blue artichoke

I usually shop for groceries for the week on Monday and for the weekend on Friday. Because of my self-imposed temporary ban on grocery shopping, I had an entire afternoon yesterday with nothing to do. So, I assembled a weight bench. Gentleman Caller and I are devoting a section of our basement to hulking exercise equipment in an attempt to bypass the usual excuses for not going to the gym: too crowded, not enough time, strange looks from others, too hot/cold/rainy/sunny, other people are rude and stinky and so on. We have an elliptical, a weight bench, a bike, two exercise balls, a step, a jump rope, tension tubes and a tv with aerobics videos. All we need is a VCR and a higher ceiling and we'd have the perfect home gym.

But back to the groceries. So far, I have made bourbon-glazed pork chops with brown sugar sweet potato wedges, chicken and dressing casserole, spinach lasagna, sunflower seed bread and garlic-balsamic vinaigrette. A good start, I think, but it hardly makes a dent. Tonight we'll have leftovers and try to make a little bit of room in the freezer.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

28 dozen cookies
16 tasters
7 recipes
1 winner

The competition was fierce. Every recipe received a bid for top three. One recipe, however, received five bids for first place and two bids for second place, making it the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Here it is:

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cook’s Illustrated 1/1996

These truly chewy chocolate chip cookies are delicious served warm from the oven or cooled. To ensure a chewy texture, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool. You can substitute white, milk chocolate, or peanut butter chips for the semi- or bittersweet chips called for in the recipe. In addition to chips, you can flavor the dough with one cup of nuts, raisins, or shredded coconut.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies
2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

3. Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)

4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Taster’s comments:
“Most appealing appearance. Best blend of crispy initial bite followed by chewiness. Sweet, but not too sweet.” – Green Mango Custard

“Excellent combo of chewy and crunchy. Good ratio of chocolate to cookie.” – Blue Salmon

The second place cookie had dark chocolate chips and many tasters suggested using the dark chocolate chips in the first place cookie. The third place cookie had three times the amount of vanilla as the other cookies. Looks like I need to play around with the winning recipe, trying different kinds of chocolate and increasing the amount of vanilla. But it’s pretty damn good on its own.

Overheard at the Snackdown party:
“Pants and cookies don’t mix. It’s a well-known fact” – Blue Sushi

“No one really cooks with horse sweat anymore.” -- Blue Sushi

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's Munch Madness time in Missouri!
The cookies were made last night and have been anxiously training for the big tournament this afternoon. Who will emerge victor? Which cookie has what it takes to be crowned the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie?

Winner will be announced tomorrow.

Here's a copy of the invitation.

The Ultimate Snackdown Chocolate Chip Cookie Party

20+ cookie recipes entered Munch Madness.
The Sweet 7 remain.
You can help choose the champion.

Bring your sweet tooth.

Saturday, January 28
3:00 p.m.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been warned about grocery shopping while hungry, but that's nothing compared to grocery shopping at Sam's Club while hungry, and with a head full of recipes after reading several cookbooks and cooking magazines. I'm totally disgusted by how much food I just brought into my house. I didn't spend a lot of money, but on the 4th trip from my car to my house, I decided to boycott grocery stores. I have a full freezer and a precariously packed pantry, plus overflow that I stuck in the cubbyhole where I keep my mixer, blender, cake carriers, Cuisinart, stock pots, etc. Disgusting.

There used to be a cooking show where a chef showed up at someone’s house unannounced and tried to make a gourmet meal using whatever food he could find. Does anyone remember that show? Oh, I can’t think of what it was called. Anyway, he could do a lot with what I’ve got on hand. I always hoped to see a show where all he had to work with was peanut butter, Velveeta, Crisco and baking soda.

Anyway, I'm going to play a little game and see how long it takes me to pare down the pantry. Replenishing beverages (diet Coke, milk) and eggs are allowed, but no other food items are allowed to enter the house until my cupboards are clean and my ice cream maker fits in the freezer. Anyone care to take bets how long it will be until the food runs out?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ah. I'm lazy.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of my new year's projects is to cull my recipe collection, which means testing all my recipes and discarding those that I won't make again, because they don't meet my standards or aren't worth the effort. I've sort of been doing this all along; I rarely make a recipe twice because I have so many untested recipes to try and I'd rather try something new. I'm the same way with books and movies. I rarely reread a book or watch movies multiple times if I have other options. There are so many movies I want to see and books I 'd like to read that revisiting one seems like a waste of time. Same with recipes. But one day, I'll have a collection of recipes I've tried and that have proven themselves worthy of repetition.

Here's another cookie recipe that will remain in the collection. It is an unusual cookie and takes more time than most, but looks really good and tastes good too:

Caramel Chocolate Thumbprints

2/3 c. sugar
½ c. butter*, softened
1 egg, separated
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
¼ t. salt
2/3 c. chopped pecans
16 caramels, unwrapped
1 T. water
½ c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 small zipper closure food storage bag

In med bowl, beat sugar and butter. Beat in egg yolk, milk and vanilla until well combined. Combine flour, cocoa and salt; blend into butter mixture. Divide dough in half. Place each portion of dough on sheet of plastic wrap; shape into a 1x8” log. Beat egg white until frothy. Brush each log with egg white; roll in pecans to coat evenly. Refrigerate, covered, until firm enough to slice (~1h).

Heat oven to 350. Slice each log into 16 (1/2”) slices. Arrange slices on ungreased baking sheet about 2” apart. Bake until set (10-12m). While cookies are baking, place caramels and water in microwavable bowl. Zap (HIGH) until caramels are melted (1m). Stir until completely melted. After removing cookies from oven, immediately press center of each cookie with thumb to make indentation. Immediately spoon ½ t. caramel in center of each cookie. Carefully remove to wire rack to cool completely. When cookies are cooled, pour ½ c. chocolate chips into food bag; seal. Submerge bag into very hot water until chips are melted. Cut a tiny hole in corner of bag; drizzle melted chocolate evenly over cookies. Store in airtight container. These cookies do not freeze well.

Makes 32 cookies.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I spent most of yesterday taking things and making them smaller. I shredded papers for almost 3 hours, working three paper shredders simultaneously and producing four large garbage bags of confetti. Awesome. Then I got out my super fantastic cuisinart and ground a bag of walnuts into coarse meal. On a roll, I next grated half a bag of frozen cranberries. I tried to grind some dried orange peel, but the cuisinart just whirled them around. I used the coffee grinder instead. Sometimes small tools are needed for small jobs.

With the ground walnuts, cranberries and orange peel, I made Cranberry-Walnut Swirls:

Cranberry-Walnut Swirls

Southern Living, NOVEMBER 2000

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1 tablespoon grated orange rind

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beating until blended. Gradually add flour, baking powder, and salt, beating until blended. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Combine cranberries, walnuts, and orange rind.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll into a 10-inch square. Sprinkle with cranberry mixture, leaving a 1/2-inch border on 2 opposite sides.

Roll up dough, jellyroll fashion, beginning at a bordered side. Cover and freeze 8 hours.

Cut roll into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place slices on lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake on top oven rack at 375° for 14 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Freeze up to 1 month, if desired.

Yield: Makes 3 dozen

I rolled out the dough on Silpat, with just a little bit of flour. The mat helps roll up the dough, sort of like a sushi mat. I made a rectangle instead of a square (to fit the Silpat) and rolled it starting with a short side. I should have rolled beginning with a long side to yield more cookies. Oh well. I refrigerated the dough overnight instead of freezing. The resulting cookies are pretty and tasty. They'd be good to make as Christmas cookies.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been so long since last December. The Snackdown continues; it just isn't very exciting right now. I'm diligently, if quietly, testing recipes daily. Right now, I'm on a cookie binge. Because I'm waiting for my tasting crew to assemble for the Sweet Seven round of the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie competition, I'm dabbling in non-chocolate chip cookies. This is sort of like the muffin battle, where individual recipes fight to stay in the collection. Here's a keeper:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

www.verybestbaking.com

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ·
2/3 cup Baking Cocoa ·
1 teaspoon baking soda ·
1/4 teaspoon salt ·
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened ·
3/4 cup granulated sugar ·
2/3 cup packed brown sugar ·
1 teaspoon vanilla extract ·
2 large eggs ·
1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) Peanut Butter & Milk Chocolate Morsels

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

COMBINE flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 8 to 10 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

I used the peanut butter-chocolate swirl chips. Made ~ 5 dozen tasty chocolaty-peanut buttery cookies.

Dinner last night: leftover shepardic beef stew
Dinner tonight: cookie dough

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm a Snackdown failure. I won't meet my goal. I blame my utter lack of ambition and willpower. I was sick, then overwhelmed by tempting party treats, then I got busy and when I wasn't busy, I was lazy. So in a last-ditch burst of energy, I went to the gym this morning. I really don't like my gym, so I might start shopping for a new one, preferably an all ladies gym. I don't really mind having guys around, but the old surly men looking to trip and sue the gym creep me out. Why can't they just look kind and grandfatherly?

Anyway, my new hobby is undermining myself. After a nice workout, I came home and made some cheesecake tarts. And I ate them. Then I watched a Living Single marathon, followed by a Law & Order SVU marathon.

Has anyone tried the new diet black cherry vanilla Coke? I'm drinking one now. It's OK, but I prefer diet cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper.

Dinner last night: leftover roasted chicken, egg noodles and peas
Dinner tonight: aforementioned cheesecake tarts

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After the party on Saturday, I didn't feel like cooking any muffins for breakfast on Sunday. So I didn't. A break in tradition and routine. We're flexible, yes, but only slightly. I made muffins yesterday for Gentleman Caller to enjoy on his early-morning drive to St. Louis today. I made Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins, which are deceptively healthy. They aren't overly sweet, a quality I like, and are satisfyingly moist and blueberryish. A keeper indeed. Here's the recipe:

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

1 2/3 cups quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (about 2 1/3 ounces)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fat-free buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 large eggs
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400°.

Place oats in a food processor; pulse 5 to 6 times until oats resemble coarse meal. Place in a large bowl.
Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add flours and next 5 ingredients (through salt) to oats in bowl; stir well with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine buttermilk, oil, rind, and eggs in small bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Toss berries with 2 tablespoons flour, and gently fold them into the batter.

Spoon batter into 16 muffin cups coated with cooking spray; sprinkle batter with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove from pans immediately. Place on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 muffin)

CALORIES 170(26% from fat); FAT 5g (sat 0.6g,mono 2.5g,poly 1.4g); PROTEIN 4g; CHOLESTEROL 27mg; CALCIUM 65mg; SODIUM 256mg; FIBER 2g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 28.6g
Cooking Light, JANUARY 2006

I substituted plain yogurt for the buttermilk, decreased the cinnamon to 1 t. and forgot to sprinkle sugar on the tops of the muffins. Still good.

Dinner last night: garlic and herb-roasted chicken with mushroom gravy; egg noodles; peas
Dinner tonight: leftovers

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know what is a great invention? The crock-pot. It's like an oven, but you don't feel bad leaving it on all day. I sometimes forget about my crock-pot, but every time I remember to use it, I fall in love all over again. Today, for example, I made a Sunday Pot Roast. And it's only Tuesday! Only a crock-pot can do that.

Most people like crock-pots because they can have dinner ready after a hard day at work. Me? Well, I spent the afternoon getting sucked in to a Carnivale marathon. I have yet to meet an HBO series that I didn't like. Some, like Carnivale, I have resisted, but once I get a taste, I'm hooked. I'm still resisting Oz, but when season one shows up on my On Demand, I'll check it out. Oh, you know it.

Dinner last night: Pork loin with apples and pears; steamed broccoli with cheddar
Dinner tonight: Sunday pot roast with potatoes and carrots

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Purple Fried Okra carries on a family tradition of having a Twelfth Night party, on or as close to Twelfth Night (Jan. 5) as possible. Because I didn't get to host a Christmas party of my own, I decided to have my own Twelfth Night party to celebrate the end of the holidays. I must say that I'm a big fan of this tradition: I can take advantage of after-Christmas sales and don't have to compete with other Christmas or New Year's parties. Doubleplusgood.

So, the party was fairly laid-back, in part because I felt cruddy last week. I did a lot of sitting and talking. No dancing, but no napping either. I had a table full of treats: the biggest hits were Oreo truffles, white trash and Blue Grilled Cheese's pizza dip. Other nibbles included fig and cream cheese bars, chocolate graham bars, eggnog cookies and white chocolate cranberry fudge. As is my habit, I had too much food, so I sent guests home with doggie bags of treats to share or enjoy later. Keeping such goodies around would seriously damage the fitness challenge. The party itself was quite a setback, so I'm glad I have another week to make up for lost ground.

Dinner last night: Gumby's pizza and Pokey sticks (too lazy to cook)

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Two days of exercise, yoga and healthy-ish eating has gotten me nothing but sick, achy and exhausted. I'm quite sure one of the other competitors has put a hex on me, already trying to knock me out of the competition. Gentleman Caller is a sickie too, but it might be an act to throw off suspicion. He's very clever. Or maybe Blue Grilled Cheese is feeling especially mean-spirited and full of spite. It won't work, I say! The fitness challenge continues!

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 06:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy New Year!
Anybody got any good resolutions?
Mine is to have more fun and be more social. If left to my own preferences, I could very easily become a hermit. But hermiting causes one to become dull and serious all the time. 2006 isn't the year for dullards, so I'm resolving to be social.

And, of course, like many others, to lose weight. This snackdown diet of cheesecakes, eggnog and chocolate chip cookies is going straight to my chin. No double chins in 2006! Over the Christmas holidays, I discussed with Blue Grilled Cheese the possibility of an Ultimate Snackdown Fitness Challenge. BGC seemed keen on being a contestant (right?) and Gentleman Caller is always game for a competition. Anyone else up for the challenge? My goal is 5# every two weeks, until I waste away to nothing (unlikely because I have the added disadvantage of judging snackdown battles). Other contestants can use the same goal, or set their own, and check in every two weeks.

My challenge begins tomorrow, as today was spent languishing in bed recuperating from a vicious, but totally warranted, hangover. I made an excellent (so I hear) New Year's Day Soup, but the smell was nauseating, so I had a cheese sandwich for dinner. My strategy for the next two weeks is to drink more water and move more. We'll see how well that works out for me.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)