JOURNAL: What To Do With This Pumpkin? A Peek At My Process

I was chatting up my new roommate over beers in the kitchen, and without really thinking, I grabbed a chef knife from its magnetic wall-mount and chopped into eighths the little organic pie pumpkin I had picked up on a whim. I mused, “What I am going to do with this pumpkin?” and my roommate offered only “I love pumpkin seeds!” before she scuttled off to get ready for a date and I continued to ponder the pumpkin as I scooped the gunk from the slices and separated the seeds.

I roasted the seeds on an oiled baking pan with a quick shot of olive oil-flavored cooking spray, sea salt and Garam Masala spice mix (cinnamon, cumin, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom) which I added at the half-way shake, as it tends to scorch. Toasty and tasty! Lindsay, if you are reading this, there is a bowl of seeds for you on “the white thing” by the stove (she’ll know where I mean).

Still unsure of what to make with it, I tossed the pumpkin into the oven in a covered Pyrex dish with a half inch of water and some maple syrup and put it in the oven while I looked around the kitchen. It was a cool night so I decided on soup. I had a carrot, celery and shallots left over from a gravy experiment and I was hoping to find a box of broth or some stock in the freezer, but there was none. Always the innovator, I decided to substitute a bullion cube and a Knorr Herbes de Provence cube that a friend picked up in France and left for me when she moved to Switzerland.

I minced the veggies and sautéed them in a stir-fry pan with butter, salt, pepper and eventually a splash of my 4^th beer. Once everything was soft, I added water and the cubes and while it worked its way up to a boil, I sliced the pumpkin flesh from its shell, diced it quickly and added it to the simmering soup. When everything seemed well integrated, I added heavy cream, finished it with a dollop of butter and pulled the whole thing off the stove about a minute after it returned to boiling. Everything went into the food processor (where I should have started it with those veggies) and I pulsed it until the chunks were gone, but the bisque still had some texture.

Results: Nearly amazing. The texture was ideal and while the cubes were crucial to the flavor, since I didn’t have broth or know how to season it, I didn’t consider the overall salt content, so the end result was delicious except for an overpowering saltiness.

JOURNAL: Burned At The Grilled Cheese Invitational

Not literally burned. The results came out last night. I knew before we left that bar that I didn't come in top three, but at least I finished 5th. The real heart-breaker came when I got a misdirected email from the organizer Monday asking me, as one of the winners, for my recipe [see transcript below]. I was proud of my creation, it came out how I wanted it to, and I received some compliments, so no complaints.

On 10/29/07, Timothy Walker wrote:

Hey, nice work, winner!

As part of the follow up to your victory, I need to get a description of your sammich so that we can let the world know what led you to victory.

Please get back to me as soon as you can, as the Oakland Tribune wants to run a story and they need a description of all the winners.

Yours in Bread, Butter, Cheese and Victory,

Tim Walker
Chief Instigator
Grilled Cheese Invitational

On Oct 29, 2007, I wrote:

Hi Tim,

My sandwich, The Ol' Vermonter, was apple pie filling made with Macintosh apples, Vermont maple syrup and crushed pecans, encased in sharp Cabot cheddar between slices of cheap white bread slathered in maple butter and grilled until crusty.

As I recall though, I didn't win.

Best,
Quinn

On 10/29/07, Timothy Walker wrote:

Jesus, you're right, my apologies. That sammich sounds awesome, though.

I'll be publishing the scores later today/tomorrow.

However, just to let you know, your score was 25.60, which is a great score. The difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd was 1.54 points, so it was an awfully close race.

-=t=-

On Oct 29, 2007, I wrote:

Way to get my hopes up, just to destroy them. Thanks for hosting such
a ridiculously fun event. We had a blast.

On 10/29/07, Timothy Walker wrote:

It's my specialty, actually!

Thanks for participating. It's great to see how such a crazy thing is enjoyed all over the place.

UPDATE: Grilled Cheese Invitational Tonight

Tonight is the GCI in Oakland. I'm entered in the Honey Pot category, featuring dessert grilled cheese sandwiches.

I'm grilling up the Ol' Vermonter. I made an apple pie filling with Macintosh apples, finely chopped pecans and lots of maple syrup, which will be encased by two kinds of cheddar pressed between two slices of standard white bread and grilled in maple butter.

Crusty maple apple cheddar = The Ol' Vermonter

RANT: Don’t Buy Silly Single-Use Gadgets

They're bad for your kitchen, your wallet and the environment.

Someone once gave me a Spätzle maker. I used to live in Austria and love to cook, so it made for a lovely and thoughtful gift. I was excited. I even used it…once. I feel bad, but how often does anyone make Spätzle and can’t one do the same thing with a box grater and a little ingenuity?

There are a million ads offering the next best thing for your kitchen, and most of those items get tossed in a drawer and forgotten. Chances are, there is a long-established device that will meet your needs and more. Most often, this device is an 8-inch chef’s knife or your oven.

Here is a simple test:

1. How many tasks can this gizmo take on? If less than three from your usual repertoire, fuggedabowdit.

2. Will another tool do the job, and better and other chores to boot, and do you already own it? Probably, and if you don’t own one, you might want to get that multitalented tool instead of the brass-plated lychee peeler or the battery-powered Arbor Day cookie extruder.

3. How often do you actually attempt whatever this tool does, and honestly, how often would you use it if you had one? If you really need to make an apple pie to impress the in-laws at Thanksgiving, but will likely not make another until next November, a little extra time with a knife is probably a better investment than the $30 apple corer/peeler.

There are so many great tools that pass all these tests:

Food Processor: I use a 14-cup Cuisinart, and I use it a lot. With just the blades that come standard, I can grate 3 pounds of cheese, chop all the vegetables for a vat of stew, make a couple pounds of dough, and each in less than a minute. I use it to emulsify vinaigrettes, to blend smoothies, to sift dry ingredients, to puree hot soup, to chop fresh herbs or nuts (or both at the same time for pesto), to turn a stale roll into breadcrumbs, to make sauces smooth, and for just about any job that involves bulk prep work.


Stir-Fry Pan: I use my Joyce Chen stir-fry pan for just about everything. from (potato leek) soup to (candied) nuts. I use it to make omelets, crepes, scrambles, pancakes, Hollandaise sauce, bacon, sausage, hash and boiled eggs, and that’s just breakfast. It is the most versatile pan I have ever had, and covers just about every stovetop dish you can imagine. I even made a stir fry in it once. It has a wide, flat bottom which provides ample frying surface, rounded sides for easy flip-tossing, adequate depth to hold over a gallon and all it really lacks is a metal handle for moving it from stove-top searing to oven finishing. Maybe it is time for me to get an upgrade.


Mesh Strainer (sturdy, all metal, 6-8 inch diameter): I use the $3 strainer that I bought in China Town for its intended purpose and a variety of other jobs. In place of a ricer or food mill, I rice potatoes by pushing them through with a wooden spoon, and do the same with cooked apples to make pink sauce sans skin. For a really fine straining job, I drop a coffee filter into the strainer basket and let only the liquids through. I also use it to lift and drain things from deep-fry oil and boiling water.

Note: Now that I am thinking about it, this might be the perfect replacement for my Spätzle maker, to drip the dumpling dough into boiling water.

Tongs: I use the same pair of 12-inch OXO “Good Grips” tongs for moving steaks on the grill, chicken in the frying pan, asparagus from the steamer, cooked spaghetti to the plate, biscuits around the oven, ramekins under the broiler and everything else everywhere else. Tongs are easy to use, easy to clean, serve myriad purposes and are easy to store.

Tip: in the backyard, there’s no need for BBQ a fork when you have tongs, unless you like dry, punctured meat. I improved and simplified cleaning by replacing my grill brush with a steel wool pad which I use to scour the hot grill by holding it in my tongs. I head out to the grill with only tongs, a spatula, steel wool and an instant read thermometer. That’s really all you need.

Plastic Squeeze Bottle: like the ketchup and mustard bottles you might find at diners, but clear, they are great for storing, dispensing and serving anything liquid. I infuse olive oil with woody herbs and spices right in the bottle and keep it by the stove to squirt into the hot pan. When I make a sauce to be be drizzled on fish or adorn a dessert with swirls and stripes, the sauce goes straight from pan to bottle. It won’t work as well with thick frosting, but if you are decorating a cake with ganache or jam, the bottle works better than a pastry bag, allowing more control and less mess.

Tips: I’ve had better luck with plastic squeeze bottles bought at art supply stores than kitchen stores. Test the bottle in the store by covering the tip tightly with your finger and squeezing. If air leaks out where the cap screws onto the bottle, so will the liquids you put into it. If you are making a sauce ahead of time, but intend to serve it warm, just reheat the bottle in a pan of hot water.

I would definitely say that one high-quality, versatile tool is worth the cost of a whole drawer full of gadgets, and worth making an investment. Good knives, just three or four will do everything you could want from a set of ten Ginsu Knives, except maybe cutting through a tin can, but really, who doesn’t have a can opener (with built-in bottle opener and triangular hole puncher)?

JOURNAL: Mac-sterpiece

There was wisdom on those post-its stuck in the book next to the elBulli 7 Bowl System (my birthday is this week, wink wink). I made a batch last night, and it was ggggooooooooooddddddd. That's "good" not "god" by the way.

I only had a pound and a half of Cabot extra-sharp Hunter Cheddar, so I had to supplement with a half-pound of Tillamook Extra Sharp and a half-pound of Tillamook Monterrey Jack. The notes called for 5 tablespoons of butter in the roux, so I went with five of flour, like I planned and I bumped the dijon up to a tablespoon. I really should have gone with more red pepper flakes and remembered black pepper, because it was surely under-seasoned, but it is so tasty.

My only concerns are that the sauce might just be too dense, and that some of the topping clumped, so the bigger chunks browned and hardened faster. Simple solutions: 1/2 cup of reserved pasta cooking water in the sauce next time and taking an extra 30 seconds to chop up the topping before I put it over the mac.

My mother makes a mac and cheese from four ingredients with a recipe that takes all of five minutes to prep, and I can't say that mine is any better, but if nothing else, it's thicker. This one is my best yet, if you want to give it a shot. I'll post the recipe soon.

JOURNAL: Indian Weekend

Over the weekend, I got my cooking mojo back and made a little Indian feast for a small group of friends.

I created two kinds of chutney (the cran-pear went over much better than the peach-pepper), vegetarian samosas, and Chicken Tikka Masala (with a vegetarian tofu variant). We bought naan from Trader Joe’s, and somehow I forgot to make rice.

I will put up the recipes soon.

JOURNAL: Feast of Fools

In an online discussion, someone asked, should I be forced to choose, what single food could I not live without. Unable to narrow it down to a single dish, my first response was Chicken Tikka Masala over Mac & Cheese, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that my humor/horror show of an answer might have actual potential.

I'm hoping to make both this weekend, so we'll see how well they combine and in what way. I am hypothesizing that Chicken Tikka, without the sauce, would be an easy addition to the Mac and even a little Masala integrated into the cheesy sauce with chunks of chicken might just work. I'll let you know how it goes.

ARTIFACT: Lost Mac And Cheese Recipe

Of all things, I was flipping through a book on ecologically sound design practices, and between the pages, stuck to a drool-stained magazine page featuring the 7 bowl system from elBulli designed for Ferran Adria, was a pair of post-its labeled Matt's Mac. I can't be sure how many refinements and tests went into this recipe, and it isn't complete, but I think it is the ingredients and measurements that I used to love, so I am going to compare and integrate it with recent attempts next week.

PHOTO JOURNAL: Beige Food, Blue Plate

I'm taking a month of four day weekends. It started this morning with pepper-crusted home fries, and omelet with shallots and mozzarella, and olive toast.

Can I still call it toast if I "toasted" it in a pan with butter? The potatoes are already called fries, so I guess I 'll let it be.

JOURNAL: Vegan Jell-O Flop

With the summer semester finally coming to a close, I thought I would get back into the kitchen and play around. I’ve gotten rusty. I sought to improve on past attempts to make cocktail aspic, or fancy jell-o shots, or whatever you want to call them. I used Agar agar, the seaweed-based, and thus vegan, alternative to Jell-O, which is made of hooves and has a less interesting texture. Agar agar also holds up better when mixed with liquor in my experience.

My attempt at Cosm-O Shots yielded less than impressive results. They don’t taste like much of anything and the red color was not as saturated as I hoped. They had not set when I tried to pull them out of the freezer, but set quickly when spilled all over the kitchen (the key is maximizing surface area). OK, that last part is not the fault of the recipe, so much as the clumsy cook.

I had previously made a cranberry agar agar, substituting juice for half of the water and found the flavor to be very weak, so I thought it would be perfect if I added cranberry juice concentrate to the water, thus creating a stronger flavor, but it was still pretty bland and extra chewy to boot (actually, not unlike chewing a boot).

Next batch will probably be 12 ounces of water to 12 ounces of concentrate, less agar powder and all of the alcohol. I will also combine the boiling agar water with the rest of the ingredients in the mixing bowl, specifically one with a lip designed for pouring, and not in the hard-to-aim saucepan.

Recipe (For archival purposes ONLY - DO NOT attempt to duplicate):

4 ½ cups water
1 pouch agar agar powder with sugar added (enough for 6 cups)
2 cups vodka
½ cup triple sec
1 ½ cups Cranberry juice concentrate (11.5 ounce jar)
Juice of 4 limes

1. Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan while combining the booze and juice in a bowl.
2. Upon realizing that the other ingredients are too cold to combine, and that you were supposed to bring the water and agar agar to a boil together, turn off the heat and replace the pot lid with the mixing bowl.
3. Go outside for fifteen minutes.
4. Return to kitchen, add agar agar to water and return to a boil, whisking constantly.
5. Remove from heat, and whisk in other ingredients.
6. With little regard for safety or sanitation, proceed to cover the stove and floor in sticky pink goo while trying to fill ice cube trays, baking dishes and plastic containers.
7. Put in freezer because you are too impatient to wait for it to gel in the refrigerator.

JOURNAL: Five Minute Sauce for Pasta

The summer has been hectic. I am teaching a course at twice the speed I taught in the spring, I'm taking a class as a student, also double-time, plus I've been traveling, so there has been little time for cooking and even less time for writing about it, but I need to remember to make time to eat at least.

I have been cleaning my apartment like a madman tonight, the imminent return of my lovely roommate at my heels, and around ten thirty I realized that I hadn't eaten yet…today. Well, a fistful of edamame around noon, but that was it. In five minutes, plus the time it takes to boil linguine, I MacGyvered a surprisingly delicious sauce out of the random things I had discovered while tidying the kitchen.

It went like this: I sautéed the mushrooms left over from New World Tempura (Oops, I still need to write about that) in a quarter stick of butter that I found behind my food processor and a teaspoon or two of (what I assume was) dalmatian sage from an unmarked bottle of what looked like green-gray lint. I killed the heat and mixed in a 6-ounce tub of creme fraiche with an expiration date that must have been a typo, because it looked fine to me, and a little sea salt. It was really satisfying and surprisingly delectable. I will gladly make it by choice next time, rather than out of necessity.

JOURNAL/TIP: Fry It

I'm feeling less than inspired today, but I was thinking back on the quick dinner I made of Trader Joe's perogies a couple nights ago. They were not good. Mediocre at best, but I figured that any sort of boiled, cheese filled dough could be given the same invigorating treatment: pan fry in butter with a parmesan crust.

I think I stole the concept from the restaurant I worked at in college, although I don’t honestly remember how they made their fried ravioli. Essentially, spice up store bought ravioli by boiling as per the instructions, dredging them while still damp in a mixture of salt, pepper and grated parmesan (or another hard cheese) and then frying them in butter until golden brown and crusty. I usually only coat and fry them on one side, but make sure you serve them fried side up. A puddle of sauce is a nice touch, but not necessary, as they are pretty zesty on their own.

On another note, I recently got my digital camera back from the shop and I am taking a photography course this summer (which I may start blogging about soon), so hopefully I will start shooting some fine-looking food photos to post on the blog. TSB has been hounding me to put up a picture of the Burberry Pancake, so I really should get on it. Much to her mix of chagrin and delight, I used the last of the raspberry sauce last night to make a cocktail with lemonade and some homemade kumquat liqueur. It was some succulent swill if I dare to boast, and if nothing else, TSB can be guaranteed more crepes for the photo shoot in the near future.

JOURNAL: Burberry Pancakes

TSB was over for breakfast this morning, and while she lounged reading a magazine, I sneaked into the kitchen and got to work on a meal to appeal to her sense of humor, flavor favorites and sartorial sensibilities.

While the pan was heating up, I stopped back into the room to ask, "How about B[mumble]berry pancakes?" knowing that she would never suspect what a pain I was being just by asking. She got excited, and fully aware of her love for blueberries, I worried that she would end up disappointed.

The Burberry Pancake, as I soon revealed to her, was actually a crepe painted plaid with thin lines of brown Nutella ganache, white vanilla yogurt and red raspberry sauce, using the beige of the crepe as the base color to create the classic Burberry Check.

The end result was good, so I'll add the recipes soon, but I used a sweet crepe that was a little too cakey in flavor for my taste with all the sweet toppings, so I need to dig out my own crepe recipe from the archives before I post.

If you are wondering, TSB liked the crepes. Actually, she more than liked them. She finished breakfast, put down her fork and spoke those three little word to me for the very first time.

REFLECTION: My First Gingered Duck Cookies

I got impatient. Before I split the unsweetened dough in half, I decided that it would be too dry, even though I had yet to add the molasses or maple syrup. I hastily incorporated an extra quarter cup of fat and not until the two halves were whole did I realize the error of my ways. The dough was a little slimy.

I am not yet sold on the duck. I will try it again with 3/4 of the fat and maybe substitute butter for some of that. The free radicals were too numerous in this debacle to be sure that the altered fats were the cause, but the spices in these cookies were so muted when compared to my last batch of bacon cookies, despite comparable amounts of all other ingredients.

The texture of the flat duck cookies was very similar to that of the bacon cookies, regardless of sugars, but they seemed to puff up more cake-like in the muffin tins than their porcine counterparts.

The maple syrup flavor was a superb touch, which also seemed to slow the cooking, while the molasses got more of a burned sugar flavor that went from sweet to bitter.

TSB liked the molasses better than the maple and said she could taste the duck, which worries me, since she is the one with the incisive palate. I made her test the cookies before we uncorked the smuggled absinthe, in which she noted a citrusy finish, but I could barely get my tongue past the anise.

REFLECTION: My Most Recent Batch of Mac And Cheese

Concerns: low mac:cheese ratio, thinness/soupiness of the cheese sauce after stove-top cooking, sharpness/bitterness of cheese flavors, lack of density and stringiness in final product.

Successes: elimination of the roux/flour flavor, overwhelmingly cheesy flavor, excellent topping, leftover potential, overwhelmingly positive feedback from TSB and my roommate.

Mistakes: I was so irritated by the sauce to pasta ratio as I was incorporating the noodles that I scooped two or three full cups of sauce out of the mix and threw it in the fridge (which reminds me that I still need to dispose of it). In retrospect, I should have left it in, as it seems that it would have been a non-issue once baked.

Strategy: Next time, I will maintain the amount of cream but reduce the milk to a pint, maybe fatten it up from 2% to whole milk, raise the roux by a tablespoon each of flour and butter (leaving 1 tablespoon from the stick left to butter the dish), and spend more time getting the initial béchamel to thicken before adding the cheese. I'm going to return to Cabot extra-sharp cheddar and monterey jack as well, even if I do have to have my cheese smuggled in from Vermont. I might play with the cheese blend some other time, and in the future, I may attempt the inclusion of reserved pasta cooking water, once I figure out why it is so prevalent in other recipes.

JOURNAL: New Mug Love

Inspired by a coworker's campaign to cut down on paper waste in the office, I did some research to find the best-bang-for-the-buck travel mug and on a tip from Cook's Illustrated, I ended up buying the OXO LiquiSeal in gray plastic at Cole Hardware for ten bucks. I've been using paper since the travel mug that came with my public radio donation stopped keeping the liquid on the inside and the lid seemed to become magnetically repulsed by the base.

This thing works like a dream. The cap screws on, so it won't fall off when I thoughtlessly carry it by the lid; there is an easy push-button seal so that I can carry it upside down or in my pocket if I want; the lip is designed in a way that I don't spill down the sides of my face when I tip it back too far; and coffee doesn't pool on the lid, so when I push the button, all of the coffee is already inside the mug. Wow, I should not be admitting to the entire Internet what an absent-minded slob I am. Seems fairly well insulated and did not taint the flavor of my house blend. I might buy another to use as a cocktail shaker. My only complaint is for the lack of a handle.

JOURNAL: Black Absinthe

The Sexy Blonde called me last night to see if I would like her to bring back a bottle of Spanish wine from Barcelona. As I pondered my options, it occurred to me that she is in one of the few countries where Absinthe is not banned, and so I asked if she would be comfortable sneaking a bottle back across the border for me. She said she thought she could indulge me.

Not only did she buy me a bottle, but followed up to say that she had stumbled across black absinthe in some cute little shop, which she had never seen before and wondered if I would like some. I haven’t encountered it either, and after a few minutes of research, I have not been able to dig up a whole lot of info other than it most likely comes from France, where absinthe may be produced for export, but not sold domestically, and it probably doesn’t have a strong anise flavor, if any. As to any significant differences between the green fairy and the black, I have been able to dig up nothing.

STATE OF THE BLOG ADDRESS

I have been writing here for about a month, and it has been a fun, cathartic and productive creative outlet for me, but as of yet, I think I am the only one reading it (Funny, but I actually gave out the very first link to my blog as I was writing this paragraph). Really, this was created to give me an opportunity to reflect on what I have been doing and to keep all of my thoughts in a central, reliable and easily accessible location. I have been a lot more prolific than I expected and really I think that has led to some long and rambling entries, but I was not expecting this to turn into a food writing career, so I am not so worried. However, if you happen to be a cookbook publisher, wealthy patron of the culinary arts or have some connections, don’t hesitate to contact me. In the meantime, I will just keep blathering on and updating the recipes as they evolve.

JOURNAL: Marvelous Mac And Cheese Chaos

I've been working on my mac & cheese recipe for a while. Last week's manifestation, as prepared for the pleasure of The Sexy Blonde was one of my finest, although in a misguided attempt to appeal to her sophisticated tastes, I decided to reinforce the sharp cheddar with gruyere, which she seemed to like, but I thought was too much sharp on top of sharp and the gruyere was hard to incorporate into the sauce. There were a few other issues with the sauce that I need to hammer out, but it came out well and the leftovers seem to have improved with age.

My fascination started with my dear mother's gorgeous baked macaroni and cheese, a straightforward and divine dish made with sharp Cabot cheddar that we anticipated each holiday season and fought ruthlessly over the crispy corner sections. I love this family recipe for its simplicity and high cheese and butter content as a side to accompany a robust holiday meal, but when I want mac to be the centerpiece, I tend to go for something stickier and more complex.

Unfortunately, I have overindulged my desire for complexity and the mac and cheese fascination has taken on a life of it's own. It's like the Michael Mina Mac, or "macaroni and cheese served three ways." This isn't just three variations, but an evolutionary development in three courses that I should never serve all together.

I'm trying to devise a single recipe that will function first as a stove-top mac right out of the pot, equivalent to Kraft, but actually made with cheese; thinner and more fluid, hot on the side of your plate. From there, with minimal alteration to the compound, I'd like to be able to pour it into a baking dish, add a crispy cheese and breadcrumb topping and bake it to a more dense and sticky consistency. Third, I would be able to leave the baked mac in the fridge overnight to solidify, slice it up, bread it and deep fry it like a mozzarella stick.

I would also like to see the flavors evolve as the dish becomes more complicated. It starts out seasoned simply with salt and pepper, red pepper, nutmeg and mustard, served like you would the boxed variety. I am thinking of making the baked dish more savory with bacon or prosciutto and scallions or shallots, and spicy peppers would be added to a portion of the leftovers and then chilled, cut into chicken nugget (or fish stick) size pieces to be breaded and deep fried. I could even spoon dollops of warm mac and cheese into emptied jalapeños, and fry them up as poppers. Fried mac could be served with dipping sauces like marinara, ranch or an avacado & sour cream concoction. All that I have left to discover is a 4th incarnation. Could I come up with a macaroni and cheese dessert? Maybe something with pears. It seems kind of evil, but it could work.

I've been playing with my recipe for a while, inspecting a combination of recipes including those online from Charlie Palmer, Giada De Laurentiis, Martha Stewart, Alton Brown, Bon Appétit, Emeril, The Icon Grill, Paula Deen, and Cooks Illustrated, but my favorite recipe comes from the New York Times, but is not the one that shows up online so often, which ran with this article. In fact, I have not been able to find it online at all, but this one from Gourmet is pretty close, and I have photocopied the page from my Sunday Times Magazine several times when friends ask me for a reliable, remarkable recipe, but it still has yet to meet my three-in-one requirement...and you thought I was taking it too seriously before the Holy Trinity allusion.

JOURNAL: Gingered Duck (Cookies) III

I have gathered the ingredients and I am going to make the test batches of Gingered Duck Cookies in the next few days. The Sexy Blonde is in Barcelona on business, so I have fewer distractions to deal with (sadly). On the upside, she’s offered to smuggle back a bottle of absinthe for me, and just when my reserve is dwindling dangerously low.

The recipe should yield about 4 cups of dough, and I'm substituting Vermont maple syrup for molasses in a quarter of the batch (mix the rest of the ingredients, quarter the dough, add 1 tablespoon of maple to one quarter and 3 tablespoons of molasses to the rest) and then running tests of unaltered molasses against unaltered maple on cookie sheets and in muffin cups. Ginger and maple is a personal favorite combination and there was more than enough burned sugar flavor in the original recipe.

I'll set aside the rest of the maple, unless it is an unfettered failure, and look to alter the molasses with combinations of lemon zest, almonds and carrots. I'm going to dig through some ginger bread and carrot cake recipes to see if there are other ingredients I may want to play with.