Rolo Cookies - Pure, Gorgeous Evil

Ever since I saw this on Cooking Stuff it's been lurking in that place in my mind - you know the one, where you keep the things you know you shouldn't do, but will. Sin in cookie form.

The Recipe: Rolo Cookies

Used the recipe from Spryte's Place, as that's what Bob said he'd do next time. But followed his example and just rolled them in sugar, rather than walnuts. He has great step-by-step pics too.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

Almost made a pretty mighty mistake. Since I was halving the recipe, quickly jotted down the ingredients in the quantities I was going to need. But wrote baking powder instead of baking soda! Doh!

Luckily noticed before it was too late. Consulted baking911, it was all too confusing, so came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the risk of not fixing. So threw out the flour/cocoa powder/baking powder mix. Aargh! It killed me, being a child of a child of the (last) Depression.

Did I really have to do that? Would love to know...

But I did come up with a pretty good technique for putting them together, to toot my own horn.
a) chill the dough before starting, and intermittently throughout (it was soooo hot in our kitchen)
b) scoop a tbspn of dough, then push the rolo into the dough while still on the spoon, fold up the dough around the rolo, then push the ball out of the spoon, and roll in the sugar

Oh, and the packets of Rolos we get around here have 8 pieces in them. Half Spryte's recipe came out to exactly 24 rolo cookies - amazing!

Pix

Technique:















Cookie balls















Done - photo a bit weird - they're actually quite dark

Asparagus Risotto

Tonight's dinner - nice, but not as good as the pea risotto, methinks. A tad bland.

The Recipe: Asparagus Risotto
From Mr. B. online at NYTimes.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

The point of this article is that you don't need to stir risotto constantly. That may be true, but not sure that even Mr. B. totally buys into his argument here. In his How to Cook Everything (aka The Bible), he says you shouldn't walk away from the stove for more than a minute, and that seems about right, in my (extremely limited) experience.

Pix

Beginning Step 4.















End Step 4.















On plate, baaad pic. Garnish is some left-over prosciutto, sauteed a couple of mins:

Herby-Crust Pizza

This was actually my second time making pizza, and it seems that the first time wasn't a fluke. The crust was, if anything, even better - because of an added ingredient...

The Recipe: Herby-Crust Pizza
Used the same recipe as last time, but followed a tip that Bob from Cooking Stuff left in a comment: adding some dried herbs to the flour when making the dough. Genius!!!

I was making half the recipe and added probably just under a tspn of dried rosemary to the mix, and it was perfect. So would guess you'd maybe want about 1.5-2 tspns if you're making the full amount (probably that changes depending on your herb too).

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes
So, the pizza base was great, but I'm still learning a couple of things about toppings, as you can see:

• How to walk the fine line with caramelized onions between caramel and burnt :\
• When to add the basil - someone said a couple of mins before the end, which is what I did, but it really dried out; someone else advised just to put it on when it comes out of the oven so it just wilts, will try that next time

But other than that it seems to get better every time! :)

FYI, toppings were: fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, "caramelized" onions, parmesan, and basil.

Pix

Potato-Pea-Mint Salad

What kind of an idiot makes potato salad on a nasty chilly day, and pizza and cookies on a scorching hot one? That would be moi.

Here's the potato salad. It was yummy.

The Recipe: Potato Salad with Peas & Mint
From Chow.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

They say it serves 4 but unless it's all you're eating I'd say 6 is more like it.

I fancied it up a little bit with pancetta and creme fraiche instead of bacon and cream, since we had some already (blimey!)

Pix

Only got one, pretty bad, sorry

Yaaay! I'm on Foodie Blogroll!

Thanks for having me! And a big welcome to any Foodie Blogroll users! Most of you can probably cook, but I'm trying everything (well, a lot of things) here, so there should be something that's new to you.

Highlights of the past few weeks: homemade pasta, pizza, and tortillas, cheese souffle, and cookies 'n' kittens. Coming soon: quiche, profiteroles, and cake, plus more healthy-ish dinners, and occasionally cats (not cooked). With some British food thrown in, and very likely some disasters.

Anyway, I'm just muddling through, so would love any advice you can give, and to hear from other newbie cooks too.

For anyone who doesn't know the Foodie Blogroll, check out the red thing in the right-hand column. It's a great way to discover other blogs (there are over 4000), and they have a forum, contests, and other stuff too.

And thanks to you all - loyal readers and new ones! More cooking posts very soon...

Fun Link: A List of Lists

Bored at work? Not any more! In case you haven't seen it, here's EndlessSimmer's Top Ten Top Ten Food Lists. Includes best food hacks, craziest religious sightings in food, most creative uses of bacon, etc., etc. Enjoy!

Homemade Pasta, Messily

The inspiration here came from a post I found on Macheesmo when browsing his Learn to Cook section. Inspiration actually being an important word. He says (hope he won't mind me quoting): "This is one of those posts that I think really embodies what I’m trying to do with this site. I’ve never made fresh pasta before. The excuse I’ve always said is that I don’t have a pasta press. But a few weeks ago I got to thinking that you know what, pasta was made before pasta presses. Not having that one little piece of equipment shouldn’t stop me from giving it a shot."

Well, I don't have a pasta press either. And, unlike Macheesmo, I don't have any idea what I'm doing. But once he'd pointed out that you could make pasta with a rolling pin, it had to be tried. After all, that's the spirit of this blog, right? Cooking without a clue...

The Recipe: Homemade Pasta
From Mark Bittman, via Macheesmo. I used regular all-purpose flour, rather than semolina. Will try semolina next time, it's apparently a better taste.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes
It went awry pretty much instantly. You put the flour on your kneading surface, and make a well in it. Then you put your eggs in the well. But, without thinking, I'd beaten the eggs, then noticed that neither he nor Mr. B. had done that. Oh. It probably doesn't matter. Actually, it does. The eggs overflowed my well, and ran all over the board, the table, and a chair:















Frantically, I tried to pen them in with my hands and sop them up with flour - the board, table, and my fingers turned into a gloopy mess. Because I'd lost about a quarter of the eggs, the "dough" was just a bunch of dry crumbs. So I added some water. And it turned into a sticky blob. So added some flour. And it looked like this. Compare and contrast with Macheesmo's.















Mr. B. has some pretty helpful instructions on kneading: "Continue kneading until the dough is completely smooth, somewhat skinlike, with some elasticity (if you break off a piece, it should stretch a bit before breaking; if it breaks off immediately, keep kneading."

So I kneaded mine till it was like skin (rather a repulsive idea at the best of times). Unfortunately, it was like the skin of an elderly gentleman.















The rolling out part went OK. Mr. B. suggested dividing the dough into three, and I followed his advice because I only had a tiny surface area to work on. The disadvantage is that you have to do the rolling three times. Way to get in shape!

But should have checked out Macheesmo's pics before cutting - my strips were way too wide.

But looked quite pasta-like.

But took waaaay longer to cook (about 8-10 mins). Though I comforted myself with the fact that even Macheesmo said his were too fat. They puff up when you cook them too.

But they tasted perfectly fine. Did them with some sauteed shallot, creme fraiche, peas (rather a lot), and chopped Italian parsley.

The conclusion? Ridiculously fun. And I'd like a pasta press.

(More) Pix











































Bad pic, sorry - looks a bit disgusting!