Catching Up

Holy crap, it's been forever. I have a good excuse, though. I've been in the midst of final exams for weeks and really just have not had time for blogging. Fortunately, I have had time to do a tiny bit of cooking, so now that I'm home for the holidays and have all the blogging time in the world, here's a recap of some highlights from the last month or so.

This was one of those times when watching Food Network on the treadmill inspired me. I never watch Barefoot Contessa, but she happened to be making this chicken dish that looked yum. She marinated chicken in rosemary, lemon, and garlic, and then grilled it. I decided to bake it instead, but still, it was quite good. She also made broccolini in a balsamic vinaigrette. I replicated that as well, and I liked it even better than the chicken.


These cookies got me through studying for my Corporations final. Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe to share with you all because it's in a cookbook that I left at school (Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything). They were your basic oatmeal-raisin cookies with a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.


This pasta dish was seriously the best thing I've made in a long time. I made a HUGE batch of it and then ate it for like five days in a row during finals. The sauce on this pasta was so yummy - a light cream sauce with ground turkey, sausage, spinach, and nutmeg, with lots of parmesan cheese melted in.


Oh, I also made a Moroccan chicken pot pie, but forgot to take a picture of it. Lately I've been obsessed with the raisins-olives combination. It's so salty-sweet and addictive. This pot pie was delicious and extremely fast to make.

Coming very soon: my December Daring Bakers post!

The Boston (Junk Food) Marathon

Today thousands of people accomplished the impressive athletic feat of running the 26.2 miles of the world-famous Boston Marathon. Today I baked cookies. I don't feel too bad about this because I got my own exercise this afternoon in the form of Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease Vol. 2: Fit to Strip. I was gonna go to the gym and do some running myself, but I have blisters on my feet from the evil, evil shoes I wore out on Saturday. Anyway, I digress. These cookies are really good.


Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Recipe from March 2007 Bon Appetit
Makes 2 dozen

• 2-2/3 c. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips, divided
• 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. all purpose flour
• 1/2 c. chopped crystallized ginger
• 3-1/2 oz. high-quality white chocolate, very coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (or grease). Stir 2 cups chocolate chips with butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth; cool 10 minutes. Beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Beat in melted chocolate mixture and vanilla, then flour. Stir in ginger and remaining 2/3 cup chocolate chips; let stand 10 minutes. Drop cookie dough by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies 1-1/2 to 2 inches apart. Press white chocolate pieces into top of cookies, dividing equally. Bake until cookies look puffed and slightly dry on top, about 13 minutes. Cool on sheets.

Ok, I feel like a total cow doing this cookie post immediately after the cinnamon roll post. Let me prove to you, faithful readers, that I actually ate something nutritious for dinner: