Cookies and Catchup

Blurg. I've gotten so behind in my posting, that I now have two cookies to post about. And it was so long ago that I have no idea what was going on at that time, so I have no witty anecdote to coincide with the following cookies. What a loss for you readers... :) Well I made amaretti crisps and classic shortbread. If memory serves me correctly, the amarettis tasted like carbonized almonds and I ended up throwing some most away. The shortbread was buttery and crumbly, like shortbread should be. I ended up making chocolate ganache and dipping mine in it and subsequently eating a slice or two for breakfast for a week... healthy I know. 

In other news, I knew this project wasn't a super original idea, seeing as I got the idea from Julie and Julia but I wasn't aware of HOW unoriginal this was. I just googled and stumbled across THREE other Martha and Me blogs. Some are better writers than I am and some are better photographers than I am, mostly because I'm pretty lax in my photo taking. But I like to think that my blog has a certain je ne sais quoi, riiiiiight everybody?? You better not be googling those other blogs right now, I know you want to! I am your one and only Martha Stewart cookie source! You better enjoy it!! 

Ok, I'm going to go now.... maybe eat something for breakfast, even though it's 10 o'clock.... I think my blood sugar is a little.... screwy right now.... Thank you for listening.

Tuiles and Turds (Pardon my French)

It's been a long time since I've baked and even longer since I posted about it. So for the next few posts, they will be in reverse order. Tonight I made attempted to make pistachio tuiles and cherry tuiles. Epicurious.com defines tuiles:

tuile

[TWEEL]

French for "tile," a tuile is a thin, crisp cookie that is placed over a rounded object (like a rolling pin) while still hot from the oven. (There is also a special tuile mold, over which the hot cookies may be placed.) Once cooled and stiff, the cookie resembles a curved roof tile.

They are very thin. I don't really know if I can actually say that I completed these cookies. The result was, well, tragic. They looked like you-know-what on my knock-off Silpat. I later discovered that the denominator had worn off the measuring cup I was using and instead of two 1/3 cups of sugar, I used two 1/2 cups of sugar. Yeah. Big, sugary difference. I was having a serious case of Swept-away-with-the-Fab-Four-osis while baking. It happens quite frequently. You know, singing at the top of my lungs into my whisk and swaying and twirling at the appropriate sitar solos for Within You, Without You. Oh, you mean you don't do that? Hello? Anyone? Is this thing on?

I don't know what it is with me and the Light and Delicate section of this book. Maybe it says something about me being brutish and heavy. I lack the careful precision and patience that this type of cookie takes. Maybe I will always be destined to be the baker of the cakey cookies. Such is my lot in life. And what a lot it is, forced to eat soft doughy, buttery cookies forever. So get ready readers, for the next few batches of grotesquely, inedible cookies. :)

Meringue Porcupines and Letting things be

Good grief. These were a disaster. Egg whites are finicky. I decided that I was going to start going chronologically through the recipes. Start with the first, work my way to the last. I figure that way I give a fair chance to those cookies that are not particularly my favorite, or so I think, because I obviously have never had them yet. I am a notoriously picky eater so I'm a little worried I won't eat those "other" cookies. Anyway, I started these meringues thinking this was going to be a snap. I whipped and whipped and thought things were going great. I was, at the same time, making dinner for Pickle and his friend who were involved in guy time which meant I was making dinner, whipping eggs and trying to juggle the oven temps between the two, with a toddler under foot and trying to be a hostess at the same time. Ah, the plight of the house wife. Back to the Meringue Porcupines. They call for long bake times and low heat. I learned that baking meringues is a delicate process. You have to bake them until they are crisp on the outside but marshmallow-y on the inside and you have to make sure they don't brown. Then you have to turn off the oven and let them dry out. Something I learned about myself during the meringues is that I have a compulsive need to pick. This is not something new, I can't stand a crusty on Beep, or when I get a text message, I have to check it and respond instantly, etc. I can't just let things be. I check and re-check my e-mail all day. I am continually checking the clocks so I can know the time at all times. Ha, punny. The crockpot is perfect for putting the food in and walking away for 6-8 hours. Yeeeeah... not really my style. I have to check on it every hour or so. These are just a few examples from my daily life. Meringues require me to let them alone for an hour and trust that they are baking the way they are supposed to. I couldn't do that and they suffered. They were super sticky and weepy. We ate a few and threw the rest out. There are a few other meringues in the book and I'm quite nervous about them now. I suppose it will be a personal challenge to JUST LET THEM BE!