I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke

It's time to admit it... we have a spice problem. While I think the problem is having enough space, some people think we just have too many spices. (Too many spices - is there such a thing?!)

However you see it, we've struggled for a long time now to have spice storage which is actually useful while cooking. In our last apartment, the spices were in drawers as well as a spinning rack. The rack holds 20 spices. In the drawer we had almost another two times that amount. What can I say... we cook all kinds of food and we like our spice! In the condo, we didn't have enough drawer space, so we moved them into a basket on our pantry shelves. That was a mess.

While we are moving toward growing fresh spices (currently have basil, parsley, and oregano) as well as using whole spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, etc), there are still a ton of jars. While perusing the internet one day, something caught my eye and grew into an idea.

Vintage wooden soda crates turn out to be the perfect size for spice jars! And they hold 24 each!

I love the fact they are vintage. Inside each crate the location it was from and the year it was made are stamped. Two of ours are from Chattanooga in 1969. The third is from Dallas.

All I had to do was give them a good cleaning and have A use some wood glue on a couple rough spots. Then we hung them on the wall.

I love seeing the Coca-Cola label!

And voila! Enough storage for all our spices (yes, still using the spinning rack) and room to add more! And now they're right at our fingertips while we cook.

And I bought an extra crate... I'm sure I'll find a use for it some day!

Milk Would Have Been A Good Choice

Back to blogging... it's been a busy start to the year! The first weekend in January, we woke up early on a Saturday morning to participate in a community service event with my new company. We gathered at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, an organization which takes food and monetary donations and then dispenses food to Chicago area food banks. They tend to get large donations which have to be sorted and/or broken down into smaller portions. Our group was assigned to cereal (just narrowly missed having to sort good from rotten potatoes).

For A, it was just like getting ready for surgery - mask, hairnet, and gloves included!

The GCFD is very organized. We had assembly lines with assigned roles. 

Here's how it went:

1. Shovel cereal from 400-pound bag into plastic bins.

2. Scoop cereal from plastic bins into 1-pound portions.

3. Weigh bags to ensure accuracy. Adjust as needed.

4. Tie bags.

5. Label bags.

6. Pack bags into boxes. (I was really impressed to see a list of ingredients on the label. Gotta be aware of food allergies!)

We were assigned to the weighing/tying station. It was really fun. So much fun, the whole room opted to keep working through the break.

 

At the end of the morning, we had packed over 2,000 1-pound bags of cereal! (It was some sort of cereal with chocolate inside the squares.) We had a great group come out!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (according to the NY Times)

I have been seeing the NY Times chocolate chip cookie around the internet for a while now. These are all over Pinterest. As I have been unsatisfied with the versions I've been using (too flat), it was time to cave to peer pressure.

After a heavy amount of anticipation, A and I agree - these are some darn good chocolate chip cookies. I think everyone has their own idea of what is "best" for a chocolate chip cookie (thin versus thick, chewy versus crunchy), but I also think anyone would like this one.

Just look at how thick they are!

The problem I've had in the past is the cookies flattening out in the oven and/or while cooling on racks. I tried many suggestions (again, thank you internet): chilled butter, melted butter, chilled pans/beaters, more baking soda, etc. Nothing worked. In this case, I think it's the combination of cake flour and bread flour which gives you a nice, thick cookie with amazing texture. And also the fact that you are supposed to let the dough chill in the fridge for 24 hours. Make sure you do that!

And don't skimp on the salt - I've always put a good amount in any version I've made because salt enhances the flavor of the chocolate.

Try them for yourself! Recipe is below and linked.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?_r=1&

Yield: Recipe says 18 5-inch cookies. I made mine only slightly smaller and ended up with over 36.

1. Sift together:
     2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
     1 2/3 cups bread flour
     1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
     1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
     1 1/2 teaspoons salt (preferably kosher or something coarse)

2. In separate bowl, cream together until very light (about 5 minutes):
     1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
     1 1/4 cups light brown sugar (I suspect dark brown would taste good too.)

3. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, to butter/sugar mixture. Mix well after each.

4. Stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.

5. Add flour mixture all at once. Mix on low until just combined (recipe says 5-10 seconds, I needed 30).

6. Toss in 1 1/4 pounds chocolate (I used a combination of Hershey's Special Dark and Ghiradelli 60% dark). Mix carefully until distributed in the dough.

7. Press plastic wrap against the dough and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Dough may be kept in the fridge up to 72 hours. (We tried this - cookies were still tasty!)

8. For baking: Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop golf ball-size mounds of dough onto baking sheet. (I molded them in my hands a little.) Sprinkle with kosher or sea salt (optional). Bake 15-18 minutes until edges are golden brown but middle is soft. (Personal preference applies - feel free to under- or over-cook.)

9. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies onto another rack to cook completely. Or just eat them straight out of the oven.

From The Oven: Peppermint Marshmallow Bars

One of my impulse buys over the holidays was a bag of peppermint marshmallows. I had never seen them before and was intrigued... what would they taste like? How minty would they actually be? Then the question turned to "What do I do with all these marshmallows?"

A quick recipe search online led me to this recipe > http://allrecipes.com/recipe/deluxe-chocolate-marshmallow-bars/

It sounded like a good base for some experimentation.

Changes I made were:
- Use of peppermint instead of regular flavored marshmallows (obviously)
- Omitted the cocoa powder from the cookie base
- Added oats to the cookie base
- Omitted the peanut butter and rice cereal from the chocolate topping (peanut butter doesn't go with peppermint, at least not for me, and we were out of rice cereal)
- Halved the recipe and used a 9x9 baking pan

Overall, a delicious recipe. The cookie base ended up rising more than I expected, so I will halve the ingredients for that portion the next time I make these. Andy really liked them, and he was hesitant at first.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the other half of the bag of marshmallows. Suggestions?

2012 - Let's Recap, Shall We?

2012 was a crazy busy year for us. Can you tell by how behind I've been on this blog? So let's do a quick recap before we jump into 2013.

January - We had one good snow, but the rest of the winter was extremely mild!

February - Andy was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and presented one of his attending physicians with an award.

March - We participated in the Chiditarod, a shopping cart race / food drive. It was so warm, the tulips came up two months early!

April - I went to my second Bulls game as a work event. Stefanie and Dave visited and we did an awesome food tour / cooking class!

May - We spent almost the entire month in Peru.

June  - A graduated from medical school! His parents got the best cake ever to celebrate. And we closed on our first home - a condo!

July - We painted the condo and moved in.

August - A got a grill and we built a door.

September - We picked a peck of apples and visited New Mexico with A's family. We also went to the Jelly Belly factory in Wisconsin.

October - Was so busy, we don't have many photos! We installed our Gator wall in the office. The show Chicago Fire filmed on our block. We also finally switched out the hallway lights for something which actually lit up the dark hallway!

November - We roasted turkey legs for Thanksgiving and had a party for A's birthday. Orion started playing with toys like a normal dog!

December - We can see the CTA Holiday Train from our balcony! We chopped down a tree, built a gingerbread house in the form of Sears Tower, and visited my family over Christmas.

It was a pretty amazing year. We'll see if 2013 can beat out 2012. (And I resolve to be better at blogging about it!)