BANG!

Ok, so I'm not exactly back with a bang. It's more like... back with a fizzle. Besides, it's the Monday after a bang, pop and explosion-filled Fourth of July weekend, so I'm sure all of you have had plenty of excitement already.

So while you're preoccupied, filled with grilled burgers and just trying to get through the workday, I'm going to slink back into this blog unnoticed. Don't worry, I'll try to dazzle you later, when visions of fireworks have disappeared from your heads.

For now, here are some interesting food tips I've been reading. They come from a Food Network notepad that I received as a parting gift at the end of my short stint there back in the spring. Here are a few that I found helpful.

-"Herbs last longer if you remove bands or ties from bunches before storing. Herbs deteriorate from the inside out and along the tie when bunched. Store hardy herbs, thyme, rosemary, oregano, tarragon and sage loosely packed in a paper towel-lined sealed container."

-"Paper or Plastic? Mushrooms should take the paper route because they become slimy when stored in plastic bags. If your grocer only supplies plastic bags, transfer mushrooms to a bowl and cover with a paper towel before refrigerating."

-"Pineapple's peak is March through July. The sniff test rather than plucking a frond will tell you if the fruit is ripe. Turn the fruit upside down and take a whiff--if it has a full fruity perfume, it is ready. Steer clear of ones with any smell of alcohol. A golden shell indicates a softer fruit, better for desserts, and a greener hue points to firmer flesh, better for savory dishes."

Jezebel, Donuts, Traveling: My Three Loves in One Post

Sadie Stein, one of the editors over at Jezebel (my true love!), was featured on the travel-enthusiast site Jauntsetter last week. (Read the original article here.)

What does this have to do with food you ask? Well, Sadie wrote several guest posts, one of which was about eating on the road, and it’s worth checking out. In it, she writes about some of her favorite restaurants and food destinations, as well as online food resources—like Roadfood, which she calls “the ultimate source for time-warp dining.”

And…this is my favorite part:

“I’m a sucker for a good donut and will travel miles for one.”

Yes! A woman after my own heart.

Now, after daydreaming about donuts and traveling while trolling around the Jauntsetter site, I’m officially obsessed with taking a tropical vacation to Costa Rica this summer. It’s infinitely more likely that I’ll sit at home eating an entire box of soggy donuts from the A&P instead.

Have a Holly, Jolly Stuff Your Face Fest

Christmas is long gone, but I still have to post recipes for all the delicious treats I made, because:
1) I feel like bragging.
2) I really wish the cookies and fudge were still around.
3) You can make this stuff any time of year.

So, I did a ton of baking, as the long list of recipes show. And I probably ate a majority of what I made, with the exception of the biscottis (those I made for my mother’s stocking, and she said they taste wonderful with the coffee from her new coffee maker. Testimonials, I have them.).

I made Dish Pan Cookies and Fudge (FUDGE!!!), with Jon’s grandparents one morning. They were nice enough to let me help them, even though I completely botched an egg-custard pie. No seriously, it cooked for like 4 hours and never got past the runny stage. Not good. Luckily, I did not burn the fudge. I might have cried if I had. And no one wants to see that.

No one.

As for the ‘Sploding Snowball cookies, since everyone calls them different things—snowballs, wedding cookies, cocoon cookies, etc.—I decided to name them for their exploding effect. Touch one too hard—explosion of flour and powdered sugar all over the floor. Don’t nibble on one delicately enough—explosion in your face. And yet, they taste so good if you can hold onto one long enough to get a taste.

Dish Pan Cookies
From Bill and Shirley, my BF’s awesome grandparents

4 eggs
2 cups oil
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. vanilla
1 Tsp. salt
2 Tsp. baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups uncooked oats
4 cups cornflakes

Cream eggs, oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla together. Sift flour, soda and salt. Add to mixture. Fold in oats and cornflakes. Drop teaspoons of dough onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes at 350 degrees.

Makes: A LOT. You’ll be eating these for weeks, which isn’t a bad thing, I promise.


Chocolate Fudge
From Bill Jones, AKA Jon’s Pappaw

¾ cup (1½ stick) margarine
3 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 package (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow crème
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix margarine, sugar and milk in a heavy 2½ to 3 qt sauce pan. Bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling for 5 minutes over medium heat or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees. Stir constantly to prevent scorching. (This is an important step! Stir the entire time and have someone help if your arm gets tired. Bill was my stirring partner there in the end.)Remove from heat and gradually stir in chips until melted. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased 9 inch square or 13X9 inch baking pan. Cool at room temperature. Cut into squares.

Makes 3 pounds.

‘Sploding Snowballs
From Lori Sander, my mom’s BFF-izzle

2 sticks margarine, creamed
2½ cups sifted flour
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups chopped nuts

Add all ingredients together. Mix well. Roll dough into small ball shapes and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees until light brown. (This part is a little bit trial and error, but keep a close eye on them and take them out if they start to develop cracks.) Cool slightly, then roll in powdered sugar.

Cherry-Pistachio Biscotti
From the November 2008 Family Circle

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup light-brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup dried cherries, chopped
½ cup pistachios, chopped
3 ounces milk chocolate, melted

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat butter, sugar in second bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. (Definitely do it one at a time. I added both eggs together and the dough was a nasty, lumpy mess until I busted out the electric mixer.) Add vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Add cherries and nuts. Gather dough in a ball; divide in 2 halves. With floured hands, roll dough into two 12-inch logs. Place on a large ungreased baking sheet. Flatten logs slightly so each is 2 to 3 inches wide. Bake at 375 degrees for 23 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to rack to cool. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Cut loaves into ¾-inch-thick slices (about 16 per log). Place, cut-side-down, on sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Turn over; bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool on rack. Dip one end in melted chocolate; let dry on waxed paper.

Makes about 2½ dozen
Per cookie: 95 calories; 4 g fat (2 g sat.); 13 g carbs.

Return to the land of internet connections

Many apologies for the long absence. Two weeks ago Jon and I had to fly back to Arkansas for a family emergency, and we ended up staying through the Christmas holiday. It was a busy, heartbreaking, stressful couple of weeks. Needless to say, I didn’t have much time for writing. And even if I had, finding a free internet connection back home is like chasing a rainbow. So close, yet. so. far.

The internet hasn’t worked at my parent’s house for a year, even though they still pay for it. My sister lives an inconvenient hour-and-a-half away. Starbucks makes you pay for Wi-Fi. The library has the slowest connection I have seen in quite some time (Hello, dial-up! Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but still.). And for some reason my wonderful little laptop just won’t pick up signals at the one café in town that offers free wireless. (She’s a stubborn, snooty little thing, methinks.) I’m not above sitting in the parking lots of hotels and restaurants to steal a signal, either. Believe me, I will stoop quite low to get my online fix.

So, while I love being home with family and friends, Sonic Cokes and dirt roads and all, I am glad to be back to my wonderful wireless internet.

P.S. I have tons of new recipes to share courtesy of several family Christmas dinners, so be on the lookout. I’ll be back in a couple of days!

Let me come visit you and stuff my face. Mkay, thanks!

Did you know that you have to cook things differently in higher altitudes? Well, that’s what my Colorado-dwelling dad tells me anyway. I didn’t have any cooking troubles while visiting the Mile-High City this past week, but I also didn’t cook so much. Which is not to say that I didn’t eat.

A lot.

Because I did.

Eat.

A lot.

In fact, that’s the very first thing that I did after I landed, grabbed my bags from the carousel and plopped into my dad’s car. I was starving because the airline that I flew with doesn’t serve peanuts for free anymore. PEANUTS! for peanut’s sake. I don’t even like peanuts, but I was hungry. I would’ve eaten them. But, noooo, all they had were “lunch boxes,” which cost actual money, of which I only had three lonely little dollar bills, because I already had to pay 15 bucks to check one bag. So I subsisted on the free beverages (cranberry juice for me!) and my travel toothpaste. When my sister, Kirby, and my dad came to pick me up, the first thing we did was eat.

Later that night, I was majorly craving some Krispy Kreme (I associate the delish donut chain with Denver since that’s where I first sank my sweet tooth into one of the confections.), so we drove 30 miles to find an open one.

Obviously, we needed some of these donuts.

The donut documentary we were watching on the travel/discovery/history channel immediately before the donut pilgrimage really didn’t help us to forget our donut longings either.

Now I have decided I need to visit Portland, Oregon for the sole purpose of getting a voodoo doll donut from Voodoo Doughnut, where “The Magic is in the Hole” (Uh huh, that’s what she said).

In the meantime, I can hit up the equally-fantastic-looking Donut Plant, which is right here in New York in Manhattan’s Lower East Side!

So, I ate a ton of food, hung out with my family and indulged in a much needed break from job-searching. Plus, I rode a rollercoaster (yay!), which I followed up with a bag of cotton candy (double yay!). In other words, you can expect to read a lot more about all of my Colorado cooking (and eating) over the next few posts.