Anna N

Today’s attempt at snacks for my son-in-law’s sales meeting seemed doomed to failure. My plan had been to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars. That’s a mouthful before you even take a bite. But when I checked recipes they all cautioned against using natural peanut butter. No worries, I thought. I don’t play natural peanut butter. But when I grab the two jars of peanut butter that I had just purchased, one creamy and one crunchy, I discovered both of them were “natural”. Since I ordered my groceries online I obviously did not pay enough attention to the text accompanying the photograph. Left alone in a store I would never have made such a mistake. First of all the natural is always shelves somewhat apart from the regular! At the point that I discovered my era at least I had only weighed out the chocolate! Now what? It’s still needed to be a bar as I knew I did not have the reserves of energy to stand in my kitchen feeding 1/4 sheet size tray after tray of cookies into my Breville Smart Oven. So I googled recipes for simple chocolate chip cookie bars. There was no lack of offers out there none the past the two tests I was using – – a trusted site and a recipe that didn’t call for ingredients that could only be gathered from the Elysian Fields. In the end I turned to the King Arthur flour site but even thatwas a poor decision, I think, was a poor decision. I think the proportion of chocolate to the other ingredients is completely off. or perhaps it’s because I use real chocolate and not chocolate chips. I am sure chocolate lovers will not complain. I have two questions for the bakers who are reading this: What would 1 teaspoon of cornstarch do to a recipe for chocolate chip peanut butter cookie bars? is there anyway I can use natural peanut butter for baking?

OK that makes sense now. I jumped to the conclusion that you were able to go down the rabbit hole from the link you posted but I found much of that site still under construction and none of the books were live links.

I understand what a rabbit hole is but I could not get any of the links to take me anywhere even though I was prepared to follow.

Yes and yes.

Hard to deny how beautiful it looks when plated!

“Trained scientists could parse Cooking with Paris for traces of self-awareness and come up none the wiser.” I got as far as the Slivers but I couldn’t go any further.

Perfectly simple. Simply good.

Part lunch, part experiment. I bought some leeks which are an expensive vegetable here. Even my hero, Jacques Pepin, suggests that leek greens are only good for stock. But I have seen hints elsewhere but they can be slowly sautéed and enjoyed just as one enjoys the other end of the leek. I have been promising myself for years that I would give it a shot. These were slowly sautéed in olive oil for about an hour after being very finally sliced. They become almost as silky as the white part. So I am calling this leek green gratin on toast.

So somebody finally squared the circle?

inspired by a recipe in Half-Baked Harvest. Store bought naan, white sauce flavoured with dijon, prosciutto, cheese and baby spinach. Since the base was already cooked I didn’t think the egg would have time to properly bake if I just added it raw so I cooked it separately.

Perhaps then you can build on your victory and combine it with the idea of the squeeze bottle and make teeny egg “planets”!

I have noticed the planned garnishes and final touches soon diminish in importance as the hunger increases. You are OK I think until you are spooning the stuff directly from the pan into the mouth completely by-passing the serving dish. That’s my standard anyway.

By the end of the day she will be wishing she had a mini blimp on each foot doing a gentle massage and taking the weight off those dogs!

Yeah::: favourite tastes perhaps but hardly flavours.

No I must confess I did not. I am not quite as over the moon with the gizmo as others are. I think it has passed its best before date for me! I still think it’s best use in my house would be deep frying but I haven’t done that in a couple of years. We shall have to see if I can think of other uses for the precision cooking method. Having been in close proximity to the Control Freak for some six weeks in the summer I think I am Inclined to considerate the Paragon “clunky”. Of course $69 versus $1800 ought to be considered as a factor. 😂

Store-bought naan, marinated artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese.

Me too!

soup made from a combination of restaurant leftovers and vegetables languishing in the crisper. A piece of leftover naan which apparently decided to go for a dip. That’s such a lie. I love dunking in my soup when I’m alone.

I’m guessing it’s not very warm there from the looks of how the folks are bundled up. But I’m guessing it’s better than here where are temperature with the windchill factored in is minus 20°C.

That was my first thought but then when they are talking about cocoa butter they have both plain and dark.

This looks quite amazing and I bet you are happy to have a meal with the family. I hope @Alleguede survived his meeting with his girlfriend’s family with his appetite intact. Somehow I suspect he did.

Restaurant leftovers—lamb korma over basmati rice.

Duck egg omelette with sharp cheddar and caramelised onions.

I did not attend Harvard hence I was slow to catch on.

@Kerry Beal flies off to Rimini, Italy (follow her adventure) this evening but still managed to find time to pick up some lunch and bring it to my house. Onion bhaji, lamb korma, chicken tikka and naan. My plate. It all just hit the spot and there are leftovers!