Cast Iron Chocolate Chip Cookie

Last night for my Bible Study group, I made a chocolate chip skillet cookie. And it was amazing...and so simple! I doubled the recipe and used a larger cast iron skillet since we have some hungry men in our group. And, unlike last time I made food at the new place, I had all the needed ingredients. Instead of only dark chocolate, I used a mix of Ghirardelli semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips, which turned out wonderfully. They are different sizes so it was a nice variance within the cookie.

The skillet gave the edge of the cookie a chewy texture while still keeping the middle soft and gooey. With the doubled recipe and larger skillet size, I also doubled the cooking time to 30 minutes. I think next time I will pull it out a minute or two earlier since I like the gooey more than chewy, but there is a little for everyone with this cookie. The only odd thing was that I thought it a little on the salty side. I am not sure if it was the chocolate I used or if I added too much salt, or if my taste buds were off.

The only addition I would make would be a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream or a tall glass of milk. Indulgent and simple, two things not often found together. Tasty tasty!

Alton Brown Feeds Us

I am a newly minted married missus! The wedding went quite well and the honeymoon was wonderfully relaxing. Once I have all the pictures uploaded to my computer, I will have to show you some of the great food we ate. Aaron and I both agreed that I won in the food ordering most meals, but his dinners were not shabby, either.

The first food we made together as a married duo was, what else, mini man burgers. We are now the proud owners of four sets of garlic and onion powder spice jars. Aaron brought two sets into the marriage, myself one, and one was purchase on the honeymoon for the mini man burgers. So, if you have a recipe that includes onion powder and/or garlic powder, we would happily accept it. We may even invite you over for dinner to share in the onion and garlic powder bounty.

Once we came back home, I set out to make two new dishes for our new life. The first up was potstickers. I adapted Alton Brown’s recipe in a few ways because the store did not have ground pork (turkey was substituted) and, in our merging of assets, some of my assets have yet to relocate. Namely, the Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Determined to soldier on, I substituted Stubb’s BBQ sauce for Worcestershire, and a little white sugar and molasses for brown sugar. Not quite the same, but it turned out tasty, with a little Southwest flair. It took about two hours to make and cook all the potstickers, but we have eaten them at three meals now, so the time put in was well worth it.

The other new dish I tried was a little lighter fare. I stuck with Alton Brown and made Artichoke Pasta Salad. Quick to throw together and a great summer salad. Cooked some chicken breast (with onion and garlic powder!) and shredded it, cut up some perfectly ripe grape tomatoes, some herbs and tossed with pasta. I like it just a little warm because the herbs perk it up a little. The two things I would adapt next time is using more artichoke and adding a little cooked pancetta for that crunchy, salty kick.

I am not sure what is next on the radar of dishes to make, but I will have fun discovering them!

Shhh...

I have a secret, and I am going to let you in on it.

The Great Exchange

A few months ago, over dinner with Aaron at Qdoba, we came up with an idea for a book exchange. We laid out ground rules and agreed to the terms and conditions of the swap. The challenge was to read a book of the other's choosing by a certain date. The rules:

1. The book giver had to have already read the book.

2. The book getter cannot have read the book.

3. The book must not be part of a series.

4. The book was to be fiction.

5. The book had to be able to reasonably be read in a month.

6. On the night of the book exchange, the books were to be wrapped so as to keep the mystery as long as possible.

7. The books had to be read by a certain date.

We agreed upon the rules and set off to figure out which book to give the other. I will not share my book selection, as I hope Aaron will not only finish it, but also write a post of his own about it. The great book swap night arrived and I opened the wrapping to...

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I had a suspicion this was the book I was getting...

After reading it over lunch for the past month, I finished it a week or two ago. Loved it! Although it feels exceedingly odd using love and exclamation points about Slaughterhouse-Five. As one review on the book said, it is a funny book you cannot laugh at, a sad book you dare not cry about. Broadly speaking, the book is an account of the bombing of Dresden in World War 2, but its layers go so much deeper than that. However, I hesitate to expound upon the themes and layers as it could cause some to shy from reading it. The book follows Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier in World War 2, as he is captured by the Germans and sent to work in Dresden until it is bombed by the Allies. The story also recounts Billy's childhood and adulthood through clever means. There are sad moments that I chuckled at because of the humor in them, and humorous moments that are not funny because of the misery of them. It is a juxtaposition that Vonnegut wields excellently from beginning to end.

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did, and the first chapter had faint echoes of an author I have difficulties with. However, once I understood Vonnegut's approach to and structure of his writing, it was simple to follow. Thanks, Aaron, for selecting this book for me to read. And double thanks for helping me cross a goal off my 30 Before 30 list!

I See Dead People's Books

Sometimes I forget that people aside from Aaron may be interested in the neat things I come across on the internet. Thankfully, Aaron reminds me of this from time to time, and upon this occasion, I took action. Lately, I have been updating my LibraryThing library, which would explain why most of the "recent books from my library" are from my library circa 1992. In my updates and additions, I stumbled across quite the gem, a group called I See Dead People's Books. Users investigate famous readers' physical libraries and create a virtual library for them. Famous readers include Thomas Jefferson, e.e. cummings, Aaron Copland, C.S. Lewis, Emily Dickinson, Tupac Shakur, and Daniel Webster.

If you are a member of LibraryThing (free until 200 books in your library, then $10/year membership or $25 for life), you are even able to compare your library to the famous reader and see what overlaps there are. C.S. Lewis and I share 40 books while Tupac and I only share 3. Not only is "I See Dead People's Books" a unique way to see what influenced these politicians, thinkers, entertainers, and writers, but also another way to add a couple books to your own list to read. Perhaps you have a deep and abiding love for William Faulkner (ugh) and wish to see where he found his inspiration. Look no further than his library shelf!

Nooooooo!

Say it ain't so...Good Eats is ending! I do not doubt Alton Brown when he says good things are on the horizon; I just hope they will be available on my horizon. AB is the person who reminded me after college how fun cooking can be. He is also the person I used to lure Aaron into the kitchen, a true miracle from what I understand. Alton (yes, we are on a first name basis, though he may not know it yet) is the guy I go to when I want to make something new but am not sure what. I have yet to make a recipe of his that is not stellar and worth repeating, sharing, and/or feasting upon. I will miss Good Eats and be watching like a hawk to see when and how AB will show up next to demonstrate his knowledge, humor and culinary abilities.

30 Before 30: The Maltese Falcon

Do not be surprised if, upon opening The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, you begin to smell the pungent odor of cigarette smoke, fog begins rolling into your room, and everyone begins calling you "gorgeous" or "doll." This book seems to have been specially created for reproduction in film noir. A beautiful redhead steps into the smoke-filled San Francisco detective office of Sam Spade begging for his help...and so the story goes.

I chose this book as one of my "3 books from Top 100 list" tasks because I already owned it and I love a good detective story. It got onto my list by making the lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels - The Board's List, Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels List, and Newsweek Top 100 Books - The Meta-List. So now you know half the places from which I have created my own list. Welcome to the inner sanctum!

The Maltese Falcon was a quick read with a rather straightforward writing style and plot line. At times the characters became slightly confusing because of the double-crosses and shifting "true" stories, but I never was lost while reading for longer than a couple paragraphs. I had already seen the movie, which helped create the scene and tone of the book (hence the smoke and fog), but the book does a fantastic job of conveying the mood of a moment through the dialog and descriptions of the people and scene. Sam Spade can go from being a heartthrob to a cad with a swift change of face or a harsh word.

Aside from owning the book and seeing the movie, there was another ulterior motive. Mythbusters. Or, to be more specific, Adam Savage's obsession with The Maltese Falcon. Click the link and watch the video - it is about 17 minutes long, but well-worth it. It is more an exploration of where curiosity can lead with a little mystery and crime of its own thrown in.

So, I am two books down and one to go to complete my goal of three books from my list by September. There are a couple of books I own that are also on my list, so I have a few to choose from. Since I have no idea which one I will choose, I cannot even leave you with a cliffhanger ending, which would have fit this post on The Maltese Falcon well. Hmm...whatever book it will be, it is bound to be mysterious...