Braised Chicken with Tomatillos & Rosemary Spoon Bread

Recipe: Braised Chicken with Tomatillos & Rosemary Spoon Bread

So here is a tip. If you ever have to stay up all night, cooking is a great activity to keep you awake. And how do I know this? Well, now that I've been at my new plant for almost 2 months and I'm fairly familiar with how the plant runs from a high level, I thought now would be a good time to shadow the operators and really try to understand how they do their job. Day shift is always hectic with everyone running around, so I've decided to work night shift for the next 3 nights. 5pm to 5am. Oy! What am I thinking? At any rate, since it would really suck if I didn't sleep all day of my first night turn, I decided to stay up as late as possible so I can sleep all day. And since I move at the pace of a snail on crutches when I cook, I thought cooking late tonight would be a great way to kill a few late night hours. My plan was almost foolproof. I finished cooking, cleaned the kitchen, AND did some laundry...but it's still only 1am! Maybe I should've thrown a Tiramisu in there too. :)

I enjoyed making this meal. I've really come to love the taste of fresh rosemary. It's one of the herbs I've found I love the most when I've cooked these recipes. So I was really looking forward to the Rosemary Spoon Bread. I'd never heard of spoon bread before now. It is made with cornmeal, and according to Wikipedia, it is mostly prevalent in the South. Cooking this recipe started out similar to the Polentina I made several months ago. I started off boiling milk and the cornmeal, and whisking it for several minutes. But with the spoon bread, I then added butter, egg, and the rosemary and let it bake for about 25 minutes. It looks like corn bread, but it's really spongy. I could see me eating this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And night shift snacks! It has an awesome flavor. Rosemary reminds me of what I'd imagine it be like to eat a pine tree. Now that I think about it, not sure how that translates to one of my favorite herbs, but I'll just go with it.

I'm slightly sad about my braised chicken. It tastes really good, but my poor chickens looked so pale when it was finished cooking. Somehow I didn't brown the chicken enough before I let it braise. I got to roast my own poblano pepper for this recipe. Which isn't nearly as complicated as I imagined it to be. That seems to be a common theme to my cooking. I hear or see a technique, and imagine it will be impossible to accomplish and it hardly ever is. That is unless I'm baking potatoes. :) Other than my poor pale chicken, I'm happy with how this recipe came out. Although I can't really tell what flavor the tomatillo brings to the picture. They look like little green cherry tomatoes, but they are referred to as a fruit. They definitely didn't make the dish taste sweet. Unless it is a subtle sweetness that was overpowered by the heat of the pepper. They make the dish look cool though. So that's enough for me.

I had a small sampling of the chicken and bread just to see how it tastes. And as good as it was tonight, I just know once all of these flavors meld together it is going to be oh, soooo good. What a perfect midnight meal this will be tomorrow! I'm not sure how coherent my middle of the night blogging really is. So I think I'll bid adieu to my blog for tonight. Then again, I tend to ramble when it's 7pm in the evening or 10am in the morning. So maybe the middle of the night thing is a mute point. My middle of the night blogging did get me to 1:40am. Now...only 2 more hours until I go to sleep! :)

Cheddar Cheese Soup with Ale

Recipe: Cheddar Cheese Soup with Ale

After 2 months, 400 miles travelled, and 1 confused cat and dog, My Happy Place has relocated! I am now in the Wilmington, DE area. Yay! To be exact, I'm living in Kennett Square, PA. Man, is moving an adventure. I think the biggest adventure was the 6 hour drive with my cat who rarely leaves the house. I think she meowed for the first 2 hours straight. The next 4 were spent alternating between giving me death looks and making very low growling like sounds. Needless to say, we were not friends for the first few days here. :) I actually moved at the end of June. My attempts to cook with plastic utensils and paper plates did not bode very well. So I had to wait until I unpacked the kitchen boxes so I could start cooking. That may not seem that big of a deal. I mean it only took the moving guy about 4 hours to pack up the kitchen. How long should it take to unpack it? Ha! Between trying to get acclimated to my new area, my new job, and travelling a few times (including going to see Terraun and Sarah get married!), unpacking didn't exactly go as planned. My bedroom was unpacked relatively quickly. Then again, if I didn't unpack my bedroom I'd either have a really high credit card bill from all the clothes I'd be buying or I'd have no friends at work after wearing the same outfit for 6 weeks straight. I actually unpacked the first half of the kitchen in mid-July. And I thought I had all the key things I needed to cook. I even bought the groceries I needed to cook my next recipe. But I was still missing a few key things I needed to cook. And it took me another 3 weeks to get the rest of what I needed unpacked. But no worries. I used the time not cooking very wisely. I discovered Wawa Italian Hoagies in the intermission between cooking. Wawa is a regional chain of gas stations/food marts. This summer they had a special on subs called "HoagieFest" which offered 6" subs for $2.99. And since I live within walking distance from a Wawa, I used the time between cooking to get very acquainted with my local Wawa. It may sound strange to hear me say I ate mostly gas station food for the past 6 weeks. But these subs are really, really good. I actually found myself craving them sometimes. Of course after 6 weeks, I think I've had my fill. But the Italian Hoagie definitely got me through without starving in my first few weeks here. But now I'm unpacked and ready to go back to My Happy Place. And boy have I missed it.

My favorite thing about being up here is the access to so many good places to grocery shop. When I thought I was cooking 3 weeks ago, I went to a store called Jansen's Market, a gourmet market. And guess what! They have Hungarian Paprika! I had to stop and smile when I saw Hungarian Paprika in the spice aisle. It almost brought a tear to my eye. I also have a pretty decent grocery store within walking distance from me. I'm going to really really like it up here. There is one thing that has thrown me off though. Buying alcohol is totally different up here. In WV and OH, if I need a bottle of beer, I can go to the gas station and grab one. Or Giant Eagle. Or Wal-Mart. Or Foodland. Pretty much anywhere that sold food, sold beer and wine. My soup recipe calls for a bottle of Ale beer. When I went shopping at Jansen's, I found everything I needed but the bottle of Ale. I went from aisle to aisle to no avail. I asked the checkout girl where the beer was, and I noticed she looked at me strangely when she said they didn't sell it. I didn't think anything of it though. It was a hoity toity grocery store. Maybe selling alcohol would lower they're appeal as a gourmet store. I went to the store next to my house and searched every aisle again. And again, no bottle of Ale. Now I was starting to wonder if Pennsylvania was a dry state, or the county I was in was at least dry. But I knew I saw a wine shop in the same shopping center as the store by my house. So I asked the checkout guy at this store if they sold beer. And again, the strange looks. For fear of making myself look too silly, I waited to ask one of my coworkers what was up with the hidden beer. And turns out, you can't buy alcohol in a grocery store or gas station in Delaware or Pennsylvania. Huh, who knew? You have to buy beer at a beer distribution center and wine at a wine shop. At least in PA. Yes, I did say beer from a beer distribution center where they sell nothing but cases of beer. And yes, I did say I need 1 bottle of beer for my recipe. 1 bottle is much less than 1 case of beer. But I found a way to make it work. I went to one of the beer distribution centers and very nicely explained my dilemma, and he gave me a bottle of beer. They had a few cases that were damaged and opened, so he grabbed a bottle from one of those cases. Now, he actually gave me lager, not ale. But I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when my only other options are to buy a $50.00 case of Ale for 1 bottle or drive around aimlessly looking for the next beer center hoping they have a bottle of Ale they will give me. The cook book said Ale has a heavier taste than Lager, but the soup was still good. I'm curious if the soup will taste better with Ale, so I may make it again. I hear in Delaware, they sell beer in smaller packages than 20 bottle cases. Other than the adventure with the beer, the recipe was really straightforward and simple. And in case you were wondering, the cheeses were sharp cheddar and grated parmesean cheese. Yummy!

So there you have it. My first recipe in my newly located Happy Place is in the books. It took a while to get My East Coast Happy Place up and running. But I'm looking forward to seeing "oh the places I will go" now that I'm here. And yes...that was a Dr. Seuss reference. :)

Spaghetti with Italian Sausage & Haricots Verts with Shallot & Lemon

Recipe: Spaghetti with Italian Sausage & Haricots Verts with Shallot & Lemon

So, after 2-1/2 weeks off, I'm back to blogging. Although, I'm not really back to my cooking project. I didn't cook anything new from Williams-Sonoma tonight, but more on that in a second. See, there has been a lot going on and it's been a little hectic for me to cook the past few weeks. It's not a bad hectic though. In fact, it's all good. My Happy Place is taking a road trip! A permanent one. :) Yep, that's right. After 9 years of calling Parkersburg, West Virginia and the Mid-Ohio Valley home (15 years if you count my time at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio), I am bidding adieu to this fair town and will now be calling Wilmington, Delaware my new home. I will finally be able to shop for all the many obscure ingredients Williams-Sonoma throws at me and have a pretty high confidence of finding all of them. This is so very much a good thing. It's funny how quickly things in life can change. One moment, you feel utterly frustrated with your life. The next second you get a phone call and find out your life will be completely different and you have what you've wanted for a very long time. I applied for the new job I will take in Delaware about the same time I started my cooking experiment. And quite honestly, I think I owe a part of my life change to this experiment. In the beginning, I said I wanted this process of cooking foods I'd never cooked before to push me to get more bold with things in my life. And since my Linguine with Lobster Tarragon Sauce experiment over 3 months ago, I've started to evolve into a person that I'm really really starting to like. I'm starting to go after the things I want in life instead of curling up in a ball and just wishing things were different. It's amazing how much I've changed through this short time. And maybe all of the evolving I've done was in the cards for me anyway, and snipping fresh herbs or making pie crusts has had nothing to do with my newfound self-confidence. But somehow, I don't think it's a coincidence. This cooking journey has been a gift that I am still not quite sure I get the full impact of yet. But I am grateful for this adventure. And I don't care if it takes me 5 years to finish this cookbook. With the things I've gained from this experience after cooking just 18 recipes, I'm highly intrigued to see what I'll discover when all 360 are complete. So although I probably won't cook much of anything this month while I get ready to move, I will definitely be back in full gear once I'm settled in my new city! I've got more evolving to do. And a new city to do it all in. :-D

Okay, okay...enough of the mushy stuff. Back to my cooking. :) If you haven't noticed yet, one of the recipes in the title should look familiar. Yep, I made my HV's again. Don't worry, this isn't an obsessive love affair like I have with the Brussels Sprouts. I made an impromptu decision to cook tonight, and I knew the HV recipe had a short ingredients list and I could remember most of it off the top of my head. Although I did have to ask Sarah to help me remember a few things. And the spaghetti was another "Lashonda" original. And by original, I mean I took a jar of Classico spaghetti sauce, doctored it up with a bunch of stuff, and called it my own. Although I must say, it was very, very good. I actually only cooked because my original resident guinea pig, Terraun, is in town again. With all of the stuff I've been doing in preparation of moving (meeting with realtors, fixing up things to make the house more appealing for sale), I've been eating out a lot. But since I really do enjoy cooking for other people, I thought it would be good to cook tonight. So on impulse, I decided to whip up spaghetti and HV's. The spaghetti sauce was amazingly good. Only problem...I was sort of just throwing stuff in the Classico sauce so I'm not quite sure I can duplicate it. :) One thing I did add to the sauce that definitely helped make it amazing was Shiraz, a red wine. And red hot pepper flakes. Which could explain the heartburn I have while I sit here typing this. I also believe there were bottles of Oregano and Thyme pulled out of the cabinet. But don't quote me on that. I guess if I really wanted to duplicate it, I could. But then again, it was a lot more fun just making it up as I went along. Some say life is the same way. You can sit and try to just duplicate what you've seen other people do. Or you can have fun and make it up as you go along. See I tell ya, who knew there were so many life lessons to be found in the kitchen. No wonder it's My Happy Place. :)

Polentina with Bananas and Maple Syrup and Black Bean Sausage Chili

Recipe: Polentina with Bananas and Maple Syrup and Black Bean Sausage Chili

So I cheated a little this weekend. How did I cheat? Well, I'll get to that in a second. My cheating all resulted from a major case of the blah's. What are the blah's? Well to me, they are when you just feel off your normal game or not your normal self. And I'm not sure why, but I had the blah's all weekend. And with the blah's came very little motivation to do anything. I was supposed to cook Polentina, Rosemary Spoon Bread, and Tortilla soup. I went grocery shopping on Saturday, got everything I needed and came home with the intention to cook, looked at the large pile of dishes in the sink from the Tuna/HV adventure on Wednesday, gave a big sigh and retreated to the couch to watch my DVD's of The Wire, season 4. Cooking makes me very happy. Cleaning up my cooking messes does not. And seeing the 3 day old pile of dishes particularly depressed me Saturday for some reason. I sometimes get overwhelmed at the thought of something and mentally check out. Sometimes it's not even a major event that overwhelms me. I mean they were just dishes, for pete's sake. But I just didn't feel like dealing with anything on Saturday. After a few hours of trying to motivate myself, I said screw it and decided to cook on Sunday. On Sunday morning, I got up, cleaned up the kitchen and felt like I had my mojo back. After cleaning the kitchen, I moved on to making my Polentina. Polentina is a breakfast dish made with corn meal. Polenta is a boiled form of corn meal, and Polentina refers to a more liquid or creamier form of polenta. It's a very comforting food, and it's very easy to make. It's also a very filling meal, similar to the way oatmeal is filling. If you don't like oatmeal, or want a change, I would definitely try this. To make it, boil milk, water, sugar, and salt and whisk the corn meal into the boiling liquid. Then for the next 15 minutes, let the mixture simmer while stirring it every couple of minutes. Top the bowl of Polentina with sliced bananas, warm maple syrup and melted butter. It is so very good. I sat down with my comforting bowl of Polentina, a cup of Mint Green Tea, and watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" all before noon. I was so proud of myself for getting back on track. And then....well let's just say the comforting bowl of Polentina was a little too comforting. So comforting in fact, I ended up falling asleep until 4 in the afternoon. :)

All of this leads me back to my cheating. I woke up from my nap, and realized the motivation I had took a nap with me. But unlike me, my motivation did not wake back up. At that point, I realized this just isn't my weekend for being productive and I said "Yeah, I'm not cooking spoon bread or tortilla soup tonight". And then I decided to cheat. I pulled out one of my old standby Taste of Home recipes, Black Bean Sausage Chili. It's quick and easy to make. Oh, and most importantly, it's freaking delicious. And since I did cook something, it made me feel less like a slacker. To make it, cook Italian sausage with a few cloves of garlic. Then mix in chopped green pepper and onions and cook for a few more minutes. Next pour chili powder, diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, tomato paste and sauce and a handful of dried herbs (no dicing fresh herbs for me tonight!) and let it all simmer for 30 minutes. Before serving the chili, top it with shredded cheddar cheese. If you ever need a meal and are short on time or motivation to cook, this is the recipe for you. So there you have it. I guess since I did make something from my Williams-Sonoma cookbook, it's not truly cheating. I just didn't accomplish all I wanted to accomplish. But I will say, the Black Bean Sausage Chili isn't too bad of a back-up plan. Quite honestly, cheating has never tasted (or looked) so good before. ;)

Polentina with Bananas and Maple Syrup

Black Bean Sausage Chili

Seared Tuna with Italian Herb Sauce and Haricots Verts with Shallot & Lemon

Recipe: Seared Tuna with Italian Herb Sauce and Haricots Verts with Shallot & Lemon

I didn't just cook for 1 tonight! Yay! My friend Sarah is in town for work and is staying with me. So I got to have another guinea pig for my experiment. And Sarah is engaged to Terraun, my other resident guinea pig. So now, being my guinea pig is a family affair. And since I was sharing my adventure, I invited my friend Henry over also. I love cooking for other people, especially when they like the results. Cooking for yourself is lonely sometimes. And after 4 days of Chicken Pot Pie, no matter how good it is...it gets a little monotonous. So I was very excited to be able to share my adventure with my friends. This was another very fancy, stylistic meal. And another one to add to my dinner party portfolio. This one actually looks fancier than the pork chops and twice-baked potatoes meal. It wasn't quite as simple as that meal, but by no means was it stressful to prepare. Now, have you wondered what Haricots Verts are yet? When it popped up randomly, and I saw what the recipe was, I was thinking, "What the heck is this? What odd vegetable has Williams-Sonoma come up with now?". Being the inquisitive person that I am, and being very afraid I wouldn't find these Haricots Verts anywhere in the Mid-Ohio Valley area, I googl'd them. And yeah...they're green beans. :) So apparently the French term for green beans is Haricots Verts. Ha! That sounds so much more fancy than green beans. So from this moment on, I shall call green beans Haricots Verts. Or HV's, which is what Sarah and I ended up calling them by the end of the night. Verts is also an acceptable term.

So for these two recipes to have come up randomly, they complemented each other very well. I started by making the Italian Herb Sauce because it needed to sit for an hour so the flavors could meld. And man did it have a lot of flavors in it to meld. I put an anchovy fillet, a minced garlic clove, Italian parsley leaves, fresh mint leaves, capers, dijon mustard, and red wine vinegar into a food processor and pureed it all until it was smooth. I was somewhat nervous with the anchovy at first. Although I've never had anchovies, it just seems they aren't a very well liked food. While I was shopping for food today, I told Sarah I would be home after I found my anchovies, and she also took pause for a second. I think when people hear the word anchovy, they immediately get grossed out. It's like one of the red-headed stepchildren of the food family. But in the essence of my adventure, I shall try all foods, the loved and unloved alike. And Sarah was happy to commit as well. Turns out, we had nothing to worry about. All of the flavors were pureed together so well there's no chance we would've tasted the anchovy anyway. So while the sauce was in the fridge melding, I started working on the HV's. I boiled the HV's for about 6 minutes, and then put them in ice to stop the cooking so they stayed crisp. I sauteed shallots for a couple of minutes and then added the HV's and continued sautéing them. Then at the end I added lemon zest and sauteed for 30 more seconds. I added chopped parsley, salt, and pepper to season. And this dish was complete. I knew it was good well before the meal was ready to serve because Henry kept sneaking over and stealing pieces of HV's. In fact, I almost had to ban him from the kitchen. I'd never think to put lemon zest on HV's, but it gives it a really fresh taste. Hmm, I wonder what other vegetables would also benefit from lemon zest? Brussels Sprouts, perhaps??? :) To sear the tuna, I just cooked the steaks on high heat for 90 seconds on each side. Then, after asking my guests if they wanted rare, medium rare, or medium tuna steaks, I cooked each side for 60 seconds longer for medium. Actually, I think they were more medium-well, but they were still really good. In fact, this was an awesome meal. It was fancy and healthy and easy to make. And Sarah and Henry both loved it. Yay! In fact, in addition to my usual picture to show how the meal turned out, I have the "5 minutes after the meal was served" pictures of Sarah and Henry's plates. Needless to say, they devoured this meal. A definite sign of a successful experiment. :) So while I didn't have much left over from this meal, seeing my friends enjoy it was a much more fulfilling reward than eating HV's for the next 3 days.

The final masterpiece

Sarah's plate before it was devoured

Henry's plate, 5 minutes later....

Sarah's plate, 5 minutes later...

Pork Chops with Apple & Onion and Twice-Baked Potatoes

Recipe: Pork Chops with Apple & Onion and Twice-Baked Potatoes

Finally! After exploding potatoes, a badly managed weekend, and being incapacitated by a bad toothache last Wednesday, I finally made my twice-baked potatoes! Fourth times the charm, eh? I have to say, the recipe was worth the wait. Both of them were. When one day I am living in a new area and have all kinds of wonderful dinner parties for my friends, this meal will definitely be on the menu. And it only took me 2 hours to cook both dishes. Since the potatoes had to bake for one hour, I'd say I didn't do too bad at all with time management this time. Sometimes when I cook, I like to listen to Inspirational music, especially Hillsong, to get me in the mood. But not this time. I went all the way random on the music playlist. I had everything from Kanye West to AC/DC to Stevie Wonder to Santana to 2Pac bumping Saturday night. Music is my other "Happy Place". I love to escape into the beats of a track or find something I can connect to in the lyrics of a song. As strange as it sounds, I think music was my first best friend. As a kid, when I really couldn't verbalize what I was thinking or feeling, music did it for me. And for some reason, with the combination of my fully random music library going and finally being able to cook a meal I've been attempting to make for 2 weeks, I was in a zone.

While my potatoes were baking, I snipped the stems off my spinach leaves, minced my shallots, and shredded my cheese for the potatoes. Then since I still had time, and I was on my time management game, I sliced the yellow onion and the green apple for my pork chops. I even had time to make the rub for the pork chops. Now, I've always known that sage is the magic seasoning for turkey because it brings out a good flavor in the turkey. But I never knew it was the same for pork also. For my rub, I took sage, salt, and pepper and rubbed them over my 4 pork chops. I had to let them stand at room temperature in the rub, so I let the pork chops do that while I worked with the twice-baked potatoes. Actually, by the time I finished fixing the rub, my potatoes were done baking so I went right from prepping the pork chops to working on my potatoes. I'm telling you, I was time management queen. And yes, I actually pulled 4 whole, intact potatoes from the oven. Of course, if you could have seen the way I pierced those poor potatoes before I put them in. :) Let's just say, it's a good thing there's no such thing as protective services for vegetables. I think I would've been taken in for domestic abuse by way of stabbing. To make my filling, I sautéed the shallots in butter and garlic and then added the spinach. I was skeptical when adding the spinach at first. I used two bunches of spinach leaves, which is a lot of green leaves. At first I was somewhat concerned I had misinterpreted what 2 bunches really meant. But the leaves wilted to about 1/4 its original volume by the time it was all said and done, so I felt much better. Next, I scooped out the potato flesh from the shells, mashed more butter, sour cream and salt and pepper in, and mixed the mashed potatoes with the spinach mix. This entire mixture was loaded back into the empty shells, and back into the oven the potatoes went for 20 minutes. A very tasty and fancy dish, that is a piece of cake to make. Of course, that is if you can make sure your potatoes don't explode in the beginning. :) Now, while my potatoes were baking a second time, I switched back to my pork chops. The technique for this dish was also pretty simple. I just seared the pork chops on both sides until they were brown and not pink on the inside. Then I took the chops out of the pan, and added the onions and apples to the pan and sautéed them in the pan drippings. After about 5 minutes, I deglazed the pan with Chardonnay, and viola! The pork chops were complete. And I have to say, apples and pork chops together is definitely a keeper on the list of things I'll be eating again and again. They were sooooo good.

Sometimes things seem much more complicated than the really are. If I were to look at the picture of my dish, I would think it took a lot of effort to cook this meal. But this meal offers style, without the stress. And that gets a two thumbs up from me. Of course, when I serve it to my dinner guests, they don't have to know it's a no-stress dish. They can all think I worked for hours to prepare a stylistic and tasty dish for them all. Of course, that means I'll have to invite people that don't read my blog. But that's just a minor detail...

Chocolate Chip & Pecan Cookies

Recipe: Chocolate Chip & Pecan Cookies

I had this great menu planned out to cook this weekend. I was going to remake (or make for the first time) my Twice-Baked Potatoes, Pork Chops, and for dessert Chocolate Chip & Pecan cookies. But once again, my Time Management curse strikes again! Somehow with not much to do all weekend, my entire weekend flew by and I'm not sure how. And I only completed 33% of what I wanted to accomplish. Dang life and how quickly things go by. :) No complaints, I did good stuff this weekend. I actually de-cluttered my house and unpacked from my recent trip out of town (which is why I didn't cook last weekend). I went to the beauty salon (always a good thing). I did an impromptu bowling outing with some of my work friends. And I had an awesome workout with my trainer. Earlier this month, I started working out with a trainer. And I have to say, I'm liking the results. I could say, I'm liking the way my arms and legs are starting to tone up, or how I'm seeing my waistline slimming down. But seriously, my favorite result so far has been...my bowling score. Bowling for me usually results in a lot of gutter balls until I drink about 2 or 3 beers. Then I can at least hit 6 of the 10 pins. But typically, I don't often break 75 points in a game. But wouldn't you know, I broke 100 twice last night. Yay! I think the muscle I'm building helped me throw a more controlled ball. Now, none of this has to do with cooking, but it does make me happy. And since the blog is not just about my cooking in my happy place, but my journey to finding more happy places, there ya go. My journey is going to find me one buff, tough cooking machine before it's all said and done.

But back to my cooking adventure. After I worked out on Sunday, I went to the store to get groceries. By the time I got home, it was 3:30. I'm thinking, not so bad. I should be able to do 3 recipes in 5ish hours. What was I thinking??? I thought I'd do the cookies first so I could bake them and get them out the way. Then I'd have the oven free for the baked potatoes and I could prep the rest of the meals while the potatoes were baking (and hopefully not exploding). But my first mishap was when I realized I didn't have Vanilla Extract. I always check before I go to the store, and I swore I had Extract. So...back to the store I went, which lost me 30 more minutes. I finally got in a groove though. But the groove was a slow moving one, as usual. One of the things I liked about this cookie recipe, was that I ground the pecans in with my flour, baking soda, and salt. I also put bigger pieces of chopped pecans in with the cookie dough at the end, but grounding them into the flour mixture was a new one. I'm happy with the way my cookies turned out. And they looked just like the cookbook! Usually the picture in the book tends to vary some from my final production. But my cookies looked exactly like the cookbook. I had enough of the cookie dough before they finished cooking to know they were good. Eating cookie dough is my favorite part of baking cookies. I wish I could just make cookies to just eat the dough. But I don't know how healthy that would be. Between all of the cookie dough and the cookies I ate, I think I undid every second of my workout today. But man were they good. Oh and what did the rest of my cooking adventure in for the night was when I got on the phone with my friend Terraun. I actually got on the phone while making my cookies, but while I waited for them to bake we kept talking and reviewing the most recent events of Pop Culture. And a 20 minute conversation turned into 90 minutes. And next thing you know...it was 7:00. And I decided to punt on the potatoes and the pork chops. At least I got my cookies done. :) And they are really good. Maybe I should be nice and take some to work tomorrow. Or maybe, I'll savor them all for myself. Then again, I've already undone one day of working out. Not sure I really want to undo the last month. But then again....