Sinfest

[dinsky]

I took the bull by the horns and phoned my mom for her fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe! She's a baker (among other things) so I know it'll be fantastic

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup white sgar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Make sure your butter is soft. If it is cold, nuke for 20 sec.
Beat butter, creaming in sugars as you go
Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each egg
Add vanilla
Mix it all together

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together
Add slowly to wet
Add chocolate chips

Chill the dough for an hour.

Make little lumps, about a tablespoon on cookie sheet

Bake at 375 for 9 - 11 mins

[mouse]

[Samsally]

Oh man, I goofed. I want to use egg beaters because my parents are worried about getting sick from raw egg, right? I did the math in my head real quick and bought some... Now, on reflection, I realize I got way too much. I'm gunna cut the recipe because I fear the only people who will -want- to drink it are me and my lactose intolerant dad.

I think I've got enough egg beaters for a double batch of what zeezee has up. Hah! Oops... Maybe we'll have scrambled non-eggs for breakfast.

[mouse]

you can also microwave them in a cup for a lovely pseudo-souffle.
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[Celaeno]

I tried something called "Herb Crusted Artichokes - stuffed with boursin cheese," and I would love to recreate it; however, I've never cooked artichokes in my life. It was just the hearts and they were soft and salty and amazing.

Does anyone know of any good artichoke heart recipes that might approximate it?

[mouse]

how big were the hearts? you can buy them canned (which don't need to be cooked) or frozen (which have directions on the package).

if you want to start from scratch, using the whole artichoke, all you need to do is put them in a big pot of water, with water pretty much to cover, bring it to a boil and then simmer (covered) until you can easily pull a leaf off (that will take up to 45 mins for big artichokes, rather less for baby artichokes). drain them, let them cool, then you should be able to pull the leaves off easily, and scrape out the choke with a spoon (sometimes you can just pull that off too). (i would hang onto the leaves for tasty munching, but that's me.)

i've seen instructions for cutting off all the leaves and cleaning out the choke while they are still raw, but that seems like a lot of work.
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aka: neverscared!

[Celaeno]

I'll probably buy them canned and improvise. I'll let you know how it goes.

[zeezee]

[jwing]

i have a cast iron thingie that's basically 4 rows of 3 or 4 hearts per row. i want to use said thingie to make something appropriate for the winglets' Valentine's Day lunches, but have no idea what to do with it. any suggestions?

[zeezee]

how about sugar cookies?

Sugar Cookies (For Cast Iron Cookie Mold)

1 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
3 cups Flour, all purpose

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt, eggs and vanilla,
mix well. Add flour and mix until well combined. Press dough into mold.

Bake 15 - 18 minutes or until golden brown at 350. Let cool for one
minute. Place cooling rack over mold and invert carefully. Remove mold
and allow the cookies to cool. Makes 2 pans of molded cookies.

From: The Mast General Store Old Homestead Journal
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[mouse]

dang, zeezee - that artichoke recipe sounded good, until it got to the frying. still, i like the idea of filling artichokes with boursin cheese - caelano, i'll be interested to see what your version is like (as it happen, i have some canned artichoke hearts....)

jwing - how big are your little hearts? could you make muffins in them? (maybe a nice cherry muffin = you could add cherries instead of blueberries to a blueberry muffin recipe). how about as a form for rice balls (or rice salad)?
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aka: neverscared!

[Lasairfiona]

Pancakes? I don't know how well those would hold up in a lunch thing though... Grilled cheese perhaps?

So my guy experimented with pork + carrots + lavender + garlic + a little white wine (the lavender was the flavoring for the pan sauce). It was very, very tasty. However, the recipe needs to be tweaked a bit. I think it may need some cream. What do you guys think?

Saute chunks of garlic in olive oil. Pull chunks out when they start to get soft.
Sear pork in oil. Pull out and wrap/cover in foil.
Deglaze with white wine (we used cooking wine but we will use drinking wine next time). Add lavender and reduce.
Cook carrots in sauce. Add pork back in when carrots are almost done.
Tada!

It was less of a sauce and more of a dressing (?) because there wasn't much of it. It was so amazing on the carrots. I think we are going to try adding some chicken stock and some cream next time so it is more of a sauce.
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Before God created Las he pondered on all the aspects a woman might have, he considered which ones would look good super-inflated and which ones to leave alone.
After much deliberation he gave her a giant comfort zone. - Michael

[Uncle Benny]

wingy: why don't you try a sort of taiyaki but in the heart shape? you can buy the red bean paste in cans at any asian market, and just kind of stuff them into the batter before cooking.

[zeezee]

las, your guy's recipe sounds pretty fine. i'm thinking that the use of a good dry white -- maybe a sauvignon blanc -- would take it a level up from the use of cooking wine. the standard advice is: don't cook with anything you wouldn't drink..and cooking wine generally includes salt, which makes me very suspicious.

a good, relatively cheap wine that i can recommend from new zealand: kim crawford marlborough sauvignon blanc. goes for 12.99 at costco. been buying it for the last several years, and it has a distinct grapefruit note that i think would do nicely with the lavender and the carrots.
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[Celaeno]