Deck the Halls with Boughs of Chocolate. . . fa la la la
Shelly
If I've never mentioned it, the best recipes are never my own. Again, this one comes from my Mom-mom. It's one that she's cooked for years, and, for some reason, she thinks that Jared's the only one who likes them. . . So, she makes extra for him (spoiled brat) but not for the rest of us. So, this year, I decided to make a batch for myself. I'm sure that I'll bring most of them to the Cookie Swap at the library. It's going to be next Saturday at 10:30 if you want something to do that morning. We're also making beeswax candles. Just bring some cookies, your recipe, and a sense of fun! Anyhow, when we were eating Thanksgiving dinner, I asked Mom-mom for this recipe. She mailed it to me this week, and I noticed (I guess because it was on her ice cream recipe too) that she always writes "Good Luck" on the bottom of her recipes. I wonder if she thinks that the recipes are that hard - or that I'm that awful of a cook. Anyhow, these are awesome and are well worth the work. This does make a pretty big batch, so if you're eating them yourself, you may want to half it.


Peanut Butter Balls


1 24 oz. package of Chocolate Almond Bark
(for reasons which I will demonstrate later chocolate chips are not an acceptable substitute)


1 stick butter
2 1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 box powdered sugar (or just over 3 1/2 cups)
3 c. Wheaties or corn flakes or Special K or whatever kind of generic tasting cereal you have on hand, crushed

In a bowl mix all ingredients except the Chocolate Almond Bark.
If the mixture is soft, refrigerate it before you form the balls. . . if you used too much powdered sugar, feel free to roll away.

Melt the bark and dip the balls into the chocolate. Cool on waxed paper and then return them to the fridge (or freezer if you're working on them in advance).



This is what happens when you try to use chocolate chips. Obviously, chocolate chips would be an awful idea. However, tonight, I'm sleepy. I didn't have the recipe with me at the store, and I guessed chocolate chips. Lesson learned. I will be forced to bottle this and use it on ice cream. The important thing to remember as a chef is that sometimes, you have to make sacrifices.


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Stop and Smell the Cookies
Shelly

One beautiful fall day not too long ago, my ENT suggested that I have my tonsils out. Trusting his knowledge and theoretically sage advice, I decided to do so. I warn you now. . . do not EVER trust a medical professional who wants to rip your tonsils from your body. This hurts very very very much. After two weeks of not being able to eat and actually enduring stomach cramps due to impending starvation, I am finally (somewhat) normal. The funny thing is, the whole time that I was slowly starving, I kept thinking about food, and watching the food network, and flipping through cook books. Maybe it was a coping mechanism, or maybe it's the impending holidays. . . but I couldn't help it. So, I emerged from my ordeal with a little time on my hands and a strong desire to eat pizza, sushi and onion rings (don't ask).

I decided to skip the onion rings and make cookies instead. Lately, I've made my fair share of deserts. Someone in the house, who isn't me, has an insane sweet tooth. Typically, we do pies - chocolate pies. I could make a chocolate pie in my sleep. But this time, my desire to recreate something so simple and elemental won through. I was lazy and just used the Nestle Toll House recipe. I'm going to cheat. Instead of copying it down, you can go here. That's not too much to ask is it? http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/specialty/nth-detail-occc.aspx Or am I supposed to actually type out the whole recipe? That would be a huge waste of time when there's cooking to do. Here's the verdict. They turned out okay. . . decent. . . edible? There definitely has to be a better chocolate chip cookie recipe out there. And I know that there are definitely better chocolate chips. Who would have thought that Nestle chips are so inferior? The cookies tasted entirely too sweet. The point is, though, to go out there and make cookies!
Okay, maybe I'm getting carried away. I mean, I haven't done a day's work in about two weeks, so it's really no surprise that by this point, I've decided to wash five loads of laundry, make cookies, make homemade ice cream (my grandma's recipe - definitely worth sharing later), make a slow cooker full of potatoes, carrots and turkey, and contemplate the possibility of sweet potato casserole. All the while wondering who is going to eat this since the fridge is already full of homemade arepas, spaghetti sauce, burgers, and enough dollar general cookies to choke a horse. Oh well, c'est la vie.
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Apartment-made pasta
Sarah Ferstel
Ciao, ragazzi!

As promised, I managed to wrangle someone (thanks, Ilya!) into taking pictures of me while I made homemade pasta.

I was going to write a little something about the history of pasta, but it turns out that everyone's version of this history depends on how you define "pasta" and whether you are Italia-centric or not.

There are a variety of ways to make homemade pasta, but I'm going to show you the simplest way I found. Aren't you glad?



Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup of flour (I used the same flour that I used to make cupcakes, but please let me know if there is some better, more magical pasta flour that you've used)

Equipment:

1 pasta maker (aka Pastalina, my darling hunk of metal)
kneading mat (optional, but oh so handy)

Step one:

Dump the one cup of flour onto your kneading surface (which should be clean and dry) and make it look like a little Mt. Vesuvius. In a small bowl, beat the two eggs together.



Now, pour the beaten eggs into the volcano. Using a fork, mix the eggs and flour together on your surface. You're going to make a mess - get over it!




At a certain point, put aside the fork (I know, it's hard, but you can do it) and finish mixing the egg and flour by hand.

*Do not put your fingers in your mouth after touching the raw egg. That is a no-no.

2) Once the ingredients seem evenly combined, start kneading the dough. You'll need to do this for about 5 minutes.





Kneading is hard work!









Check out my awesome technique!


If you are unfamiliar with how to knead pasta dough, or any dough, you can check out some techniques online. A quick Youtube search will bring you quite a few results. Make sure to look for "how to knead pasta dough" or something similar. Otherwise, you'll find techniques on how to knead dough for breads that rise. You don't want that.


My basic kneading technique involves pushing the dough with the heel of my hand across the surface of the counter, turning the dough, kneading, turning, kneading, etc.

The recipe calls for kneading the dough for 8 minutes, but I found that 5 minutes of kneading worked well. The whole point of all this kneading is to "strengthen the gluten" or to make a dough that won't tear in the pasta maker.

When your dough is completely kneaded, you should be able to stretch out the dough (like I'm doing in the picture below) without tearing the dough.


Next, cut the dough into 3 equal pieces and then thin them out by stretching them until they are about 1/4 inch thick.

When using a pasta maker, always set the rollers at the widest setting first.


Pastalina has "7 settings of wonder" and I put the dough through setting #7, the widest, first and then turned the crank to run the dough between the rollers.


Next, I set the rollers to #6 and put the dough through again, and so on until I got to setting #1.

Eventually, your dough will get very thin and very long.



You could leave this out to dry to make lasagna or cut it up and make ravioli, but I wanted some fettuccine so I ran it through Pastalina's 'sketty-side.'

(Yeah, I realize it says 'Al Dente' on Pastalina. Apparently, Al is Pastalina's ex-boyfriend and she doesn't really want to talk about him or how much she regrets this "tattoo.")

And then layed out each individual strand of pasta to dry on paper towels.


Fresh pasta can lay out anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours in fairly dry conditions (say, an A/C'd Louisiana apartment in October), but after it is dried you'll need to store it in an airtight container.

To cook, simply throw the pasta into a pot of boiling water (no oil) for about 2-4 minutes depending on how al dente you like your pasta.

Buon appetito!
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