Kick-Ass Cookies

Warning: Completely self-indulgent, horn-tooting, post.

Kyle loves chocolate chip cookies. Given a choice when I'm in the mood for baking, he always goes with chocolate chip. I had just made a small batch a week or so earlier, so a few nights ago when we were planning on leftovers for dinner and I decided to bake, I thought I'd make something different.

I was flipping through my Cook's Illustrated book, "Baking Illustrated" and came across pecan bars. Hmm... tasty...

"Ooo, are you making cookies?" Kyle wanted to know.

"Well, I was thinking of making pecan bars..."

His face falls, ever so slightly.

"But I can make cookies."

"Yay!" His face lights back up.

So I found a recipe for "Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies." As the book says, the goal is to recreate those huge, sinfully rich cookies you find in boutique bakeries and fancy hotels.

And damn if they weren't just as good - if not better!

Not only were they delicious, but they actually looked good too. I think the secret to that was size consistency (you portion out a "scant" quarter-cup of dough per cookie) and the strange technique of pulling the dough ball apart and squishing the two "broken" halves together, "broken" side up - this makes for a craggy top.

I was so pleased, I took a photo!

(On my trusty Silpat - a non-stick liner made with silicon and fiberglass. No, really. It's awesome.)

Kyle loves them. I took a few to work today (the recipe only makes 18, and they are for Kyle, so I split them in half) and my coworkers really liked them as well.

Now, more than ever, thankful

Tomorrow, three-quarters of my family will be together for Thanksgiving (that's just counting the nuclear family of two parents and two kids).

My parents and my brother work at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, and thus all three will be working on Thanksgiving, preparing for the retail nightmare that is Black Friday. Luckily, my parents don't have to be at work until 4 p.m., so Kyle and I are hosting our parents and his sister and nephew for a Thanksgiving lunch, noon-ish.

My brother, on the other hand, will be working 9 a.m.-7 p.m. -- he won't even make it to his in-laws Thanksgiving. I usually refrain my cursing in this blog, as it's supposed to be family-friendly, blog name notwithstanding, but I mean this deeply and sincerely: fuck you, Wal-Mart.

In the past, I've taken on the whole Thanksgiving meal myself; I have a Martha/martyr facet to my personality. This year, Kyle decided he wanted to fry the turkey, and anything that gets cooked outdoors is his territory (I happily concede this). That saves me a lot of time, effort and space in the refrigerator, as I usually brine my bird, a three-day process. I asked my parents to bring some wine, and Kyle asked his parents and sister to bring something simple, so I still get to do the rest.

Menu

Simple Green Salad
Deep-Fried Turkey
Savory Dressing with Sage, Cranberries and Pecans
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Mr. Sykes' Cranberry Relish
A selection of assorted olives and pickles
Brussel Sprouts with Cream and Peppered Bacon
Velvet Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Sauce or Gravy
Freshly-baked Yeast Rolls
Pumpkin Pie with real whipped cream

(I'm hoping someone makes a sweet potato casserole.)

We'll be offering a selection of beverages, including a fantastic white called Conundrum, Champagne, two reds my parents are bringing, Coke Zero, coffee, eggnog, Silk Pumpkin Spice, and milk. There's also a wide range of beers to choose from: Guinness, Blue Moon's Full Moon Winter Ale, various Sam Adams, and--let's not forget--Budweiser and Bud Light.

Mentally preparing for such a big meal makes me introspective. It's strange; my fortunes tend be out of step with that of the nation's. I can remember struggling in my first "job" after dropping out of graduate school, while the rest of the world was getting rich off the technology boom. And now that the country's mood has darkened, I find myself in an enviable place: a steady job that I really enjoy, likable and friendly colleagues, a home of my own and a man with whom I look forward to spending the rest of my life. Throw in my generally good health, some true friends, and family nearby and I've got a pretty damn sweet life!

I have so much to be thankful for, and it doesn't take a holiday to remind me; the news does a good enough job. More often than not, I wake up every day with the realization that I'm happier now than I've ever been. How many people can say that?

And while I'm well aware that everything in life changes, and times will get tough at some point, right now, this year, at this moment, I'm very thankful. I try to soak it up - really enjoy it for what it is now. I'm so blessed.

Thank you, my friends, my colleagues, the people who've randomly stumbled across this. Thank you for reading. I hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful as well.

Cooked-book and the new flat screen

After a protracted battle with Best Buy (let's just say we're not big fans anymore), the new stand for Kyle's flat-screen television finally came in.

This is one of those "Venus-Mars" things. Seriously, you would have thought it was Christmas around here when the stand was delivered. It's as if the kick-ass television wasn't enough; it just wouldn't be whole without its special stand.

He had to assemble the stand (it came in a pizza-flat box), and every so often he'd call me out to the front room to check out the progress. You should have seen the disappointment in his face when he realized I wasn't appropriately thrilled.

I mean, it's a TV stand. It's not like it's a . . . oh, I don't know, a car or a puppy or anything.

I don't get it. But he loves it, and it makes him happy, and that's a good thing. I thought now would be a good time to take a photo:




Less exciting, but more amusing (at least in my definition of "amusing"), is my little accident a few nights ago.

I was starting dinner, and due to the poor lighting in the kitchen, was trying to do everything on the stovetop, where there's an overhead light in the exhaust hood. This included referencing my favorite cookbook of all time, "How to Cook Everything," by the incomparable Mark Bittman.

Apparently I have stovetop dyslexia. On our stove, each burner's dial is marked with four circles, with the circle representing that particular burner darkened. Instead of turning on the back right burner for the potatoes I wanted to boil, I had instead turned on the front right burner, upon which was resting - my cookbook.

Thank God the slight scorching caused a bit of smoke, or who knows what would have happened?



Ah well; as my friend Kim said, it's just a sign of a well-loved cookbook.

I've been tagged - I feel like a black bear or something

Bloggers are great at creating a virtual community and one way they do that is through tagging. Another blogger tags you and you're supposed to list ten random facts about yourself. Kim, my coworker and a great garden writer, sort of tagged me recently through e-mail, but I thought I'd post and link.

1. Two long trips: Both were transatlantic flights. In 2004, I went to London for a week with a group of people, including my best friend Janet. That was a seven-hour flight and the high point of that trip was seeing the Roman baths in nearby Bath. Last August I went with my boyfriend to Rio de Janiero for a wedding. Our summer is their "winter," so it wasn't as crazy and crowded as the Rio in our imaginations. That flight was roughly nine hours, and that's after driving from Gainesville to Miami - another five hours. Ugh. The highlights on that trip were the Christ statue on Corcovado mountain - awesome in the truest sense of the word - and hang-gliding, which I almost didn't do.

It's me! And the guy actually doing the work.







2. Two things I really enjoy doing: cooking and reading. I'm a results-oriented person; making something, having something to show for my efforts is incredibly fulfilling to me. To be able to create a meal and share with others is a fantastic feeling. I love it when people enjoy my cooking. Reading, on the other hand, is more of an obsession. I just can't stop myself. I'll read anything - other people's textbooks, random magazines laying around, etc. The web is a dangerous place for me. Cook's Illustrated feeds both passions.



3. Two things you want very badly at the moment: a house, and more time with my friends. My fiance and I (he went from b-f to fiance after Brazil) are currently house-shopping. We're looking for something affordable, with some space. That appears to mean, at least in Gainesville's ridiculously-priced market, something older. Which is fine by me - I prefer homes built no later than the 70s. They're built better, period. We're looking at two tomorrow!



I moved to Gainesville in July. In Jacksonville, I left behind four really wonderful friends. Because they all have children, time is a precious thing - we don't get to see each other that much. And my best friend is in Palatka, of all places. I miss her quite a bit. Most of the people I've met in Gainesville are a lot younger than me and already have a strong circle of friends. Thank goodness Kyle and I actually enjoy each other's company so much.



4. Three animals you have or have had: Two memorable pets are my parents' dog Benson, who is 14 years old. He has been my parents' security system for years, so I worry about what they'll do without 'ol Benson. The second is Blackie, a black Corgi mix that came to my parents and had a few memorable years in our household. But MY dog, my baby, that's Angus.



He lives with his "grandparents," that is, my ex's parents. That dog was my world.


5. Two favorite beverages: beer and Coke Zero. Those who know me have already been subjected to my ravings about beer. I like all sorts of beer: Guinness, Miller Lite, anything Sam Adams, Tucher, Old Chub, Red Hook Blonde . . . I could go on and on. And Coke Zero is my true guilty pleasure. A calorie-free liquid full of chemicals. Yum!

Because I write too much, I'm stopping at five. If anyone's made it this far, I'm sure they're exhausted. Enough!

Now I'm supposed to tag other blogs that I read and enjoy. Tagging etiquette says I should leave a comment on their blog, so that they know they've been tagged. Here are few of my favorites blogs:

• A List Apart - design, development, web content, focused on web standards and best practices.


• Alertbox - Web usability authority Jakob Nielsen's column


• Garden Living: Adventures with Children & Kids


• Cannas and Bananas: Creating a Bold Garden


• Florida Ecomania

(Since ALA and Alertbox are "professional" blogs, I won't be "tagging" them.)