An Obsession With...

Obsession:

–noun

1.

the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

2.

the idea, image, desire, feeling, etc., itself.

3.

the state of being obsessed.

4.

the act of obsessing.

The obsessed brain is an exhausting place to be. The constant ebbing and flowing; the need to improve; the mania to keep creating, searching, doing..... Donuts. I’m talking about donuts, of course. Obsessions are a constant with me. While some obsessions are not particularly interesting or endearing to my family (parsnips, for example), this one is. The donut obsession was triggered by an article from the Chicago Tribune’s Food Section (Wednesday - the best day of the week). ‘Morning glories’ proclaimed the above-the-fold title. I think it was the haphazard stack of donuts next to the steaming cup of something, luring me down below-the-fold that really hooked me. The stack led to a recipe for buttermilk donuts. The recipe had ingredients that were already in my kitchen and promised me 1 1/2 dozen donuts in about 45 minutes. I decided to challenge the Tribune and see if all this was true. Out came the ingredients and sure enough, within 40ish minutes, my kids (who were just rising to consciousness) were stumbling blindly down the stairs, being led on a current of vanilla-scented air. Success with the first go-around! I won’t bore you with the details of the batches that have followed, but will tell you that my daughter’s cross country team friends hope the obsession continues for a long time to come.

Buttermilk Doughnuts

4 1/4 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch grated nutmeg

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk (I have also used whole milk with equally great results)

3 tbsp butter, melted

vegetable oil

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Beat together the eggs, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla in another large bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Stir together the buttermilk (milk) and butter in a large measuring cup. Alternately beat the dry ingredients and buttermilk mixture into the egg mixture, a third at a time, until a soft, sticky dough is formed.

With floured hands, place dough on a floured board; gently roll out until the dough is 1/2-inch thick. Cut the dough into doughnuts, using a doughnut cutter or 2 biscuit cutters (1 larger one about 3 inches in diameter and 1 smaller one about 1 inch in diameter). Collect the scraps; roll out to form another batch of doughnuts (this batch may be a little tougher than the first as the dough has been worked).

Meanwhile, fill a deep fryer or large saucepan with oil to a depth of at least 3 inches; heat to 350 degrees (or until oil is shimmering). Gently place the doughnuts in the oil, being careful not to crowd. Fry until puffed and golden, 1 1/2-2 minutes per side. Drain on a rack; cool slightly. Frost and decorate as desired. Our favorite topping is a simple sprinkle of powdered sugar.

If you have any left over (if), these are great the next day...for the squirrels in your back yard. Don’t waste your time eating them day-old. Just make another batch....see how these obsessions work?

Shrimp Salad - On the Fly!

Usually there is nothing good about opening the freezer - while the sun is still struggling to raise itself from the other side of the planet - and seeing the ribs you were going to take out to thaw, already dripping. Come on, say it with me ‘ahhh sh**’. You know what follows. The crazy thought that somehow the plug came out of the wall....even though the light is on. Then the burst of strength as you pull the refrigerator out from its fridge cave so you can check the back - looking for...I don’t know what. When acceptance finally settles in, the real work begins. The mad dash to remove all the perishables...wait, that would mean everything, right? Yup. And so it goes. Bag after dripping bag of stuff either gets tossed in the trash or run down to the already stuffed basement freezer/refrigerator. I’m not looking for sympathy as I know there are plenty of worse things...waking up with a water heater that has kicked up its heels in the middle of the night (cold shower, anyone?); dishwasher that has regurgitated all of its liquid contents all over the hardwood kitchen floor while you slept; cat that has disemboweled a mouse during the night and left it as a gift at the foot of your daughter’s bed... I know. This is not a story of sadness, it’s a story of discovery! While I did discover some pretty interesting bits of Bosworth culinary history, I also found a bag of shrimp I had forgotten about. Yay! A new dinner plan was hatched! Not really hatched, more like fertilized. Ribs were quickly shoved out of the way and in their place a different kind of summer meal started to grow - mentally.

Because I have recently gotten a job and started taking a class (both of these are new endeavours for me), my always-scattered, manic mind is on mega overdrive right now. The shrimp (and dinner) were completely forgotten until about 20 minutes before I was due to leave for my evening class. Four kid faces and one adult husband face stared at me as I started packing up my stuff to leave. ‘What’s for dinner?’ Oh yeah, dinner. I had the shrimp....and nothing else. Quick scan of the refrigerator (complete with its new whatever-costs-$200-part) revealed a ‘not much’ scenario. Today’s blog entry is not so much a recipe as a survival lesson. Here goes...

-1 lb shrimp...into a frying pan with equal parts butter and olive oil. Saute until pink (maybe 3ish minutes). Couple of twists of the pepper grinder over the shrimp. Shrimp off the burner and into a bowl.

-Refrigerator reveals leftover iceburg lettuce (I know, I know...the kids like it on tacos though). Lettuce chopped and onto a large serving platter.

-Fruit bowl reveals two avocados. Peeled, sliced, onto the serving platter with the lettuce.

-Cantaloupe sitting on the counter. Peel, chop, add to serving platter.

-Add cooled shrimp.

-Quick run through the sauces, condiments, ‘stuff’ in the refrigerator door. A mango habanero dipping sauce is located. Pour a bunch into a bowl. Splash some soy sauce, water and lemon juice (or any kind of citrus) into the dipping sauce. Mix it all together. Taste. Pour sauce over entire contents of serving platter.

-Chop up some basil. Scatter over the top.

-Slide platter onto table with 5 plates and forks.

-Kiss family good-bye.

And that is how we sometimes have to roll at this house. Real food. No call to Dominos. Crisp, sweet, creamy, little spicy, crunchy and really delicious. While I don’t wish this scenario on you, it is always comforting to know that much can be made from little when in a pinch. That’s amore, eh?

Cantaloupe Caprese.....ahhhhhh!

Weeds deserve our respect....and loathing. Bi-polar? I know. The emotional swings have been annoying, even to me. The summer of ’10 has proven to be a hot, wet one in the Chicagoland area - perfect for growing weeds. My tomatoes are fairly tasteless, my peppers are not growing at all (except the serranos), the zucchini....well, I got one. My list of complaints over my lack of food production go on and on. But the weeds....they are thriving! Because the builder of my house liked to do whatever was quick and easy for him (she said bitterly), the foundation on one side spills out under the soil for a few feet. Nothing can grow there. Every year I put decorative flower pots, filled with flowers to disguise this wasteland. This year the flower pots are engulfed in a splendid display of one-foot high weeds. From a distance it doesn’t look bad...well, from a distance with one eye closed and the other one squinting... As I was getting up the courage to go and attack this weed patch, it got me thinking of another time in my life when the plants could not be controlled. If you’ve ever grown any kind of vining vegetable/fruit plant, you know that they can take over a place while you’ve got your back turned, pouring a glass of lemonade. In this previous case, however, I was not complaining...too much.

Cantaloupe. The word itself is beautiful. Roll it around in your mouth and tell me it doesn’t feel good. I can never spell it, but I love saying it. And eating it. Years ago when I still lived in Massachusetts, I planted a few beautiful little plants with barely four leaves on them. Little mounds with furry green sticking out. I couldn’t understand why the directions insisted on a few feet between mounds, so I simply ignored that point. As usual, I lived to regret it. Monster vs. Aliens. Have you guys seen that movie? It’s a kids movie that came out a couple of years ago. The pumpkins in the patch grow wild, sprout legs and chase little kids around. Yeah, my cantaloupe plants were something like that. As long as I could hack off a cantaloupe every now and then, I didn’t mind. It would take an act of God, some high-octane manure and hourly prayer/chanting to grow anything resembling a cantaloupe on the soil I now call home. I have to buy them. No mind, they’re still good. This summer, along with the weeds, my recipes for cantaloupe products has been abundant. I thought we had had it all when I came across a recipe in La Cucina Italiana magazine that was sort of an ‘aaahhhhhh’ moment for me. We eat a lot of caprese salad here - tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. La Cucina substituted the tomatoes with cantaloupe. Aaaaahhhhhh.... A sweet, comfortable, luxurious breathe of amazing! This is a ‘must try’...seriously. Couldn’t be easier and will leave you thinking about summer - warm breeze, flip-flop summer - for a long time to come.

Caprese di melone con pesto leggero

(melon caprese with a light pesto)

1 packed cup fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp pin nuts

fine sea salt

1 small (about 2 lb) cantaloupe, halved crosswise, seeded, sliced

3/4 pound fresh mozzarella

Combine basil, oil, pine nuts and generous pinch salt in a food processor (they recommend blender...I couldn’t get it to come together in a blender, but you may be able to); puree until smooth. Adjust salt to taste.

Arrange cantaloupe on a plate, inserting slices of mozzarella in between. Drizzle pesto over entire plate. Serve. It’s really that easy!

Although my kids have always loved (and continue to love) the original caprese salad, they have begged for this version since first trying it. My husband, who is a purist, also loves this! Indulge your senses....it’s so worth it!

From Mad Men to Marmalade

'I'm going out to get a bucket of chicken.' states the glamorous, beautiful and very pregnant Mrs. Draper (who normally makes home-cooked meals for her family). For those of you who follow Mad Men, you know who she is. I am currently watching season three in an attempt to catch up with season four. As I watched the DVD this morning, it got me thinking... Although the 50’s and 60’s were an amazing period of time in our country’s history, I believe it was a space of years that messed with our food in unforgivable ways. The frozen, canned, plastic-encased stuff that replaced real food lowered the bar to such a level that we are still recovering from it today. How could someone go from cooking a homemade pot roast one day to pulling a previously-frozen slab of pseudo-meat on a piece of aluminum out of the oven and call it good? Preachy and judgmental of me - yes. Shortly after learning that if you can read, you can cook, I discovered the secret. The secret of real food. All (or most) of the food you can buy in containers from the store, can be created for real in your very own kitchen. And, most importantly, it tastes better! Oh yes, and no chemical additives means it’s better for you. Revelation!!

My son Owen is six. He loves food. He loves learning about food. He loves experimenting with food. He loves cooking food. And, at a young age he learned that anything he can pick up in the store that is enclosed in a container, he can probably make at home. Even if it doesn’t work out to be better tasting, it’s fun to try. He’s a sauce guy. Loves sauces of every kind. Jams and jellies fall into that sauce category for him, so when he went to eat his beloved orange marmalade on his muffin one day, and all of the sudden shouted out ‘Mom, can we make orange marmalade?’! I knew we had moved into a new area of food prep. ‘Sure!’ We gathered ingredients, researched recipes, labored over getting the orange slices out of the membranes and ..... it was pretty bad. ‘Too much lemon.’ He stated. ‘Why did they have us put lemon in there?’ I was much more concerned with the 5 cups of sugar we had just introduced to our beautiful orange mixture. The marmalade hit the trash. But we were undeterred. Peach season is upon us now. The boy loves his peach jam. And so, we tried again. SUCCESS! Great flavor! Really easy and quick. I can see you smirking right now. I am not losing my mind. Yes, you can get really good single-batch specialty jams. Is mine better than that? Maybe better, maybe worse. We have messed around with the original recipe now to include serrano chilis and (drum roll) BACON with the peach (completely awesome!) and made it in small batches so as to avoid all that canning stuff. It’s fun and easy and can be done in the time it takes to make any sauce you normally make for your food. Did you think those jelly guys did some magic stuff that we lay people couldn’t do? I did. Now I know that’s not true.

Bacon and Serrano Peach Jam

2 lbs fully ripened fresh peaches, washed, peeled, and pitted

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 serrano chilis (I’m sure you can use any kind of chili here, I just happened to be growing these in my garden right now), chopped, seeded, membranes removed

5ish pieces of bacon- chopped and cooked

1 pkg powdered fruit pectin

1 cup mild-flavor honey

Chop or coarsely grind peaches and serranos, blending with lemon juice (I threw the whole thing in the food processor and let it do the work). Measure prepared fruit, packing down in cup. You should have 2 full cups. Place fruit and lemon juice in a 6-quart stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Add pectin and mix well.

Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. When fruit is boiling, stir while slowly pouring in honey, blending well. Continue stirring and return to a full rolling boil. When boiling cannot be stirred down, boil for 4 more minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in bacon. Alternately stir and skim (taking the white foamy stuff off the top) for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

At this point the authors of the original recipe tell you to can it or freeze it. This makes a batch small enough to eat in a week (or a couple of days at my house), so there is no need to go through the whole canning process.

EASY! FAST! INTERESTING! I encourage you to keep experimenting with added flavors or just eliminate the chilis and bacon and stick with the original. You can take this recipe as far as your imagination will allow. The original recipe, btw, was created by Carol Hupping and the staff of the Rodale Food Center in their book ‘Stocking Up’. Enjoy!

P.S. The jam pictured above was the first batch we made so it doesn't have the serranos or the bacon in it. Technical difficulties prevented me from downloading the pictures of the 'fully-loaded' jam.

A Chicagoland Twist on an Indiana Classic

The conversation went something like this:

‘Linda, have you ever heard of a place called...I’ll spell it, g-n-a-w-b-o-n-e?’

‘(speaking phonetically) Naw bone? Yeah, I’ve heard of it.’

‘Is it far from your house?’

‘About a half an hour, why?’

‘Gourmet Magazine just wrote about some place called the Gnawbone Food & Fuel in Gnawbone, IN. They apparently make amazing pork tenderloin sandwiches! Have you ever heard of pork tenderloin sandwiches? It’s an Indiana thing.’

‘Um yeah, I’ve had them before. Everyone has them. Liz, the Food & Fuel is a gas station.’

‘No, it must be a different place. Up for a road trip?’

‘Okay.’

So I loaded up the kids and drove five hours from Naperville, IL to Madison, IN. The next day, with my sister and her two sons also packed in the minivan, we headed off to Gnaw Bone, IN to taste-test some raved-about tenderloin sandwiches. The Food & Fuel IS a gas station. The Food & Fuel tenderloin sandwiches were pretty terrible (gas station food terrible), but at least the service was...terrible too. The Gourmet Magazine article was proudly displayed across the front of the counter that encased the unsmiling, unpleasant woman responsible (allegedly) for taking orders and providing food. I couldn’t possibly have made this story up and I have pictures to document our efforts. We ate the leather-esque sandwiches (complete with gas station quality hamburger bun and limp supermarket tomato) in the fix-it bay area of the gas station. Could have been charming and cool....wasn’t. I learned a very important lesson that day that I take with me going forward.... I’m just kidding. I didn’t learn any lesson and that same indulgent sister has accompanied me on other dreadful search and discover food missions since this one. I’m still optimistic/naive enough to travel anywhere to try food I’ve read or heard about. The upside to this particular adventure (other than some really good ice cream further down the road) was my desire to figure out how to make a GOOD pork tenderloin sandwich.

If you’ve read this blog before then you know that I hold pork tenderloin in very high esteem. I LOVE pork tenderloin. The thought of forcing it into an unnatural state was a bit painful for me however. A very short-lived pain, I assure you. Because the flavor of pork is so amazing, very little - in the way of flavoring ingredients - needs to be added. My family and I believe the ‘sandwich’ part of the ‘pork tenderloin sandwich’ adds nothing so we have chosen just to eat the pork cutlets. Feel free to encase in a good-quality bun if you want.

Chicagoland Pork Cutlets (as opposed to Indiana Pork Cutlets)

1 2ish pound pork tenderloin

1 cup panko (Japanese style) bread crumbs

1/3 cup regular bread crumbs

1 tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried mustard

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper

2 eggs lightly beaten

2 tbsp water

dash of tabasco (this can be left out, but I love a little zing in my food!)

3/4 cup flour

Vegetable oil

Cut across pork tenderloin making 1-inch thick discs. Place one disc between two pieces of parchment paper or wax paper. Pound with meat mallet until 1/2 inch thick. Continue doing the same with remaining discs.

Heat 1/2 inch vegetable oil in large frying pan (I use a paella pan because it’s big and deep) until shimmering.

I use 3 pie pans for this next step. Place flour in one pie pan. Combine eggs, water and tabasco in second pie pan. Mix panko crumbs, regular bread crumbs, thyme, oregano, mustard, salt and pepper in the third pie pan. Take the first cutlet and dredge in the flour, completely covering. Dip the cutlet in the egg wash. Coat the entire thing with the panko mixture. Complete 2 or 3 at a time - depending on how many will be cooking at once. Slide these gently into the oil to cook and then prepare the next 2 or three. I have found that if the cutlets sit, already completely prepared for more than a couple of seconds, they get mushy. Do not crowd the pan or the temperature will drop and the cutlets will soak up too much oil, thereby making them greasy and soggy. Cook 2 minutes per side. Remove to an waiting plate covered with paper towels to absorb excess oil.

This recipe takes minutes to create. The pork is tender on the inside and really crunchy on the outside. And, best of all, the flavor of the pork tenderloin is allowed to be itself! Amazing pork flavor with crunchy exterior!!

Chicken on a Stick...the Latest Disguise

’10 Easy Ways to Eat Less Meat’. Front cover of Fine Cooking magazine’s Aug/Sept edition. My initial reaction was ‘why?’. Why is everyone so hung up on eating less meat? I love being an insatiable carnivore. Love it! Now if the article had been entitled ’10 Ways To Eat Less Chicken’, they might have peaked my interest.

My lack of respect for chicken is not undocumented. I have been loud and strong on my feelings about ‘the other white meat’ (pork is, of course, the REAL white meat). Over-used, nothing-but-boring chicken is the devil that I know. I don’t really want to get into the devils that I don’t know. Chicken is for dressing up and pretending ...pretending that it’s something else. Whoever coined the phase ‘let’s put some lipstick on this pig’ really meant chicken. I’m almost sure of it. My latest attempt at creating a convincing chicken incognito resulted in some very pleasing chicken satay, or as we in this elegant dining area I call home say, ‘chicken on a stick’.

After sifting through a number of definitions of ‘satay’, I have concluded that the terms simply means meat that has been marinated, skewered and grilled. Many different meats. Many different marinades. Even many different skewers (coconut fronds, anyone?). Basically though, it is some kind of meat on a stick that has been infused with some kind of flavor and cooked over some kind of fire. Good. I can work with all of that.

As much as I slander chicken, I also call on it frequently to feed my family. I know, I know - hypocrite, right? It is easy to work with and quick to prepare and affordable so I keep coming back ....and whining. I went in search of a chicken satay recipe in order to prepare some take-along food for a swim meet my kids were participating in. After years and years of spending the summer attending swim meets and eating burgers and pizza at said swim meets, this year I decided to put a stop to all of it. I have been preparing and taking our family’s meals instead. This has required some creativity on my part as it’s not always easy to assemble a desirable meal for a family of 6 and transport it via cooler and beach bag to areas not known for their cloth-napkin dining. Chicken satay seemed like a fun, interesting prep for the lowly chicken for this particular occasion.

God bless the internet! While I am a very low-tech person, I do indulge in plenty of research (on every imaginable subject) with the aid of my beloved computer. ‘Chicken satay’ was typed in the Google search box. Two second and one billion options later...I had clicked and printed a recipe. I have this one little problem. Focus. I am very good at doing 26 things at once, but ask me to sit down and focus on one thing at a time and I am incapable. (Those in the know call it A.D.D., I believe) This should have been easy. I started assembling the recipe (without having read it through to the end). About one quarter of the way through, I realized there was trouble. I forged on. More trouble. And more. And more. The recipe was a disaster. If you’ve worked with food for any length of time, you can spot things that simply won’t work. Cooking methods, food flavors, missing ingredients...that sort of thing. The recipe below provides very good results...it is not, however, the original recipe I started out with so I will not be crediting any source. Changes on the fly were made and alterations proved successful.

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup minced onion (I have used sweet and red)

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp minced ginger (I have used powdered in a pinch - 4 tsp)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/3 cup peanut butter

3 tbsp ketchup

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 - 2 tbsp Sriracha hot chili sauce (this can be eliminated if you don’t like spicy-really enhances flavor though)

If using wooden skewers (which are much more fun, btw), be sure to soak them in water for at least 30 minutes. VERY IMPORTANT! Skewers that go up in flame, causes chicken that goes up in flame!

Cut chicken into 1/2 inch wide strips.

Over medium heat, combine both oils. When oils are heated, add the onion, garlic and ginger and saute for 3ish minutes. Be sure to take a really deep breath here because your kitchen will now smell AMAZING! (If using powdered ginger, add with vinegar.) Add vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, lemon juice and salt. Continue cooking for another 5ish minutes - until sugar is dissolved. Stir peanut butter into the mix and remove from heat immediately. Add the chili sauce (if desired). After marinade has cooled, pour into large zip-lock bag and add chicken. Make sure all chicken is coated. Marinate for about 1 hour.

Remove chicken from bag and thread onto skewers. Discard remaining marinade. Grill chicken over medium-high grilling heat for about 3 minutes per side.

Peanut Sauce:

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1-2 cloves garlic, minced or chopped

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon brown sugar

juice from half a lemon (can be less, depending on your tastes)

In a non-stick pan, combine all ingredients, stirring constantly over medium heat until peanut butter has melted.

My family eats the satay without any sauce. I think the sauce enhances the dish so I recommend it. It is not necessary though. As mentioned above, this meal can easily be transported, eaten hot or cold. I have yet to find the person who doesn’t like this particular disguise for the poor chicken! Enjoy!

P.S. I couldn't find any kind of appealing way to photograph my version of 'Chicken on a Stick' so I decided to try to win you over with pictures of humans/children instead. The picture is of my daughter Tori (at a swim meet) holding the latest chicken disguise.

From Kitchen Aid to Cookies

The Chicago Marathon is on October 10th this year. 10-10-10. Cool, right? I tell you this because I’m allegedly training for that marathon right now. I have run the last two Chicago Marathons and unfortunately know exactly how much I have to run and how much I can blow off and not die (this is not a good thing as I will ALWAYS do the minimum to get the job done). This past Sunday was one of those days that I really HAD to run. I was supposed to log 10 miles but only did 8...okay 7.5. While out on the trail, a guy who looked like a ‘real’ runner approached, coming from the opposite direction. The first thing I noticed was his brand new half-marathon t-shirt. He had obviously participated in a recent half-marathon that I had read about, but had not participated in. I immediately held him in higher-esteem. Race t-shirts are the badge of honor reflecting the hard work put forth by the runner and the completion of a set goal. It occurred to me that while I, as a runner, was impressed by this shirt, a non-runner probably would not have cared or noticed the t-shirt at all. AND, more importantly, if a non-runner had taken any notice of it, wouldn’t have understood the significance of the hours of training that had gone into achieving such a milestone. I have no way of knowing if this man had just finished his first half-marathon - something that he had worked years at achieving - or his 500th and it was no big deal (btw, running 13.1 miles is never ‘no big deal’), but I did give the guy some more room on the trail and a big smile in an attempt to show my respect.

This incident got me thinking about the other symbols and signs in my life. The ones that show the world who I am and what I’m interested in. The birdbaths and bird feeders surrounding my house speak clearly to my love/interest in birds. The overwhelming stack of books on the table next to my bed speak of my love of history and food. The basement that rivals Joanne’s Fabric speaks of my love of crafts, specifically kids crafts. And my kitchen.... a quick scan of my kitchen provides all kinds of information about me. I LOVE kitchen gadgets. The most prominently displayed one being the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. People who cook notice this piece of equipment while people who don’t cook, couldn’t care less. While the mixer is a beloved resident of my favorite area of the house, it can clearly be identified as a status symbol. That mixer is the Mercedes Benz sitting in my driveway, telling the world I’m doing okay and I know what I’m doing.

The Kitchen Aid showed up in the form of a Christmas gift one year from my husband. I had told him I really needed one. It was, of course, a luxury item considering the cost ($300ish) and the lack of baking I was doing at the time. I pulled the beautiful, shiny, smooth, rounded magnificence out of the box and just stared at it. After the staring period was over, I moved it to the counter in my kitchen. And there it stayed for about two years. It was dusted and moved out of the way to clean around it, but it was never called on to assist with anything. I had the book, the video and all the attachments but I had no idea how to use it (this may surprise you but I’m not the best at reading those books that come with everything). I knew that every serious cook owned one and used it for everything but unlike my food processor that gets used regularly, I couldn’t figure out how this huge thing could make my life any easier. What makes this story even better is the fact that I went on to ask for the pasta-making attachment and the ice cream maker to go with my beautiful, red, shiny, $300ish counter-chachki....and got them. And still didn’t know what to do with it. It took a rainy Saturday afternoon and some seriously competitive genes to get me to finally figure out the mighty mixer.

I have mentioned a few hundred times that I am not a baker. My kids, while educated in the arts of foods from many countries, did not frequently (ever) come home to homemade cookies. One rainy Saturday afternoon my husband took it upon himself to bring homemade cookies into our home. I had slipped away from the chaos to sneak in a nap. When I awoke, our house smelled wonderful and my kids were happily chomping away on peanut butter cookies. ‘Where did you get those?’ I asked. ‘Dad made them.’ Seriously? ‘Yes, seriously.’ He said confidently. The kids were happy and the cookies (much as I hate to admit it) were good. Fast forward a couple of days...’hey Mom, can you make some of those cookies Dad made? They were really good and I want some more.’ Damned kids! I assured them that I would love to make those cookies. Hand-mixer, softened butter, mess everywhere....I did make the cookies, but didn’t enjoy one single second of it (other than eating, of course). There had to be a better way... Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) was on the Food Network making some kind of cookie something or other. She just dumped a whole bunch of ingredients into the same Kitchen Aid mixer I had, pulled the lever forward and magically the dough was done. I decided to give it a shot. Paddle attachment?!! What’s a ‘paddle attachment’? I did finally have to break out the instruction booklet if for nothing other than to figure out what the various parts were. I put the right attachment on the mixer and dumped all the ingredients. It was just that easy. A whole new world was opened that day!

My kids have homemade cookies all the time now. They also have fresh bread almost every day (kneading hook, dontchaknow?). And, the ice cream maker has now been used countless times. Pasta maker...not so much. Soon, very soon. There’s a reason for the weight and the price of this machine...it’s indestructible! I throw butter practically frozen in there and that thing grinds and spins until the contents of that bowl are a fluffy, creamy pale yellow. Imagine doing that with a hand-mixer?! No thanks.

So back to those cookies...I couldn’t just replicate the cookies the husband made. He has a real job and a real career that involves other acts of brilliance. I had to go above and beyond his act to show my value in the kitchen (this is after all what I do all day and don’t get paid for). While job security is pretty good in my position, it was a matter of pride that I do better than he did. Good peanut butter cookies can only (in this woman’s opinion) get better with chocolate. A simple peanut butter cookie made with quality ingredients has no place to go if it stays a peanut butter cookie. Add chocolate and you have another creature altogether. So add chocolate I did. I’d love to tell you that I created this recipe but I don’t understand the chemistry of baking enough (yet) to create any kind of recipe. I have this amazing cookbook called ‘The All-American Cookie Book’ by Nancy Baggett. I refer to it frequently now that I know how to use the stand mixer. These cookies are a favorite in my house and I make them often. One note here...because my kitchen was very warm on the day the above picture was taken, the cookies are flat. Usually that are more mounded (is that a word?). If your cookies do not turn out flat...that’s okay, in fact that’s better.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION: (dramatic, I know) Like most people, I try to save a couple of bucks here and there when I can. Having said this, there are some things you should NEVER skimp on. Good-quality chocolate is one of those things. Save money on butter. No one can tell the difference between store-brand butter or brand-name butter (but be sure to use butter...not that fake, chemical stuff). Cheap chocolate is not worth anything. You might as well put brown food coloring as an ingredient instead. Buy the best chocolate you can get your hands on...it makes all the difference in the world. Enough ranting...

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chunkers

2 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups smooth or crunchy peanut butter

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp light corn syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

10 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I have also used good-quality chocolate chips here - and much more than 10 oz...if you LOVE chocolate, go crazy)

About 1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts, for topping (I have also used - and love - salted cashews)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease several baking sheets.

In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, and sugar until very well blended and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla and beat until well blended. Beat or stir in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated. Stir in a 1 cup of the chopped chocolate. Let the dough stand for 5 minutes, or until firmed up slightly.

Shape portions of the dough into 1 3/4-inch balls with lightly greased hands. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining chocolate and the peanuts (cashews). Dip one half of each ball into the chocolate-peanut mixture until some bits are embedded. Place the balls, coated side up, on the baking sheets, spacing about 2 3/4 inches apart. pat down the tops of the balls just slightly.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven for 13 to 16 minutes, or until lightly browned all over, slightly darker at the edges, and slightly soft when pressed in the centers.

Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled. (These cookies are NEVER allowed to completely cool. My kids stand and wait for them to be not-mouth-scalding temperature and then devour them.)