Monday, March 22, 2010

Tastes Like Compost!

So The Boss of the house has left for a week of work on the West Coast… leaving me the kitchen! If he only knew the trouble that I get into when he’s gone, I swear he’d never leave (at least without turning on the spy cam!). So what will I do in this week of bliss with an entire kitchen to myself? I’ve been reading a few new (to me) blogs, and this one guy I think is great…The Amateur Gourmet. He had posted what LOOKED like a lot of fun to bake and experiment with, “The Compost Cookie”.

Now if you are not really sure what is meant by the a “compost cookie”, you probably should stay away from Dictionary.com for their definition of what the term compost means.

Compost- a mixture of various decaying organic substances, as dead leaves or manure.

Yikes, with that in mind, the main idea of this compost cookie is to take an array of ingredients ranging from Salty to Sweet and compile them into a great cookie batter for a mess of good taste!

Here goes:

IMG_0983 800 x 533 The Ingredients

IMG_0986 800 x 533The Goods

IMG_0987 800 x 533The carefully balanced Sweets to Salties

Basically I found anything that has been lingering in the cupboards over the last few months that you really don’t want to toss out (but you know deep down that as soon as they can be deemed “stale” they’re gone!) and quite literally tossed them in the compost!

In my stash of Salties:

Utz Thin Pretzels

Salted Pistachios

Planters Salted peanuts

In my stash of Sweets ALL that is GOOD!

Dark Chocolate Twix Bar

Toll House Milk Chocolate- Chocolate chips

Raisins

Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Bar

Then you have to “incorporate” all of the basic cookie ingredients (sugars, butters, eggs…) AND THEN once everything is incorporated you get to whip the hell out of them for 10 minutes! 10 minutes? Wow… okay.

IMG_0993 800 x 533 The Incorporating Steps

I did not get a picture of the wild fluffiness that presented itself after 10 Minutes of mayhem… I was too excited to put the Goods in the mix!

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Yummo!

While I have to say that the cookies were fun to make… batter tasted GREAT… There is a solid let down that you have to freeze the dough for an hour! A little anticlimactic if you ask me! Anyways, in my hour of waiting what did I do? Did I clean up the mess I had made in the kitchen? Nope! I sat and read further into The Amateur Gourmet’s Compost Cookie Comments. I continuously read that the cookies go flat, the cookies go flat, the cookies are not as soft as people had hoped, one person even said she was “mystified” at how hers came out so flat, burnt, and chewy! Oh NO… I’m thinking this is going to be a huge let down. How can I correct this problem before it happens to me? Well if the problem is the dough spreads too much, leading to flat, chewy, crispy cookies, then don’t let the dough spread! Genius! So I took the frozen balls of cookie dough, and placed them in a muffin tray… IMG_1004 800 x 533

Well, they certainly didn’t flatten out! The size and softness of the cookie was actually quite nice! With all of that being said and done… the cookies tasted like crap Compost… I really would not make these again! I’ll stick to my Good Ol’ cookie recipe, and change up the fixin’s if I’m feeling like! Valiant effort though!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Turkey Cupcakes… Gobbled in record time!

So I’m really only starting to get into this whole “blogging” trend, so pardon the fact that Thanksgiving was months ago!… I didn’t know how to blog back then!

So the morning started with our annual Turkey Trot 5 miler. I love the Turkey Trot for the simple fact that somehow by running 5 miles in the morning it excuses the mass amounts of Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, wine, veggies, more wine, rolls, pumpkin pie, and sweet potato pie that one can stuff into their body!

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With the race under my belt I made my back to the kitchen to fight for my counter space! If you have two cooks in your house you know where I’m coming from!!!

IMG_4706 And this was only the start…

 

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I found my own little nook to work in, but somehow I was scammed into peeling potatoes first? And then somehow I was booted out all together, and resorted to the kitchen table…

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IMG_4720 If it is unclear, the plate on the lower right contains the Turkey’s Gobblers!

Not a whole lot of space, but I made it work! Yes, I know the main course takes priority, but with so many people coming over I felt the biggest priority should be making sure that every one knew where to sit! And thus we have name tags at the table!

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The turkeys took a lot of time, but everyone was more than impressed with their very own edible name tag and turkey.

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The food was great, wine was a plenty, and the company of fellow runners makes this one of my favorite meals of the year! And to be clear, I was indeed caught several times while sitting at the table…admiring my own work. Gobble Gobble.

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Sunday, March 14, 2010

My 1st time… at the Magnolia Bakery

Some of you might be unaware that this heavenly bakery exists in NYC, but some of you might be very, painfully,  belly achingly aware of the Magnolia Bakery. I have been in love with baking for many many years, and cupcakes have been the front runner of my ambitions! One quick trip to the Big Apple, and my love for the kitchen was further intensified.

 IMGP9613 Deliciousness from Magnolia Bakery!!

This bakery is open until midnight on the weekends because it sells thousands of cupcakes a day along with other incredible decadents. We visited the bakery on two different days just to experience the crowds at different times. Well there was no difference between 11:00pm at night and 11:00am! Lines upon lines waiting to get their taste of the famous desserts.

Now I have had the latest edition of the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook since the summer, but since I have been so pleased with my own cupcake recipes I have only dabbled with their “other” desserts. Upon return to my home kitchen I felt it was time to break open the cupcake recipes!!! Mmmmm did they ever turn out delicious!

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My rendition of the “Vanilla Chocolate Cupcake” 

Well that is it from my bakery for now. Be safe and eat cake!

 
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