Tag Archives: food

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Guys, I absolutely have to share these. Normally, I share recipes that I make in my own lil’ Chicago kitchen. I cook, I photograph, I process pictures, I write the post–and all this can take a little time to pull together. So in this case, I’m making an exception and completely scrapping the process, because I can’t wait to share these until the baking impulse hits me. Because then you’d be without this recipe for another month. Or two . . . or three. And, considering the cookies at hand, that delay would be unpardonable.

Veronica (from Veronica’s Cornucopia) is a wonderful blogger who I’ve been following for a long time. I never knew when I started blogging that I would start to actually care for the people that I interact with online, but it’s happened! Even though we have never met face to face, Veronica has become very dear to my heart. She blogs about cooking (with fabulous blue-ribbon winning recipes), life, marriage, and funny childhood stories. In other words . . . everything! Right up my alley, in case you hadn’t noticed the, um, name of my blog.

Anyway, Veronica recently did a giveaway on her blog, with the prize of a dozen of her blue-ribbon winning chocolate chip cookies. Destiny acted, and I was picked as the winner.

Thank you Veronica, and thank you destiny.

I am here to say: please follow this link. Please visit Veronica’s blog. And please make these cookies.

The day I received the package, I tore it open with glee. I was starved at this point in the afternoon, and my coffee was mighty lonesome with no sweet treat standing by.

That all changed as I opened the ziploc bag and consumed the first cookie.

Crisp and chewy all at once. A gloriously perfect proportion of chocolate chips. They look a little dry/crumbly in these pictures, but that’s just an illusion. Once you take a bite, they are soft inside and absolutely divine in flavor.

The ingredients include vinegar, ground up oatmeal, and brown butter, and these unusual components come together to form my idea of chocolate chip perfection, which I had assumed would take decades to find.

Please make them, and if you have a few minutes, stop by to say hi to Veronica. I wish I could share a bite with you all . . .

. . . then again, I think I’ll keep these all to myself.

Though I have no step by step pictures this time ’round, I’m not completely neglecting my duties, so here’s the printer-friendly version for you:

Click here for printer-friendly version: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Split Pea Soup

I think this split pea soup is the very soup about which was written:

Pea porridge hot, pea porridge cold, pea porridge in the pot nine days old.

After an hour on the stove, it gains a thick consistency, like a porridge. And the quantity of soup produced is so large that I definitely understand how it could sit around for 9 days. Ours sat around for at least 6–though in the fridge, mind you. And in a nice airtight container, for those concerned.

In her original recipe, Tracy says you can use bacon or ham, but I’m completely advocating the use of ham. Because the bacon, after simmering for an hour, is bound to get floppy–and who likes floppy bacon? The chunks of ham are totally satisfying and delicious. Troist me. This is a great comforting soup with awesome flavor, and very little prep work.

The ultimate test: the man of the house. He said (and I quote):

“Why don’t we eat things like this all the time?”

Bless his ever-loving soul. I love it when he says that.

And it’s a good thing he loved it, since we ate this soup all week long and it yielded no less than 4 meals for the two of us–plus a little extra for some hungry members of our Bible study.

Ingredients

( Serves 8 )

2 sweet potatoes or yams, or 1/2 butternut squash
1 large onion
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
2-3 cups ham cut into 1″ pieces
8 cups water
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
16 oz dried split peas
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 TBS dried sage
1 TBS fresh basil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Before we jump in, I must explain that my flash temporarily decided to be broken. I switched out batteries a few times, prodded it, swiveled it around–but it would not work. The lighting in my kitchen is very bad, but I was also very hungry and not willing to waste any more time messing with the flash, so I gritted my teeth and took some very bad pictures. Bad light . . . bad focus . . . bad color balance. Man, I’d really grown dependent on that flash unit for my food photography.

Anyway–less about Mr. Speedlight SB-600 and more about the veggies at hand!

Peel the sweet potatoes or yams, and chop ’em up (along with the carrots for OrangeFest 2011) into smallish cubes.

Dice the onion and celery . . .

. . . and cut the ham into 1” cubes.

Dice the basil and pretend I took a picture.

Thoroughly rinse and clean the split peas.

Combine all the ingredients in a very large pot.

Oooh, a shred of light is coming through the window!

It’s the first decent picture of the lot.

Don’t forget the herbs and spices, along with a generous amount of salt and pepper!

Bring to a boil over medium high heat . . .

. . . and rejoice that your flash suddenly decided to work again!

Once the soup boils, turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and simmer it for about an hour, stirring a couple times to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom and creating a layer of burnination. Remove the cover of the pot during the final 10-15 minutes of cooking. Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve hot!

You can also freeze it within 5 days. Or hope for the best and polish it off on day 6.

A note: the soup looks a little watery here, but after a night in the fridge it was so thick it definitely qualified as ‘porridge.’

It was so good that after eating it all week long, by the time I scooped up the very last spoonfuls from the very last bowl, I was actually disappointed.

I actually started plotting when I could make it again.

True story.

I think you guys will love this one!

Click here for printer-friendly version: Split Pea Soup