees (F). Have your bird prepared: defrosted, cleaned out and sitting in whatever it is you opt to roast a bird in. Here's a helpful hint that I picked up along the way: if you get a bird that was butchered in a slaughter house, they may put the giblets in a plastic bag and shove it inside the bird. You should take those out. I heard that somewhere.

Chop your onions and celery first, then start cooking them in olive oil in your largest of cooking pans. I use a wok for this. Your house will fill with a delicious aroma. Make it more delicious by chopping up the garlic into nice, cajun sized pieces, which I define as being about the size of funfetti cupcake sprinkles (or a little larger, if you want to keep mosquitos from biting!) and adding that to the mix. You may need to add more oil to keep things from sticking. Be smart. Cook this until it is soft and all of it is ready to eat. The celery may still be a little stiff. This is good. Add more oil so that the mixture is a bit saturated with it (but not, you know, floating in it. We want to walk away from this meal).

Next, tear up the bread into crouton sized pieces and throw them into the pan. Cook these pieces in the onion, celery and garlic oil. Make sure to get the bread nice and toasty and to soak up the other flavors that are in the pan. At this point, you should add your herbs (but not the salt, pepper and cheyenne, they go directly on the bird).

Set this aside to cool a bit before you put it in the bird. In the mean time, prepare the bird to cook. Besides stuffing it, before putting a bird into the oven to roast I do the following:

• I squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the whole thing
• I rub salt, pepper and cheyenne into all the skin and
• I place a couple of pats of butter on it, so that this will melt and cook into it in the oven. I know, this one isn't particularly healthy, but I love butter.

After you have done those things, you are ready to stuff the bird. Use a large spoon, or, if you are daring, your hands, to shove all your delicious garlic bread into the bird's cavity. It will overflow it if it is a small bird, like mine was. I arranged the rest of it around the bird in the pan. I do not cover birds that I roast because I like them to get very done and I never find them to be dry. My mother covers hers in a tent of tin foil and they come out well, but not golden and lovely as mine. So make your choice there :D

The time it will take you to cook your bird will depend upon what kind of bird it is. For a chicken, as I prepared with this recipe, it took me about an hour and it served about four, two of whom were teenage boys. Always make sure that your poultry is properly cooked and the juices run clear before serving. If the bread starts to get dark before the bird is done, scoop out the stuffing that is outside the bird and cover it until the meal.

Mia cupola. Forgive me.

don't worry...

Photos will come later. I've just inhaled a pound of bacony macaroni and cheese and feel too much like death to edit them. On to the post!

We at Good Noms are doing our best to allay any fears you might have of homemade bread. We are obsessed with homemade bread, and when you turn out a tasty calzone in just an hour, you will be, too!
I know what you're thinking, now. Oh, God, did she say "calzone" and JUST AN HOUR!? She must be out of her damn mind.
Don't worry. Most of that hour is occupied by the fine art of sitting, and you can make the dough ahead of time if you'd like (I'll get into this later). It's really not that bad. The recipe is enormous, though, so cut it in half if you're worried about it going to waste. Let's do this thing.

Ingredients:

Dough:
4 cups of good flour
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1 1/4 cups lukewarm (approx. 110 degrees) water
1/4 cup milk
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) yeast

Filling:
8 oz whole milk ricotta
8 oz whole milk mozzarella



Step 1: Proof yeast
Mix honey and warm water, sprinkle yeast on top, and let rest for 5 minutes.

Step 2: Make dough
Make a well in the flour, pour in the proofed mixture, and add the milk and 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Before you begin kneading, set aside a small bowl of flour to dust your hands. Knead for several minutes until pliable and elastic. Drizzle the dough with the remaining oil and place in a warm area and let rest under a towel for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. If your yeast isn't nice and fresh, it may take longer.
If you would like to save the dough for later, punch it down, ball it up, and stick it in a storage bag. Come back half an hour to 45 minutes later and punch it down again. You can leave the dough in the fridge for 2 days or so.

Step 3: Make the filling
Mix the ricotta and spices together in a medium bowl. I also added some stray Parmesan that had been in the fridge for a little too long and needed to be eaten. Set aside.

Step 4: Assemble the thing
Punch the dough down and evaluate which side has more delicious extra virgin on it. Put that side face down on the a cookie sheet. Massage it into a circle (or a rectangle if it's too big to make a circle on your cookie sheet). Slather the ricotta on half of the dough and sprinkle the mozzarella on top. You could have mixed the two together, but I prefer the contrast of separate-but-equal cheeses. This is where you could cut out some of the cheese and add in other stuff, but my man and I can't agree on toppings for pizza. He likes extra cheese and I like anything that isn't pineapple or bell peppers (please don't judge me).
Fold the dough over and pinch together. Then, for added deliciousness, sprinkle some salt and garlic powder on top.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until nice golden brown on top.

Good Noms celebrates Christmas... with crab ravioli

Since other blog members have brought up the idea of writing about Christmas traditions, Tu and I decided to spontaneously start some.
Crab Ravioli

• 1 packages wonton wrappers

Stuffing:

• 1/2 lb crab meat (finally acting like real Maryland-ers)
• 1 lb ricotta cheese
• 1 green onion, chopped
  
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 large onion, chopped
  
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
  
• red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper

Sauce:

• 1 pint heavy cream or whipping cream
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 4 oz cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan/romano cheese
• garlic powder
  

The party-crasher in this picture is the egg. We didn't end up using it for anything. In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the stuffing. Mix.
One by one, stuff the stuffing into the wonton shells. Involve the whole family. Begin by using a teaspoon-sized dollop in the center of the rectangle. You can fold in half diagonally as pictured below, or in half to make another smaller rectangle (the half-circle looks fancier, but the rectangle is less labor intensive).

Dip your fingers in water to help seal the edges, press in with a fork. If you like, you may use your favorite dough recipe (we don't have one) and a ravioli press to speed up this process.

For sauce, put cream in a saucepan on medium heat, then melt butter into it. Throw in cheddar little at a time once the mixture begins to bubble. Once the cheese is dissolved, add the parmesan/romano, lastly followed by the spices. It's perfectly acceptable to have a bland filling, because the sauce will be salty because of the cheese.

Lightly pan fry the ravioli until the outside becomes crispy and golden brown. Top with the sauce. Share at your your own discretion.

The Smell of Home Made Bread is like Heaven on Earth

I find there is something so satisfying in baking a fresh loaf of bread that doesn't quite compare to any other baking project one can do. Watching your dough rise and knowing that you made it correctly is so satisfying. Not to mention how good fresh dough smells as it rises in the kitchen.
I love using this recipe to make fresh dinner rolls (great for bringing to dinner parties). However you can also use the same recipe to make a tasty loaf of white bread! It might not be as good for you as wheat bread but its still better then store bought brands. This dough is great because you can use it in so many different ways!
If you make bread a lot (I make it quite frequently) you know what a pain kneading dough by hand can be. I prefer a little bit of a cheat and I use the dough setting on my bread maker. Since this is the way I do it this is the way I am going to give the directions. However if you are a hands on person simply make the dough by hand as you normally would (or look up how to do so). Without further delay...

Super Easy and Totally Tasty Dinner Rolls!
1c Water (75-80 F)
1 large egg
4 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
3 1/4 c bread flour
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbs butter

If you store your yeast in the fridge (I have a big jar) take the 2 ¼ teaspoons out and place in a dish. Set this aside. The yeast will warm up a bit making it more active when you put it in the bread. Follow your bread maker directions for layering your ingredients. Mine go into the machine in the order above. My one suggestion is your flour. As you can see I use King Arthur flour. I LOVE this flour and use it for everything I bake. Their flours are unbleached, not tampered with, and are produced by real people on real farms. I think this makes a big difference.

Ok so you get your mixer going. I find that I need to add one additional tablespoon of water to my dough as it mixes or it is too dry. See what your dough looks like and if its not sticking together nice then add a bit more water. Now let your bread machine do all the work (unless of course you are mixing by hand then you get to work!).

Before Rising and After Rising

After its done you will have a nice smooth dough. Take a 13x9 pan (metal is best but glass works too. I actually bake in 2 8x8 metal pans) and lightly grease. Pull off small bits of dough and form into balls. I like to take the soft side of the dough and fold all the edges under so your rolls look nice and smooth. Place into pan and let rise (cover them with a towel to there is no draft). I let them double in size which takes about an hour in a warm kitchen.

The Rolls before Rising (I didn't take a post rise picture)

While they are rising preheat oven to 350. When ready baste the tops of the rolls lightly with butter and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. When they are nice and golden brown on top test to make sure they are done (I use a tooth pick). If they are then take them out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then take them out of the pan. Eat them! NomNomNom!

These are excellent for bringing to dinner parties!

Christmas tradition (and recipes!) in a blended family

With the holidays come a spate of food traditions, among others. My family includes my four siblings, my mom, my dad and stepmom, and her ex-husband. With so many members, my family has plenty of Christmas traditions to share!

My step-siblings' father is from Denmark, and his Christmas specialty is Danish sweet potatoes...not like the orange potato things that are sometimes (incorrectly) called yams. I found a recipe on About.com to illustrate the tooth-explodingly sweet goodness of the potatoes Jens makes.

Ingredients:
12-15 small new potatoes
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp. water

Directions:
Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork-tender, about 20 minutes. Remove, drain, allow to cool slightly, and peel. In a large frying pan, brown sugar over medium-low heat just until sugar begins to darken around the edges. Stir in the butter until mixture is smooth and slightly bubbling; mix in water. Add potatoes to pan, shaking pan to coat them evenly with caramelized butter. Allow potatoes to brown briefly, 5 to 10 minutes.

Seriously, though, don't load up your plate with these like you would regular potatoes. You will pass out and wake up diabetic!

Beetus

My stepmommy makes baked beans every Christmas from her mom's special recipe. It seems weird, yes, but they pair wonderfully with ham and fill the house with the smell of molasses, brown sugar, and sweet, sweet bacon. Here is a recipe from Paula Deen (Paula knows about bacon).

BACON!!!

Ingredients
6 slices bacon, diced
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cups brown sugar
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 cup water
4 (28-ounce) cans pork and beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until browned and crispy. Add onions and a dash of salt and pepper. Allow to cook for a few minutes. In a large bowl, mix together pinto beans, brown sugar and diced tomatoes. Add to Dutch oven and allow cooking. Add 1 cup of water and pork and beans to pot. Cook for 30 minutes.

Now lets talk about the only holiday tradition from my mom and dad that I can think of. The whipping of the cream. The whipping of the cream come with much fanfare. There is a big to-do that morning when somebody announces that they are CHILLING THE BOWL. After dinner we pull the cold bowl out of the fridge and whisk the ever-loving crap out of the cream (by hand), passing it around as our arms become too sore to whip.

Ingredients:
Heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Beat the cream like a fi-dolla ho.

Not pictured: paralyzing arm pain (photo courtesy Toni Metzger Horrace)

No, we don't sweeten the cream. It's so wonderful, and adds richness to every dessert without making it sickly sweet. It is also excellent to dollop into your coffee if (like me) you don't take sugar in your coffee. You COULD add a little confectioner's sugar, and you COULD make it with a mixer, but it tastes so much better sweetened only with the pain and suffering of your entire family.

Good Noms bakes bread

The recipe I am using today is brought to you by Bob's Red Mill. On one hand, I like Bob's Red Mill because they produce a huge variety of whole grain and minimally processed and organic foods that are commonly available in most grocery stores, on the other hand most of it costs so much that you will look at a 5 pound bag of store brand enriched bleached cocaine-white flour that's on sale for like 2 bucks and say to yourself "How bad can it be?"
But all that aside - here is Wheat Bran Cranberry Quick Bread
Ignore the butter, it snuck in there somehow without me knowing.

• 2/3 cups flour (I used the all purpose store brand kind)
• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cups wheat bran
• 2/3 cups brown sugar
• 2/3 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cups chopped nuts (I used some pecans I had left over and a bit of walnuts)
• 2/3 cups chopped dried cranberries (if you buy a 6oz package of Craisins, then about half)
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cups milk
• 2/3 cups orange juice
• 2/3 cups melted margarine or vegetable oil (I used apple sauce)

By the way, these are the best way to spend $10 at Target (or what have you).

I find them a bit awkward for everyday things, but for things like brown sugar these little canisters are the best. They are airtight and the sugar never hardens.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients and nuts. Stir cranberries, egg, milk, oj, apple sauce (or oil) into flour mixture, stir until just combined. Pour into greased 9x5x3 pan and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until center is firm.
Alternately, place all ingredients into the bread machine that you tried to get your mother to give you for about a year and she refused with the excuse that she might use it (before that it sat unused for maybe another 3 years) until she finally gave it up in the order specified by the manufacturer. Select "quick bread" setting (this just means that there is no extra rise time because we aren't using yeast.)
The bread turned out well. It's sweet, with a great shot of sour when you bite into one of those cranberry bits. It was still a bit too sweet for me (unless I'm baking cookies, cake, or something else that is deliberately supposed to be sweet I like no more than a hint of sweetness). I'd cut the sugar down to 1/2 a cup next time, maybe even less.
Overall it's moist, dense, with a nice grainy texture (the nuts and the bran probably help with this). PS - I imagine this bread would be as delicious vegan with the omission or substitution of the egg.

Even more delays!

I will be posting tomorrow night instead of tonight, since I have been having a rather busy time of things getting ready for my journey East to visit my family and friends in three places that were once my home. I haven't been cooking anything noteworthy for the past week or so, I'm afraid. Just a lot of tacos (and you've already been schooled on tacos) and basic pasta dishes, plus, I ate some excellent meals over with friends. Tonight I'm making baked zitti, but I think everyone can figure that one out. Tomorrow night, however, is my last night in CA for 2009 and I will be roasting a chicken with herbs, vegetables and homemade stuffing, so look forward to the report tomorrow night (and be jealous of my young neighbors, for they will be nomming with me).

Om nom nom,

dangersecond

Finally!

Pumpkin-pecan cheesecake!!!

I'll be quick with my blurb today!

1. Paula Deen pumpkin cheesecake recipe.
2. Substituted Pecan Sandies for Graham Crackers.
3. Candied Pecans.

Ingredients


Crust:
1 dozen crumbled Pecan Sandies
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room (softened)
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Candied Pecans:

1 cup sugar
1 cup pecans
2 tbsp water

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Crust: Pecan Sandies are brittle enough to crumble in your hands if you don't have a food processor (like me). Squish this together with the other crust ingredients and press down into a 9" springform pan.




3) Filling: Beat the cream cheese until it's nice and smooth. Beat in the rest of the wet ingredients. Make sure to save the eggs for last if you forgot to set out your cream cheese before you left for work and had to nuke it when you got home (not that you would do that). You don't want accidental scrambled eggs in your cake. Add the vanilla, spices, and flour.



4) Bake: Pour the filling into the crust. At this point you may want to watch out for lumps. I always seem to have a little bit of cream cheese plastered on the bottom of the mixing bowl at the end, and we don't want those making the cake look all blobby and gross. Bake for one hour, cool to room temperature, and chill covered in the fridge (ideally overnight).


IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS: Put the springform pan on a cookie sheet in the oven. I found that a lot of water cooked out of the pumpkin and seeped out into my oven, making it a little stinky the next few times I used it. Blech. Because of this escaping moisture, your cheesecake may tend to crack. It doesn't matter, because we are going to cover the cake in nuts. However, if you are lucky enough to avoid cracking during baking, cook the cheesecake 5 to 10 minutes less, turn off the oven, crack it, and allow the oven and cheesecake to cool. This prevents cracking because it limits the differential thermal contraction of the cake, blah, blah, science, blah.

Above: Science

5) Candied Pecans: Grease or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cook the sugar and water to 310 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, this is the hard crack stage and you can tell when it has been reached by dropping a little of the candy into a glass of very cold water. If it has reached the proper temperature, it will be brittle and crack if you pull it out and try to bend it. Stir in the nuts, pour onto the cookie sheet, and allow to cool.

That is, as you may suspect, a tangerine holding down my parchment

6) Finishing: Crumble the bejeezus out of the pecans, discarding any extra lumps of sugar. If you won't be serving the cake immediately after preparing the pecans, store the nuts in a container with a piece of toast so they don't get soggy, and garnish at the last second.

I have lied to you.

I've realized that I cannot post photos of the cheesecake I've made for tonight's post! I won't finish garnishing it until tomorrow just before we eat it, lest the candied pecans get soggy in the fridge! Back tomorrow!

Regular Monday Post...

Moved to Tuesday! Why? Because I am making a pumpkin cheesecake tomorrow night for our office Christmas luncheon on Wednesday! So tune back in tomorrow night, for either a glowing success or a terrible bawling failure! Wheeeee!

Home Made Cookies Are Always Better!

The holiday season is upon us and if your like me that means it is time to make cookies! Cookies may not be the healthiest food you could be eating but if you make them from scratch they are so much better for you then store bought cookies or pre-made batter.
For the first round of cookies this season I decided to make 'Chocolate Crunchy Tops with Peanut Butter Chips". I did not make these cookies organic (I had everything in my cupboard already) however everything you need to make them is easy to find in an organic brand.

To make these little bits of yum you will need:
7oz bittersweet chocolate (chop into small pieces)
7tbls unsalted butter
1/2c sugar
3 eggs
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup coco powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt

1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Take a heavy bottomed sauce pan and add in the butter and the chocolate. Melt these together on low until nice and smooth. Make sure to stir them frequently so you don't burn the bottom. Once melted remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until its dissolved. Then add your eggs one at a time stirring well after each one. Add in the vanilla and set aside.
Sift together your flour, coco, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. If you don't have a sifter mix the blend together well with a fork to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Add in the chocolate mixture a little at a time. You will have a soft dough when you are done. Then add in your peanut butter chips and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge until the dough is firm.

Preheat your oven to 325. Take the confectioners sugar and place in a small bowl. Scoop dough into small balls and roll around in your hands to make a good shape. Drop into the sugar to coat the dough then knock off any extra sugar. Then place on your baking sheet!

Bake your cookies for 10-15 minutes. You know the cookies are done when they feel slightly firm on top. Let sit for a few minutes on the cookie sheet then place on a cooling rack.

My dough was a little dry so they didn't quite have the look I wanted but they still tasted pretty yummy! You will want something to drink when eating these I can assure you!
One tip, if you are using a regular cookie sheet be sure to grease it just a bit. I prefer an air bake sheet which keeps the cookies from sticking and also keeps them from burning!

Enjoy!

Good Noms bakes

I've been craving chocolatey minty cookies ever since Tu and I finished our Thin Mints. My search for recipes proved difficult, as there are practically zero recipes not involving Andes mints or not being a regular cookie with mint chips.
So I present to you - Chocolate Mint Snow-top cookies.
I found this recipe online and thought I'd give it a try
it calls for:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 package (10 oz) mint flavored chocolate morsels. They didn't have these at any of the stores I normally shop, so I used Nestle dark chocolate and mint morsels. Set 1 cup of these aside from the rest.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• I also added 1/2 tsp peppermint extract (not pictured). The chips didn't smell/taste that minty, and I wanted to feel the coolness. Keep in mind though that the extract is pretty strong, so don't overdo it.
• Confectioner's sugar (optional)

Combine the dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Melt 1 cup of chocolate pieces. The best way to do this is over a double boiler, or whatever it's called when you put a smaller pot into a pot of boiling water. This minimizes your chances of burning. If you are feeling ballsy (or are thinking to yourself that you'll just take your chances since these are going to be baked into a cookie anyway), pile them into a microwave safe container and after the initial 30 seconds, microwave at 10-15 second intervals, testing after each one. Once I made the mistake of thinking that since the pieces were still keeping shape they weren't melted enough. I want you to know that through the pure magical power of deliciousness chocolate and candy will keep shape even if it's all liquid inside. So poke it before to make sure, or else you'll burn it.
Now you'll want to break out your Kitchenaid (remember me singing its praise a few posts ago?) Beat in melted chocolate, vanilla, peppermint, eggs, flour mixture (in increments). Or you can do it by hand. I did this time (my mixer is indisposed). Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
Cover and pop in the freezer for the duration of time it takes to watch an episode of cheesy anime on Hulu. Preheat the oven to 350. Then roll your dough into 1 inch balls. The recipe says to then roll them in powdered sugar. I did this for the first batch (I only own one cookie sheet, shameful, I know). I found that it did absolutely nothing, because by the time the cookies are done baking, the sugar (assuming you got a nice, even coat) will completely dissolve and become invisible.I got sort of a clumpy coat' so you can see some sugar on them, but I skipped the sugar bath for the two subsequent batches. The cookies bake for about 12 minutes, or until cracks appear in the top. I undercooked the second batch a little, they are flatter and darker than the first batch.Yes, I have eaten nothing but cookies today, and yes I did get sugar on my lens taking this last photo. I like these cookies a lot, they have an excellent minty flavor, nice round shape (if you bake them long enough) and a delicious crispy yet soft on the inside texture.

A Tale of Two Pies, Part 2

We shall now continue our study of pies from last week. You may ask yourself "dangersecond, aren't you supposed to post on Wednesdays? Why do you always post early on Thursday morning?" There are two reasons for this, my friends. First of all, most of my friends live in the EST. I live in the PST. Also, I get off work at 8:00 PM and have a lot of things to do before I get to use the computer, such as nomming. So it ends up being late at night my time when I post. This is my explanation. Now here is an explanation of french apple pie.

If you recall, I left you last week with one completed pie and an extra pie crust. For this second pie, you will need the following ingredients:

• Five to seven apples (depending on their size)
  
• 1/4 Cup white sugar
• 1/4 Cup brown sugar
• 3/4 Cup flour
• 3/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• A dash of nutmeg
• 6 Tablespoons of butter

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Slice up the apples to be nice and small. I like to make them about the size of a thimble, like this:

Cut the butter into slices that are a couple of millimeters thick.

Put the apples in the pie crust in a nice, big mound (sorry, that's the only word I could think of). Then sprinkle them with the white sugar.

Mix all of the remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stir them until the butter is all crumbled up.

Pour this on top of the apples.

Put your pie in the oven and bake it for 35 minutes.

The pie that will result will not have a standard "dough top", but instead a delicious crumb top similar to coffee cake. The only problem I ever have with this pie is that sometimes it becomes too juicy and I have burned myself with delicious, hot apple pie juices (man, this post is inadvertently sexual). So indulge with care.

Sesame Noodz

Today...sesame noodles! Super quick, super easy, super tasty!
Sesame seeds are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world of cooking. The seeds themselves, sesame oil, sesame paste. They are all delicious and work well in sweet or savory applications.

THAT BEING SAID, I must warn you, sesame oil should not be used as cooking oil. This is not because it will catch fire or release poison gas or anything. It just loses its flavor, and you end up using too much to get a good sesame flavor and your food goes to the table way too greasy.

My sesame noodles have mainly Japanese flavors, which means the sauce contains sweetener. I use honey because it really imparts a nice flavor and yields a thicker sauce. You can easily use sugar or splenda or stevia or whatever other junk you have lying around the house, though. And my cooking pretty much revolves around using what I have. This sauce is rather sweet, so if you think you may want to cut back, add half the honey and taste.

A few other things you may notice are the following:

• I've used dry sherry in this recipe. You can use mirin (rice wine) if you want, but it is just too hard to find mirin that doesn't have a gazillion additives. You can also use any other dry wine, or nothing, but sherry is my favorite.

• I've used basil in place of going out looking for shiso and ground ginger instead of fresh (it was snowing in VA this weekend, and we are straight up plowless in our town).

Step 1: Ingredients

2 tbsp honey or other sweetener
1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh ginger
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp dried basil
1 tsp sesame paste
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp roasted sesame oil
3 scallions
1/2 small head of cabbage or bok choy
1/3 to 1/2 cup of onion
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 lb pasta

Step 2: Sauce

Whisk together honey, sesame paste, sesame oil, tamari, 1 tsp of the sherry, and the spices. Chop the scallions and add to the sauce. Set aside to marry.

Step 3: Cabbage

Roughly chop the onion and saute over medium heat in the butter. Chop the cabbage while the onion sautes.

After it cooks down, add the remaining sherry. Because you love sherry. Turn this to low and let it hang out and soften some more. Typically I cook everything al dente, but undercooked cabbage is just a bellyache waiting to happen.

Step 4: Pasta

Cook the pasta al dente in well salted water, according to the package's instructions. You can use any noodle, udon, bean threads, soba, yam noodles...but again, it was snowing, and I didn't feel like heading down to the specialty store for the good noodles.

Step 5: Finish up

Add the sauce to the noodles and stir well. The add the cabbage and serve!