bits and pieces

My plan to cook my way through some more recipes was interrupted last week, after I had some bad food-related experiences. I won’t get into details, but let’s just say that my digestive system was not behaving nicely for a number of days, so I’ve had to watch what I’ve been eating.

I’m back on fairly normal foods again, though still watching how things go, but I’m going to start with some dishes I’ve made and liked before. Tonight’s dinner was cashew chicken, which I first made in February, and it turned out as well as the last two times. It’s not that difficult to make, and it has a nice flavor, so there we are.

When I went grocery shopping for the ingredients, I also picked up the ingredients for Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken, Poached Eggs with Smoked Trout and Potato Hash, and a new-to-me, vegetarian recipe with lentils and orchiette pasta, so those are going to be coming up in the next few days. The guy at the meat counter gave me a bit too much chicken, so I’ll need to figure out what to do with an extra chicken breast.

I’m also thinking of making the Asian Salmon and Rice Soup again, possibly for when the stores are mostly closed for Christmas, or maybe even New Year’s. I haven’t decided yet though. And maybe some chocolate chip cookies mixed in somewhere.

I spent the afternoon baking and making cookies and candies with my friend A, and we ended up with quite a pile of sweet things. We melted chocolate candy chips and covered dried cranberries and balls of marzipan with them. There was also a batch of caramel that has to sit overnight (though we’re not sure if it made it through, as it’s rather hard). And then there were the cookies.

They’re called Chocolate-Mint Truffle Cookies, a recipe from a magazine called Taste of Home, and they are quite potent. You basically smash up Andes mints (A did the honors), mix them in with flour, cocoa, melted chocolate chips, and other bits, and then after baking them, you dip them in chocolate and add sprinkles. Plenty to make them sweet.

We were a bit haphazard in our baking, not entirely following the order of how to blend things, but everything got into the bowl in the end. And I think I mixed it well enough. When all was said and done though, they didn’t quite look like the photo.

Exhibit A: Official recipe photo

Exhibit B: Photo taken in my kitchen (after the cookies had traveled home in a plastic sandwich bag)

A and I thought that perhaps we used bigger portions per cookie, but they ended up looking vaguely like brownies in cookie form when they came out of the oven. And then we followed the instruction to “dip” the cookies in the melted chocolate chips and shortening mix, but the photo looks like they were dunked and soaked in it. But appearances aren’t all that important, as long as the food tastes good.

As for these cookies, they are potent! The mint is especially powerful, but the cookies are also pretty sweet. I think both come from the Andes mint chunks, but the sprinkles (we used peppermint-flavored) may have a hand in this as well. I can’t see how you could eat more than one in a sitting, they’re so sweet.

All in all, this afternoon sugar fest has made me think more about baking, in addition to the cooking I’ve been doing lately. I think the last time I baked anything before this was about a year ago, when I made kolachkies (Polish cookies), so I might have to do some again. I’ve already pulled out the kolachky recipe, but I’m already thinking about chocolate chip cookies (they must be chewy!) or homemade marshmallows or maybe even cupcakes. As long as I can find someone to share them with, of course.