Oh dear. I am worried about this new development. Hershey’s bought Scharffen Berger.

In other news, remember how I said back in March that I was thinking about moving to Mountain View? And remember how nothing ever came of that? Well, I am moving. This weekend. Not to Mountain View, but to… two doors down from where I currently live. I’m not even switching landlords. I’m moving from a two-bedroom to a one-bedroom. I never needed that second bedroom, I got that apartment because I loved it (such a great kitchen!) and didn’t care. Now, I’m trying to be a little more independent (not mooching off my parents QUITE so much). My new place is surprisingly spacious for a one-bedroom. The only sad thing is that it has no dishwasher. Oh well. Time to stock up on paper plates.

If you didn’t watch Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel last night, I suggest you catch a repeat (first episode: Why the French Don’t Suck). It’s an hour long and TV-MA for… swearing and smoking, probably. Yeah, there were some annoyingly staged bits- I could have done without the whole absinthe hallucination bit- but it’s still Tony. For those of you who miss Food Network’s A Cook’s Tour, check this show out.

Since I’m totally and completely evil, I thought I’d give you all this information. The new URL to get around the Salon DayPass is this. Let’s see how long it works. I’ve only got a wee audience (and some of you are already members), so it’s not like this will destroy them. How much can they make off those annoying ads, anyway? Seeing Tucker Carlson’s huge smirking face for thirty seconds does not make any more likely to watch his show. Stupid bow tie man. (Not to be confused with Annoying Bow Tie Man, who is Christopher Kimball, editor of Cook’s Illustrated.)

All-Purpose Cornbread
Cook’s Illustrated

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp table salt
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled slightly

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined; set aside.

In food processor or blender, process brown sugar, thawed corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds. Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.

Using rubber spatula, make well in center of dry ingredients; pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine; add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer. Cut into pieces and serve.

Y’all… I’m thinking about dropping D&D. I enjoy it, but I start getting irritable around 10:30pm. And three and a half hours of game play a week is kind of pathetic. I think our group may be dissolving, anyway. Cameron’s moving up to the city, Rob seems to be losing interest, and I’m just tired. Jer has suggested moving it to the weekends, but I’m selfish and don’t want to give up my weekends. I don’t know what’s going to happen.

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.