Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmm... just spectacular.  The perfect plain chocolate chip cookie.  Soft and chewy, not at all cakey.

I used Alton Brown's recipe exactly-- didn't change a thing.  Although I'm pretty sure that my cookies are bigger-- I used a regular ice cream scooper, as I don't have a #20 disher.  Also, I got 21 cookies instead of 36, and I didn't eat all that much dough.

Favorite Roasted Chicken

What makes this recipe incredible isn't the chicken-- roasted chicken is ALWAYS good-- but the potatoes.

These are, without exaggeration, the greatest potatoes you will ever have.  And they SO simple:  potato slices, garlic, and fresh herbs roasted in chicken fat.

Best.  Potatoes.  Ever.

The only downside to this recipe is that you will need to wash your oven rack after, and if you're not very careful taking out the chicken, may need to clean your oven as well.

Maybe I should start shopping at Costco

Sunday's New York Times had an interesting article about food safety and hamburger... I think I'm swearing off pre-formed patties altogether and may start getting individual pieces of meat ground at the grocery store.  I wonder if Giant would do that?

Apparently, in addition to having superb steak, Costco actually tests for E. Coli before grinding its meat.  It's fairly unique among big producers in this policy.

Sample quote:
"Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria."

Yum!

Lemon Shortbread

I wanted to make something along the lines of the lavender shortbread cookies at the Dairy Godmother, but, sadly, Giant didn't have any lavender.  And I'm now restraining myself from typing the entire rest of this post about how amazing their custard is.  And their lavender cookies.  Mmmmm.

 Next best thing:  Lemon, which allowed me to finally break out my new microplane grater.  And what a good idea!  Sweet, lemony, buttery, goodness.

Pumpkin Pie #1

Good, but not great... I think I like Betty Crocker's recipe better.  And no pictures (see last week's memory snafu)... still, Pumpkin Pie is pretty easy.  No slicing fruit, just open a can.  Even if you use a premade pie crust, it's still SO much better than anything you'd buy in a store.

Kebabs

And... back at long last, delayed all week because I ran out of space on my hard drive and so my pictures were marooned on my camera.  Happily, I now have purchased an entire TERRABYTE of space (1,000 gigs!) which is, like, a zillion close-ups of bread crumb and such.

Anyway.

I made these kebabs because there was a grill available, and steak night was already taken.  They turned out really well; next time I will just make sure to cut the beef into more uniform chunks.  Mine were too large and took FOREVER to cook to medium.

Vacation!

I'm off!  Hopefully I will make lots of yummy food the whole week and be back with a new post on Monday, September 28.

In the meantime, how good does this sound?