Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Fotocuisine

I found this cooking blog that has a terrific approach: recipes documented with photographs at every step.  The recipes are sometimes way beyond my skill level (not to mention available time), but it's great to see how things are done.  Enjoy!

Cookie Update

When I made the molasses cookies, I was a little concerned that they would turn to rocks after a day or two.  I am pleased to report that they were still pleasantly soft after two days.  Unfortunately, it proved impossible to continue the experiment beyond two day, due to an insufficient quantity of test subjects.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Molasses Cookies

It's the holiday season, and that means cookies!

This evening I tried a molasses cutout cookie recipe that I found in the local paper.  Every year our paper runs a feature of reader-submitted holiday cookies, and this year it had a bunch of things that sounded good.  This was our house's first foray into cookies for the year, and so far, it promises to be a merry Christmas, indeed!

The cookies are kind of ginger-snappy in their flavor, but with a distinct molasses flavor backing them up.  I frosted most of them with a simple vanilla sugar frosting, but my wife insisted that I leave a few of them plain, because she likes them on their own.

One mistake, I crowded my cookie sheet a little, so a few of them a a little rough around the edges where they expanded into one another.  Next time, I'll use two sheets.

Teriyaki Pork

I think my stir-fry woes are not so much with the technique, but with chicken. Last night I took a teriyaki chicken recipe that had not been successful, and took only the parts of the recipe that had to do with the sauce. I cut up some pork loin chops, and marinated them in the sauce. After letting them sit for a bit, I stir-fried the pork, and set it aside. Then I threw some sugar snap peas into my pan, stir fried those for a few minutes, and added some sliced baby-bella mushrooms. I whisked a little bit of cornstarch into what remained of the marinade, added that to the veggies, and let it thicken. Then I added the pork back in, and heated it through. My roommate (who is a dedicated pigivore) declared it delicious.

Next time I do chicken, I'm going to try to think of it enough ahead of time that I can let it soak in the marinade for a while.