Part V: Gingersnaps

Let me just put it out there that I like using Roman numerals in the titles to these posts. Makes me feel smart, especially as it gets later in the year and I get to use a C or L. Because that's the kind of cool person I am. Also, I like doing my taxes. Maybe those two things go together? And no, I don't want to do your taxes.

Gingersnaps were next up in my recipe book. I immediately thought of Graham crackers, which I recalled as being originally created by a minister to help suppress the urge to masturbate-Wikipedia backs me up here as well as Snopes. Bland foods supposedly being a way to curb excess carnal desires. Yum!

So with that in mind I baked my way through the recipe, noting that in addition to keeping me from masturbating at that very moment the cookies are also vegan. The recipe calls for applesauce and margarine instead of egg and butter. Take whatever conclusions you will from those two facts.

This handy tool, above left, is called the Metric Wonder Cup. It was a birthday gift a few years back from my friends Ted and Jim. And let me tell it indeed works wonders. I love this kitchen gadget. I can use it for things like honey, molasses, and vegetable shortening. Anything that would present a little bit of difficulty with a regular measuring cup or spoon. The cylinder has all different types of measurements on it, like teaspoons, cups, milliliters and fluid ounces.

Once you've got your desired amount in the wonder cup you can push the bottom back through and viola! No mess! Or at least a lot less mess then you would if you had to take a spatula and scrape out molasses from a measuring cup.


Now back to our regularly scheduled program

Verdict: If you guessed I would not make these cookies again you would be correct! I did listen to Autechre however, which was the most enjoyable part.

Part IV: Date Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies had dates in them. I know its only my second recipe with dates, but I feel impatient with them already, and am not looking forward to more. Unfortunately I foresee them in my immediate cookie future, whether I like it or not. So dates. Cookies with dates. Dates and oatmeal. Making these cookies reminded me of the episode of the Simpsons featuring Powersauce bars. Because at first glance you're thinking, wow, dates, oatmeal, even a banana thrown in for good measure, these cookies MUST be healthy. But no. They are not.

That being said, they were very easy to make. So without further ado, here are some pictures.

Here is a photo of dates AND prunes. The recipe said I could use either so I thought I would see which one was sexier. The prunes were (jar on the right), but since the recipe had date in the name I decided to stick with those.

Verdict: These cookies tasted healthy, like granola bars. And that's about all I can say for them except I hope not to have to make them again in the future.

Part III: Double Lemon Delights

Let me start off by saying I am a blogging fool today. I am home from work because I feel like absolute, well I feel horrible. My husband starting hacking up his lungs over the weekend and he sweetly passed his cold onto me. In the immortal words of Cameron Fry, I feel "shredded".

Out of the three cookies I made this weekend, these were the ones I was looking forward to the most. I like lemon, so lemon cookies with lemon icing couldn't be anything but a winner in my book. My father in-law agrees with me, and if I knew of a guaranteed way to mail them across the country intact they'd be making their way to the east coast as I type.

The soundtrack this time around was chosen by my husband, a band called the Clientele. They are British, and perfect for listening to on grey rainy days (which there are plenty of here in the Pacific Northwest).

The most exciting part about making these cookies, to me, aside from eating them, was getting to use the bird lemon zester I received as a gift from my in-laws a few years back. I don't have many chances to zest citrus fruits so I got pretty psyched. I probably zested a little more then I needed to, but the peels kept coming off and making these sweet curlicue shapes. And yes, Portlandia viewers, I knew the zester was a piece of art because it had a bird on it!

The cookies are so large because the directions actually said drop by the quarter cupful onto the cookie sheet.  Those indentations in the dough come from a pattern on the bottom of a tumbler, which I greased with Crisco and dipped in sugar.

Here they are iced. The icing called for a tablespoon of lemon zest that had been chopped fine, I don't know if it will come through on the photo but it does give the cookies a nice look, because the icing is white dotted with yellow.

Verdict: I would make these again. Its actually the icing that makes the cookie, the lemon flavor is much more noticeable and the icing provides a nice contrast in texture.


Side note: I just started the first book of The Hunger Games Trilogy. Awesome!

Stay tuned for next week when I'll be making:
Date-Oatmeal Cookies
Frosted Pumpkin Softies
Gingersnaps

Weezie the Cookie Warrior: Making 2011 Better

Hello! This is my first attempt at blogging, so bear with me. Old dog, new tricks, etc.

Why am I starting this blog? Well, 2010 was a pretty terrible year for me.  There were too many deaths of people (and pets) who were dear to me.  The most traumatic being my mother, who died almost a year after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, in October of 2010.  Around Christmas, I was looking through my cookbooks, trying to plan Christmas dinner, when I came across the one pictured below.

My mom had given it to me a few years back, as she was trying to scale back her collection.  When I came across it I thought of her, which put a smile on my face.  Too often, I noticed, the memories of her I had were not good ones.  I can be a bit critical at times, and throughout the years she often bore the brunt of that, whether she knew it or not.  So when I saw the cookbook, I was pleased that it brought up memories which made me smile. As I flipped through it, I realized I had hardly used the thing.  I love to cook, but I'm not much of a baker, so I came up with the brilliant idea of baking my way through the book.  None of the recipes looked too complicated, so it wasn't like I was going to start out trying to make croissants. And yes, I had heard of "Julie and Julia",  and liked the idea of not picking and choosing what I wanted out of the cookbook, but plowing my way through the thing. And last, but not least, I hoped that every time I picked up the book, it would keep the memories of my mother sweet.

So, in the spirit of all of these things, I thought I would give "The Great Cookie Project of 2011" a shot.  I started in January, but never thought about blogging about my efforts until a fabulous friend suggested it (thank you Alexis!). So, here I am, Weezie the weekend cookie warrior, attempting the Great Cookie Project of 2011.  Every weekend I will be baking 2-3 different selections, and recording my experiences.  Of course there will be photos, food porn, as my husband likes to say.  That's actually something else I am hoping will improve over the course of this project: My photography skills are, well, they aren't, lets just say that.

The book my mother gave me

So with all of that said, here is what is on the agenda for next weekend:
Domino Sugar Cookies (Yes Domino as in the brand of sugar-blatant advertising much?  Will they come out awful if I use generic sugar?)
Date-Nut Macaroons
Double Lemon Delights

Stay tuned!


Phyllis is the resident eye candy-she will not be used in any recipes

Part II: Domino Sugar Cookies

Okay, so these are about what you'd expect.  Since I've made sugar cookies before I won't bore you with the details, other then to say I used half almond and half vanilla extra, instead of just vanilla..  I also didn't really bother to roll the cookie dough in a nice round shape before I chilled it in the fridge, so the cookies are kind of a sad, not quite oval, not quite square shaped.

The soundtrack for these cookies was Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black", which I love.  She is probably the only popular artist around who I am looking forward to hearing a new album from. I love her style, too.

And no, I didn't use Domino brand sugar, as I've mentioned before.  I think they still turned out pretty good. Advertisers, your blatant attempts to force me to use name brand sugar have failed!!  Please, return to your subtle ways, and let me believe I thought of using your product on my own.

Verdict: I wouldn't make these cookies again.  Sugar cookies are simple and tasty, but this recipe isn't as good as some others I've used.

Side note: At the time these cookies were made, I had just finished reading Ann Beattie's collection of short stories that appeared in The New Yorker magazine.  The book is appropriately titled "The New Yorker Stories". At some point, a few years back, I read that she was a big influence on Jay McInerney and (I'm pretty sure) Brett Easton Ellis.  I've been interested in her stuff every since.


Basic ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, salt, egg, vanilla

Wonderful batter: This is the point where I always ask myself, can't I stick a spoon in this dough and eat it all RIGHT NOW

Milo did his best to assist me by jumping on the counter while I was trying to work

Sugar cookies will be stored in cookie jar when not in use

Closer look at the strange non shape of these cookies

Part I: Date Nut Macaroons

My first cookie blog is unfortunately, or luckily, depending on how you look at it, date nut macaroons.  I would never in a million years have willingly made these.   As a general rule I skip over any recipe with the word date in it. I associate them with prunes. Neither taste bad to me, but both conjure up imagines of well, being eaten for a specific purpose, if you know what I'm getting at.  And I am not even sure dates perform the same miracle as prunes.

As the work week came to an end and I was getting the ingredients together I tried to have positive thoughts about the dates.  I conjured up the Persia of yesteryear in my mind, to give them more of an exotic feel. At the store they still looked pretty gnarly as I was plucking them out of the bulk bin, but once I got them home and into one of the pretty glass bowls my sister gave me for my birthday their looks improved immensely.

The cookies themselves were easy enough to make.  After putting on some music; this cookie's signature album being The Rolling Stones "Beggars Banquet" (I just finished reading Keith Richards' autobiography and while I'm glad the guy is no longer a drug hoover, the story did get a lot less interesting once he cleaned up). I chop the dates, and mix them together with chopped pecans, coconut flakes, some vanilla extract, and to glue it all together sweetened condensed milk.  Which, I did not realize, tasted so good.  After I poured in the amount the recipe called for I took a few sips right from the can, to restore my constitution. Yum!

The recipe called for me to grease and flour the cookie sheets but I took a tip from my friend Molly and used parchment paper instead, which worked wonderfully. She gave me that tip a few months back and its worked like a charm every time I've tried it. I've reused the same parchment paper multiple times to save money and be just a tad more eco-friendly, without any bad results

Okay, so now I'm at the point where I'm putting this minimalist mixture of five ingredients on the cookie sheets, and the condensed milk starts to leak all over. It doesn't go too far, because its so thick, but I'm wondering if I did something wrong, missed something crucial in the recipe? Nope, doesn't look like it.  So I go ahead and put them in the oven and see what happens.

They come out like date nut macaroon castles, with sweetened condensed milk moats.  Some of them look decent, but most of them have weirdly shaped moats surrounding them, that have been toasted brown by the oven.

It doesn't ruin their taste however, and as a matter of fact I find myself peeling off the condensed milk moats and just eating those, leaving the rest of the macaroons for the friends who joined me for the evening after I finished my Friday night baking.  Yes. Friday night baking. That is how cool I am! If I want to make all the recipes in this book before I retire I need to make some sacrifices to my social life. Not that I would be doing anything else if I wasn't baking, but I'm not sure how ready I am to admit that to myself just yet.

Verdict: I wouldn't make them again, but I just might drink the rest of that
sweetened condensed milk!

Dowdy dates made sexy by glass bowl

Pre-mixed, not premixed

All mixed up and nowhere to go

Why did they leak-they look terrible!

One of the better looking macaroons

Stef assures me they taste better then they look-and she's got that big smile on he face so maybe she's not lying

On Saturday I made the Domino sugar cookies without (gasp!) Domino brand sugar, and the Double Lemon Delights, but I'll save those for other posts as my hands are getting cramped from all the typing.