I made it into a vector! Go here to download it vector in Illustrator .ai format or .svg format! I uploaded it to this filesharing site.

http://www.4shared.com/u/vspsztsq/c6076d60/Sykora.html

Larger image versions available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickrsy/4640284314/sizes/o/

Enjoy!

Tattoo pic by Lady Luck tm on flickr, "Taking Photo" pic by adactio on flickr, "Baked goods smell awesome" & "Cheese bread and grapes" pic by fd on flickr.

So the food-loving online community is apparently in an uproar over this little word. After poking around, I’ve concluded there are 3 main camps:  

1: Those who wear it as a badge of slightly-silly honor, “I love good food, and I think knowing about food is neat!”

2: Those who think the word “Foodie” is too silly. “Why are we putting -ie on the ends of words? Goofballs.”

3: Those who’ve come to know the word in a negative light. “Saying you’re a foodie is saying you’re a horrific food snob.”

I belong firmly in the first group, and kind of stare in surprised wonder at the other two. Camp #2 doesn’t upset me much. The existance of camp #3 bothers me quite a bit. Clearly, there have been some obnoxious and stuck-up people in certain parts of the country walking around calling themselves “foodie” and it’s tainted the word for huge swathes of the population. Shame, I say! Shame!

Early on in the word’s popularity, I looked up the definition on the web. It was difficult to find these same articles now, since there has been a veritable explosion of discussion on the topic, but I finally rooted them out for reference in this post.  http://www.slashfood.com/2006/02/10/what-is-a-foodie-anyway/ A rather long quote from the above short article:

“To be a foodie is not only to like food, but to be interested in it. Just as a good student will have a thirst for knowledge, a foodie wants to learn about food. A foodie will never answer the question “What are you eating” with “I don’t know.” There are some basic traits of being a foodie, as there are basic traits that come with all labels. Generally, you have to know what you like, why you like it, recognize why some foods are better than others and want to have good tasting food all or certainly most of the time. This doesn’t mean that you can’t eat ”Flaming Hot Cheetos” every now and again, but it does mean that you don’t fool yourself into thinking that it’s a nutritionally balanced meal.”

This was published in 2006.  Here is an excerpt from http://www.foodieprints.com/item/167/catid/22 , published in mid-2007:

“Like gourmets, foodies collectively can make or break a restaurant. They have created a large complement of blogs, wikis, and even magazines where large online and off line communities pour over reviews. However, foodies will embark on activities that gourmets will not. For instance, foodies will spend time looking for the “perfect” taco or hamburger, honest everyday foods. Whereas, self-identified gourmets find such pursuits beneath them.”

I consider this to be the essence of the matter. A gourmet, just like a foodie, COULD  be a snob. Doesn’t have to be! He or she may simply be well-off and addicted to the traditional finer foods available in high-end restaurants, and be a super-nice person. But it’s possible for a foodie to be inappropriately aloof also. Just the same as anyone. I don’t believe that any of the words in question:  gourmet, foodie, epicure, etc. should immediately bring bile-inducing snobbery to mind.

Anyone can be a snooty jackass, their love for food is not an indicator one way or the other.  I am not aware of a term that refers only to the snobby sector of food lovers. But as commented in the above quotes, gourmets are more interested in traditional and ‘refined’ food, for the most part, whereas the Foodie is interested in a wide range of food topics, to include both Smoked Salmon Pate and/or the most fabulous tasting elephant ear at the fair and what type of oil is used to fry it.

In my opinion, foodies (And gourmets, for that matter) may or may not be occupied with the actual preparation of foods. You don’t have to be skilled in food prep to be either one. But it is often the case! I’m good with cooking and baking, and it seems that many Foodies are. After all, if you have an opinion about the right way to do something… and if you want something done right…. you do it yourself! Heh.

Here is a blog post about the title “foodie” and why this chap has decided that he doesn’t like foodies, or the term. It seems like he’s determined that the amazingness of food should be played down, and that social and economic concerns in developing countries should prevent westerners from romanticizing and writing cookbooks about said country’s cuisine. He’s clearly got a lot more going on than just disliking the term “foodie”, but it is a good example, I think, of the stigma that a lot of people feel is attached to the title. http://mightyminnow.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/dawn-of-the-foodies-americas-most-obnoxious-clique/ Here’s an excerpt:

A superb example of "How not to be", whether your passion is organics, or just good food in general.

“Of course, you will never see a foodie at the local Sudanese joint—which, by the way is where I spend most of my time—banging on about how zesty, moist, and tender the lamb is. You will catch a foodie nowhere near the Sierra Leonean place asking whether the fufu is made from yams, plantains, or cassava (my favorite), and which of the three is best. No! The foodie would not be caught dead anywhere near where real people eat.”

I find these statements to be completely off the mark, because not one foodie I know (or have heard of online) wouldn’t leap at the chance to try Sudanese food, or, if they had the blessing of knowing the various ingredient variations of fufu, wouldn’t cheerfully ask which was used, and subsequently devour it with relish! Being a foodie is about being hungry to know more about food, and cuisine that comes from a different culture is treated with special respect and particularly keen interest!  It’s also interesting that the foodie definitions he cites at the bottom of the article, though, do not seem to strongly support his assertions that foodies are melodramatic ethnocentric snobs.

So.

Camp #3: Simmer down some! It’s very likely not your fault that you have a bad impression of the word. But this is something that a great many people consider to be great fun (Fresh new title!), a friendly and bright interest that involves zero snobbery, and if the word is a tad silly sounding, hey – - We’re cool with that, you know? (Camp #2, that bit’s for you guys!)

I am a foodie. I’m proud to wear the title, even if I risk being assumed a snob by some, -I truly hope the stigma will wear off with time. In the meantime, I will do my best to model the correct, accepting, and fun-loving meaning of the term.  Thanks for reading!

Foodie definition What is a foodie What does foodie mean

But the day before, I’d seen a mochi recipe that actually looked like it might be sorta good (even though I don’t, as a rule, enjoy most mochi) [ Mango Mochi Recipe ] , so I made a snap decision to give it a try.

Mochi is a very very popular confection/pastry/type-thing in Japan and China, and probably other places, too. It’s a little odd by western standards. It can be plain or filled with a red bean paste/fresh fruit/ice cream/other filling. It’s definitely a beautiful treat:

The dough that it’s made of doesn’t taste funny or bad, it just doesn’t taste much. At all. Like anything. But it’s  very very chewy. So that’s…… weird, for westerners. My goal with mochi, then, is to make it as flavorful as possible, and use great fillings, to make it more palatable for first-timers (read: folks who didn’t grow up with this treat).

I used the recipe on the above site (Which is think is flawed, the rice is measured in g, while the liquid in mg, and, extrapolating from other mochi recipes, the amount of sweet rice flour to liquid is supposed to be about even.) I added equal amounts, by weight, of the rice flour, and the liquid ( I used mango nectar, mango-orange juice and fresh squeezed lemon juice!), and it was waaay sticky. Like a very very thick dry ball that couldn’t be mixed. The picture on the website, however, showed a thin batter. Hmm. I added a whole lot more liquid, until it vaguely resembled a batter, then popped it into the micro for 5 minutes, loosely covered. 

I tried to make the mochi while the mochi was still warm – bad move. I made some more later when it was completely cool, and it was tons easier. The stuff sticks to EVERYTHING! Fingers, knives, plastic wrap, tables, you name it. After a couple of failed attempts to use plastic wrap to shape them, (it stuck to the plastic wrap like you can’t believe) I tried to look online to see if there was a proper way to handle the goop to get it to behave. I didn’t find anything helpful. OK THEN, time to come up with my own idea. I lightly oiled a piece of plastic wrap (quite lightly) and tried it that way. The dough didn’t stick to it! I made the first mochi, and found that the slight oil that clung to the mochi didn’t prevent the coconut from sticking to the ball. Whew. Repeat x30! 

I’ll have to make this again, and take more careful note of the ingredient amounts. I am very interested in making a mochi that first-timers will enjoy very much, and to my mind, that means making the dough as flavorful as humanly possible! I’ll have to share, next time I make it. 

Here are the pics from the process!

Coaxing the Mochi dough out with a knife ( I should have used a plastic spoon for this)

Dallop of mochi dough on VERY LIGHTLY oiled saran wrap

Wetting fingertips, this stuff is sticky as heck.

Stretch #1

Stretch #3 or 4 - it's flat enough now. I wetted my fingers often.

Mango chunk!

Working the mochi dough around filling from safely beneath the saran wrap.

Enclosing going well...

Success!

Gently rocking from side to side, to help the edges stick well and not break open

Thank goodness for that tiny bit of oil...

Plopped into the coconut

The final product! Upper one has cornstarch on it instead of coconut.

Bitten Mochi!

Just added the chives...

After chives have cooked for a few seconds, it's time to add the pre-mixed sauce...

The sauce cooks less than 20 seconds, then the big payoff!

If you have the required pantry items, this couldn’t be easier.

Recipe:

Stir-fried pork with Chinese Chives

1 lb boneless pork loin (The meat from 3 or 4 pork chops)
1/2 lb Chinese Garlic Chives
1/3c peanut oil (no substitutions)*
- marinade -
1/2 t salt
2 t Shaoxing rice wine or a med. dry sherry
4 1/2 t cornstarch
4 t water
- sauce -
1 t light soy sauce (light as in ‘not dark’)
1 1/2 t Chinkiang or Chinese Black vinegar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cornstarch
1/4 c Chicken Stock

Cut the pork into very thin strips 2″ long. Be sure to remove all traces of fat and gristle. Place in a bowl with the marinade ingredients, stir in one direction only to mix, let sit for about 15 minutes.

Wash and trim the chives, cut into 2″ lengths.
Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl (keep a spoon with it)

With heat on high, add the peanut oil to the pan/wok. When you see the first wisp of white smoke, add the pork slivers and stir briskly to separate pieces. Stir-fry for a minute or so until the meat is nearly cooked through, then add the chives. Stir-fry for around 45 seconds more, or until the chives are nearly tender. Stir the sauce in its little bowl, and pour in. Cook for a few more seconds until sauce thickens, then plate immediately.

Serve with rice if desired, (but it’s not really necessary.) Enjoy!

This is really quite tasty, it was just like I’d been served it in China or at a good restaurant.

*it’s really not best to substitute any of the ingredients. Do so at your own risk. =)

Recently, I made the decision to start cooking Chinese food at home. Not only has our cooking lately been horribly boring and repetitive, but we’ve not been getting proper nutrients, and our consumption of greens is dismally low. I think that if I learn to stir-fry properly, this will introduce more greens and veggies into our diet, while providing me with motivation to cook at home (because Chinese cooking is so crazy tasty!) I spent a semester living in China in 1999, it changed my life, and I absolutely adored the food. So! This post will be about sharing my research into how to get started, and the results of my first three dishes!

For starters, I studied a lot of stir-fry recipes online and in books, and made myself a list of the basic pantry items I needed to collect. What I came up with was:

Oyster sauce (Choose one with no MSG)
Fish sauce (Choose an uncloudy amber one)
Sesame Oil (I got one that didn’t mention “Toasted”)
Peanut Oil (The kind in really large bottles or boxes sometimes contain anti-foaming agents, I don’t think that’s a good idea)
ShaoXing Rice Wine (This stuff should actually say “ShaoXing” on it, and it’s an amber color, not clear.)
Rice wine vinegar
Black Chinese Vinegar (If you can find “ChinKiang” vinegar, get that instead.)
Chili Oil
Chili Sauce
Chili Paste (in a smaller container than Chili Sauce, this stuff comes in a lot of different flavors. I tried to get just basic chili paste, with no garlic or sugar, etc.)
Hoisin Sauce
Light Soy sauce (“Light” does not refer to low sodium or low fat or anything like that, instead it’s a way to differentiate this soy sauce from “Dark” soy sauce.)
Dark Soy Sauce (This will definitely say “Dark soy sauce” on it. I got a kind that also had added mushroom flavor. Sounded good.)
Shallots (Price these out at both your asian market, and your local grocery to find out which one sells them cheaper.)
Garlic (See above)
Ginger (See above)
Onions (See above)
Dried red chilies (The ones I picked up were about 2.5″ long. )
Chinese Pickled Chilies
Dried Chinese Mushrooms
Star Anise (These smell so good. Even if you do NOT like licorice, get a little bag of these, since they’re called for in several good Chinese recipes. I’ve just gotten proof tonight that the final dish tastes nothing like licorice, so don’t fret.)
White ground pepper
Cornstarch
Chicken Stock (Or Chicken Broth, whatever you call it.)
Bean thread noodles
Rice stick noodles
Chinese egg noodles
Jasmine Rice
Sweet Rice (Glutinous)
Long grain rice

So I got all but just one or two of those things, over a period of time (to help with affording all that). The things on my list that should be bought fresh as needed include:

Green Onions (Scallions)
Round Won-ton wrappers (wheat)
Chinese (Garlic) Chives (These smell very potently of garlic, and should be available at your Asian market. They resemble regular chives, except that the leaves are flat, instead of round and pipe-like, like regular chives. Even if they’re not labeled in english, you should be able to use your nose to identify these hummers.)
Young Ginger (Young ginger looks like a weird root-tuber that you’ve probably never seen before, but if you sniff it, it does indeed smell like ginger. Don’t be afraid to pick things up and inspect them!)
Baby Bok Choy (Or regular bok choy. I just think the tiny 5″ tall baby bok choys are so adorable. ^_^)
Napa Cabbage (Chinese Cabbage)
Various greens (Watercress, Chinese broccoli, Kale, etc.)
Carrots
Celery
Tofu (This may be referred to in your chinese recipe book as “doufu” or “Bean Curd, either silken, soft, medium, firm or extra firm”)
[red chili peppers]
[lemongrass]
[bean sprouts]
[fresh coriander (Cilantro)]
Fresh mushrooms
Snow pea pods
[fresh green beans]
Bamboo shoots

And there are many others, but those are the main ones I can think of at this time. [The ones in square brackets are items that should be on the list, but I do not like to eat, so I don't actually intend to buy those.] Most of these fresh things you should be able to get at your local grocery, but a few are available only at Asian markets. As for the above staple pantry items, you should probably get the sauces and pepper, etc. at the Asian markets as well, they are bound to be cheaper than the ones available at your regular grocery, and more authentic. If you’re brave, you can ask the proprietor of the Asian grocery which brands are best! Be sure to check the labels anyway, though, and choose products that do not contain MSG. Buying the most expensive sauce brand available that does not use MSG is the way to go if you’re into getting the very best. Google MSG if you’re confused by my dislike of it. Not good for your brain, eww.

A few notes about fish sauce. At the Asian market I visited, there were no fewer than 14 brands of it available. They ranged from a benign looking clear amber liquid, to a mottled thick pasty stuff, to actual teeny tiny fish packed tight inside a bottle, staring out at me. I asked the owner of the store about what would be a good fish sauce to choose if I was just getting started, and he pointed out a few of the clear amber kinds. I chose the one that came in the smallest bottle, and edged away from the bottles of tiny staring fishes. =)

Then I turned to the library’s website, and reserved a boatload of Chinese cookery books that sounded good. I dropped by later and picked up my large stack of them. The very best one I’ve read so far is entitled “My Grandmother’s Chinese Kitchen” (http://tinyurl.com/bh3t4s). It is very very good. The recipes are great, and her narrative style really takes you back to rural China the way it used to be, and explains the dishes within that context. I highly recommend it.

So, I’ve tried three dishes, now! Jiao Zi (Potsticker-type dumplings that I ate a lot of in China), Hong Shao Rou, or Red Braised Pork, which was fantastic, and also a Thai noodle dish with peanuts and chicken. Not really Chinese, but very tasty. ^_^

So, I’ll start at the beginning! I used this recipe to make the Jiao Zi: http://tinyurl.com/atxryl Here’s a few too many pics of the assembly process:

The Napa Cabbage: Minced!

More Chopped Cabbage

Chopping the Scallions

The recipe calls for you to mince the cabbage, then toss it with one teaspoon of salt, and let sit for 30 minutes. The salt will cause the cabbage to shed a lot of its water. Then squeeze out as much water from the cabbage as you can, with your hands. Now, I was a mite skeptical. I knew that salt had this effect on cooking veggies, but I’d never heard of it on uncooked vegetables just sitting on the counter. So I expected a mild effect. But WOW, there was nearly 3/4 cup of liquid that drained out of this one cabbage. I was impressed!

I think there's something to this salting thing

You want finely chopped? I got some finely chopped right here for ya.

So I’d had a few dumplings like these in the past where the cabbage was not chopped finely enough for me. So I decided to err on the side of “More finely chopped”, and used my food processor on the scallions, ginger, and cabbage. Turns out this kind of ruins the texture of the filling! ^_- Now, if I’d thought that through, I probably would have realized that, but this way, I guess I got to prove it. The filling benefits from the slight segmenting that the chopped cabbage brings. I’ll leave it just “finely chopped”, next time.

Mmmmm.

The filling, after mixing! Looked kind of gloppy and thin, so I added more cornstarch, as the recipe suggests.

First try at Dumpling shaping.... Hmm.

So I got square dumpling wrappers, since round wasn’t available (Or I couldn’t find them) when I was buying wrappers. So I had to get a bit creative when deciding how to wrap these babies. This was my first attempt. A bit too elaborate, I needed something easier. But I thought maybe I should try a few different methods, about 5 dumplings, of varying structural integrity, and boil them to discover to what extent the filling would hold together / try to escape.

Test batch is in the water!

Test Batch Completed

Turns out, the cornstarch really did its job, even the sillier dumplings that half-unwrapped during boiling didn’t spew filling all over, the filling really held together well. So I decided that the structural integrity of the wrapper wasn’t really of utmost importance, just getting it wrapped up in a way that was easy enough that I wouldn’t want to commit ritual suicide after doing 40 of them in a row. Here’s the method I settled on:

Makeshift Dumpling Assembly

Makeshift Dumpling Assembly

Makeshift Dumpling Assembly

Makeshift Dumpling Assembly

Pile of completed dumplings

Huzzah! I forgot to take pictures after they were all cooked, but they held together fine, and were tasty enough to eat a meal of them. Lots of room for improvement in the flavor and texture of these, and I look forward very much to fine-tuning the recipe to my liking, this was one of my favorite dishes in China. I also intend to try rice-based wrappings instead of the wheat ones. All in all, a very good first try, many lessons learned!

Next thing I tackled was a Thai noodles with Chicken and Peanuts dish. I don’t intend to learn a lot of Thai recipes, but peanutty noodles with chicken is one of my hubby’s favorite foods, and mine too, so this seemed like a good one to learn. I used a recipe out of a book I checked out from the library, and the main thing I remember about it was that it contained a goodly amount of fish sauce. I am unused to cooking with fish sauce, and I must say the smell of it is going to take some getting used to. The final dish, however was of course, really yummy, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. Here’s a pic!

Mmmm!

When cooking raw chicken breast at home, (like for an Italian noodle dish, for example) my main complaint is usually that the chicken becomes tough and overcooked, and this is very difficult to for me to avoid, it seems. With this recipe, it called for the strips of chicken to be pan-fried in a whole cup of peanut oil, heated up very hot. As soon as the chicken had completely changed color, I was to remove from the oil, and set aside. Then the seasonings were stir-fried and the liquids added to the pan, and when those were ready, the noodles and chicken were added back in to warm up and soak in the sauce. The chicken was tender and juicy, –perfect! It was great, and I had so much left over (I doubled the recipe) that we’re taking some to some friends’ house tonight to eat the leftovers, yummy!

Hong Shao Rou is the most recent recipe I tried. It’s a dish not often served in Chinese restaurants in the west, and one person surmised that it was probably a bit too “Rustic” or “Homestyle” for western folks to be interested in. It’s really quite a treat, though. What it is, is a slab of pork belly, skin on, cut into large cubes 2″ square. (Pork belly, or Pork side, as it’s sometimes called, is the same cut of meat they make bacon from.) The cubes are lightly stir fried, then chicken stock, chinese sauces, Scallions and Ginger are added. This is left to simmer slowly for a couple of hours, and the result is that the liquids reduce into a thick and tasty dark glaze that coats the meat. Here’s some pictures, first a professional one, and then ones of my own preparation.

A restaurant version - note the sauce

This one's mine - Note the lack of sauce

Second image of mine

View of the preparation - It's done!

I ended up taking a nap during cooking, so I set my hubby to stirring every 30 minutes. Then I didn’t want to get up after two hours, so it cooked for around 2.5 hours. Hence the lack of sauce, and the accumulation of oil you can see in the bottom of the skillet. I fished out the pieces with tongs, letting the excess oil drip off before plating.

When I decided to try this dish, I wasn’t at all sure what to expect as far as edibility. I knew the sauce would likely be good, but I wasn’t sure how much Anise flavor would be in it, how weird that might be, or how I’d go about eating the meat itself. Since it was pork belly, there were generous layers of fat, with what seemed like a modest amount of meat. The Chinese poetically call this cut “Five Flower Meat” referring to the layers. I’m usually not too keen on just straight up eating big hunks of fat, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the finished product, here. Turns out my fears were unfounded! The fatty portions melted away to a certain degree, and the remaining amounts were either appetizing, or easily gotten around. I used my fingers to eat, while hubby got along fine with a fork.

The thick glaze was dark black and potently flavorful, with a wonderful exotic taste that I can only compare to Balsamic Vinegar in western cuisine. The star anise pod provided not a licorice flavor, but instead a certain “je ne sais quoi” quality that turned the sauce into a fantastic and authentic-tasting glaze for the tender/crispy pork. As it cooked, the house was filled with a completely foreign cooking smell, one that I definitely remember coming from restaurant kitchens while in China. It was not disagreeable, just very, very different from western cooking aromas.

In conclusion, I’m definitely making this again, the next meat I’ll try with it is Country Pork ribs (boneless). Those also have a good deal of marbling in them, but nowhere near as much fat as pork belly. =) I also noted that this is THE recipe I’ve been searching for, for chicken wings. My favorite chicken wings have always been the type where the chicken wing is bathed in a thick dry glaze, potent in flavor, with the fat of the chicken skin having been mostly melted away. This preparation would produce that EXACT effect on chicken wings, and I will be looking forward now to my very first excuse to prepare them this way. Oh baby.

Here’s the recipe I used:

Hong Shao Rou (Red Braised Pork)

One piece of Pork Belly or Pork side, skin on, about 1.5 lbs. (Check your Asian market)
3 T peanut oil
3/4 t salt
2 c Chicken stock
3 scallions, cut into 3 or 4 chunks each
2″ ginger, unpeeled
1 T dark soy sauce
4 T ShaoXing cooking wine (or a dry sherry)
1/2 Star anise Pod (4 sections)
3 T brown sugar

Blanch the pork, whole, in boiling water for 3 minutes, remove and rinse with clean water. You may skip this step if you’re in a big hurry.
Dry pork thoroughly with paper towels.
Cut the pork up into 2″ squares.
Heat the Peanut oil in a nonstick skillet or pot until it just barely begins to smoke, then add pork and stir fry for a couple minutes. (Might want to use a spatter cover!)
Add the chicken stock, and all the rest of the ingredients to pot, stir to combine.
Allow to cook uncovered on the lowest simmer possible for about 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
When the sauce is as thick as you prefer, serve with rice or as part of a Chinese meal.

So there we have it! My first foray into Chinese cooking, and I am loving it SO MUCH already. If anyone has questions about getting started with it, feel free to message me, I’d be happy to share the little that I know so far! ^_^

Book 2 is, I believe, the root of the problem that some people may have with the rest of the series. The tone of book two is drastically different than the light and giddy tone of book 1.
The story in book two deals with loss, heartbreak, apathy, betrayal, and numb sadness for the first 3/4 of the book. For someone who has ever gone through something very difficult, relationally, it is very difficult to read and maintain objectivity. I have, and I found it hard to read and stay upbeat. It hit too close to home, one might say.

Therefore, some folk may be disenchanted with the tale, attacking it on whatever level they feel they can justify, to pay it back for the negative feelings, or to shield others from them.

I gave the series to a little girl this year for Christmas, it was her Christmas Wish. The series is all the rage among her peers right now, and she wants in on the clique. I wrote on the title page of the second book, along with Christmas wishes, that she shouldn’t be discouraged from finishing the book because the tone is so gray. Finish if off, I encouraged, it ends happy.

Because it does. The redemption is fantastic, and is made complete at the end of the series, book four.

I had no problems with the writing style, and saw no difference in writing quality across the four books.

The story doesn’t (IMHO) go places too strange or fantastical to be believed, within the setting/world it’s in.

The awe and wonder I felt as I turned the last pages were more than enough to justify the emotional difficulty I had in getting through book 2 in one piece.

Another thing to note is that the author has very good information on her personal website, on each of the books, talking about various writing and publishing issues, including cut bits and outtakes of sorts. She speaks of focus groups reading book 2 before publishing. She urged them to read it twice. Because the first time through, the impulse (I felt it too) was to skip through the pages until the good feelings came back, thus missing the beauty and redemption of an important part of the story. I read this comment of hers after having already read through book 2 and 3, and I emphatically agreed with her sentiment. Give book two the benefit of the doubt, it is redeeming in the end, slow down and experience it for what it is!

Ok, just wanted to get that off my chest! Hehe.

I do love the series, the story, the characters, the world she’s created with a passion, but I’d like to think it’s not the same sort of passion as the 12 to 16 years set. *grin*

If you still don’t read them, that’s your prerogative, clearly, but I’ve had my say!

Silpats are a glass weave embedded in silicon. One side is a bit bumpy, the other is smooth as glass. They’re tacky to the touch, and attract all the lint in your home, (=P) and their uses are many! The most common one is to place them on your cookie sheet, and bake with it. No greasing, flouring, or parchment paper ever needed again. It’s basically permanent parchment paper. Also, you can knead and roll out doughs on it, pour 300 degree molten hard candy or peanut brittle or toffee onto it, to be worked with, or set up. Pretty much the ultimate non-stick surface. I’m so thrilled to finally have some of these in my kitchen!

A few SILPAT links: The Silpat home page: http://www.silpat.com/index.html

Very short Wiki article on SIlpat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silpat

A blogger’s experiences with starting to use Silpats: She says I should bake them alone first, to rid them of possible smoking/factory residue! Glad I read that! =D http://www.chocolategourmand.com/equipment/bakeware/silpat.cfm It looks like (s)he’s using a model of Silpat that I haven’t seen for sale. Apparently both sides are a bit bumpy on his. On mine, there’s a bumpy side and a glassy side.

A very good page that has many many Silpat comments from users. http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2008/02/silpat-versus-parchment-paper.html

The packaging shows chocolates, but says it’s great for baked goods, too! Each little cavity holds 1/12 cup. O_O!  I decided last night to go ahead and try something, something that I knew wouldn’t stick, so I didn’t even grease the pan. My Brown Sugar Shortbread! 1c Butter, 1/2c Brown Sugar, 2c Flour. That’s it! I whipped it up and pressed little bits of dough into the cavities, and baked for 20 minutes at 325 degrees. Here’s what came out.

The details on them show true in the photo, what you see here (The level of detail) is just about exactly the level of detail the shortbreads held onto. Which isn’t much, but it’s a very grainy, crumbly cookie, so I’m not surprised, really. I think perhaps a very dense cake would do much better, like pound cake. Also, then you could coat with a thin ganache, and that would pop the details out even more!

Of course, the goodies that will really shine, coming out of this pan will be the chocolate truffles. I’m looking forward to trying it!

Anise Scented Sugar Cookes on Serving Platter, click to visit photo on Flickr.

Using This recipe, my friend Jennifer and I made Anise Scented Sugar Cookies on Friday night! Then we had great fun frosting them with an improvised buttercream in three colors, plus sprinkles.  We made them Anise-scented by adding about 1 teaspoon of Anise extract to the dough, the regular kind from the grocery store.

The buttercream was improvised in that there wasn’t any milk at her house, but there was sour cream! So I threw it in there, and it worked fabulous, made the frosting even better. We added a great deal of vanilla to the frosting. We used this frosting recipe. The changes we made were to add 1/2c of butter instead of 1/3, and we used approximately 1/4c of sour cream instead of the milk. It was perfect piping and spreading consistency. The AirBake style cookie sheets we used were a life-saver, as she had a bit of an older oven that threatened to burn the bottoms of the cookies before the tops were set, as we quickly found with the one non-airbake (but heavy!) cookie sheet we used, see the edges of the christmas tree cookie in the middle. Also, I turned the oven down from 350 to 325, and that enlongated cooking time, but sharply decreased the chances of us burning them, even a little. The rest of the cookies came out perfect. I cut them thick, more than 1/4 inch as dough.

Taste: These cookies tasted very good! The flavorings worked well together. Personally, I think next time I’ll try to cut the sugar in the dough, because the frosting was of course very sweet. The cookie was not the sweetest sugar cookie I’ve ever had, but it could use even less sweetness, if it is to be so frosted. Also very much looking forward to trying them with bakery flavoring* in them.

Spreading: On a 1 to 5 scale, one being no spreading, 5 being watch out, I’d give these a 2.5. I am still looking for the cookie that won’t spread at ALL, like Cookie Bouquet cookies (Which are very dense) but these ones spread what I’d call an ‘acceptable’ amount. Any more and I would have been disappointed, any less and I would have been elated.

Texture: Very soft, delicate, melt-in-your-mouth! The frosting was sweet, smooth and silky, didn’t feel too chalky or too greasy: perfect! Frosting did set up enough to avoid getting completely smashed when lightly layering the cookies onto one another on the serving tray. I didn’t want to try to actually stack the cookies for storage, however. These cookies weren’t the sturdiest.

I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond right before transporting these cookies, and found a fantastic 36-cupcake carry tote. It was cheap (for a carry tote) at only $19. I was so pleased. It worked fine for the cookies, since they were so large. Smaller cookies could nestle in the cupcake holes quite nicely. The plastic has no smell, a very big selling point with me. I look forward to using my caddy for years to come!

We got sick of rolling out the scraps at the very end, so I made three or four cookies that were just oddly shaped large scrap blobs. This one survived to be frosted; I decided it was a train. XD I did my best to make it look like one. Heh.

More cookie close-ups are located on my Flickr Photostream, here!

Tomorrow, I will be getting a shipment from King Arthur Flour company, I’ve ordered two of their “Bakery Flavor” flavorings. What does that mean? Well, fine bakeries often make sugar cookies, and said cookies often have a flavor that you cannot put your finger on, but you know for sure that no sugar cookie you’ve ever made at home has tasted like that, but you’re not sure why. The answer, most times, is bakery flavorings! (I think….) King Arthur Flour sells 3 or 4 of them, and the two I ordered are called Fiori de Sicilia and Princess Cake Flavor. Another two that are on my list to get sometime are Sweet Dough Flavor and Vanilla Bean Crush.

A snippet of the product description for the Sweet Dough Flavor, (which I believe also applies to the Princess Cake Flavor):

“Give your pastry that special ”fancy bakery” taste
There’s a particular flavor to the Danish, sweet rolls and coffeecakes you get at the store. Is it a hint of vanilla, or butter, or…? Our Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor is extra-buttery, with hints of vanilla and citrus; add a few drops of this flavoring to your favorite sweet bread recipe, and your family and friends will be clamoring for the name of the bakery you visited.”

Neat! I can’t wait to try these out. I think they’ll give that “je ne sais quoi” to cookies and cupcakes from scratch. Woo hoo!

I think this began the mania:

Click on them to see more of her things. Note the “Cookies” category for more of her neat stuff.

Anyhow, those blue cookies got me really jazzed about cookie decorating. I mean, Snowflakes are one of my favorite motifs, so this was like a perfectly tailored Sy-jazzer.

I’ve always associated this type of icing with the name “Royal Icing” – - Which I’d always assumed was basically just water and powdered sugar. In fact, I’m positive that someone actually TOLD me that one time. Long time ago. Well, it’s not, It’s egg whites and powdered sugar. Whipped egg whites.

I looked up on AllRecipes.com a good recipe for Royal Icing, and chose a Sugar Cookie Recipe as well.

The first time around, baking the cookies, I realized something rather mortifiying. I’d completely forgotten the leavening, (Baking powder) and I’d also forgotten the salt. Also I didn’t grease the cookie sheets, or use the parchment paper I had sitting within arm’s reach.  -_-

The first round of cookies spread like gangbusters, which irritated me, because I wanted the cookies to retain their cookie-cutter shape perfectly. (The second batch, where I followed the recipe exactly, also spread like crazy. Hmph.) Here’s a photo of just how much they spread, I used the cookie cutters on the AGAIN after I baked them to further illustrate how much they spread.

I frosted them with the royal icing, and it turned out ok. They didn’t taste or feel the way I wanted them, but they were quite pretty, for a first try!

One thing I learned was that very thin Royal Icing, while pretty when first applied, tends to soak into the cookie as it begins to sit there for a few minutes, making it very unsightly. I will not be making egg white frosting that thin ever again. A bit thicker is what I used on the above plate of pumpkins and leaves. The green icing you see here never did set up, it was tacky.

I used the “Spoon dribble” method for all the lines, and the “Dip” method for all the backgrounds.

My goal now is to find a cookie recipe that won’t spread much, if at all, so my shapes can be sharp without ruining the edges by cookie-cuttering them after baking. Also it would be nice if it tasted good. =P

I got a couple of potentials rounded up today, as follows:

Gluten and Dairy-free Sugar Cookies that won’t spread

Sugar Cookies that won’t Spread

I think I’ll try the latter first.

ALSO: today I learned of yet another awesome way to frost cookies in a neat and clean manner: Fondant.

Now, fondant and I have had an interesting relationship. In general, I’d say I don’t like it. I made it a lot during a specific time of my childhood, and it contained wheat germ. I have no idea why, but it did. It was ok. Even as a kid, I decided it wasn’t really all that, and I stopped making it. The next experience I had with it was seeing it all over the trendy wedding cakes they make these days that are fully encapsulated in the stuff. Being a huge buttercream frosting fan, these looked fakey, tasteless, and chalky to me. I can’t remember actaully trying it, though.

After watching this video, though, (I’d start watching at 1:40 if you just want to get a gist)

I have begun to think of giving fondant another chance. Particularly when I make it myself from scratch with this recipe. Rolled Fondant at AllRecipes.com

This is intriguing. I am imagining Candy Cane shaped cookies with nice sharp peppermint fondant stripes. Mmm.  I have yet to successfully imagine how a cookie topped with fondant would taste, however. I need to try it out, see how good/weird it is.

More updates as I make more cookies!