Pardon the Delay: A Months Worth of Doings

So! It's been a busy month, or there abouts. Apologize to people for the delay, but I should be back on schedule now. So the question is, what have I been up to?

Various holidays - going to Baltimore for Saint Paddy's day, for one. My family has a tradition of going to Jenning's Pub (in Catonsville, MD, a hop skip and a jump from our house) every Saint Patrick's day since I was a kid, for corned beef and cabbage, and mulligan stew. Every year, they have those dishes (plus corn beef sandwiches) for $3.17 a plate - I get one of each, my dad gets 2 CB&C plates, and my mom usually gets a sandwich. And since then, I've added beer to the order. This was, in fact, the place where I had my first legal drink upon turning 21. We've had the same waitress for years --  Peggy -- she has an amazing memory for her customers, and its lovely to catch up with her. So it was nice that the week  of Columbia's spring break, I was able to start by heading to Baltimore and enjoying the meal there.

Sea Lion Colony

After St. Paddy's, I flew to Santa Barbara. Spent a few days there with Benson, then we rented a car and drove up California's Route 1 to San Francisco - it's the most amazing and beautiful drive! Benson and I have done this drive before, in the opposite direction - a few years back we took about a week, driving down through Santa Cruz to see relatives, stopping at a B&B in Monterey for a few days, followed by a couple days camping in Big Sur and trekking about, ending in Santa Barbara. This time, we did it in a single day. In addition to a marvelous view of the ocean there are several nice stops along the way for a day trip, most notably an elephant seal reserve and Nepenthe, a lovely restaurant in Big Sur with a stunning view of the ocean and marvelous food. We even could see whales in the distance, in addition to numerous birds, and of course enjoyed our delicious beet salad, and a meal of some very tasty roasted brussel sprouts.

The view from Nepenthe

This was followed by a long weekend in San Francisco. I've visited Benson there enough that I have already done most of the touristy things, and often we find ourselves simply trying to find ways to kill time between meals. Because one of the finest things about SF is the food. My uncle also lives in SF, so it is always nice to see him, as well - we all went to the Asian Art museum and the SF Symphony together, for example, in addition to wandering about and eating delicious food. Meals of note include Indian (http://www.dosasf.com/ - South Indian food with a very nice selection), Dim Sum,  Shanghai, Japanese (http://kappougomi.com/ - has AMAZING fish, very traditional Japanese, but no sushi whatsoever), and Moroccan (http://www.aziza-sf.com/ - this place hass a Michelin star, but Benson and I first ate there before it got it and raised all the prices. However, we still return semi-regularly because it has the MOST AMAZING LAMB SHANK EVER. We also tried another lamb dish there this time, which was also delicious. But the lamb shank is still the best.) So California was also lovely. And then I flew back to NY and returned to work, of course. And returned to Baltimore the following weekend for Easter. Where my family played scrabble, dyed Easter eggs, watched movies (The lovely documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi", and an old comedy called "Darling How Could You?").

The Easter Eggs were particularly fun - it had been a while since I actually dyed Easter eggs, since usually we visit my grandfather in New Jersey, but mom wasn't really up for traveling this year, so I went home instead. So I made sure to go all out on the eggs - in addition to the dye (standard Red/Yellow/Green/Blue dye in hot water with a bit of vinegar, then mixes of colors once I had the solids), I also got a couple of candles to experiment with wax drippings. Now, when I was in 3rd grade, my class made decorated eggs using some very fine wax something or others - I don't recall exactly what, but it allowed you to make super detailed designs in wax on your eggs, then dye the eggs, then remove the wax to reveal the patterns. My make shift double candle and toothpick system wasn't quite as good, to say the least. After a couple of dry runs with solid colors, my first waxy egg (with "Mom" written on it) had the wax fall off entirely when I dipped it into the dye. So that one was a bit of a wash, other than being a nice blue color. My second egg ("Jen") had the opposite problem - apparently I was a bit careless where I rested the egg when I was decorating it, because instead of the wax falling off, there was wax all over it, not just where I intended. So decorating that egg resulted in a kind of swirly pattern on half of it that LOOKED pretty cool, but wasn't wholly intentional and you couldn't see my name on it. The next one however ('Dad'), came out pretty clear. You can see in the picture that it's actually legible.  The last egg I did was first dyed a solid yellow. Then I drew large circles on it with wax and dyed THAT green, so it came out green with yellow polka dots. I was quite happy with that one - it still had a bit of a swirl thing going on for part of it, but it looked pretty cool.

Easter Egg Waxing in Progress!
While the process failed on THIS egg, it worked
well in general, so I'd recommend giving it a try.

So I had a nice Easter. Since then, I've mostly just been focusing on work and catching up on things. Not that I'm just working. I've gone out with friends a few times (I have a semi-regular "girls night" with some friends from undergrad, for example). I've cooked a few things around the apartment, but nothing particularly special. I've been rereading (since getting back from South Africa) the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. The final book of the series was released recently, and it's been a while since I've read them and it's a LONG series and I've forgotten a lot of the plot threads. So the re-read is an ongoing project - I've just started "A Path of Daggers" (book 8/14) so I'm over half-way there! However, I'm going to have to put it on hold for a little bit, as some folks in my department are doing a read of "The Great Gatsby" in preparation for the movie coming out in a few weeks - so I'll be reading that at some point soon.

I'm actually home in Baltimore this weekend, and anticipate being here for the next several weekends (and back in NYC during the week), because my mother has just had hip-replacement surgery. So I'll be visiting with her, and helping out Dad, and generally just being around. I doubt I'll be going out much while here, other than to the hospital. She should be home by the time I visit next weekend, though, so I'll mainly be around the house. Plenty of work I can do at home, one of the nice things about being an astro grad is a flexible work schedule and being able to just work off my computer, pretty much anywhere. So that's that for now! I'll be aiming to start up my once a week blogging again, not quite sure how I got out of it - I skipped one week and then all of a sudden I hadn't updated the site in a month. Oh well!

Christmas Cookie Spectacular

Dad and I, decorating the tree
and stringing the lights

Christmas season is well upon us, and I, of course, headed home to Baltimore for the holidays. I spent several days, and had many productive hours decorating the tree, making cookies and Christmas Eve dinner, and generally spending quality time with family. Then on Christmas day, my parents and I headed up to New Jersey, to spend day with my grandfather. Since Poppop doesn't really do much cooking, (or like much cooking to be done in his kitchen) we all went out for dinner at a local diner - which are quite plentiful in New Jersey. Then today, it was back to NYC. Over the break, Benson will be visiting, and we'll be going on a cruise with him and two friends from college, which I'm looking very much forwards to!

Holiday traditions are always nice, and of course, the most classic one is that of the Christmas Cookie! While we do tend to vary exactly which cookies get made every year, we made two of our favorite standbys this season. The first is the  fantastically delicious and quite simple to make Hello Dolly Bars. I've also seen these listed elsewhere as Magic Cookie Bars, but the name "Hello Dolly" just has a bit more pizzazz. The second is the more traditional Chocolate Chip Cookie:  literally the standard recipe that you get off the bag of chocolate chips, though I do put in some notes about technique. But these are pretty classic, you HAVE to have chocolate chip cookies for Christmas, if nothing else!



Hello Dollys (aka Magic Cookie Bars)

1/2 cup butter
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs  (8-ish graham crackers, crushed)
1 (14 oz) can of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (3.5 oz) can flacked coconut (or 1 1/3 cups of coconut)
1 cup chopped walnuts.

mmmm... toasty!

Preheat the oven to 350F. Melt the butter completely in a 13x9 baking dish. Make sure to tilt the pan so the butter is even over the bottom surface, then sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs over the butter evenly. Next, pour the milk over the surface (evenly).  Note that this is easier said than done: sweetened condensed milk is THICK, and I usually have to  spread out the last bits with a spatula, and tilt the pan back and forth a bit before it is even... and there are usually a few holes leftover. As long as they're small, this is fine. Follow with the rest of the layers (chocolate chips, then coconut, and finally the walnuts) - making sure each layer is nice and even, and that you don't neglect the edges of the pan. Press all of this down firmly so it's nicely packed. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the coconut is nice and toasty brown, and the chocolate chips are starting to get nice and gooey. Remove from the oven and let cool, then cut into bars. You can store these at room temperature. (Makes 24-36 bars, depending on how big you cut them). These are delicious, rich, and chocolatey, and absolutely one of my favorite cookies every year.



Next, onto the classic. Chocolate chip cookies are an absolute MUST for the Christmas season!





Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies
2.25 cups white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (optional)

Softened butter, sugar, and vanilla!
For a nice creamy texture.

It is a good idea to put out your butter a couple hours in advance, so that it softens naturally and you don't have to microwave it to soften it and risk melting it altogether. You want SOFT butter, not melted butter, to get the batter texture right and for the best cookies (yes, how you put in the butter actually matters for the finished product!). So do this well in advance! This is a good plan for any cookies or cakes which require softened butter. Honestly, butter doesn't really need to be refrigerated as much as you might assume - while you don't want it in a super hot place, if you keep it out in a relatively cool area, you really won't have any problems. However, I still tend to stick it in the fridge, where it will last longer. But if I'm eating a lovely loaf of homemade bread, or something, I will occasionally leave out a half a stick of butter so that its soft and easily spreadable!

Sifty sift

Another note, for your dry ingredients: when making Christmas cookies, we (my father and I) ALWAYS sift the flour before adding it, and similarly, we ALWAYS sift the sugar. This avoids lumps in the batter! Admittedly, when making cookies on my own, I don't always do this. But Christmas cookies are worth the extra work!

Preheat oven to 375F. First, combine (sifted!) flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and mix well. In a larger bowl, thoroughly mix the softened butter with the (sifted!) white sugar, (sifted!) brown sugar, and (not sifted, silly!) vanilla extract. To this, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Then gradually add the flour mixture to this. Do this SLOWLY, a bit at a time, so that it doesn't lump up, or get uneven, or whatnot. This part is probably the most strenuous - we always do it by hand, and it gets quite thick after a while. In fact, this can get to be a problem. Years back, my dad and I made an extremely large batch of cookies, a triple recipe or so. Dad did the bulk of the stirring at that time, though we switched off a little, and his arm got QUITE sore. In fact, the next day, his elbow still ached.   And the day after that, it STILL ached. In fact, Dad had what we dubbed "chocolate-chip-cookie-elbow" for several months following that Christmas. Since then, I've done the bulk of the stirring when we make cookies - and we haven't made quite so large a batch, either.

Chop chop chop!

Once you've mixed the dough, you can now add the chocolate chips! Mix well until they're evenly distributed.  You can then add nuts at this point, if you so desire. While my mother is a big fan of chocolate chip cookies with nuts, my father and I aren't such fans. Therefore, we always weigh out the cookie dough precisely and make 1/3 with nuts, and 2/3 without. This saves much family argument.

My dad, putting the last few cookies
onto the tray

Now, all that's left is to bake them before you eat all of the delicious cookie dough. That's always my temptation, the dough is as good as the cookies, I swear. In college, the campus convenience store sold pre-made cookie dough which you could buy with your meal plan. As such, there was often a thing of cookie dough in my dorm fridge, of which my roommate Zahava and I always ate a lot, and our other roommate, Dahlia, protested about it's presence as too much temptation (but she still ate a LITTLE bit anyway!). I have, in fact, at least on one occasion, made a half batch of this cookie dough and failed to get any actual cookies out of it. I'm generally not concerned about raw eggs and such, since the odds of getting ill from that are quite low.

But anyway,  make rounded tablespoons of dough and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, with a bit of space between them, then bake for about 10 minutes, until they're nice and brown on the bottom. Then transfer the cookies either to cooling racks, or lay them out on the table on top of a brown paper bag (which you can cut up for this purpose as a makeshift cooling rack!). And there you have it! Delicious chocolate chip cookies. You can store them in cookie tins or whatever you have on hand. I will note that when I store a few chocolate chip cookies in a container with a few Hello Dollies,  the Hello Dollys actually keep the chocolate chip cookies softer than they would be otherwise, which is nice!

All in all, I had a wonderful Christmas. Key gifts include an iPad Mini, some very fine mittens, and, on the foodie front, a nice set of springform pans! So expect a cheesecake post at some point in the future.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!