Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  It is from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything."  I really just love this recipe, although there are definitely other good ones out there.  I usually add nuts and you can add just about a cup of anything (dried cranberries, coconut, nuts, etc.).

Here is your cast of ingredients:

Here's how you make these buttery sugary little monsters!

Place oven racks at lowest and highest positions.  Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
 
Add 3/4 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar to your trusty mixer.  Oh and yes, two sticks of softened unsalted butter.

Mix on high until light and fluffy (several minutes... at least 5)... I LOVE this part of making these... it is so luscious!  So creamy!  I can't deal. (OK sorry just had to get that out of my system!)  Oh and then add the eggs and mix those in too.

OK now, mix your dry ingredients together.  That would be 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. baking soda.  At this point it is good, if you are willing, to stir in the dry ingredients by hand. Yes, I have cheated many times and used the mixer for this, but it is a little more delicate, better, more satisfying, to do it the long way... and it doesn't take that long, really.  so just add a bit of the flour mixture at a time and stir it in.

Then add one tsp of vanilla extract.  Stir that in.  Then add the chocolate chips.  The recipe calls for 2 cups but that is usually a little chocolate heavy for me, but I am weird with this probably... I use 1 cup of choc chips and 1 cup nuts... do what you want OK?  If you love chocolate, add 2 cups.  If you love nuts, add a cup (or more) of those too... once you have the base, you can really just put in anything.

Spoon by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or so, switching cookie sheet positions half way through.   Cool on racks.

Eat warm.  Eat with milk. Eat with tea.  Eat after lunch, after dinner, in bed, in the bathtub, don't leave them out when you are at work and your husband is home! :)

Enjoy!!

Blender Pesto

Pesto is summer and summer is not summer without pesto.  Pesto and sweet corn.  It reminds me of home, childhood, of warm nights, crickets, open windows.  I made pesto recently by the mortar pestle method and that was REALLY REALLY good, but more work.  There are so many recipes for pesto.  Some have pancetta, some have walnuts, some have butter.  This one is a bit richer than others, but so good.  Although this calls for a blender, I use the food processor, I find it much easier (my blender is old and pretty lame)...

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh basil leaves (packed)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbs. pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with a heavy knife handle and peeled
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs. freshly grated Romano pecorino cheese
3 Tbs. butter, softened to room temperature

I used a mix of green and purple basil from the garden (pretty yes?)

You want to tear up all but the smallest leaves into pieces, but use care not to crush the basil. 

Put basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt in the blender or processor and mix at high speed until evenly blended, scraping down sides with spatula as needed.

It will look creamy green olive oily and deliciousssssss!

See?

At this point, pour it into a bowl and gently mix in the grated cheese by hand. 

Then beat in the softened butter.

Before spooking the pesto over pasta, add a tablespoon or so of the hot water in which the pasta has boiled.  My favorite pastas to use with pesto: Rotini, Penne, or Orecchiette.  Especially with the Orecciette, a really nice addition is some toasted pine nuts.  Also, my dad was saying lately he has been adding some potatoes and green beans to the pasta, which he cooks in the same water.  I think this sounds delicious and plan to try it.  Also I used this pesto the other night on homemade pizza, with some fresh colorful tomatoes from a local farm, mozzarella, and topped it with some fresh basil leaves.  This was AMAZING.  YUM. 

Note on mortar pesto: same ingredients.  Use a marble mortar and wooden pestle.  In this order:

1.  Put basil, pine nuts, garlic, and a pinch of coarse salt in and using a rotary movement, grind the ingredients against the side of the mortar, crushing with the pestle (this takes some patience!)

2.  Once ground into a paste, add both grated cheeses and continue to grind until mixture is evenly blended.

3.  Put aside the pestle.  Shir olive oil in, a few drops at a time at first, beating it into the mixture with a wooden spoon.  Then beat in the butter with the spoon.

Enjoy!!

Cauliflower, Garlic and Oil Pasta

 I promised this recipe to my aunt, Becky weeks ago... Sorry Becks!  Here it is finally.  This dish feels so substantial and meaty even though it is vegetarian (well, except for the anchovies)... I really love this pasta and so does Brandon.  So good and so easy! This is one of Marcella Hazan's recipes.  Here is how it is done!

 Ingredients:

1.5 pound head of caluiflower
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
6 flat anchovy filets, chopped
1/4 tsp. chopped hot red pepper (I use red pepper flakes)
Salt
1 lb. package penne or other macaroni
2 Tbs. chopped parsley

Instructions:

1. Strip cauliflower of all leaves except tender inner ones, rinse in cold water, cut head in 2 and cook in 4 to 5 quarts boiling water until tender but still compact - about 20-30 minutes.  Test with a fork to know when it is done.  Drain and set aside.

2.  Put oil, garlic, and chopped anchovy fillets in a medium saute pan. Turn heat to medium and saute until garlic turns golden brown, stir from time to time with a wooden spoon, mashing anchovies with it. 

(Listen, you should not set it on fire... I am not sure what the reflection in the pan is... not fire, I promise... probably just an effect caused by the flash of the camera. very cool. anyways...)

3.  Add the boiled cauliflower, break it up quickly with a fork, crumbling into pieces no bigger than a peanut (I am not sure why Marcella uses the reference to a peanut but it cracks me up so I kept it!).  Turn it thoroughly in the oil, mashing part of it to a pulp.

4.  Add hot pepper and liberal amount of salt (it takes quite a bit of salt to make it right, do it to taste).  Turn up the heat and cook for a few minutes more, stirring frequently.  Then turn off the heat.

5.  Bring 4 to 5 quarts water to a boil, salt the water, and when water returns to a boil, put in the pasta.  Cook until al dente, drain well and transfer to a warm serving bowl.

6.  Very briefly reheat cauliflower and poor contents over pasta.  Toss thoroughly, add parsley, and toss again.  Serve at once.

Enjoy!

Back home!

Well I am finally back home.  Phewww!  What. A.  Trip.  Mostly it was a great time... a little exhausting... families are hard work! But this we all know... we just forget...  until we go on vacation with them... next time we will need some men there to ease the intensity a little bit!  Ha! But it was a lot of fun too.  The beach was beautiful and I LOVED Charleston.  It is a beautiful, accessible, historic city.  The houses were so incredible.. there was something very enchanting about the small narrow streets, the vegetation, the large porches and the warm summer air.  Here are a few pics to give you a sense, although there are not enough and they don't do justice...

And of course a few pics of us girls...

And this one of us that is totally screwy.... I think there was water on my camera lense...

(or maybe because the air was thick with emotions... or estrogen... LOL... and it was humid... ) anyway I think it is kinda neat.

Anyway, one thing we did that was very cool was to go to this old plantation, the Boone plantation, a little ways from Charleston.  It is apparently the oldest operating plantation in the country (they still produce pecans and some other stuff).  We were able to tour the house, which was built in 1936... the older houses were destroyed... and also able to tour the slave houses.  What an intense experience to remember and be faced with what so many people lived with on a daily basis.  The entrance to the plantation is by "The Avenue of the Oaks" which is really beautiful...

And here is the house (also very cool: part of The Notebook was filmed here... sigh)...

And mom looking lovely (and so southern in that hat!) in the garden...

Other things of note: lunch on the water in Charleston...

DELICIOUS biscuits served with honey butter at a restaurant called Poogan's Porch (all the food there was excellent but of course the only free thing, the biscuits, are want I leave remembering)...

YUM. Best. Biscuits. Ever.  OK.  So like I said, good trip, long trip, short trip, beach trip, family trip, a just-avoided 16 hour road-trip, sister trip, mom trip, food trip, trippity trip.  Glad to be home. 

Since getting home yesterday: 

Diner food for lunch.
Rain.
BBQ with my running group to celebrate that we are halfway through our training (I made 7 layer dip. YUM). 
Rain.
Popcorn and So You Think You Can Dance.
Sleeping.  Betsi and Lupa on one side.  Brandon on the other.  Home is nice.
Lots of rain.
12 mile run in the rain on the bike path (really beautiful, really sore).
Eggs and bacon.
Coffee.
And yes, I already baked chocolate chip cookies (Anya's famous.. recipe to follow...)

Lupa and Sasha cuddled (how cute are they?)

 Oh and I made pesto with the fresh basil from the garden... recipe also to follow... how pretty is that basil?

Speaking of the garden, holy smokes it has grown!  Check out some pics.... A lot to put in tonight's salad! YAY!

So for dinner tonight we have salad from the garden, pesto pasta, and fresh local corn.  Looking forward to it after the rich southern fare.  Also mixed up some sourdough to rise for tomorrow.  Active day! Ready for the couch and something light to watch.  I will leave you now with a video of the girls playing... they are my babies... happy Sunday! I am glad to be back! I promise recipes this week.  Food and love from Voorheesville!

-- Anya

Heating up in the lowcountry

Wow is it hot and humid here! We are becoming uses to sweat, saltwater, sunscreen, and multiple showers a day.  But I love it! What amazing houses ... huge double decker porches, grand entrances, pillars, ivy, moss hanging from oak trees, it is absolutely enchanting.  And the beach is beautiful, the water warm and inviting... although we have found it is too hot to go before 3 pm.  It is 100 degrees here now and I am thinking today's run may not happen.  I went yesterday at 7 am and it was already unbelievably hot... I continue to struggle with my self-restraint but keep repeating my pledge not to "should" myself on this vacation... I am so bad at that!  Anyways, here are some pictures!

More soon!