Confessions of a Cookie Snatcher

Now that I am out of my parents' house and far enough away that they cannot ground me, I may now admit to something - I snuck and ate my dad's molasses cookies from time to time. They were slightly spicy, sugar dusted and delicious, and I could not keep my paws off them. Sorry Dad! Ever since, I look for a decent molasses cookie recipe that holds a candle to the store bought ones I pilfered.

I am happy to report I have not only found a recipe that is as good as those cookies, but I think these are even better. Molasses Crinkles are chewy, spicy, and perfect with a cup of hot tea on a crisp fall day. I made a batch for the Fall Retreat my church had a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, my humble cookies were outshone by more jazzy desserts like oreo brownies and apple cake, but people did not know what they were missing. Aaron even became a spokesperson for the cookies, but to no avail. Which, in the end, just meant more for us.

Recipes usually say how many servings or slices or cookies it makes, and I rarely achieve that exact number. But with this one, it was exactly 48 cookies, and I was quite impressed with myself. They take a little more effort to make than the average cookie with the chill time and rolling each in sugar, but the payoff is huge. Wonderful two- or three-bite cookie. The type of cookie that merits a cookie jar and monthly making in autumnal and winter seasons.

Early Thanksgiving Dinner

Last night my small group had a pre-Thanksgiving Day dinner together that was light on the traditional Thanksgiving food and heavy on, as I saw it, some Texas foods and flavors. Pork ribs, baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, biscuits and salad. Matt and Kristin fired up their grill and made some excellent ribs that were not too messy for my taste. The mac and cheese, courtesy of Sharon and Dan, was really good and a little spicy thanks to the inclusion of Ro-Tel tomatoes. Brian and Kathy provided the biscuits and salad both of which were superb. Aaron baked some taters using our man Alton's instructions, which are:

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Clean your russet potato of dirt and pat it dry.

2. Use a fork to poke holes all over the spud.

3. Lightly coat surface of tater with canola oil, which makes for a nice little crunch on the skin.

4. Sprinkle the potato with kosher salt.

5. Place the tater directly on the rack in middle of oven.

6. Wait about an hour and your spud should be done.

For my contribution I made two pies, with mixed aesthetic success. What should have taken about two hours for both pies took pretty much all day. The problem? The crust. Apparently there was an unequal distribution of butter in one of the pies, which yielded mid-baking sinking of the sides of the crust. So, in the end, I ended up with one pretty pie, one sunken pie crust, and one pie with sunken edges that were Frankensteined here and there. Meringue covers a world of ugly, that is all I am saying.

Pie #1 was old-fashioned fudge pie, which I had made before and turned out even better this go round. It is simple to make, looks like it took a long time, and tastes amazing.

The second pie is where the troubles began. A week or two ago, I was reading of my regular blogs, Homesick Texan, and she wrote of a "new favorite" pie she is sharing with her family this Thanksgiving - peanut butter pie. Immediately, I knew this pie would be featured in my month of November, even if I had to make it and eat it all myself. I heart peanut butter.

Sadly, this is the pie where my crust did not want to cooperate, so the second crust attempt for this pie (Franken-pie, if you will) was the one presented to my dear groupies. Thankfully, the pretty meringue distracted from the ugly pie crust.

In my flurry over the crust debacle, I failed to heed the recipe's advice to either use unsweetened peanut butter or lower the sugar if you use sweetened PB. I used sweetened PB and the full sugar amount and it came out a little on the sweet side, in my opinion. Also, when the recipe says stir the sugar, egg, and milk mixture until bubbles and thickens, it may take more than 10 minutes and wait until it thickens. I almost placed custard soup in my crust, forgetting that a few minutes in the oven to brown the meringue would not magically thicken the custard - that would have been bad. However, the subtle star of this pie show was the cayenne. I may have been the only one to notice it since I was the only one who knew there was a dash of it in the custard, but added this whisper of heat at the end of a bite that brought the pie up a notch or two, in my opinion.

All in all, it was a fantastic dinner with friends and a wonderful evening of laughing at one other's phonetic skills at Mad Gab - Deal of France!

Asian Noodles with Steak and Snow Peas

(This is from the draft archives circa September, and I just now rediscovered it. Enjoy!)

Finally a return to food! It feels like ages since I have gotten the chance to make something worth writing about. I made Asian Noodles with Steak and Snow Peas this past weekend for Aaron and myself and it won rave reviews from both of us. Aaron even dropped by my apartment by surprise Sunday for high def football and leftovers, and Aaron is not a fan of the leftover. I cannot recall where the recipe came from, so apologies to wherever I found it.

First of all, this dish is as simple as making spaghetti with meat sauce, but far more unique and flavorful. The steak is tender and flavorful, the snow peas add nice crunch and the peanuts cut through the flavors with a pleasant taste. I do not think the soba noodles are as dry as Italian-style noodles, so I did not notice the absence of a sauce. Nice combination of flavors I would not have naturally put together. A meal worth repeating.

Asian Noodles with Steak and Snow Peas

coarse salt and ground black pepper
8 oz. soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
1.5 lb. skirt steak, cut in half or thirds if too large to fit in skillet
1 lb. snow peas, stem ends removed
2 Tb. soy sauce
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped

In a pot of boiling salted water, cook noodles until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain; set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season steak with salt and pepper. Cook (in batches if necessary), turning once, until medium rare, about 2 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer steak to a cutting board, and loosely tent with aluminum foil (reserve skillet juices).

Add snow peas to skillet and toss with juices. Cook on medium-high tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add noodles, soy sauce and 2 tablespoons water, cook until warmed through, about 20 seconds. Transfer to serving bowls. Slice steak thinly; place on top of noodles, and add any accumulated juices. Scatter with peanuts and serve.

GANC: Their Eyes Were Watching God

I am not sure about this book. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a decent book, but I did not grasp its importance in American history. Written in 1937 by an African American woman, this book went in and out of print and the American conscience until the late 60s when largely female African American professors unearthed it and began teaching and writing about it. Is this a case where the book's greatness prompted the teaching and focus, or did the teaching and focus prompt this book's greatness?

As most of you know, I am not an African American female, nor have I read and researched much in African American literature, so there is an obvious gap in my knowledge. Perhaps I am making an unfair parallel, but if this book were written by a white female about poor white people, I am unconvinced it would have the standing it does today. However, I am not here to compare a mythical book to this one, I am here to talk about the book I read.

Beautifully descriptive passages. This is the most superb part of the book, Hurston's elegant and unique way of expressing the time and place of action. In the opening of the book, this:

"Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times. So they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without masters, walking altogether like harmony in a song."

This plays in stark contrast to the rural Southern dialect the characters speak. "At dat she ain't so ole as some of y'all dat's talking," for instance. It is so jolting to the eye that once you encounter the eloquent words, you hope they go on for pages. And then, when the dialect erupts, you change your rhythm and cadence and almost speak the writing yourself to understand it. Hurston grew up with this dialect, so to read these contrasting words echoes of how she must feel - history of rural, life now of sweet eloquence.

Perhaps this book fell short for me because of what I read about it before chapter one. I read the forward, which is usually a smart thing to do should a book have one. But in this case, I feel the forward puffed the book up in a way that as I dug into it, my grand picture of what the book was to be fell short. It was like hearing all your friends talk about how awesome a movie is and then seeing it yourself and it not being as great because it had been so talked up for you. Disappointing.

This is an excellent novel of a side and voice of America not often placed center stage. It is stark and beautiful, simple and pained. A woman rising above history, stereotype, men, fortune, and family in order to find her happiness. Is it the great American novel? No. Is it a great African American/woman's perspective novel? I think so.

Great American Novel Challenge Booklist:

July 2009: Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner, publ. 1936

August 209: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry, publ. 1985

September 2009: Moby Dick - Herman Melville, publ. 1851

October 2009: For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway, publ. 1940