Saturday, December 21, 2013

The illustrated guide to M&M cookies

Yesterday, I baked M&M cookies. Here are photographs of each step of the process. I am sorry that you cannot reach into the computer screen and take a taste test of one of these cookies. Who knows? Maybe one day, technology will advance that far. Until then, enjoy!
I started by sifting the dry ingredients, which included two and a quarter cups of flour, one teaspoon of salt, and one teaspoon of baking soda. After I sifted these ingredients, I added one-third of a cup of cocoa powder to make the cookies "double chocolate." I like the "special dark" cocoa powder because I think that adds a most wonderful flavor and doesn't make the cookies too sweet.

I then set aside the dry ingredients. In the Mixmaster, I creamed one pound of butter (two sticks) with one cup of brown sugar, one-half of a cup of granulated sugar, two teaspoons of vanilla, and two eggs eggs. After that, I added half of a cup of M&Ms to the mix.
Using a teaspoon, I put the batter on my cookie sheet. Twelve cookies per cookie sheet.

This is the fun part. I get to decorate the tops of the cookies with the M&Ms. I chose a variety of color combinations. This is a way in which I get to play with food, only it seems like I am engaged in "serious business," instead of just "playing with food."
I put the cookies into the oven to bake for ten and a half minutes. Even though most recipes call for this type of cookie to be baked in a 375 degree oven, I prefer to bake my cookies in a cooler oven, at 350 degrees. If, like me, you have ovens that are not quite at the right temperature, you'll find that you'll need to adjust your settings to get the desired temperature. I set one oven at 340 degrees and another at 345 degrees. My mom has a third oven, which can be set at 350 degrees. Sometimes, I use all three!!!
Colorful cookies, cooling on the rack.
Freshly baked cookies with a cup of tea, flavored with lemon and honey. The perfect antidote to a cold and dreary day.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

An illustrated guide to apple-pear sauce

Well, I finally decided to write a food blog, mainly because I am on this diet that is supposed to cure me of ulcers. Actually, I think that it's working. So... one of the things that I had to deal with was the fact that I couldn't eat the applesauce that I love to make because it's loaded with lemon juice and one of the rules of the anti-ulcer diet is...
NO ACIDIC FOODS...
or I will start writhing, screaming, crying... you get the picture... the activities that I indulged in before I went to the hospital and was diagnosed with the ulcers...
OK... enough about ulcers...
Food is more fun...
Today, the focus is on what you can do with apples and pears to turn them into a delicious, nonacidic treat...
Here are some apples and pears that I had picked from a variety of trees
  The best thing to do is to start with a variety of apples and pears. It's good to mix types, to get a better flavor. My mom's favorite apples are Granny Smith, Empire, and MacIntosh. She gets those from the store. It's easier to know what types of apples and pears you are getting when you buy them in the store. But it's not as much fun. It's autumn so I like to collect apples that I pick from the trees or find on the ground. I know a lot of people who will discard apples and pears if they land on the ground. All you have to do is wash them, and they are fine.
 
I wash the apples and pears and then I core them and slice them and put them into a one quart measuring cup. I keep track of how many quarts of apples I cut up because that determines how much liquid I use for cooking.
four quarts of cored and sliced apples and pears...



The coring and slicing is the most time-consuming part of the project.
Then you measure your liquid. I find that I need less liquid of I make pear-apple sauce than if I make applesauce. Pears tend to be somewhat liquidy and, since I don't want to drink my pear-apple sauce, I cut back on the liquid. The liquid that I used was part water and part apple cider. In the future, I will tweak this recipe so that it is all apple cider.
I then pout the liquid into a large pot and turn the heat fairly high so that the liquid will boil. This seems to take about six to eight minutes. Once the liquid is boiling, I add all of the fruit, turn the heat to medium, and cover the pot. After ten minutes, I check to see if there is enough liquid and I stir the apples and pears. I check every ten minutes as the fruit steam heats.
The apples and pears start to get soft...
Cooking in steam and getting softer...
At this point, the fruit is nice and soft and you are ready to move on to the next step...
... which is to get out the food mill and a second pot and a trivet for the first pot and your big spoon... and this is the fun part... and a little magical...
I put the softened fruit into the food mill and start churning. It's fun and it's even good exercise.
This is the pear-apple sauce after it's gone through the food mill. My mother likes her pear-apple sauce (or her applesauce) smooth, so I put the sauce through the food mill for a second time.
Here we go! Finished and ready for the taste test. Bon appetit!!!