To fuck or to cook?

[Flinty_McFlint]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
I have a nice (never been used!) Pocket Fisherman that is looking for a home. Perhaps you could use one of those to catch some fish to rotisserie? Something tasty out of SF Bay perhaps?

Hell yes, send it up. I often play Pocket Fisherman anyway, it'd be nice to have an excuse. [insert size of catch joke here]

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
You can do two things with a coffee maker?

Or are you trying to tell me you don't have a coffee maker?

Provided you remember to run a couple of pots of water through it fairly soon afterward, a coffee maker also does a great job with mulled cider.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
2.

What kind of freak would have a toaster?

homophobic fuck.

[Fugee]

Originally posted by tmdiva
Does this include sauteed onion, cream of chicken soup and sour cream? Then it's funeral potatoes, one of those foods that midwesterners and Mormons have in common. Jello is another--some time I'll have to send you a copy of the "jello matrix," which tells you which jello dishes are appropriate for which occasions.

The onions can be sauteed or not but the rest of the ingredients are spot on! If you want to be really fancy, you can put crushed corn flakes on top.

The jello matrix sounds hilarious. I'm not sure Minnesotans have special occasions for jello, except that I usually only see the strawberry jello-pretzel "salad" at Christmas time. That one must not be exclusively Midwestern because the recipe is in the premier issue of Paula Dean's new magazine and she's as Southern as they come.

PS: I sent you the recipe for the peanut butter tart.

[Diane_Keaton]

I made this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/re...ews/views/4570

(Spiced Chocolate Chunky Walnut cookies) and the recipe called for shaping the dough into balls and rolling them in powdered sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. They seemed to rise a lot and aren't flat enough - they are like mini muffins. The next batch from the same dough: I pressed them down flatter instead of keeping them in balls but still too poofy. Suggestions on how to cut them before I put the next batch on the cookie sheet?

Gracias.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
I made this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/re...ews/views/4570

(Spiced Chocolate Chunky Walnut cookies) and the recipe called for shaping the dough into balls and rolling them in powdered sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. They seemed to rise a lot and aren't flat enough - they are like mini muffins. The next batch from the same dough: I pressed them down flatter instead of keeping them in balls but still too poofy. Suggestions on how to cut them before I put the next batch on the cookie sheet?

Gracias.

make even smaller balls and squish them? could you make the dough into a log, chill the log, and slice for thinner circles? Probably would need less baking time -- might be a good idea to keep an eye on them. And the dough may not be firm enough, even after chilling to do the log thing.

[Fugee]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
I made this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/re...ews/views/4570

(Spiced Chocolate Chunky Walnut cookies) and the recipe called for shaping the dough into balls and rolling them in powdered sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. They seemed to rise a lot and aren't flat enough - they are like mini muffins. The next batch from the same dough: I pressed them down flatter instead of keeping them in balls but still too poofy. Suggestions on how to cut them before I put the next batch on the cookie sheet?

Gracias.

Usually cookie recipes that have you form tjhe dough into a ball and roll them in something (sugar, nuts, etc.) are meant to be a little poofy. More like a muffin top than a muffin, but still not flat like regular chocolate chip cookies usually are. Without checking this recipe against a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, I can't tell which ingredients keep it from spreading the same as the regular kind (I'm thinking the sugars look lower than usual and maybe one egg keeps the dough "drier" and nonspreading.)

But if you liked the recipe for the spice and not the rolling in a ball in powdered sugar aspect, you could try making a regular chocolate chip walnut cookie recipe and then add the spices from this recipe.

Fu(I'm not a professional baker but I play one on TV)gee

[Replaced_Texan]

My brother and I hijacked Christmas dinner, and he's been dry aging a prime rib since Saturday.

Due to a bumper crop on the lemon tree, I'm making a Myer lemon pie and a lemon trifle (soaking the sarah lee pound cake (which is standing in for the ladyfingers that I couldn't find anywhere) with lemoncello).

For some odd reason, it's been impossible to find good green beans over the last few days, so we'll probably do something with broccoli and/or squash. I've also have a hankering for beets, so I may roast some with rosemary and tarragon. My brother is making yorkshire pudding to go with the beef. And we'll make my father bake some bread.

The ham contingent (less proactive than the beef eaters, in they just bitched without actually buying anything) was, surprisingly, equally vocal on their preference, so after lengthy negotioations, the settlement agreement includes a spiral cut ham with brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes on Christamas Eve night. I suspect my youngest sister will be making brownies and/or snickerdoodles. For Santa, of course.

I think my brother is going to make us all go on his marathon (t minus 24 days, I think he's up to 22 or so miles) training run with him before we're allowed to open presents on Christmas day so we can justify all the food and/or die so he can eat more of it.

[Fugee]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
My brother and I hijacked Christmas dinner, and he's been dry aging a prime rib since Saturday.

Due to a bumper crop on the lemon tree, I'm making a Myer lemon pie and a lemon trifle (soaking the sarah lee pound cake (which is standing in for the ladyfingers that I couldn't find anywhere) with lemoncello).

Prime rib sounds good. I'm also jealous that you have a lemon tree. Do you make your own lemoncello?

We're having ham and what tmdiva calls "funeral potatoes" on Christmas Eve though it is more like a really late dinner than supper (3:30 pm). I'm bringing a jello salad and dessert. I'm making the pecan pie recipe from the Cooks Illustrated holiday issue; a chocolate glazed peanut butter tart from last year's Fine Cooking holiday issue, and a peppermint cream tart from the premier issue of Paula Dean's new magazine.

Christmas Day dinner will be small; just my mom, me and the Fugee sister, BIL & two youngest nieces. I'm making a pork loin roast with roasted red potatoes and we'll have whatever dessert and salad is leftover.

Mom talked about making a salad for Christmas Eve and didn't mention her traditional rice pudding (though she said her Swedish tea ring is the best she's made in quite a while) so I may have to make one because I love rice pudding.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
My brother and I hijacked Christmas dinner, and he's been dry aging a prime rib since Saturday.

or die so he can eat more of it.

If I read the article right, he's planning that strategy just by dry-aging the beef at home.

[Diane_Keaton]

Originally posted by Fugee
Usually cookie recipes that have you form tjhe dough into a ball and roll them in something (sugar, nuts, etc.) are meant to be a little poofy. More like a muffin top than a muffin, but still not flat like regular chocolate chip cookies usually are. Without checking this recipe against a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, I can't tell which ingredients keep it from spreading the same as the regular kind (I'm thinking the sugars look lower than usual and maybe one egg keeps the dough "drier" and nonspreading.)

But if you liked the recipe for the spice and not the rolling in a ball in powdered sugar aspect, you could try making a regular chocolate chip walnut cookie recipe and then add the spices from this recipe.

Fu(I'm not a professional baker but I play one on TV)gee

Thanks to you and ltl/fb for the advice. You're right - these are not the spreading type and I figured out with the third and last batch of these things that they shouldn't have been cooked 18 minutes like the recipe says, but 10 minutes. Otherwise, they were too hard. The first 2 batches I've had to pass off as biscotti. Hours upon hours making the damn cookie batter and futzing with the dough. And the spice was not even good - who wants to bite into a cookie and taste ginger? I thought getting a cookie recipe from Epicurious that was rated high by users was the answer. Now I have no idea where to find the perfect cookie recipe. Ah, well.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
Now I have no idea where to find the perfect cookie recipe. Ah, well.

It's on the back of every package of Nestle's chocolate chips. Only double the vanilla -- nothing's perfect.

[nononono]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
It's on the back of every package of Nestle's chocolate chips. Only double the vanilla -- nothing's perfect.

And have lots and lots of walnuts! And halve the salt...um, if you're going to eat the dough raw. Not that I would.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
Thanks to you and ltl/fb for the advice. You're right - these are not the spreading type and I figured out with the third and last batch of these things that they shouldn't have been cooked 18 minutes like the recipe says, but 10 minutes. Otherwise, they were too hard. The first 2 batches I've had to pass off as biscotti. Hours upon hours making the damn cookie batter and futzing with the dough. And the spice was not even good - who wants to bite into a cookie and taste ginger? I thought getting a cookie recipe from Epicurious that was rated high by users was the answer. Now I have no idea where to find the perfect cookie recipe. Ah, well.

Your oven may run hot. It's well worth the $10 or so to buy an oven thermometer if you want to bake and have reliable results. Other variants include the kind of cookie sheet you are using.

As for recipes, you may like the Cook's Illustrated site. It's not free but they test their recipes with a thoroughness that borders on OCD.

Speaking of OCD, I have made ten different kinds of cookies this year. For Christmas dinner, we are having roast beast. I don't know what we're eating for Christmas Eve, except the hot crab dip I'm making.

[Fugee]

I second the recommendation for Cooks Illustrated, though I would recommend getting their cookbook called "Baking Illustrated."

I could not get inspired to make cookies in December because I made about 100 dozen for my church bake sale in November. I had help from some of the women in my Bible study and we used the church's commercial convection oven that can hold 4 huge pans at one time but still I got cookie burnout.

I made a new kind of cookie for my book club cookie exchange this week. They were very cute in concept (cherry bombs -- you use marachino cherries with the stem on) but the cookie part needs some tweaking. I should have guessed that a recipe I got from a mystery novel wouldn't be the best.