As I was pitting cherries for the cobbler this week, I was immediately and immensely grateful for my humble little cherry pitter.  I have pitted cherries pre-pitter and it is just plain annoying.  That got me thinking about other little advances that make life easier.  While I am eternally grateful for the big things like anesthetic, indoor plumbing, and electricity (my husband always says he doesn’t camp because his ancestors would have killed for toilets and AC and he isn’t one to spit on their memory), I am thinking of the little things.  You know…the stuff that you wish you had thought of.  So, today I am grateful for:

• self adhesive stamps
• flip top toothpaste tubes
• mega rolls of toilet paper
• washable markers
• flip top soup cans
• resealable bags of brown sugar and raisins
• adjustable baby bath tubs
• Tide pens

The cobbler?  Oh yeah, the cobbler.  This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler chosen by Amanda from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake.  And it was OK.  Fine.  Good.  We liked it but we didn’t love it.  I don’t have much experience as a consumer or baker of rhubarb.  I wouldn’t say I was a convert.  With so many great recipes in Dorie’s book I doubt this is one I will come back to unless I end up with a surplus of rhubarb.  Since that hasn’t happened before in my 36 years, don’t look for this one again.

My dough didn’t exactly make it into balls.

Check out the many many many cobblers here.  Next week:  Summer Fruit Galette.

Susie over at She’s Becoming Doughmesstic has tagged me for a new meme circulating through the blog world.  I love her blog.  If you haven’t checked it out, do!  Based on her recipes, etc., if she is only becoming domestic, I will never get there. 

So, here are the Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Random thoughts:

1.  Completing this meme is a huge step forward for me.  I have broken every chain letter (remember when we only had paper?), email, etc ever forwarded to me.  So, if you didn’t get your 300 postcards from around the world, box of recipes, lottery tickets, etc, you can blame me.  PS  Please don’t send any more.  I still feel incredibly guilty about the lottery ticket one.  It was from my mother-in-law and I have been waiting years for her to bring it up…

2.  Kelly is my mother’s maiden name.  I love that and always thought that, if I had a girl, I would put Kelly in her name somewhere to keep it going.  Alas, we had boys and other family names already promised to them.  My aunt tried to name her dog Kelly.  I, frankly, found that annoying and did not see it as the show of family pride she intended.

3.  I am obsessed - OBSESSED - with the olympics.  I have been for years.   My first life plan was to be the next Nadia Comenici (save for the hard work, talent and communism).  I do not care if they aren’t “real” amateurs anymore.  I am not even sure I care that much about drug testing.  And those personal stories?  Love em!  How else I am supposed to know who to root for in double scull and coxless pair?

4.  I wanted Carrie from Sex in the City to end up with Mikhail Barishnikov at the end of the series.  Because I love him.  I have loved him for years.  So much so that I saw White Nights in the theatre.  More than once.

5.  If I lived alone, I might eat chocolate malts and popcorn for dinner.  a lot.  I once gave up only those two things for lent and it was a looonnnggg forty days.

6.  I met my husband on a political campaign.  I was a staffer and he came into volunteer.  For some reason, this always elicits an “ahhhh…that is so cute” reaction.  I guess it beats blind date, frat party, cubemate…The campaign was unsuccessful but it did produce two marriages of ten plus years.  For the record, the husband is even cuter today.

Here are my taggees:

What I like about pudding:

• The whole family likes it.
• It is good any time of year.
• It does not require chopping, rolling, or a thermometer.
• It is one of the ultimate comfort foods.
• It is pure chocolatey goodness.
• It is just fine plain.
• It is just fine all dressed up.  I might actually have been tempted to dress this one up had I not still been REELING from the decadent pie crust last week.

What I discovered about pudding:

• Homemade is absolutely totally worth it.
• Whole milk is probably worth it but 2% was really really good.
• It can be like a shot of chocolate straight into your veins.
• It does not take that long to make.   It was a whirlwind during the actual cooking part, especially with a six year valiantly trying to help.  BUT it was over quickly.  Thankfully.  The six year old had requested - loudly - that we have Chinese steamed buns for dinner and that is a time consuming process (said six yr old then complained that they weren’t as good as last time.  Lucky I love him.)  We also attempted Part I of our great chocolate chip cookie experiment.  All that and we had still had time for a little fun outside…

Yes, it is the good ol Slip ‘n Slide.  One classic to go with another classic.

Yes, they wanted it to go down hill…

Back to the pudding…

So, thanks to Melissa of It’s Melissa’s Kitchen for picking a great recipe and turning me on to homemade pudding.  Honestly, it had never occurred to me to make it from scratch before, and now I am not sure I can go back to the box.  My mom even suggested replacing it as pie filling for an old family chocolate pie standard.  High praise indeed.  To get the recipe check out Melissa’s blog and to see how everyone else fared, check out the TWD Blogroll.

Next week:  Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler.  I have never cooked with rhubarb.  I wonder if it is still around in these parts…

Apple pie is often cited as the quintessential American dessert.  I guess the imagery works, but we all know that chocolate chip cookies are really the most popular.  We eat them from childhood through adulthood and I would be willing to wager that a lot of people who would never consider themselves bakers (expert, amateur or otherwise) have attempted a chocolate chip cookie.  If I was on the proverbial desert island and allowed only one dessert it would be a toss-up between a chocolate malt and chocolate chip cookies.

I grew up on Toll House which my mom made really well.  But I have tried lots of different recipes.  I am always looking for the perfect one.  Well, the New York Times had an article on the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe last week.  Apparently, one of the big secrets to a fabulous cookie is to let the dough rest in the fridge.  For a long time.  Yeah, right.  Cuz I always plan ahead for chocolate chip cookies.  Please.  it’s a victory if I don’t burn my mouth on a hot chip.

But I was curious.  I really wanted to try the recipe from the paper which is the culmination of their “research.”  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any cake flour and bread flour on hand and the recipe calls for both.  Next weekend!  I decided to test the resting theory with a recipe (below) I use fairly often.  For their research they tested the dough immediately, at 12 hours, 24 hours and 36 hours and, sure enough, 36 hours was the best.  For the particulars about the resting period check out the article.

I don’t have time (or the available calories) for quite so much testing.  So, the kids and I tested immediately.  Duh.  If your kids see you making chocolate chip cookie dough, you had best be ready to get some in the oven.

The first batch.  One of the other tips was to make them big.

They were good.  You can’t go wrong with a warm cookie from the oven.

We tried the second batch about 30 hours later.  I couldn’t time it exactly right for 36.  I am in bed at 1:00am.  The dough was much drier out of the fridge.  But…

yum!  I don’t know if it was the power of suggestion but the cookies did seem to taste better.  Moister even.  I can’t wait to try with the other recipe next week!

The cookies side by side.  The one on the right is the later batch.  It is more crinkly and a little darker…which is completely unnoticeable in this fine picture.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - I have seen this recipe in many different places and wouldn’t know who to credit…

1 cup butter 
2 cups flour 
1 tsp. baking soda 
1 cup granulated sugar 
1 cup brown sugar
2.5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder) 
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
4 oz. grated milk chocolate bar 
2 eggs 
1 tsp. baking powder 
1 tsp. vanilla
Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips and milk chocolate. Roll into almost golf ball size balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 14-16 minutes at 350 degrees.

Our first Barefoot Bloggers installment for July is Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread chosen by Sabrina and Alexander of Cooking with the Kids.  Apparently, there is some ongoing feud between people who like sweet cornbread and those who think the very idea is blasphemy.  I think the latter folks are generally from the South.  I grew up eating cornbread out of the Jiffy box so I have no dog in this fight.  This is a long way to say that I am open to cornbread of any variety and have no go to recipe.  But I do especially like it with peppers.  So, I was excited to try this version.

So excited that I put it off until the VERY last minute (it is Wednesday night…).  I don’t know what I was thinking but I made this whole process far more complicated than it needed to be.  I planned to make it with some beans and rice for dinner.  Then I decided that, after pasta for lunch, I didn’t need rice and bread for dinner.  So I made some black beans and grilled some fajita spiced vegetables. 

Meanwhile, I also decided that, after my last miserable attempt at making something with cornmeal eggless, I would make these with the eggs.  BUT I wanted to give some to my spouse so came up with bright idea to make half with and half without…on Wednesday night.  Well, of course, as is the case with everything, it took longer than I thought.  Even with rushing around, there was no way to let it rest for 20 minutes as Ina instructs. 

I subbed monterey jack for the cheddar.  I don’t really like cheddar but I am a fan of pepper jack.  I figured it would be a good combo.  I skipped the cheese and scallions on top.  I was too lazy to chop more scallions and too rushed to read the recipe correctly.  I threw all the cheese right into the batter.  I also halved the butter.  There was no way I was using two sticks.  I barely made it through the Tuesdays with Dorie pie last week.   

The regular version.

 The egg free version.  If you can see the specks, I used ground flax seeds in this version.

The end result:  Really really good.  Does NOT need more butter.  I am sure It will be really good when we actually get to eat it with dinner.  Despite flying through the kitchen at warp speed my two cornbreads didn’t make it time for the beans tonight.  After photographing them, I did try both.  I would eat either one.  And will when I defrost them.

Check out everyone else’s cornbreads here.

Wow!  Let me just start by saying that I served this pie to several family members and they all lived.  Not a small feat considering the calories loaded into this “fruit” dessert.  Our Dorie recipe this week was Double Crusted Blueberry Pie chosen by Amy of South in your Mouth.  Great choice for the 4th weekend.

Somewhere in the inner reaches of my mind (OK, in all of my mind) I like to pretend that fruity desserts aren’t as decadent as chocolatey creamy peanut buttery desserts.  I have made pies and cobblers and tarts before and have turned a happily blind eye to the sugar, butter and cream therein.  Not really possible with the obscene amounts in this pie.

I am with Dorie on using a combo of butter and shortening in the crust.  Pie crust is the only time I ever use shortening but it just seems to work.  I just don’t recall ever using quite this much.  Dayum.  It was, however, an outstanding crust.  I will try to reduce the amount of fat in the future, but I am sure it will lose something.  It’s all about the trade-offs, isn’t it?  I did reduce the amount of sugar in the filling.  I am glad I did.  It didn’t need another granule.  I also skipped the egg wash and sugar (my thighs cry no more) so Jamie would enjoy the pie too. 

My mother-in-law had Cool Whip in a can.  Ever seen it before?  Not me.

I was pretty ambivalent about blueberry pie before but this one was fantastic.  I love it when that happens.  Even Colin, who never eats anything that grows naturally on the planet despite how much sugar, cheese or sauce I pile on, ate some pie.  (Yes, we have tried everything.  We are resigned to hoping he grows out of it while he is still actually growing).  I tried to get a picture but this is the best I could do.  The boy is a moving target.

I made this pie at my mother-in-law’s house over the holiday weekend and she was very generous with her kitchen.  I love this rolling pin.  It was her mother’s.  It is homemade and it is hefty.  I am not sure I did them justice but it was fun to think of all of the pies rolled before this one.

PS  To all of the sweet people who suggested I go ahead and try the sconedisks from last week…well, I did.  They were decent but, for the calories, not worth it.  Especially after this week.  I may have to move into the gym.  sorry kids.

Check out the fabulous pies here!

My mom celebrated her birthday on Sunday and she has an amazing - legendary, really - sweet tooth.  The richer, thicker, sweeter the BETTER.  Since it was her birthday dessert was definitely her choice.  She wanted a chocolate cake with whipped cream icing. 

The kids LOVE grandma.  A lot.  They love cake.  Only slightly less than grandma.  So, they were thrilled to help in the kitchen.  I usually make a version of a wacky cake but decided to try a different recipe this time.  The cake came together easily.  I originally tried to fill it with some homemade ganache, but I was having issues in that kitchen that day.  It never set up so I finally resorted to some chocolate mint ganache from Crate and Barrel.  I topped it with whipped cream and served with homemade chocolate chip ice cream.

After dessert, we high fived to gluttony. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Dark Chocolate Cake (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 3 - 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Well, this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie challenge: Apple Cheddar Scones chosen by Karina of The Floured Apron.  This post was originally going to be about how I didn’t grow up in a cheese eating family and never in a million years would we have added cheddar to any baked good but I was game.  Well, that was until the scones (using that word VERY liberally) came out of the oven…

I do not know what happened but they looked about as much like a scone as a rock looks like blueberry pie.  No resemblance at all.   When my older son saw them coming out he asked when we could eat the cookies.  “They’re not cookies.”  “OK, when can we eat the pancakes?”  Not muffin, not biscuit and certainly not scone.

I am certainly no expert baker but I have made scones before, and (possibly miraculously?) they looked, smelled and tasted like a scone.  Maybe I overmixed?  I was confused by the last “kneading” step, but what do I know?  I also made them eggless so Jamie could enjoy them, too.  BUT I make lots of things eggless with no problem.  See muffins I made Monday below.  No eggs - not flat. 

I was a little distracted on Sunday — scone day.  I made this triple layer chocolate cake for my mom Patty’s birthday (it was FABULOUS) but still?

[ Picture is terrible but it was good...]

I was on my way to the trash with my precious little disks when my Grandma Sophie’s inner spirit took over and turned me to the freezer instead.  So, I am looking for suggestions as to what to do with six apple cheddar sconedisks and six apple cinnamon sconedisks (I couldn’t make them all with cheddar…what if it was nasty?).  Suggestions, anyone?

Next week: double crusted blueberry pie.  Yeah, I have made lots of pie but let’s not get our hopes up.  To see an army of fabulous scony looking scones click here.

Yeah, you read that correctly.  Tofu.  We are vegetarians…so there wasn’t any conceivable way I was going to buy, cook and serve chicken.  There would have been no takers. 

For our second official recipe the Barefoot Bloggers made Ina Garten’s Parmesan Chicken.  Part of the reason I joined this group was to expand my culinary adventures in the kitchen.  As a vegetarian, it can be too easy to fall back on beans and rice, and I do try to avoid “soy meat” at every meal.  So, I thought it would be fun to try to adapt Ina’s recipes to a vegetarian diet.  I told Tara when I joined and she didn’t kick me out…so I guess it’s OK.

OK…to the recipe.  I - obviously - switched out the chicken for tofu but otherwise stuck to the recipe.  I made my own breadcrumbs (a last minute mixture of wheat bread and saltines when I found I didn’t have enough of either) and used the same herb mixture from the Herb Baked Eggs (sooo good).  The kitchen smelled so good when I was cooking.  Deceptively good for my youngest.  He came in the kitchen and excitedly declared, “PIZZA!”  He is the pickiest eater I have EVER seen.  You can imagine how well the not-pizza-tofu went over. 

I was the only one who put the greens on top of my tofu.  I think I like the concept of it more than the execution.  I almost always find that I have to cut down the lemon zest or juice in a recipe and this was no exception.  I made it as written this time, but would use a different vinagrette next time.  And I think there will be a next time.  It was easy, different from our usual, and pretty healthy. 

Check out the other chickens here!

Cobbler was definitely a dessert of the moment.  Our Tuesdays with Dorie selection this week was Mixed Berry Cobbler, chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life.  Berry cobbler screams summer and all that goes with it (the pool, sunscreen, lemonade, cut grass). 

We enjoyed our Mixed Berry Cobbler on a warm Saturday evening after a typical summer day.   Dorie says that you can substitute frozen berries and I suppose you could.  I have no idea.  It has never once occurred to me to make any kind of cobbler when the chosen fruit is out of season.  I only want a cobbler, crisp or similar when the fruit is so abundant and pervasive I can’t avoid thinking about it.  Chocolate chip cookies?  Anytime.  Anyplace.  Berry desserts?  Only in season and only after a great relaxed summer meal.  So, I won’t be eating cobbler after chili or pizza delivery.  We had pasta with roasted tomatoes and corn.  Perfect.

I had cherries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries on hand.  I could seriously eat bowls of this all day long, especially cherries.  I know I can’t have them all the time so I eat them compulsively for a few weeks.  I am in the middle of my cherry feast now and loving every minute of it.  [Note: had to grab a few while writing this post]. 

I read the comments before making the cobbler and there was some discussion about the cobbler dough lacking flavor.  I added a little cinnamon and vanilla and thought it was great.  I will admit that, while I truly enjoy cobbler, I am certainly not wedded to any particular topping.  I didn’t really grow up eating a lot of cobbler dishes and have no strong feelings either way.  Everyone enjoyed it so there you go.  Well, everyone except Colin who eats nothing that has the slightest hint of appearing in nature.  Cobbler = fruit; not for Colin. 

This is a silly picture of Will but he loved the cobbler and the “pool hair” is the perfect accessory to cobbler!

Check out the other cobblers here.  Next week: Apple Cheddar Scones.  A first for me.