Category: minutiae

Gingersnap Cookies

2 cups AP flour
1 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/3 cup sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon mixed together

Heat oven to 350. Whisk the first 5 ingredients together in a medium bowl. Beat the butter until creamy. Add the 1 cup of sugar gradually and continue beating. Beat in the egg and the molasses. Mix into this about 1/3 of the flour mixture, stirring and blending well. Repeat until all is added. Roll the dough into small balls (~ 1 teaspoon of dough), dredging each in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on a ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked. Cool on a wire rack.

Here are some helpful things to be aware of when cooking.

1) Don’t assume just because one quick bread baked well in a smaller sized loaf pan that a different recipe will as well. If it looks like it’s about to overflow, it probably will in the oven. It doesn’t make you less of a person to scrape the dough out of one loaf pan and put it into a larger one. And just to be on the safe side, put a sheet pan on the bottom of your oven to catch any drips.

2) Make sure your measuring cups are labeled boldly. Don’t mix up your quarter-cup and your third-cup measure. That’s just dumb.

So, yeah. Made chocolate chip cookies last night with 2 1/3 cups of flour instead of 2 1/4, and banana bread with 1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar, not 1 /14. I am a moron of the highest caliber. The cookies are… all right, I guess, but not the best I’ve ever made. I may pawn these off on Jon and Ryan and make another batch tonight… although I guess that’s technically evil. The banana bread tasted fine, or at least the little bits I’ve taken off the edges are good. The only problem is, since it overflowed, it is now totally stuck in the pan. ARGH. I guess we’ll be digging pieces out.

I still have one more recipe to make for this weekend. Yes, I want to kill my friends with baked goods.

Ugh, I just want to redo everything I made last night. So annoying. So dumb.

I’m not planning on making anything new this week- I think. What I am going to make are two loaves of AB’s Basic Bread, one or two recipes or AB’s The Thin chocolate chip cookies, a loaf of Pain d’Épices (added a bit of cinnamon and used all AP flour this time), and some spicy bean dip. The last thing is for my D&D group, but the rest are what I’m bringing this weekend to a reading party. Yeah, the whole Harry Potter thing. Lydia’s making lunch, Kim’s bringing sippables, and I’m bringing baked goods.

(Ugh, I HATE the month-or-two-old design of Food Network. That stupid flash banner makes everything else I’m doing that much slower. Like copying a simple url- takes forever for the current one to show up. So the first time I published this post, all my links were pointing in the wrong directions. Also, I’m not fond of my ooooooold work computer that struggles with everything.)

We’ll see if I make anything else. After today, the only thing left to make will be the cookies, which means I still have Friday open for something. Oh, but laundry. Hm.

Tortilla Soup
Adapted from Cook’s Ilustrated by Sarah

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 to 1/2 pounds)
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 large onion (about 1 pound), trimmed, peeled, and quartered
4 cloves garlic, peeled
8 to 10 sprigs fresh cilantro plus 1 sprig fresh oregano
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained lightly
1/2 medium jalapeño pepper
1 chipotle chile in adobo, plus up to 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Pinch of cumin
Salt and pepper, to taste

Garnishes
Broken tortilla chips (or strips)
Lime wedges
Sour cream
Shredded cheese (cheddar or monterey jack) or crumbled cotija cheese
Diced avocado
Cilantro leaves

Bring chicken, broth, 2 onion quarters, 2 garlic cloves, epazote, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to boil over medium-high heat in large saucepan; reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until chicken is just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Using tongs, transfer chicken to large plate. Pour broth through fine-mesh strainer; discard solids in strainer. When cool enough to handle, shred chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Puree tomatoes, 2 remaining onion quarters, 2 remaining garlic cloves, jalapeño, chipotle chile, cumin, and 1 teaspoon adobo sauce in food processor until smooth. Heat oil in Dutch oven over high heat until shimmering; add tomato/onion puree and 1/8 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture has darkened in color, about 10 minutes. Stir strained broth into tomato mixture, bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer to blend flavors, about 15 minutes. Taste soup, adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and, if desired, up to 2 teaspoons additional adobo sauce. Add shredded chicken and simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls; garnish accordingly.

So I was just watching the beginning of the Powerpuff Girls movie, and paused on the image of the Professor buying the ingredients with which to make the girls. He buys sugar and “spices”- parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. While I love the Simon and Garfunkel shoutout, those aren’t spices. They’re herbs. So it wasn’t just the Chemical X that made them different from normal little girls, it was the fact that the Professor used the wrong ingredients.

I’ll shut up now.

Okay, I think I’m going to make the Cook’s Illustrated Tortilla Soup from the March-April 2005 issue. Either tomorrow or Sunday. I need to buy an onion and a jalapeno, as well as various garnishes (lime, avocado, cheese, sour cream). I also want to get more salsa makings. #6 was good! And easy!

So, I’ve got the better part of a roasted chicken to do something with… Jer suggested soup, chicken salad, or fajitas… I thought about mixing it in with some mac and cheese or just doing my favorite, picking at it off the bone. Any suggestions? I’ve got all the white meat and half the dark meat. Plus a carcass.