advice from edouard.

“The first thing you must do when you get home, before you take off your coat, is go to the kitchen and light the stove...  Next, fill a pot large enough to hold a quart of water.  Put it on the fire, cover it, and bring it to a boil.   What’s the water for? I don’t know, but it’s bound to be good for something…” 

edouard de pomiane [French Cooking in 10 Minutes - 1930]

blunderous.

I’m a haphazard denizen in the kitchen.  My tendency towards erratic culinary performance is not so surprisingly heightened after spending a prolonged afternoon in the library watching and listening (attentively…) to a research specialist preview the countless search engines available to me in my research of a tropical commodity. I chose tea. I may regret this decision when guilt and social conscience paralyze me from partaking in my morning, afternoon, and evening ritual of a stout cup Scottish Breakfast. 

This afternoon, my inelegant yet cathartic endeavor at the kitchen counter may also have been at the mercy of last week’s episode of the Bachelor streaming from the roommate’s computer sitting in the adjoining room.  It’s possible that the tragic yet uproariously comical affair that is the rose ceremony blighted my earnest concentration.  However, my favored philosophy goes something like this: as long as I neither inflict nor receive any serious injuries, no one need know the details of my blunderous baking.  If no one saw it, it didn’t happen.  Case closed.

My blunder stemmed from an incurable tendency I have to disregard the tiny etchings along the handle of those little silver spoons, those spoons whose solitary purpose in existence is to measure. You can envision my attempt as something resembling the reverse of “catch and release”.  My spoons are there to offer moral support, then laugh silently as I discern my inaccuracy. 

However, all’s well that ends well.  The final result of these creamy yogurt chocolate chip cookies proved that they themselves possessed immunity and strong defense mechanisms against my haphazard attention.  One friend went so far to say, and I quote, “there is a god”.  A compliment like that, in my humble opinion, is near impossible to beat. 

So now with confidence, I send you off.  Leave any apprehension at the door, enter the kitchen, turn on The Bachelor, and experience for your lovely selves the unassuming and modest confection that is achieved through the union of yogurt and chocolate chips.  

Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Kim Chin’s Yogurt Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe via allrecipes.com).

Ingredients.

.5 cup packed brown sugar

.5 cup white sugar

1 stick butter (.5 cup)

.5 cup plain whole milk yogurt

(just shy of) 2 cups of flour

2 tsp. vanilla extract

.5 tsp. baking soda

.5 tsp. salt

As many chocolate chips as desired…

Needed: cookie sheet (multiple), greasing agent (Pam), 1 mixing bowl, mixer.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In medium bowl cream together till light and fluffy: brown sugar, white sugar, and butter (if incidentally while softening the butter the butter melts, don’t worry. Things will still turn out all right).  Add yogurt and vanilla, stir, then combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix until it resembles a cookie batter. Then add chocolate chips to your heart’s content.  And if you’re anything like my mother  (who believe nuts make any dessert better) now would be the appropriate time to mix in the chopped nut of your choice.

Drop spoonful bits of batter on cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.  Watch and rotate racks as you judge appropriate. Cookies will appear light and fluffy, the top resembling meringue.  Do not over cook. Transfer, ever so gracefully, to a cooling wrack.

Ta-da.

wake up call.

Breakfast gets me up in the morning.  It's a cunning and motivating force that obscures my desire for the warm stale circulating air of the yoga studio, the rhythmic albeit clumsy chanting of sutras, and the bending of taut limbs in peculiar directions. Yes, I admit it.  Instead of beginning my day strengthening my abdominal core, I choose to start the morning strengthening my sweet relationship with butter and sugar.  In my defense, whisking, beating, and stirring deserve consideration as a toning endeavor in themselves.  

As my yoga mat lie slumbering beneath my bed, I set off with a single mission in mind: to find a use for a 64 oz. tub of yogurt.  Originally the yogurt had been purchased for banana bread with chocolate chips and candied ginger prepared and baked on Friday night (it is now Tuesday).  The recipe called for “whole milk plain yogurt” to be exact.  When I arrived at the grocery (as my lovely boyfriend insists on calling it) I was met with two options for this particular ingredient, both of which far exceeded the desired ¼ cup called for.  But I was determined to follow the recipe with integrity and left the store with unsalted butter, and 64 oz. of the plain white decadence. 

Now, I’m a lover of yogurt.  Fruit, frozen, Greek.  It’s creamy and delicious, so what’s not to love? But plain, as I had been warned, is a bit too tangy for my tongue.  I gave it a fair try.  But in the end I decided its purpose could best be served, masked in the anatomy of cookies, pancakes, and as we witnessed this morning…

Yogurt waffles. (Adapted from Holly George’s “Sour Cream Waffles” via allrecipes.com)

Ingredients.

1 cup water

.5 cup plain whole milk yogurt (sweetened or vanilla will change flavor)

.5 cup sour cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

.5 tsp. salt

2 beaten eggs

needs: waffle iron, greasing agent (such as Pam)

In medium-ish bowl scoop yogurt and sour cream, add water and mix (I say medium-ish because sloshing may occur).  In a large bowl (all ingredients will eventually end up here) combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Pour yogurt mixture into large bowl and add eggs (recommend: beating these in a separate small bowl).  Stir mixture until smooth, leaving no flour unmixed.

Depending on the size of your waffle iron, varying spoonfuls will be needed for each waffle.  Do not be disheartened if the pioneering round of batter escapes over the edges of the iron with sizzling zeal.  This is to be expected, as it is quite impossible to judge the proper amount on your first attempt (at least this is how I comforted myself as I was startled from my position seated on the kitchen stool, reading for Contemporary Feminist Theory, to discover that my first waffle had quite daringly decided to broaden its horizons and in doing so managed to jam the latch to open the iron… visions of smoke and torched waffles invaded my thoughts).  Remove cooperative waffles with a fork. 

The banana bread with chocolate chips and candied ginger was divine.  In case you were wondering. Worth the copious amount of yogurt now residing in my refrigerator. 

Next kitchen escapade: yogurt chocolate chip cookies. you've been warned.