rub a dub dub

So tonight I took a bath. After a long day of not doing much at all (I had off and my evening class was canceled), I decided to make myself feel less lazy by laying in a tub of hot water for 45 minutes. A few weeks ago, I stopped by Lush, a/k/a my own personal hell, since it's around the corner from my office, and left with a few bath balls and the feeling that my olfactory nerve would never work again.

After eating dinner with Jake, I turned on the hot water, placed the "Honey" ball in the tub, lit a few candles, and slowly dipped in. I made it about ten minutes before I started feeling...well, bored. I made Jake, who already hated me for taking a bath while he was stuck studying, fetch my Nook for me so I could read a few more chapters in the Hunger Games trilogy (which beeteedubs, I'm enjoying immensely thus far). Jake really likes me tonight. :D

I enjoyed my time in the bath, but will wait to take another until we have a slightly bigger tub. We have another bath ball left - an avocado flavored one - and I'll reserve it for Jake's use sometime soon. For now, though, I'm off to bed. Taking baths and blogging about it makes me tired.

Jewish Apple Cake

For the month of December, my baked from scratch item was Jewish Apple Cake. We made the cake twice in one weekend for holiday parties, and got rave reviews for it all around.

The cake is relatively easy to make and is so delicious. The apples keep the cake extremely moist. I opted to leave the skin on the apples, which adds flecks of color throughout.

I can't take any credit for this one though, as the recipe was given to me by Jake's mom. As such, I also won't be revealing the recipe. Sorry folks. Instead, here's a link to similar recipes, though none of them are exactly the same as I followed, so I make no guarantees. My guess is they'll be pretty darn delicious, but not as good as the one we have. Call me biased, I'll probably agree.

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

If you ever make one difficult thing from scratch in your life, let it be Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon. Go buy Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Do it now. It's on amazon and eligible for prime shipping. Come back to me in two days when the book is delivered.

Now that you have it, read how to make this dish (which is actually one recipe with two components requiring recipes in and of themselves). Then read it again. Maybe read it a third time. And then get started. You will not regret it. Trust me.

Before I go any further, I have to thank the one and only Ms. Erica Lynne Gordon for placing this on her own list. I completely admit to stealing the idea from her, and I am so glad I did.

The smell of this dish cooking in the oven is absolutely intoxicating. And then you go and cook onions in broth and mushrooms (don't crowd them!) in butter, and all the aromas make you feel like you're slipping slowly into heaven (or maybe that was just the cocktails). This meal takes hours to prepare, but the time glides by when you have a wonderful person with whom to do it. Jake and I will make this again and again for family, for friends, and certainly for ourselves.

For the sake of brevity, and the comfort of my fingers, I will not type out all the instructions. Instead, here is a photo montage of Jake and I in the kitchen. I'm salivating just thinking about it! Bon appétit!

Slicing the boeuf. Check out Jake's crazy fast knife skills!

Oh herro, bacon lardons.

Where all carrots and onions should end up: in bacon fat.

Pearl onions in their butter bath.

  Much needed refreshment. Thanks, Jake!

Mushrooms + Butter = Perfection

Seriously delicious.

Coffee for Another

As you may have noticed (or not since I have a whopping eight subscribers) I did a poor job of writing about my December adventures in December. One should not infer from this, however, that I have not been staying on task to complete my list in a timely fashion. To the contrary, I chipped away at six of the goals on my list, completing four in their entirety.

One such mission was to buy coffee for the person behind me in line. Thank goodness I didn't buy it for the person in front of me, not only because she was wearing a Rick Santorum pin, but because #52 specifically states the person behind me. Whew.

Needless to say, he was caught off guard. I simply gave him a smile, wished him happy holidays, and went on my way to work, hugging my warm americano.

I'm not sure what type of reaction I was expecting to elicit. He was a bit awkward, but grateful. My hope is that it brightened the start of his day, and didn't completely throw him for a loop. What would your reaction be if a stranger paid for your coffee? Gratefulness? Suspicion? Would you wonder if he or she was hitting on you? Would you be totally freaked out and run the other way? I hope that it would just encourage you to do the same for someone else. Yes, in that totally cheesy Haley Joel Osment Pay It Forward sort of way.

And by Haley Joel Osment, I mean the cute kid version, not the creepy bearded one.

Cookies!

So I've done all this baking, right? I've even made some things that are pretty darn fancypants, if I do say so myself. And though I've enjoyed everything I've made, I have to say that nothing, nothing, beats a delicious cookie. While I love my cakes and pies, Cookies are King. Or is it Kookies are King? Cookies are Cing? WHATEVER. COOKIES RULE!

Given my feelings on this important issue, you'll be absolutely shocked to hear that until recently I owned nary a cookie cookbook. My journey for a cookbook began in the Amazon... sorry, I mean, on amazon.com - I'm totally the first person ever to make that joke.

After more than a reasonable amount of time spent researching cookies, I decided on One Dough, Fifty Cookies: Baking Favorite And Festive Cookies In A Snap by Leslie Glover Pendleton. This little book, small enough to fit in your (oversized) pocket, is packed with easy to make and totally different cookies. Now baker beware: there are a number of "one dough, [insert number here] cookies" recipe books out there. Be sure to read the reviews first, however, as a number of them apparently stink. I only settled on this one after reading practically every single amazon.com review, barnesandnoble.com review, food blog review, and the author's biography, background, resume, criminal history, family tree, etc.

I absolutely love the book, and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to bake a number of different cookies, but doesn't want to spend eight days doing it. Each individual recipe calls for half of the "master dough," however, I found that most recipes can be cut in half, giving you four different cookies per master dough. 

Given that it was the holidays, I decided that I would make these cookies specifically for our neighbors downstairs. It was really fun baking something knowing that it was for someone else, and I'm glad I chose to do it as part of my 101 in 1001. For this particular task, I made Mocha Butter Balls, Raspberry Jelly Bowls, Graham Cracker Honey Washboards, and Coconut Macaroon Butter Cookies (which I opted to dip in chocolate because, why not??).


Of course, we kept a few for ourselves as well. I thought they all turned out rather deliciously, and it seemed that every day Jake and I changed which one we crowned our favorite.

Now I just need a reason to bake more cookies so I can try four new recipes from the book. The next holiday is Martin Luther King Day... I probably should make cookies in celebration of that too, no?