Ride for Roswell, June 26, 2010

The annual Ride for Roswell is this Saturday and I'd really like to take a moment to thank everyone who's donated to the ride. I never fail to be awed by the generosity of all those who give and support me with this event.  You can see the growing list of donors on my ride page. Below is a slideshow for anyone who's donated in Honor or in Memory of a loved one and for all those I ride for.  I plan to post all the cards on the Honor Wall on ride day and I'd be more than happy to add your name or the name of someone you wish to honor or remember - no donation necessary, just post it here or send me an email.  This is what the ride is all about - it has definitely changed the world.  Thanks to everyone for making this such a meaningful event!

A Sure Bet

As I'm approaching the halfway point of the year I'm pretty happy that I have yet to have any 'repeats' in the cookie department. OK, maybe with the exception of some of the cutout cookie recipes, but they've been different shapes so with my 'make the rules up as you go along' philosophy, they don't count - and I'm still good in the 'unique each week' quest.  It was my own little rule to force me to try new recipes.

So as my list of 'tried and true' cookie recipes starts to dwindle I'm having to take a few more chances with recipes that 'sound good.'  As a result I've had some iffy results recently ... a bit of the Goldilocks syndrome with some of them being too soft or too flat or too dry or too hard or too burnt - well, guess I can't blame the recipe for that last one, and don't fret, I don't waste a lot of food (a curse of growing up in a family of 10) and all those slightly over baked ones usually ended up in, uh, lets just say 'testing services.'  But luckily, overall, I don't think there have been any real 'clunkers' in the taste department.

Yet whenever I find myself in a pinch for a recipe and don't know what to bake - as I did this week - I've been able to turn to one of my 'cookie project purchases' that has turned out to be well worth the investment.  Dorie Greenspan's "Baking. From My Home to Yours."  Talk about a sure thing?  This is the third cookie I've baked from this book - all of them were sweet and flavorful and delicious.  If I were smart (no comments please!) following this pastry chef should be my 'Plan A."  And another smart move is to bake a cookie that's filled with chocolate and candy and candy bars - that is definitely good plan.  Have you ever had a cookie with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in them that has been bad?  My point exactly ... so I wasn't too worried when along about Tuesday afternoon I finally settled on Dorie's Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops... I think they were "just right!"

I can't forget to mention that I also threw together a light Cappuccino Biscotti for Gilda's Club - that may have fallen in that 'too hard' category - but it's a biscotti after all - so it's nothing a quick dunk in a hot cup of coffee wouldn't remedy ... now I'm off to work on my very own original cookie recipe - I'm thinking something with chopped up snickers bars might be a good idea!

Say what?

What was that you put in these here cookies?  Beans.  Did you say beans?  Yup, beans. You mean like jelly beans right? Nope, I mean like legumes, a whole can of great northern beans.  But these cookies are good.  I know.  They don't taste like beans.  Cool, isn't it?

And so goes the conversations about one of the cookies I did this week, which I believe are very inappropriately named "Marathon Cookies" from Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks.com.  She has one of my favorite cooking blogs with a quality of photos I'll never come close to matching.  But 'Marathon Cookies' would lend one to believe you could eat them before or during a run ... well you could, I guess, but I wouldn't advise it!  But after a run or workout?  Absolutely!  Go to town on these - while not specifically 'low calorie' they are filled with fiber and some protein  and whole grain goodness and just a fraction of the fat in a regular cookie and all from a healthy oil.  The flavor is refreshing and boosted by the combination of anise seed and lemon zest and chopped dates & sesame seeds only add to the great texture.  Perhaps not your average 'cookie' in the traditional sense of the word, but a great, and healthy, snack none the less!

Now I'll confess, while I LOVE this cookie personally - and through my Weight Watchers cooking escapades have had some exposure to beans in baked goods in the past (black bean brownies anyone?) - but still I was nervous to provide this as an option for the cookie project.  I envision people eying it suspiciously, unwrapping and smelling it - breaking off a piece to take the tiniest of tastes .... then spewing it across the room and tossing the rest in the garbage! But my sense is the folks at Gilda's Club are far too polite for that - so, uh, instead they'd probably spit it in a napkin as they pretended to cough and then crush the whole thing up in a ball and shove it in their pocket so they could throw it out when they get home!! :)  But on a serious note, I'm sure people will try these, and some may even like them, and for the health conscious the pulsed oats and pureed beans along with all the other ingredients really make for a very refreshing, if not different, treat.

So then of course, to counteract the possible backlash from the Marathon Cookies I proceeded to pair them with one of the ultimate decadent cookies - Pecan Raisin Drops.  We're talking loads of butter and brown sugar and nuts and salt and raisins and the only thing that you could possibly do to improve this one would be to dip the whole thing in chocolate!  Hey, now there's an idea ... maybe next time ...

Look to the Cookie

Black and White cookies.  I think they're the kind of thing you had to grow up with to truly love.  I used a tried and true recipe based on one straight from Zabars in New York City.  And while I was off a bit on the 'big & round" qualities of the cookie, the rest of it was spot on.  The cakey cookie, the half vanilla, half chocolate icing - that even looked 'pro' on some of the smaller cookies that managed to come out in a circle.  Personally, I think people mainly love them because they're typically HUGE, but in my more normal sized version, well, I could take 'em or leave 'em.  Guess I'm kind of hoping there's some transplanted New Yorkers that need reminding of home - to them, I'm sure they'll be delicious!

 (for great pictures check out the recipe link to Smitten Kitchen)

Evidently I wasn't the first to have the notion that a cookie can change the world:

"...If people would only look to the cookie, all of our problems would be solved."  Jerry Seinfeld

Looking for a 'Do Over'

Nah .. not with the cookies - I managed to get a big batch of Light Toffee Biscotti and some old fashioned Peanut Butter cookies (from my Mom's own original 'Joy of Cooking') out to Gilda's Club and Ronald McDonald House this week before I had to head out of town for a few days for a work conference (so I get a pass on the late Blog update too) and hoping I didn't upset anyone's routine by dropping them off on a Tuesday!

So yes, the cookies were fine, but what was more distressing to me this week was all the bad press focused on Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.  Well, not just bad press, but embarrassing video and cold hard facts.  She's had some issues in the past, but you always got the impression that she was being unfairly portrayed and hounded by the British Press.  My impression of her was that she was feisty and did what she had to to protect and provide for her daughters and stand up to the Queen.  In person she was normal, and genuine and funny and gracious - and I know this because I've met her.  Yup, live and in person, actually, I believe she's the only real celebrity I've ever met without having had to stalk them first (which means Bruce Springsteen doesn't count! :)

In 2007 I got an award from Weight Watchers when the Duchess was their spokesperson. As a result, Weight Watchers flew me and a friend, my BFF Cindy pictured with us, to DC for a little award luncheon and we all got to meet her and have 'photo ops.'  It was fun, and sure I was a bit star struck, but also very inspired and impressed by Sarah's speech and her Weight Watchers story.  She was entertaining and sincere and I was happy to have met her and proud to have her as 'my' Weight Watchers spokesperson. Weight Watchers even sent me a set of the professional photographs and a nice framed shot of Sarah and I.  It was a legitimate 'celebrity' meeting - unlike some of the other encounters I've had, like seeing Ethan Hawk across the room in a New York City diner or the NY Giants coach (at the time), Bill Parcells (whose name I couldn't remember) in a Dallas restaurant, or following Bobby Flay around Wegmans not even sure if it was him or not.

No, this was real, and based on that alone I was bound to like her - to a point where I'd want to defend her.  But you've got admit, this time it's a little tough to do - but I'm SURE she's got a good explanation ... even Dave seems thinks so:

See what can happen when you stop going to Weight Watchers meetings!? This should be a lesson to us all! I'm telling you this is not looking good - and I'm not even sure Oprah will be able to save her soul now.  Frankly I'm pissed, my only brush with fame, my only good celebrity photograph is now just an embarrassment.  And I don't think Weight Watchers is gonna be giving me any awards these days or let me have a do over with their new spokesperson, Jennifer Hudson (too many cookies, perhaps? :)  So I had no choice but to take it upon myself to remedy the situation - and I'm SURE no one will be the wiser!

Worth the wait?

I'm referring to the cookies, not this blog entry! But let me tell you, if it says 'Non-Drowsy' on the box, I'd read the fine print to see exactly what they mean by that, because I now believe that it's just letting you know you'll skip that drowsy feeling altogether and go straight into a Claritin induced coma! As my chin was hitting my chest I was entirely oblivious to my hands resting on the keyboard.  Gulliver's stare and dog breath couldn't even wake me as I slept semi-upright slumped over my laptop last night. But he's not one to give up all that easily when he's looking for his evening treats and a few swipes of his tongue in my ear and up my nose brought me back to a semi-conscious state and computer screen full of  "aa;dklladkla;jklfaaaaaaaaa" ... you get the picture, so I apologize, but I knew I couldn't do it justice knowing I had to write about the best chocolate cookie I've ever tasted!

Honestly.  I would think there would be a lot of disappointed people knowing the high expectations that come with something called 'World Peace Cookies.'  I'm going to look up why she chose this name, but I can attest that it's not all that far off.  From what I've read from various pastry chefs and other blogs, the secret is the salt.  I know, huh?  And yes, just about every baked good has salt, but this cookie has 'Fluer de Sel.' Which according to Wikipedia, Fleur de sel is a type of sea salt obtained by hand harvesting the "young" crystals that form on the surface of salt evaporation ponds, which must be why it's also so damn expensive - but SO worth it.  I think this recipe called for only a half teaspoon, but you can taste a hint of it in every bite, and that along with the bittersweet chocolate, do I need to go on?

Another great thing about these cookies is that they are incredibly easy to make.  The dough is very uncomplicated - it does get rolled into a log an refrigerated before you slice and bake them, but I LOVE that, it means I can do part of the work ahead of time. Oh, and one more thing, there's no eggs in the dough, not as if that would ever stop me, but if you wanted to lop off a chunk and forgo that whole 'baking' part you could do it without a worry - and it would be delicious - I can also attest to that! So yes, I'd been eyeing these cookies and had wanted to make them for some time, but was sure they wouldn't follow through on the hype - and I'm very happy to announce I was wrong, what can I say, there's a first time for everything! :) 

With what I felt was one 'home run' in the oven I wasn't sure what to bake to go along with it (for those crazy fools that don't care for chocolate). To be honest I really wanted to do a peanut butter cookie to compliment it, but didn't have the right ingredients on hand (like peanut butter, for instance!). So, I decided to go ahead with another cookie I've been wanting to bake for some time.  Well, technically it's not a 'cookie' at all, but homemade graham crackers.  And they sure didn't disappoint, but they also didn't look like the  'beautiful crackers' on the Smitten Kitchen site.  I can't tell you how hard I tried to have the 'cracker holes' in mine, I think my dough was a bit too moist, next time I'm going to weigh, rather than measure, the flour and see if there's difference since I noticed the later crackers held their shape better after being floured and rolled a few times, but either way, the taste was definitely there. So yes, they were a bit labor intensive, but another one that can be done in stages and obviously stores and keeps well.  I did have a few issues with having to

bake 'crackers' and occasionally crossing those fine lines between being under done (and therefor not totally 'crisp' but still had awesome graham cracker flavor), perfectly crisp and then burnt, or shall we say 'overdone' since as far as I'm concerned none were inedible.  I know, not a surprise coming from me - but the ones that were slightly singed on the bottom didn't taste burnt at all and of course were very crispy and delicious. These were definitely a time commitment but I assure you the end result is a great payoff.

After all this, I was still in a bit of a dilemma about cookies for the Ronald McDonald house.  I always tend to do something a bit heartier and less delicate, and the quantities for the other cookies would've had me rolling and baking graham crackers for days.  But I didn't want to short change them either so out comes one of the finalist recipes for the Pillsbury Bake Off that I'd saved for just such an occasion.  Caramel Filled Chocolate cookies.  I was thinking they might be a bit easier, since it's technically a drop cookie but I was wrong about that too.  It's not a cutout, so that was good, but you roll the cookie dough into balls and then wrap it around a Rolo candy!! Cool, right?  Forget the Hershey's Kisses and peanut blossoms, I thought this was simply genius!  And I'll give myself credit for buying the rolls of non-individually wrapped Rolo's instead of a bag of them or from bulk where I'd have to unwrap each one - looks like there's room for more than one genius with this cookie! :)  I've gotta tell you these were really delicious too - chocolate cookies with a chewy caramel center and then rolled in pecans - seriously, what's not to love?  And fear not RMH folk, I'm sensing there's a batch of World Peace Cookies in your future so you won't miss out on that one.

Phew, there was a lot of baking going on in my house this past week - all of this along with a few 'side jobs' for well deserving people left my house smelling great for days - and before long I'll have to clear the deck and rack 'em up and do it all again .... I love this project!

(I do have some of my own pictures to add, but can't seem to locate my camera at the moment - I'll edit for photos as soon as I find it.)

Dangerous Blogging ...

I not would recommend one attempts to write after you allergy medicine take - today's cookie post will have to tomorrow till wait zzzzzzzzzz

(Post Script:  to the few folks who've emailed me, and to anyone reading this, I know! :) ... the grammar, although not far from my average ability, is more reflective of my trying to write in the middle of a major 'head bob' incident.  I haven't been bothered by outdoor allergies in years, but it hit me like a brick this Wednesday morning - I thought taking something was a good idea - it did help with my clogged head and watery eyes, but not so much with my ability to blog! :)